Renmo, China’s "Evil" Social Network, Revealed as a PR Stunt

When we previewed the upcoming launch of Renmo last week, which promised to be a devilish twist on social networking, we were intrigued by how it might subvert social media in China by encouraging naughtiness and flirtation. But it turned out to be a PR stunt. And the final product is actually an online game.

We’ll confess it’s a disappointment; but we promised an update to readers, so we’ll take the bait and check out what Renmo offers as a game. Actually it’s called Dungeon Keepers Online, and is available on 91.com, the online gaming platform that’s run by NetDragon (HKG:0777), which also operates the official Transformers Online game in China.

Now, after its October 20th launch, when you enter the home page of Renmo.com, the sequel of the original darkly erotic video promo shows up (the video is embedded below). This time the sexy model turns out to have an evil role in the online game (or maybe she plays the game and then becomes evil). When the promo ends, there’s a page telling you to choose to be a human or a devil, which decides your role in the game. There’s also a letter to all the fans of Renmo, which explains its marketing tactics – confessing it’s just a trick to introduce the new online game – and incites you to register to play.

Although reviews of Renmo… oh, I mean Dungeon Keepers Online… are mixed, there’s no doubt that it’s the most successful marketing ploy in the online game industry in China this year.

This kind of complex marketing is pretty new in China. It was full of gimmicks, with high exposure to grab plenty of attention. Also, it cleverly questioned some of the ulterior motives of why people socialize online. The homepage of the game retains the playful tagline “Evil is good!” from earlier in the marketing campaign.

By 12 noon on launch day, the official Weibo account of the game – take a look here – released statistics claiming that page-views on Renmo.com jumped to 564,788, and that the online game had garnered nearly 9,000 registrations already. It’s really an amazing start after its 14 days of cunning marketing. Let’s wait and see whether the game is good – or evil enough.

Here are two videos for you. First the sequel promo; then a brief gameplay video:

[Source: JRJ.com.cn]