Society moves online in brave new world(4)

MSN

In early November, Microsoft announced it will stop its Windows Live Messenger client service everywhere except the Chinese mainland, so as to support its Skype business. It said recently that the service would end on March 15. MSN users were gradually moving to Skype, which Microsoft bought in 2011.

MSN China said the MSN service on the Chinese mainland will not be affected and users can still communicate with their overseas friends on MSN, who have to switch to Skype.

For many post-70s and post-80s Chinese, MSN is part of their childhood and adolescence, as some have been using it for more than 10 years.

Office workers often use MSN because QQ is forbidden in some workplaces, and Chinese students abroad used MSN to communicate with their families and friends in China before Skype became popular.

In the fierce instant messaging market, MSN was losing many users in recent years, owing to its poor business strategy, unpleasant user experience and the popularity of QQ, WeChat, micro blog and Skype.

In 2010, MSN had 300 million global users, and two years later only 100 million.

"Multimedia instant messaging is the new trend in the market. MSN still offers service on the Chinese mainland but may not have many new users," said Jiang Qiping, secretary-general of the Information Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"We never deserted MSN, but it abandoned itself," wrote a netizen with the user name Xiao Chao.

Help!

In case of an emergency, your first reaction might be calling the police, but in the Internet era, some choose to turn to their micro blog.

In early November, Badaling Expressway, a busy highway that runs to northwest Beijing, was closed for more than three hours because of heavy snow, and about 1,000 vehicles were stuck on the road.

A netizen posted on Sina Weibo that a bus with 55 people, some of whom were elderly and children, were stuck without sufficient water, food or gasoline. Two teams of firefighters were on their way within half an hour to give food and water to the trapped people.

This is only one of the countless examples of how micro blogs can help people.

Anyone stuck in heavy rain, or who needs a car, umbrella, accommodations or food, can send a location-based message on Sina Weibo, so that others can track them or offer help.

According to Sina Weibo, seeking help on a micro blog is the first choice when the emergency line is busy. The fastest way to spread your post is to also provide your location.

In late December, a man named Zhang from Hubei province who was held captive by people running a pyramid scheme, sent his location on Sina Weibo to seek help, so that the police knew where he was and saved him.

Queen of the micro blog

Social media has become the new battlefield for celebrities, whose online fight for the top always draws public attention.

A-list actress Yao Chen, who debuted on Sina Weibo as early as September 2009, was crowned "Queen of the micro blog" in 2010, with the largest number of followers.

She has been enjoying her glory in the virtual world, but in the small hours of Nov 25, Xie Na, a popular TV hostess from Hunan Satellite TV Station, gained 200,000 more followers with her funny posts.

Xie wrote on her weibo that day expressing her surprise and excitement with her victory, and she said the situation wouldn't last for long so she had to make the best of her time to show off a little bit.

Her prediction was right.

Yao, who just got married in New Zealand, posted nearly 10 posts the same day, all about her trip. She regained the throne the next day, with about 50,000 followers more than Xie.

"I think people half-jokingly call me 'queen'. It's very silly to take it seriously. Each of my posts represents my opinion and attitude toward something, and I will speak up about what I want to say, just like before," Yao told China Daily.

The 10 people with the most followers on Sina Weibo are all actors, actresses, performers, TV hosts and singers except Kai-Fu Lee, the former head of Google China, who ranks 7th, with around 26,400,000 followers.