Nope, Im not talking about China’s largest social network, Renren.
We recently found out about facebook.facemy.com, another Chinese Facebook clone which claims to be Facebook’s Chinese version.
It looks real, especially with the bold copyright claim “© 2008-2010 facebook Inc.” shown at the bottom of every webpage.
On it’s front page, visitors are greeted with a picture of Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg and a quote from him that reads “how can facebook conquer the world if it doesn’t connect with China?” Just in case you’re wondering, Lian Pu is the direct translation of ‘face book’ in Chinese.
The Facebook clone requires no registration. Users are able to log in through his or her Facebook credentials. A friend of mine from China tried it and provided the screenshot below:
The design and features are identical to Facebook’s. Many Chinese users thought it is Facebook’s secret hideout to gather users in China. We thought so too, especially when the number of Facebook users in China has doubled to about 700,000 in the last 4 weeks. The suspicion is also partly caused by Zuckerberg’s visit to China last year, as people believed that Facebook is coming to China soon.
We made a check and learned that the domain belongs to Mr Wang Jinya, with a registered location at Jiangsu Province, Wuxi City. We have contacted him to understand the existence of the site.
However, logging in through Facebook username and password might not work for all. I tried but failed to log in. I’m guessing that the system only allows Chinese users to join the network. Lianpu has so far gathered over 22,000 users, according to its website stats. It is clear that Wang wishes to be acquired and make a quick buck. Would that be enough to attract Facebook’s attention? Good try but I doubt so.
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