Google has acquired a stake in Chinese social portal Tianya.cn.
Tianya.cn offers a variety of services including user blogs, classifieds, photo hosting, news, sports news and University information. The site is ranked as the 63rd most popular website in China according to Alexa.
As reported August 17, Google stated its intention to acquire 1 or 2 China focused internet companies and invest in 5 over the next 12 months. The investment in Tianya.cn would appear to be the first of those 5 investments. The percentage of Tianya acquired by Google, or the price of the purchase was not disclosed, although it is believed the stake could be as high as 60%
(via Reuters)
I like Tianya.cn
too bad i can’t read chinese.
may be i should make a business in creating and selling chinese domain names?
I wonder when they will come to our bathrooms. :))
If Tianya is the first investement then what would that make the Baidu investment?
Great so like most media is owned and controlled by a few big media majors most websites will be owned by few big companies.
Sounds like Google is buy the whole internet world.
I would love if they buy some in my country too. In Nepal I mean.
I hope that google can sustain its growth
Why is Techcrunch continuing to use Alexa rankings in your posts? It’s been covered time and time again that they’re horribly skewed. Please, stop reporting them as if they have any kind of objective meaning.
I think that Google needs to slow their role with buying so. much….
Actually Tianya is a forum service provider, other features are not so successful.
Google just keeps on buying and throwing shit on the wall hoping something may stick. Their parade can’t and won’t las much longer. I detest their Do No Evil bullshit.
Like old cartoon….
Pinky:
“Gee Brain, what do you want to do tonight?”
The Brain:
“The same thing we do every night, Pinky - Try to take over the world!”
Why do Google need to take over the world?
They can make lot of money. It’s like railroad tycoon. All they want is conquest. So, companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo, etc.. can’t conquear the world.
Last time I checked there wasn’t a single company that is ignoring China - Google is buying because they can.. and they should.
Actually they are becoming the next greedy Microsoft. You can see the developments…………. they are jumping into things they don’t have any ideas and nothing relates to them…. Whats that google phone for. You are a internet company why should you need to go and make another crap ass mobile when their are tons of tons same shit. Really pathetic!
This will help Google to fight for its share in Q&A against Yahoo!.
This sounds like a great move by google. Most u.s. blog sites are blocked by the chinese government, including google acquired blogspot. Tianya’s forum is probably the most traffic’d forum in china.
look at this post on similar topic:
http://tech.irajaram.com/gener.....-in-china/
Google’s business is fully based on online traffic. Internet craze has been increased a lot among teenagers in China in past few years. Google’s hand on China market is on time.
Rajesh Shakya
http://www.rajeshshakya.com
Helping technopreneurs to excel and lead their life!
tianya.cn is very popular in high-educated users and famous for original ideas and posts.
This makes no sense. Out of all the great and rising stars of SNS in China, why Tianya.cn ? They have dropped dramitcally in the market, are the lowest they have been since their launch, and if Google aims to capture firm stakes in SNS in China, than why not invest in the leaders 51.com, WangYou.com, 360Quan.com ? This investment makes no sense, unless Seqoua the orginal invester in Tianya and orginal backer of Google, gave Google the site at a really cheap price as its fallen out of the Top 10 ranks of SNS in China. If I had the deep pockets of Google than why not buy a stake in 51.com, WangYou.com or 360Quan.com ?
Jay (comment
I respect that Alexa figures a flawed, but unlike the boss I also know that every single set of figures available out there that aren’t server logs are just as flawed as well. At least Alexa is free and immediate.
find me a replacement to Alexa and I’ll use it
Thanks for replying Duncan. For Chinese sites, I’m not sure what the better option may be, and that might be something for TechCrunch to investigate, if there is a Chinese company doing traffic rankings. For U.S. sites, I believe Compete.com has a much better margin of error than Alexa. They combine their stats from several different sources, check out the FAQ: http://www.compete.com/help#snp1
It’s still imperfect, but it’s better than Alexa. At least it doesn’t say YouTube gets more traffic than Google.