Douban

For the paste, see Doubanjiang.
Douban
豆瓣
Web address www.douban.com
Commercial? Yes
Type of site
 Web 2.0, Social network service, Online music, movie and book database
Registration Optional
Available in Chinese
Launched March 6, 2005
Alexa rank
 positive decrease 344 (April 2014)[1]
Current status Active

Douban.com (Chinese: 豆瓣; pinyin: Dòubàn), launched on March 6, 2005, is a Chinese SNS website allowing registered users to record information and create content related to film, books, music, and recent events and activities in Chinese cities. Douban also owns an internet radio station, which ranks No.1 in iOS app store as of 2012. Unlike Facebook and Renren, Douban is open to both registered and unregistered users. For registered users, the site recommends potential interesting books/movies/music to them in addition to serving as a social network website and record keeper; for unregistered users, the site is a good place to find ratings and reviews of books/movies/music.

Douban has about 53 million[2] registered users in 2011.

The site serves Pan-Chinese users, and its contents are in Chinese. It covers works and media in both Chinese and foreign languages. Some Chinese authors and critics register their official personal pages on the site.

Founder

Douban is founded by Bo Yang. Yang had majored in Physics in Tsinghua University before he attended University of California at San Diego as a PhD student. After having received his PhD in computational physics, he worked as a research scientist at IBM. Later, he returned to China, becoming the CTO of a software company founded by one of his friends. In 2005, Yang started to create a web 2.0 site for travelling named Luzong (驴宗), initially a one man project at a Starbucks in Beijing. In a couple of months, however, the site was transformed to what is now known as Douban.com.[3]

Timeline

Office of the Chinese Web 2.0 website Douban.com

Censorship

Douban has attracted a large number of intellectuals who are eager to discuss social issues. This makes douban vulnerable to be outlawed by the Chinese government. Douban has introduced a massive censorship on all contents posted in the website and often found itself in the hot water of controversy.[6]

In March 2009, douban removed art paintings of the Renaissance for the ground that it contained 'pornographic' elements.[6][7][8] The action led to a campaign called "Portraits: Dress up" in which internet users were asked to dress up images of famous renaissance nudes in a protest against douban's self-censorship. The discussion about the campaign was then removed by the administrator.[6]

That year also saw the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and douban has further extended its keyword list to ban any terms that may be relevant to the incident. One notable example is the ban on merely mentioning the name of Victoria Park in Hong Kong where the memorial gathering for the 20th anniversary was held, in the fear that it may lead to sensitive discussions. Users also found that some discussion groups, like a Hong Kong cultural study group hkren were suddenly banned and all topics were removed without any notices. The action further angered some members to move to other similar websites that employ lesser strict self-censorship policies.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Douban.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  2. ↑ "豆瓣完成第三轮5000万美元融资". NetEase. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
  3. ↑ "douban profile". crunchbase. Retrieved 2011-12-11.
  4. ↑ "发现小组". Douban.com. 2005-03-06. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  5. ↑ "豆瓣同城_上海". Douban.com. 2005-03-06. Retrieved 2012-12-21.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "泥马战河蟹 草根斗权威". BBC中文网. 2009-03-17. Retrieved 2009-03-20.
  7. ↑ "给大卫像穿衣抗议政府封网". BBC中文网. 2009-02-09. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
  8. ↑ "网友响应反低俗号召 给名画“穿上”衣服". 信息时报. 2009-02-10. Retrieved 2009-03-20.

External links