需要朋友的人人网

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.

人人网(Renren)正在受到冷落。自去年5月在纽约上市以来，这家中国社交网站的股价已跌去近三分之二。上周，人人网让投资者绷紧了神经，因为其业绩报告显示去年第四季度的运营亏损达1500万至1700万美元，几乎是第三季度亏损的三倍。人人网还将对上市前完成的一起收购做300万美元的减记处理。对这家可能是全球最大互联网市场中最大的社交网站的投资者来说，这些都是不利的消息。Facebook在中国市场受到屏蔽。

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.

人人网在某些方面和Facebook很相像。该公司创始人、首席执行官陈一舟(Joseph Chen)最初也把用户群定位为大学生，希望他们未来成为对广告商最具吸引力的人群。但是，人人网面临着一些中国市场独有的问题。由于政府对一般新闻媒体进行管制，社交网络在中国更多地变成了查找信息、而不是分享信息的工具。例如，微型博客网站新浪微博(Sina Weibo)正在飞速抢走人人网的用户。新浪微博表示，去年9月其注册用户总数已达2.5亿，在三个月内增加了四分之一。人人网则表示用户数达到1.47亿，同期增幅仅为十分之一。人人网还有一个对手，那就是腾讯(Tencent)旗下的社交网站朋友网(Pengyou)，该网也把用户定位于年轻人。朋友网表示，2011年上半年其用户数已超过人人网，并且还在以更快的速度增长。

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.

竞争削弱了人人网的创收能力。尽管去年销售额增加了约五成，但人人网用户每个月贡献的收入仅占7%（而Facebook达到41%）。而且，这一收入成本高昂。人人网在销售和广告上的支出是营收的一半，而Facebook只有四分之一。作为补救措施，人人网开始尝试多元化经营，增加了团购和视频业务。团购领域竞争仍十分激烈，而人人网团购业务迄今仍在亏损。视频业务则需要价格昂贵的带宽。沉迷于Facebook上市宣传的投资者应当记住，人人网可是一个不一样的“朋友”。