It’s been a while since we reported on the goings-on in China, which in many ways is the last great Internet frontier.
Koolanoo Group, one of Giza’s portfolio companies, recently celebrated the second anniversary of the launch of 360Quan.com, its flagship Web property. 360Quan is a social network for Chinese youth which offers a wide variety of activities of the sort you would expect: blogs, music, photo and video sharing, and a wide range of applications.
Since launching in early 2007, the site has grown enormously with millions of registered users and monthly pageviews in the hundreds of millions. The 360Quan site is consistently ranked in the top 10 in its category.
(The Chinese categorize websites in a slightly different way than we are used to. 360Quan falls under what can best be translated as “make friends websites,” a category that also includes online dating sites).
In its space, 360Quan is one of the most popular sites for Chinese teens who spend hours online on it each week. Interestingly, the most popular activity appears to be PK, which is the Chinese equivalent of Hot or Not. In case anyone was wondering whether online fads carry across cultures.
Now, Koolanoo is looking to expand its activities in new directions. In recent weeks, the company has launched iQ, a Web browser which fits the needs of the Chinese Internet community.
Nearly half of Internet users in China do their Web surfing from Internet cafes. This creates a number of complications about privacy and personalization – namely, how do I keep my settings and favorites with me while keeping other people from accessing my online history. The current crop of browsers are not built to deal with these problems. iQ is.
iQ operates under a nifty virtualization scheme that separates the browser settings from the physical browser. iQ users register to the service (it’s free). Then, they login each time they want to surf. Their settings are saved on the server side rather than on the client, allowing them to enjoy the same browsing experience from any computer.
On top of being useful, the browser is pretty slick. The design is clean and attractive and offers a number of different skins for customization. And the UI is such that it brings the browser settings – which are normally kind of hidden, especially for non-technical users – to the forefront in an easy to use manner. Techie types will also notice that it is quite lightweight and quick.
The browser is now available in English for anyone who wants to try it out.
I love the intro vidz of both products, clever. Obviously an Apple wanna be copy style but typical I guess for a Chinese company. I still have no idea how you guys nabbed Koolanoo before any of us had the chance to take look. The Chinese accent is hilarious on the iQ, seems like a great product I for the landscape, not sure about the rest of the world.
Posted by: jacob | March 10, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Is this the same company that raised $25 million over the summer ?
Posted by: Avi | March 11, 2009 at 10:10 AM
Other than raising obscene amounts of money, do these people make money ? No one ever mentions their revenue numbers? Or is that not important in Internet lol -
Posted by: Tal | March 14, 2009 at 10:37 AM