KAREN KONG's Notes
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Oleh ADHAM SHADAN
Friendster dan Facebook merupakan dua laman rangkaian sosial paling popular di Malaysia kala ini. Yang mana satu pilihan anda?
'ADDlah saya.' Dahulu, siapa sahaja akan terpinga-pinga apabila mendengar seseorang menyebut ungkapan ini. Pasti terbit kemusykilan hendak 'tambah' bagaimana pula? Tetapi kini, jika anda tidak memahaminya, mungkin orang lain pula yang mengerut dahi dan memandang sinis ke arah anda.
Ungkapan ringkas ini adalah sesuatu yang lazim dalam kalangan manusia zaman ini terutamanya orang muda. Ia difahami atas dasar kesemua orang dianggap sudah memiliki akaun rangkaian sosial Internetnya. Justeru, 'menambah' itu membawa maksud memasukkannya dalam senarai kenalan anda.
Bahasa mudahnya, tidak kira walau apapun rangkaian sosial yang anda sertai di Internet, ungkapan tersebut bagai menggantikan huluran salam perkenalan.
Jika seseorang itu sudi untuk berkawan dengan anda, maka dia akan menerima pelawaan anda dan memasukkan anda dalam senarai kenalannya. Maka semakin luaslah jaringan komuniti maya itu.
Berbicara tentang rangkaian sosial, sebenarnya terdapat begitu banyak laman yang menawarkan khidmat ini di internet. Bermula daripada Friendster pada tahun 2002, berbagai laman muncul seperti cendawan selepas hujan, antaranya MySpace, Orkut, Bebo, Hi-5, Cyworld dan Facebook.
Nyata sekali, laman-laman ini menjadi wahana perkenalan dalam era milenium kini. Jangankan orang muda, golongan profesional, selebriti hinggakan ahli politik pun memilikinya.
Dalam konteks Asia dan negara ini, laman Friendster (www.friendster.com) dan Facebook (www.facebook.com) adalah yang paling popular. Cuba tanya kepada sesiapa sahaja yang duduk di sebelah anda sekarang. Mereka boleh dianggap ketinggalan zaman jika tidak mengetahui akan kewujudannya.
Friendster saat ini merupakan rangkaian sosial No. 1 di Asia dengan memiliki 52 juta pengguna berdaftar. Dengan 36 juta pengunjung bulanan di Asia, pencapaiannya adalah lebih dua kali ganda daripada mana-mana laman rangkaian sosial. Facebook mengekori di tangga kedua dengan 18 juta.
Friendster yang berpangkalan di California, Amerika Syarikat (AS) digunakan di lebih 75 buah negara. Sebelas daripada 15 buah negara pengguna Friendster terbesar adalah di Asia. Di Asia Tenggara sahaja, Friendster berada di tangga pertama dengan 4.5 kali ganda lebih besar daripada Facebook di tempat kedua.
Salah seorang daripada 10 individu di dunia yang merupakan pengumpul rakan dan peminat Friendster Fan Profiles terbesar di dunia adalah dari negara ini iaitu penyanyi Karen Kong.
Dengan bilangan friends sebanyak 170,643, penyanyi yang tercalon dalam kategori vokal wanita terbaik di Anugerah Industri Muzik 2008 itu unggul di tangga pertama di Malaysia dan kedua di dunia.
"Saya sebenarnya mula mengenali Friendster sejak belajar di universiti dua tahun lalu. Pada masa itu, semua orang saling bertanya 'you ada Friendster?'. Bila saya dapati ia satu yang cool kerana boleh menambah kenalan dan boleh menyimpan gambar, saya pun menyertai Friendster," kata Karen yang profilnya ditontoni 2,000 orang setiap hari. Karen ditemui di sebuah kafe di Berjaya Times Square, Kuala Lumpur baru-baru ini.
Walaupun mempunyai laman web rasmi sendiri, Karen berkata, tidak ramai yang memasuki laman itu jika hendak dibandingkan dengan laman Friendster beliau.
Tidak sekadar menambah kenalan atau mempromosi muziknya, Karen, 23, turut memasukkan pelbagai elemen dalam Friendster termasuk konsert dalam talian.
"Atas permintaan peminat saya di Filipina dan negara-negara lain yang mahu saya membuat persembahan di sana, maka saya terfikir untuk menghasilkan konsert yang boleh mereka tontoni secara dalam talian di Friendster," katanya.
Konsert dalam talian Karen yang turut mempunyai penganjur itu merupakan sejarah baru dalam industri muzik Malaysia dan Asia Tenggara.
Karen berkata, dia berasa gembira kerana setiap hari ada sahaja orang baru yang mengirim permohonan berkenalan dengannya. Tetapi dalam masa yang sama, seperti juga judul lagu hitnya, Ku Tak Upaya, dia berasa sedih kerana tidak terdaya untuk membaca dan membalas kesemuanya.
