It is estimated there are now over 200 social networking sites, along the lines of Facebook, MySpace, Friends Reunited and LinkedIn. In China, the social networking space is increasingly dominated by a new site named WangYou.com (meaning “net friend”). Set up by Buddy Ye, a Saïd Business School alumnus, WangYou.com has already gained more than ten million users and is setting out to conquer the vast social networking market in China.
Before taking his MBA at Oxford, Ye ran two start-ups, MeetChina and Ecantata, the latter of which he sold. But the pace of start-up life was frenetic and Ye felt that he needed to take time out, to get some perspective on his career and life.
“It is very challenging running start-ups, every day you are dealing with very different issues, fighting for survival,” he says. “Doing the MBA at Saïd was a perfect time for me to sit down and think things through, look at the accomplishments and mistakes I had made, and consider how I could improve in different areas. My goal was always to be founder and CEO of a business. So I needed to understand every aspect of the business, and the MBA helped me to do that.”
In March 2005, Ye and business partner Edward Haynes founded WangYou.com. “The main purpose is to make this the premier online space that allows the Chinese youth to express themselves through a range of different digital content, including music, videos, personal blogs and photos.”
“The timing could not be better,” says Ye. “The current climate in China is very favourable for the social network services type of business. The social, cultural environment and technological environments are all ready.” To begin with, there has been a lot of progress with internet infrastructure in China; more than 60 per cent of internet users in China use broadband. Also, and more importantly, Ye believes, the current generation of young Chinese people – most users are aged 15 to 25 – want to show the world who they are, what their likes and dislikes are. They need a place to express themselves, and WangYou is that place.
In a comparatively short space of time, WangYou has hit a series of impressive targets, chalking up ten million registered users, with 150,000 more signing up every month. The website has over 500,000 unique visitors on average per day and some ten million page views daily. Ye has raised nearly US$10 million from leading US-based venture capital firm Charles River Ventures and SONY, Development Bank of Japan and other leading houses.
The statistics are impressive, but Ye, who now heads up a team of 50 people, is intent on sustaining the firm’s remarkable progress. “The challenge for 2008 is to increase our site's stickiness, to get our users to log on to the site more often and spend more time here.”
“My goal is to make WangYou Media the number one social networking space in China, and in doing so, promote self-expression among the Chinese youth of today.”