Reflections on "Where is SNS Headed?"...

For two weeks straight, my daily routine has involved logging into N different mainstream Chinese SNS platforms to “play around” and search for new ideas.

A few days ago, someone claimed that blogging in China is dead, and it seems the Web 2.0 cruise ship is pivoting sharply toward SNS. Right around the same time, CNNIC declared that China’s netizen population has officially become the largest in the world, yet the local Web 2.0 scene remains quiet. Meanwhile, the beloved online shopping sphere is about to be taxed—even though the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce’s tax deadline has already passed, it seems nobody is paying them any attention. What is the actual trajectory of the internet? Who is really in the driver’s seat?

To say there is no market for the internet in China is pure nonsense. Still, the way it’s developing here is completely baffling.

The government wants the internet to grow “healthily” in the exact way they envision (though, to be honest, their ideas about the web are sometimes incredibly naive). Web operators want the internet to print money for them. And developers are constantly trying to inject new, cutting-edge, human-centric innovations. Every one of these groups wants to control the internet, and everyday netizens naturally become the resource they all try to conquer.

Let’s break it down. Can the government actually control netizens? Personally, I don’t think so. The Chinese internet provides netizens with a space entirely separate from real-world society, sometimes even letting them do things that would never be tolerated offline. Thus, the authorities can’t truly control the masses.

What about developers? As a developer myself, I don’t think we can either. Sure, many of us get deeply passionate about and swayed by advanced tech. But not all netizens understand it. In fact, the vast majority don’t. If you try telling your users that your new system is superior in every way—with powerful algorithms, an elegant architecture, and great scalability—they won’t get it, and they won’t care. At the end of the day, users just want a solution that feels fast and gets the job done.

Lastly, let’s talk about the operators. Honestly, web operators have made a ton of money over the years, though in my eyes, they mostly “scammed” their way to it. Scamming money out of users is actually quite simple: first, reel them in (just look at any internet marketing tactic), get them hooked, slowly make them dependent on you, and then gradually sneak your hand into their pockets. Every now and then, they’ll throw a few pennies back at you and tell you how much they appreciate you, but think about where that money came from in the first place.

All in all, every player is fighting tooth and nail for their own self-interest. But in the end, it’s the netizens who will truly determine where the internet goes.

— Prompted by the madness of everyone blindly jumping on the SNS bandwagon