After Myspace.cn and CityIn, another website in China joins OpenSocial arena. Tianya.cn.cn, one of the most popular BBS forum in China, announced that it launched OpenSocial platform on late May.
We heard many social networking sites started OpenSocial platform, maybe this is the first time you hear a BBS site has a OpenSocial platform. Actually, it is not related to the BBS features of Tianya.cn, but a front page.
In Tianya.cn, each users has a customizable front page, you can add various modules on this page, such as rss feeds. Now they start to allow OpenSocial-based third party apps to be added into the page. But currently there are only three apps available, all from Google. We did not know the details of this Tianya’s platform yet. I haven’t been able to find out the instructions for developers, only an email is provided for Opensocial inquiries and contact.
In 2006, Google China invested in Tianya.cn, so you can understand why Tianya adopts OpenSocial.
With more and more websites in China launch open platform, 2008 will be the year of platform for China’s web. Who will be the next one to join this platform game? How will the whole web ecosystem in China develop when more platforms are ready? Do you think open platform strategy will work in China or not? Is it just a buzz word? Do not hesitate to share your opinions in the comment.