For this week’s assignment, the two examples I come up with are Renren and Weibo. The Renren Network is a Chinese social networking service platform has similar function with Facebook. It is very popular among college students. Sina Weibo is a China-based micro-blogging service platform. Its surprising transmission capacity makes it the most popular SNS in China.
As two leading social network sites, Renren Network and Sina Weibo run in different forms to help people connect.
First of all, the lifespan of their content is different. The valid period of a renren post is always longer than a Weibo post. statistically, most of the activities or engagement in Weibo happens within the first hour after its posting, which means the effective lifespan of a Weibo post is normally one hour. However, the interaction happens on Renren always last longer, even for days.
Secondly, they serve for different functions. Renren is more used to manage relationship, while Weibo is more used to track events. Renren allows people to keep in touch with families and friends; and Weibo helps people follow interesting topics and news. So basically, Renren focused more about people, and Weibo focused more about things.
Thirdly, timeliness, as an important attribute for online news, matters differently for Renren and Weibo. The content of a Weibo post always involves in instant news or real-time conversation, which is changing constantly. But Renren engages more in timeless statement or ongoing discussion.