Selain Friendster, Karen juga baru sahaja membuka akaun Facebook baru-baru ini, tetapi hatinya tetap pada Friendster.
"Saya suka Friendster. Pertama, sebab ramai kawan-kawan saya dari zaman belajar dahulu berada di laman ini. Kedua, ia mesra pengguna, ringkas dan persembahan web yang lebih menarik.
"Bagi saya, laman Facebook agak rumit," katanya yang menyifatkan Facebook beliau dikhaskan untuk rakan bisnes dan rakan-rakan seperjuangan dalam industri manakala Friendster untuk kawan-kawan dan peminat.
Pengarah Pemasaran Friendster, Jeff Roberto ketika ditemui media di Kuala Lumpur baru-baru ini memberitahu, antara kelebihan Friendster berbanding rangkaian sosial lain ialah kebolehannya untuk disesuaikan dengan kehendak pengguna. Pengguna Friendster boleh menukar latar belakang lamannya.
Mungkin kerana itu, ia lebih mudah menarik golongan lebih muda yang lazimnya menyukai latar belakang yang menarik berbanding kosong seperti sesetengah pesaingnya termasuk Facebook.
"Buat masa ini, Friendster masih No. 1 di Malaysia dalam kategori semua peringkat usia," katanya.
Bagaimanapun, akhir-akhir ini, Facebook dilihat mula mendapat perhatian pengguna di negara ini. Laman sosial yang menguasai Amerika Utara dan Eropah itu dikesan mula mendekati pengguna di negara ini sejak tahun lalu.
Berdasarkan satu kaji selidik ringkas yang dilakukan penulis terhadap 10 responden baru-baru ini mendapati, sembilan daripadanya mempunyai Friendster dan lima daripada mereka juga sudah mempunyai Facebook.
Namun, mereka lebih menyukai Facebook. Tiga responden terus setia pada Friendster manakala seorang hanya memiliki Facebook. Selain itu, seorang responden memiliki Friendster dan Facebook tetapi lebih menyukai Friendster.
Bagi peminat Friendster, mereka menyukainya berasaskan tiga faktor iaitu mesra pengguna, latar belakang web yang berwarna-warni, menarik serta lebih ringkas.
Antara jawapan mengapa Facebook disukai kerana ia dikatakan bersifat interaktif, mempunyai pelbagai aplikasi, kuiz, memori muat naik gambar lebih besar, lebih in pada masa sekarang, dilengkapi laman sembang, game serta boleh memberikan hadiah maya berupa pasu bunga dan sebagainya kepada kawan.
"Saya sukakan Facebook sebab orang lain boleh bagi hadiah kepada saya. Saya suka beg Gucci," kata model, Jusmiera Jamaluddin ketika ditemui Kosmo! baru-baru ini. Jusmiera,31, sudah mempunyai 1,725 rakan setelah empat bulan menyertainya.
"Facebook banyak aplikasi. Ia ibarat semua dalam satu. Ia memang efektif. Walaupun ada di antara mereka tidak pernah kita jumpa, tetapi, kita boleh menjadi begitu rapat dan boleh bertukar-tukar maklumat," katanya yang ditemani rakannya, Mazniwati Hashim.
"Bukan sekadar tambah kenalan, kita juga boleh bertemu semula rakan-rakan lama zaman sekolah dahulu yang terpisah menerusi laman sosial," kata Mazniwati.
"Apapun, semuanya ada baik dan buruknya," tambahnya.
Benar, rangkaian sosial ada pro dan kontranya. Pronya sudah tentu ia membantu kita untuk terus berhubung dengan rakan-rakan, tidak kira rakan baru atau lama dalam dunia yang semakin kompleks dan dihambat kekangan masa. Di samping itu, pastinya ia dapat mengurangkan bil telefon.
Namun ia juga mempunyai keburukan seperti laman dan gambar disalahgunakan, hilang kemahiran sosial kerana tiada sentuhan dan manusia kurang bersemuka serta menyebabkan ketagihan.
Mungkin kerana masalah ketagih yang kronik juga, difahamkan ada perpustakaan di institusi pengajian tinggi yang telah mengharamkan laman rangkaian sosial tertentu sehingga boleh menyebabkan bunyi penggera dikeluarkan.
Friendster dan Facebook merupakan dua laman rangkaian sosial paling popular di Malaysia kala ini. Yang mana satu pilihan anda?
'ADDlah saya.' Dahulu, siapa sahaja akan terpinga-pinga apabila mendengar seseorang menyebut ungkapan ini. Pasti terbit kemusykilan hendak 'tambah' bagaimana pula? Tetapi kini, jika anda tidak memahaminya, mungkin orang lain pula yang mengerut dahi dan memandang sinis ke arah anda.
