FaceKoo

Facekoo was a social networking service created and designed by Facekoo, which targets the Chinese language market. It offers a unique facial recognition system to connect each member to create a social circle. According to Alexa's ranking, its page views surpassed MySpace China in November 2008 and December 2008.[1]

Launch

Facekoo was a social networking platform created by a private proprietorship, the FaceKoo, Inc., which was based in Beijing, China. The FaceKoo name is derived from "face" and "koo" (a homonym for cool in Chinese). In the Chinese-language based market, this social networking platform targeted teenagers.

FaceKoo was created by co-founders Calvin Pak, CEO, David Yan, Chief technical officer, and Sheryl Liu, CMO, who are all Chinese Americans with extensive business track records in the Silicon Valley.[1] FaceKoo offered numerous features, such as Mojing, a magic mirror that liked users to another FaceKoo member by facial analysis.[2] Facial features could be chosen by users, so they could find their ideal "koo-friend". Online games and other interactive applications are also fascinating features available on FaceKoo.

FaceKoo rapidly grew since the initial launch in March 2008 in China. A Facebook sound alike website, FaceKoo, was considered as one of the major Chinese social networking site that can fit into the Eastern culture, said FaceKoo's founder.[3] According to San Francisco Chronicle, FaceKoo had 350,000 users since its introduction in 2004.[4]

See also

  • List of social networking websites
  • Internet in China
  • Renren

References

  1. Update: SNS FaceKoo Overtakes MySpace China in Page Views for First Time in Exploding Chinese Internet Youth Market. PR Newswire Association LLC^
  2. Willis Wee. Mojing: An App To Look For Flings in China TechInAsia, retrieved November 28, 2011^
  3. Victoria Floethe. Chinese Web Surfers Embrace Facebook Clone newser, retrieved Jan 14, 2009^
  4. Deborah Gage. Cal alum designs social network for China youth San Francisco Chronicle, 12 January 2009, retrieved January 12, 2009^