Shan Zhai

Here is a view of social network developments in China.

     Many foreigners complain about not being able to use Facebook or Twitter in China, but few of them get to know the existence of a Chinese edition of Facebook which is called "RenRen".     Recently, RenRen released its new design of interface which looks exactly like Facebook.  Meanwhile the new interface is as rubbish as the interface of Facebook too.     Many of my friends and I hold quite mixed feelings about it. We doubt if RenRen is stealing Facebook's idea, which is obvious, will be punished, if we look into the case where Samsung and Apple point at each other's noses for plagiarism. On the one hand, Apple charges Samsung for applying iPhone-like outfits to new Samsung products, on the other hand, Samsung accuses Apple of stealing their innovative design of the 'draw down list.  Things like this will never see an end simply beaus it is hard to legally judge this kind of plagiarism.  Chinese manufacturers are taking advantages of this dilemma too, they worry little about the possible punishment for copying products of famous brands.  A new word "Shan Zhai" was even created to describe this phenomenon, which means "to copy and improve."