Ungkapan ringkas ini adalah sesuatu yang lazim dalam kalangan manusia zaman ini terutamanya orang muda. Ia difahami atas dasar kesemua orang dianggap sudah memiliki akaun rangkaian sosial Internetnya. Justeru, 'menambah' itu membawa maksud memasukkannya dalam senarai kenalan anda.
Bahasa mudahnya, tidak kira walau apapun rangkaian sosial yang anda sertai di Internet, ungkapan tersebut bagai menggantikan huluran salam perkenalan.
Jika seseorang itu sudi untuk berkawan dengan anda, maka dia akan menerima pelawaan anda dan memasukkan anda dalam senarai kenalannya. Maka semakin luaslah jaringan komuniti maya itu.
Berbicara tentang rangkaian sosial, sebenarnya terdapat begitu banyak laman yang menawarkan khidmat ini di internet. Bermula daripada Friendster pada tahun 2002, berbagai laman muncul seperti cendawan selepas hujan, antaranya MySpace, Orkut, Bebo, Hi-5, Cyworld dan Facebook.
Nyata sekali, laman-laman ini menjadi wahana perkenalan dalam era milenium kini. Jangankan orang muda, golongan profesional, selebriti hinggakan ahli politik pun memilikinya.
Dalam konteks Asia dan negara ini, laman Friendster (www.friendster.com) dan Facebook (www.facebook.com) adalah yang paling popular. Cuba tanya kepada sesiapa sahaja yang duduk di sebelah anda sekarang. Mereka boleh dianggap ketinggalan zaman jika tidak mengetahui akan kewujudannya.
Friendster saat ini merupakan rangkaian sosial No. 1 di Asia dengan memiliki 52 juta pengguna berdaftar. Dengan 36 juta pengunjung bulanan di Asia, pencapaiannya adalah lebih dua kali ganda daripada mana-mana laman rangkaian sosial. Facebook mengekori di tangga kedua dengan 18 juta.
Friendster yang berpangkalan di California, Amerika Syarikat (AS) digunakan di lebih 75 buah negara. Sebelas daripada 15 buah negara pengguna Friendster terbesar adalah di Asia. Di Asia Tenggara sahaja, Friendster berada di tangga pertama dengan 4.5 kali ganda lebih besar daripada Facebook di tempat kedua.
Salah seorang daripada 10 individu di dunia yang merupakan pengumpul rakan dan peminat Friendster Fan Profiles terbesar di dunia adalah dari negara ini iaitu penyanyi Karen Kong.
Dengan bilangan friends sebanyak 170,643, penyanyi yang tercalon dalam kategori vokal wanita terbaik di Anugerah Industri Muzik 2008 itu unggul di tangga pertama di Malaysia dan kedua di dunia.
"Saya sebenarnya mula mengenali Friendster sejak belajar di universiti dua tahun lalu. Pada masa itu, semua orang saling bertanya 'you ada Friendster?'. Bila saya dapati ia satu yang cool kerana boleh menambah kenalan dan boleh menyimpan gambar, saya pun menyertai Friendster," kata Karen yang profilnya ditontoni 2,000 orang setiap hari. Karen ditemui di sebuah kafe di Berjaya Times Square, Kuala Lumpur baru-baru ini.
Walaupun mempunyai laman web rasmi sendiri, Karen berkata, tidak ramai yang memasuki laman itu jika hendak dibandingkan dengan laman Friendster beliau.
Tidak sekadar menambah kenalan atau mempromosi muziknya, Karen, 23, turut memasukkan pelbagai elemen dalam Friendster termasuk konsert dalam talian.
"Atas permintaan peminat saya di Filipina dan negara-negara lain yang mahu saya membuat persembahan di sana, maka saya terfikir untuk menghasilkan konsert yang boleh mereka tontoni secara dalam talian di Friendster," katanya.
Konsert dalam talian Karen yang turut mempunyai penganjur itu merupakan sejarah baru dalam industri muzik Malaysia dan Asia Tenggara.
Karen berkata, dia berasa gembira kerana setiap hari ada sahaja orang baru yang mengirim permohonan berkenalan dengannya. Tetapi dalam masa yang sama, seperti juga judul lagu hitnya, Ku Tak Upaya, dia berasa sedih kerana tidak terdaya untuk membaca dan membalas kesemuanya.
Selain Friendster, Karen juga baru sahaja membuka akaun Facebook baru-baru ini, tetapi hatinya tetap pada Friendster.
"Saya suka Friendster. Pertama, sebab ramai kawan-kawan saya dari zaman belajar dahulu berada di laman ini. Kedua, ia mesra pengguna, ringkas dan persembahan web yang lebih menarik.
