Lost in Translation- Chinese Web Style

Filed in archive Entrepreneurship on March 21, 2006

Bokee established in 2002 has earned its bragging rights as the leader in China's expanding blog market with more than 2 million registered bloggers. Today, I posted a comment received electronically from Andy Xiang about how Bokee, a venture backed company is adjusting its sails in the ever changing web practices in the Middle Kingdom. Sure there have been lay offs at Bokee since the first of the year and blogger, Jian Shuo Wang provides a succinct line on this including the Chinese definition of web log, "wangzhi." Today, I incorrectly misstated what technology expert, Xiang forwarded to me.

Xiang had forwarded this e-mail comment to me. "Based on what I'm currently working on and knowing about, Bokee still has huge potential and is still creating values for its customers. The only danger comes from Bokee itself: if it stops what we've been working on for any reason, then everything we have worked on (ed. correction) is in vain.

In a follow-up e-mail to me, Xiang wrote to CVN.

"It might be my English is not good enough so that you interpreted the meaning to somewhere I did never mean to say. The awareness of "danger" comes more likely from the influence I got from certain cases during the past year at the "web 2.0" industry that passion goes and business stops, but Bokee has not been one of them yet. It might still happen- but definitely not "It often stops projects what we've been working on for any reason". To be more specific, I (meant) to use subjunctive mode. The reason I mentioned it in the end is because I just thought it *could* be the danger. "

This correction or lost translation might go unnoticed except both Xiang and I are dedicated professionals and only want to see the truth reflected in blogs. In a recent Fortune article, Bokee.com, which is host to hibiscus Sister's blog, a hugely popular blog, is registering nearly 40,000 new users a day. Bokee's founder, Fang Xingdong reflected his views on the current practice of self- censorship necessary in blogs. "Yes, things get blocked, and nobody likes the filters," says Bokee founder Fang Xingdong, who employs a team of censors to weed out heresies and hews to the party line when he asks, "Why are the Western media so obsessed with that kind of stuff? Those things are only a tiny part of the industry."

Apparently, all the recent hand wringing and finger pointing in Washington, is not impeding Google or Yahoo from taking a serious look at acquiring Bokee, according to a posting from CNET's Elinor Mills.