關注社會:需要朋友的人人網

Renren is getting defriended. Since it listed in New York last May, the Chinese social networking site's shares have fallen by almost two-thirds. This week, it braced investors for operating losses of $15m to $17m in the fourth quarter, almost triple its third-quarter loss. The company will also take a $3m writedown on an acquisition made before listing. All unfriendly news for investors in probably the biggest social network site in the world's biggest internet market, where Facebook is blocked.

人人網(Renren)正在受到冷落。自去年5月在紐約上市以來，這家中國社交網站的股價已跌去近三分之二。上週，人人網讓投資者繃緊了神經，因爲其業績報告顯示去年第四季度的運營虧損達1500萬至1700萬美元，幾乎是第三季度虧損的三倍。人人網還將對上市前完成的一起收購做300萬美元的減記處理。對這家可能是全球最大互聯網市場中最大的社交網站的投資者來說，這些都是不利的消息。Facebook在中國市場受到屏蔽。

In some ways Renren resembles Facebook. The group's founder and chief executive, Joseph Chen, started out targeting university students whom he hoped would be the most appealing demographic to advertisers. But Renren faces some problems unique to China. Social networking in the country has turned more to information-seeking as opposed to information-sharing, as a result of Beijing's grip on regular news media. For example, microblog site Sina Weibo is rapidly snapping up Renren's friends. It says its total registered users hit 250m in September, up one-quarter in three months. User numbers at Renren — it claims to have 147m — grew by just one-tenth over that period. Yet another rival is Tencent's social network site Pengyou (meaning friend), which focuses on teenagers. It claims that its user numbers overtook Renren's in the first half of 2011 and are growing faster.

人人網在某些方面和Facebook很相像。該公司創始人、首席執行官陳一舟(Joseph Chen)最初也把用戶羣定位爲大學生，希望他們未來成爲對廣告商最具吸引力的人羣。但是，人人網面臨着一些中國市場獨有的問題。由於政府對一般新聞媒體進行管制，社交網絡在中國更多地變成了查找信息、而不是分享信息的工具。例如，微型博客網站新浪微博(Sina Weibo)正在飛速搶走人人網的用戶。新浪微博表示，去年9月其註冊用戶總數已達2.5億，在三個月內增加了四分之一。人人網則表示用戶數達到1.47億，同期增幅僅爲十分之一。人人網還有一個對手，那就是騰訊(Tencent)旗下的社交網站朋友網(Pengyou)，該網也把用戶定位於年輕人。朋友網表示，2011年上半年其用戶數已超過人人網，並且還在以更快的速度增長。

Competition is hurting Renren's ability to attract revenue. Although sales picked up by about half last year, Renren's users generated just 7 cents per month, compared with 41 cents at Facebook. And that revenue is expensive. Renren spends half of its revenues on sales and advertising, compared with one quarter at Facebook. To compensate, Renren has tried to diversify into group buying and video. The former remains fiercely competitive and Renren's efforts so far are lossmaking. Video requires expensive bandwidth. Investors caught up in the hype of Facebook should remember that Renren is a friend with differences.

競爭削弱了人人網的創收能力。儘管去年銷售額增加了約五成，但人人網用戶每個月貢獻的收入僅佔7%（而Facebook達到41%）。而且，這一收入成本高昂。人人網在銷售和廣告上的支出是營收的一半，而Facebook只有四分之一。作爲補救措施，人人網開始嘗試多元化經營，增加了團購和視頻業務。團購領域競爭仍十分激烈，而人人網團購業務迄今仍在虧損。視頻業務則需要價格昂貴的帶寬。沉迷於Facebook上市宣傳的投資者應當記住，人人網可是一個不一樣的“朋友”。