"Bagi saya, laman Facebook agak rumit," katanya yang menyifatkan Facebook beliau dikhaskan untuk rakan bisnes dan rakan-rakan seperjuangan dalam industri manakala Friendster untuk kawan-kawan dan peminat.
Pengarah Pemasaran Friendster, Jeff Roberto ketika ditemui media di Kuala Lumpur baru-baru ini memberitahu, antara kelebihan Friendster berbanding rangkaian sosial lain ialah kebolehannya untuk disesuaikan dengan kehendak pengguna. Pengguna Friendster boleh menukar latar belakang lamannya.
Mungkin kerana itu, ia lebih mudah menarik golongan lebih muda yang lazimnya menyukai latar belakang yang menarik berbanding kosong seperti sesetengah pesaingnya termasuk Facebook.
"Buat masa ini, Friendster masih No. 1 di Malaysia dalam kategori semua peringkat usia," katanya.
Bagaimanapun, akhir-akhir ini, Facebook dilihat mula mendapat perhatian pengguna di negara ini. Laman sosial yang menguasai Amerika Utara dan Eropah itu dikesan mula mendekati pengguna di negara ini sejak tahun lalu.
Berdasarkan satu kaji selidik ringkas yang dilakukan penulis terhadap 10 responden baru-baru ini mendapati, sembilan daripadanya mempunyai Friendster dan lima daripada mereka juga sudah mempunyai Facebook.
Namun, mereka lebih menyukai Facebook. Tiga responden terus setia pada Friendster manakala seorang hanya memiliki Facebook. Selain itu, seorang responden memiliki Friendster dan Facebook tetapi lebih menyukai Friendster.
Bagi peminat Friendster, mereka menyukainya berasaskan tiga faktor iaitu mesra pengguna, latar belakang web yang berwarna-warni, menarik serta lebih ringkas.
Antara jawapan mengapa Facebook disukai kerana ia dikatakan bersifat interaktif, mempunyai pelbagai aplikasi, kuiz, memori muat naik gambar lebih besar, lebih in pada masa sekarang, dilengkapi laman sembang, game serta boleh memberikan hadiah maya berupa pasu bunga dan sebagainya kepada kawan.
"Saya sukakan Facebook sebab orang lain boleh bagi hadiah kepada saya. Saya suka beg Gucci," kata model, Jusmiera Jamaluddin ketika ditemui Kosmo! baru-baru ini. Jusmiera,31, sudah mempunyai 1,725 rakan setelah empat bulan menyertainya.
"Facebook banyak aplikasi. Ia ibarat semua dalam satu. Ia memang efektif. Walaupun ada di antara mereka tidak pernah kita jumpa, tetapi, kita boleh menjadi begitu rapat dan boleh bertukar-tukar maklumat," katanya yang ditemani rakannya, Mazniwati Hashim.
"Bukan sekadar tambah kenalan, kita juga boleh bertemu semula rakan-rakan lama zaman sekolah dahulu yang terpisah menerusi laman sosial," kata Mazniwati.
"Apapun, semuanya ada baik dan buruknya," tambahnya.
Benar, rangkaian sosial ada pro dan kontranya. Pronya sudah tentu ia membantu kita untuk terus berhubung dengan rakan-rakan, tidak kira rakan baru atau lama dalam dunia yang semakin kompleks dan dihambat kekangan masa. Di samping itu, pastinya ia dapat mengurangkan bil telefon.
Namun ia juga mempunyai keburukan seperti laman dan gambar disalahgunakan, hilang kemahiran sosial kerana tiada sentuhan dan manusia kurang bersemuka serta menyebabkan ketagihan.
Mungkin kerana masalah ketagih yang kronik juga, difahamkan ada perpustakaan di institusi pengajian tinggi yang telah mengharamkan laman rangkaian sosial tertentu sehingga boleh menyebabkan bunyi penggera dikeluarkan.
時間：3.35pm
地點：KL Sentral Centro
活動：龔柯允《表演Vol.2慶功改版專輯》記者會
（吉隆坡）龔柯允（Karen）推出改版專輯，在記者會
龔柯允（Karen）《表演Vol.2慶功改版專輯》宣
Karen去年10月發行的首張專輯出師不利，唱片行不
Karen在記者會上也驚爆未來日子裡有機會和香港天王
記者事後向經紀人瑋娟瞭解，她表示兩人是在音樂上合作，
改版封面上的Karen雙手交叉，她表示是要告訴大家“
由於Karen隸屬的公司只有她一位歌手，老板對她照顧
此外，主持人提起陳年舊事，指4歲的Karen跟兩位姐
Karen的父母及大姐專程從東馬飛到吉隆坡為女兒打氣
地點：KL Sentral Centro
活動：龔柯允《表演Vol.2慶功改版專輯》記者會
（吉隆坡）龔柯允（Karen）推出改版專輯，在記者會
龔柯允（Karen）《表演Vol.2慶功改版專輯》宣
Karen去年10月發行的首張專輯出師不利，唱片行不
Karen在記者會上也驚爆未來日子裡有機會和香港天王
記者事後向經紀人瑋娟瞭解，她表示兩人是在音樂上合作，
改版封面上的Karen雙手交叉，她表示是要告訴大家“
由於Karen隸屬的公司只有她一位歌手，老板對她照顧
此外，主持人提起陳年舊事，指4歲的Karen跟兩位姐
Karen的父母及大姐專程從東馬飛到吉隆坡為女兒打氣
By Ling Woo Liu :
If they recall it at all, most Americans probably remember Friendster as the also-ran of social networking sites. Although the site had a head start when it launched in 2002, its founders squandered their lead when software glitches and slow access times prompted users to flee to the now hugely popular MySpace and Facebook. Friendster seemed destined for the scrap heap, remembered mainly as the company with the smiley-face logo whose owners in 2003 turned down a $30 million buyout offer from Google.
But Friendster never died — it just moved. Thanks largely to an accident of geography, it's become Southeast Asia's top social networking site. Asia is home to three-quarters of Friendster's 58 million users, compared to 17% in the U.S., and it's the source of 89% of the site's traffic, compared to just 8% from North America. While its bigger rivals MySpace and Facebook are just discovering the land across the Pacific, Friendster is already the most-visited web site in the Philippines and Indonesia, and the second most-visited site in Malaysia and Singapore, according to rankings from web tracker Alexa. In 2006, Friendster hired a 20-person engineering team in the Philippines, and last September, it opened a sales office in Singapore. Friendster's second life came almost by accident. The company started in Mountain View, California, before moving its headquarters two years ago to San Francisco, "the most Asian of U.S. cities," says Friendster president Kent Lindstrom. As a result, thousands of early adopters were Asian-American Californians who formed a nucleus that quickly expanded across the Pacific as users invited friends and relatives in Asia to join the network. Until last fall, Friendster was available only in English, but that didn't impede its growth in Southeast Asia, where colonial history has left high English proficiency and romanized Asian languages. Still, the site's new home across the Pacific came as a surprise to management. "We never envisioned it'd be growing like this," says Lindstrom.
Friendster's international reach has become a competitive advantage, for the company as well as for users. Five months after releasing her first album, Malaysian pop singer Karen Kong uploaded a video of a recent concert performance onto her Friendster page last summer, attracting two million viewers, mostly from Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines and Indonesia. Her manager, Fred Chong, says that even though the record label created an expensive web site for the artist, Kong's Friendster profile is "way more powerful than any official page," attracting up to 800,000 page views per month. With more than 150,000 friends linked to her page, Kong has the biggest following of any Friendster user. "Her profile just exploded," says Chong. "For us, it's been a miracle."
Friendster's trying to pull off another miracle. It's reaching out to the 210 million Internet users in China, where the company's user base is already "in the hundreds of thousands," Lindstrom says. Last September, the company began rolling out foreign language capabilities: traditional Chinese for Hong Kong, Taiwan and other Chinese communities around the world, followed by simplified Chinese for mainland China, Spanish, Japanese and Korean. Unlike MySpace, which has launched separate, localized sites for different countries, Friendster is keeping all of its worldwide users on one multilingual site, according to Lindstrom, whose own Friendster profile shows pictures of him in Tiananmen Square and on the Great Wall.
Friendster may have a tough time staying ahead of its wealthier American rivals, which are starting to look to Asia for growth, as well as formidable local competitors such as Shanghai-based 51.com, which already has 90 million subscribers, and Xiaonei, a Chinese replica of Facebook. Less than 10% of visitors to MySpace and Facebook live in Asia, according to June 2007 figures from Internet research company comScore, but that is set to change. MySpace now operates separate sites in Japan and China, and has plans to launch sites in several more countries this year, including South Korea and India. Though Facebook has yet to release foreign-language versions of its site, comScore data shows the number of Asian visitors to its main site spiked more than 3,000% between August 2006 and August 2007.
The privately-owned Friendster, which is operating on $25 million in venture capital, says it's not intimidated by these billion-dollar giants. "We're not surprised that people are competing in our space," says David Jones, vice president of marketing at Friendster. "That's validation of the industry we helped create." And the Americans who've written them off? "Most of the world is outside the U.S.," says Lindstrom. "We're very globally focused." Stiffer competition in Asia is surely on the way, but until then, Friendster has plenty of reasons to smile.
If they recall it at all, most Americans probably remember Friendster as the also-ran of social networking sites. Although the site had a head start when it launched in 2002, its founders squandered their lead when software glitches and slow access times prompted users to flee to the now hugely popular MySpace and Facebook. Friendster seemed destined for the scrap heap, remembered mainly as the company with the smiley-face logo whose owners in 2003 turned down a $30 million buyout offer from Google.
But Friendster never died — it just moved. Thanks largely to an accident of geography, it's become Southeast Asia's top social networking site. Asia is home to three-quarters of Friendster's 58 million users, compared to 17% in the U.S., and it's the source of 89% of the site's traffic, compared to just 8% from North America. While its bigger rivals MySpace and Facebook are just discovering the land across the Pacific, Friendster is already the most-visited web site in the Philippines and Indonesia, and the second most-visited site in Malaysia and Singapore, according to rankings from web tracker Alexa. In 2006, Friendster hired a 20-person engineering team in the Philippines, and last September, it opened a sales office in Singapore. Friendster's second life came almost by accident. The company started in Mountain View, California, before moving its headquarters two years ago to San Francisco, "the most Asian of U.S. cities," says Friendster president Kent Lindstrom. As a result, thousands of early adopters were Asian-American Californians who formed a nucleus that quickly expanded across the Pacific as users invited friends and relatives in Asia to join the network. Until last fall, Friendster was available only in English, but that didn't impede its growth in Southeast Asia, where colonial history has left high English proficiency and romanized Asian languages. Still, the site's new home across the Pacific came as a surprise to management. "We never envisioned it'd be growing like this," says Lindstrom.
Friendster's international reach has become a competitive advantage, for the company as well as for users. Five months after releasing her first album, Malaysian pop singer Karen Kong uploaded a video of a recent concert performance onto her Friendster page last summer, attracting two million viewers, mostly from Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines and Indonesia. Her manager, Fred Chong, says that even though the record label created an expensive web site for the artist, Kong's Friendster profile is "way more powerful than any official page," attracting up to 800,000 page views per month. With more than 150,000 friends linked to her page, Kong has the biggest following of any Friendster user. "Her profile just exploded," says Chong. "For us, it's been a miracle."
Friendster's trying to pull off another miracle. It's reaching out to the 210 million Internet users in China, where the company's user base is already "in the hundreds of thousands," Lindstrom says. Last September, the company began rolling out foreign language capabilities: traditional Chinese for Hong Kong, Taiwan and other Chinese communities around the world, followed by simplified Chinese for mainland China, Spanish, Japanese and Korean. Unlike MySpace, which has launched separate, localized sites for different countries, Friendster is keeping all of its worldwide users on one multilingual site, according to Lindstrom, whose own Friendster profile shows pictures of him in Tiananmen Square and on the Great Wall.
Friendster may have a tough time staying ahead of its wealthier American rivals, which are starting to look to Asia for growth, as well as formidable local competitors such as Shanghai-based 51.com, which already has 90 million subscribers, and Xiaonei, a Chinese replica of Facebook. Less than 10% of visitors to MySpace and Facebook live in Asia, according to June 2007 figures from Internet research company comScore, but that is set to change. MySpace now operates separate sites in Japan and China, and has plans to launch sites in several more countries this year, including South Korea and India. Though Facebook has yet to release foreign-language versions of its site, comScore data shows the number of Asian visitors to its main site spiked more than 3,000% between August 2006 and August 2007.
The privately-owned Friendster, which is operating on $25 million in venture capital, says it's not intimidated by these billion-dollar giants. "We're not surprised that people are competing in our space," says David Jones, vice president of marketing at Friendster. "That's validation of the industry we helped create." And the Americans who've written them off? "Most of the world is outside the U.S.," says Lindstrom. "We're very globally focused." Stiffer competition in Asia is surely on the way, but until then, Friendster has plenty of reasons to smile.
By Michael Cheang: (The Star)
My, my, how Karen Kong has grown. When I first met the 23-year-old lass a year ago, she was still a sunny-smiled, doe-eyed, fresh-faced naïve girl, about to take a giant step into the unknown by releasing a Malay album titled Mulakan.
One year later, she is still the cute, charming girl I remember, but that sunny outlook has now been augmented by a distinct battle-hardened determination brought on by the tough reality of show business.
Part of that is because she is currently on the tail-end of a gruelling 50-show promo tour that has taken her all over Malaysia to towns like Changlung and Sungai Petani in Kedah and Bahau in Seremban to promote her Mandarin album Showtime. She will be wrapping up the tour with the 50th and possibly biggest show of the tour in Sungei Wang Plaza, Kuala Lumpur, on April 12.
Catching up with Kong recently, the Labuan native described the past few months as a whirlwind adventure – having been on the road almost every week since the end of October last year up till today.
Karen Kong: "Nowadays, I can interact with the emcee better, I am more confident when communicating with the audience and when performing."
“Physically, it’s been very tiring, especially with all the travelling, waiting and then performing,” she said, adding that she would sometimes do two or three shows a week.
Nevertheless, the support she garnered on the shows really pushed her on. She cites one particular show in Serdang, Selangor, as being particularly memorable.
“I had a bad sore throat and couldn’t sing well. I was very disappointed because I wanted to give my best performance in each show, but I really couldn’t sing that day,” she recalled. “But what was touching was that although I couldn’t sing, the audience sang along with me instead. That really touched me, while proving that all my hard work has paid off, and that there are many who support me out there.”
Inevitably, she feels like a veteran at performing live these days.
“In the past I used to just stand in the middle of the stage and sing, with my head bowed and speaking very softly,” she recalled. “Nowadays, I can interact with the emcee better, I am more confident when communicating with the audience and when performing.”
It's a far cry from all those singing competitions she joined when she was younger; and the rejection she faced when after being eliminated from the first round of the first ever Malaysian Idol competition back in 2004.
More importantly, she has also matured as a person and as an artiste. “I started out not knowing anything about being an artiste or even the music business, but now I can handle a lot of situations on my own,” she said. “An artiste faces a lot of pressure and a lot of unexpected things most of the time, and I’ve learnt to think on my feet and react accordingly.” The tour came about when Fred Chong, founder and director of Kong’s label Prodigee Media, decided not to distribute her album in retail stores, and to sell it on the road instead.
All the hard work has paid off with some 5,000 copies sold in the past two months (500 copies of which were eventually made available at record stores in January).
Five thousand copies may seem like peanuts compared to the tens of thousands of copies which more established singers like Michael Wong, Jay Chou, Fish Leong can move; but it’s quite an achievement for an aspiring singer with an independent music label with no backing from a major music label, trying to make it in the limited Malaysian Chinese market.
So has it been more satisfying selling and promoting the Mandarin album herself, as opposed to letting record stores do the job?
“It was definitely worth it. It’s one of my most satisfying accomplishments so far, because I was putting in my own effort. Of course, it was tough, but it was worth doing just to see all those people buying the album. And the best part of it is that I can thank the buyers personally!” she said.
The main reason that Chong decided not to make the album available in record stores was to create awareness on the effect piracy has on the careers of new artistes like Kong.
“We want all those fans that scream ‘I love you’ during shows to realise that supporting pirated goods could cost Karen and other indie artistes their careers,” said Chong. “In that respect, I’m really happy that many of her fans have written to us saying that although they couldn’t buy the original album in the stores, they also didn’t buy the pirated version from the pasar malam.”
Fortunately for Kong, one of her greatest assets is her massive online presence. Even before she cut an album, her Friendster blog already had a huge fan following not just from Malaysians, but even fans from the Philippines, Singapore and as far-reaching as the United States. She was even featured on Time magazine as one of the success stories of Friendster recently.
Media coverage of Kong has also helped tremendously, especially the substantial radio airplay of her songs and the announcements of her latest shows’ details.
But most of all, according to Chong, the most appealing aspect of the singer is that she represents what a truly Malaysian artiste can and should be like. The fact that even non-Chinese speaking fans are buying her Mandarin album and turning up for her shows is proof of this.
”If you’re an artiste here, you can’t survive on the Chinese market alone – you need the support of all Malaysians.
“I don’t think there is anyone in Malaysia who can be truly be considered a real Malaysian artiste – one that is recognised by all races, and whose music appeals to them as well,” said Chong.
So what’s next for Kong? She is looking forward to the upcoming Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) awards ceremony, where she is nominated in three categories – Best Chinese Album, Best Newcomer and Best Female Vocalist (in which she will be coming up against heavyweights like Datuk Siti Nuhaliza).
At the same time, Prodigee is also planning to repackage Showtime with one or two new songs, and Kong is also working on a new Malay single. And then there’s that ever-tempting carrot of breaking into the Taiwan market.
“Although nothing has been confirmed on how we want to approach the Taiwan market, we will still be going there (to Taiwan) as a small indie label,” said Chong. “We have to plan our move carefully because we are still a very small company, but I believe that as long as we have a good product, we just have to go for it.”
Catch the final show of Karen Kong’s Showtime promo tour on April 12 (3pm) at Sungei Wang Plaza, Kuala Lumpur. For more information, visit her website at http://www.friendster.com/
My, my, how Karen Kong has grown. When I first met the 23-year-old lass a year ago, she was still a sunny-smiled, doe-eyed, fresh-faced naïve girl, about to take a giant step into the unknown by releasing a Malay album titled Mulakan.
One year later, she is still the cute, charming girl I remember, but that sunny outlook has now been augmented by a distinct battle-hardened determination brought on by the tough reality of show business.
Part of that is because she is currently on the tail-end of a gruelling 50-show promo tour that has taken her all over Malaysia to towns like Changlung and Sungai Petani in Kedah and Bahau in Seremban to promote her Mandarin album Showtime. She will be wrapping up the tour with the 50th and possibly biggest show of the tour in Sungei Wang Plaza, Kuala Lumpur, on April 12.
Catching up with Kong recently, the Labuan native described the past few months as a whirlwind adventure – having been on the road almost every week since the end of October last year up till today.
Karen Kong: "Nowadays, I can interact with the emcee better, I am more confident when communicating with the audience and when performing."
“Physically, it’s been very tiring, especially with all the travelling, waiting and then performing,” she said, adding that she would sometimes do two or three shows a week.
Nevertheless, the support she garnered on the shows really pushed her on. She cites one particular show in Serdang, Selangor, as being particularly memorable.
“I had a bad sore throat and couldn’t sing well. I was very disappointed because I wanted to give my best performance in each show, but I really couldn’t sing that day,” she recalled. “But what was touching was that although I couldn’t sing, the audience sang along with me instead. That really touched me, while proving that all my hard work has paid off, and that there are many who support me out there.”
Inevitably, she feels like a veteran at performing live these days.
“In the past I used to just stand in the middle of the stage and sing, with my head bowed and speaking very softly,” she recalled. “Nowadays, I can interact with the emcee better, I am more confident when communicating with the audience and when performing.”
It's a far cry from all those singing competitions she joined when she was younger; and the rejection she faced when after being eliminated from the first round of the first ever Malaysian Idol competition back in 2004.
More importantly, she has also matured as a person and as an artiste. “I started out not knowing anything about being an artiste or even the music business, but now I can handle a lot of situations on my own,” she said. “An artiste faces a lot of pressure and a lot of unexpected things most of the time, and I’ve learnt to think on my feet and react accordingly.” The tour came about when Fred Chong, founder and director of Kong’s label Prodigee Media, decided not to distribute her album in retail stores, and to sell it on the road instead.
All the hard work has paid off with some 5,000 copies sold in the past two months (500 copies of which were eventually made available at record stores in January).
Five thousand copies may seem like peanuts compared to the tens of thousands of copies which more established singers like Michael Wong, Jay Chou, Fish Leong can move; but it’s quite an achievement for an aspiring singer with an independent music label with no backing from a major music label, trying to make it in the limited Malaysian Chinese market.
So has it been more satisfying selling and promoting the Mandarin album herself, as opposed to letting record stores do the job?
“It was definitely worth it. It’s one of my most satisfying accomplishments so far, because I was putting in my own effort. Of course, it was tough, but it was worth doing just to see all those people buying the album. And the best part of it is that I can thank the buyers personally!” she said.
The main reason that Chong decided not to make the album available in record stores was to create awareness on the effect piracy has on the careers of new artistes like Kong.
“We want all those fans that scream ‘I love you’ during shows to realise that supporting pirated goods could cost Karen and other indie artistes their careers,” said Chong. “In that respect, I’m really happy that many of her fans have written to us saying that although they couldn’t buy the original album in the stores, they also didn’t buy the pirated version from the pasar malam.”
Fortunately for Kong, one of her greatest assets is her massive online presence. Even before she cut an album, her Friendster blog already had a huge fan following not just from Malaysians, but even fans from the Philippines, Singapore and as far-reaching as the United States. She was even featured on Time magazine as one of the success stories of Friendster recently.
Media coverage of Kong has also helped tremendously, especially the substantial radio airplay of her songs and the announcements of her latest shows’ details.
But most of all, according to Chong, the most appealing aspect of the singer is that she represents what a truly Malaysian artiste can and should be like. The fact that even non-Chinese speaking fans are buying her Mandarin album and turning up for her shows is proof of this.
”If you’re an artiste here, you can’t survive on the Chinese market alone – you need the support of all Malaysians.
“I don’t think there is anyone in Malaysia who can be truly be considered a real Malaysian artiste – one that is recognised by all races, and whose music appeals to them as well,” said Chong.
So what’s next for Kong? She is looking forward to the upcoming Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) awards ceremony, where she is nominated in three categories – Best Chinese Album, Best Newcomer and Best Female Vocalist (in which she will be coming up against heavyweights like Datuk Siti Nuhaliza).
At the same time, Prodigee is also planning to repackage Showtime with one or two new songs, and Kong is also working on a new Malay single. And then there’s that ever-tempting carrot of breaking into the Taiwan market.
“Although nothing has been confirmed on how we want to approach the Taiwan market, we will still be going there (to Taiwan) as a small indie label,” said Chong. “We have to plan our move carefully because we are still a very small company, but I believe that as long as we have a good product, we just have to go for it.”
Catch the final show of Karen Kong’s Showtime promo tour on April 12 (3pm) at Sungei Wang Plaza, Kuala Lumpur. For more information, visit her website at http://www.friendster.com/
Karen performing at AIM 2008