AsianAvenue

I'm writing about the Asian sites because we lived in South Korea for two years and were awed by their use of technology. We found that Koreans were CONSTANTLY connected to cell phones, computers and technology of any kind. We were surprised at the prevalence of cell phones, which they call hand phones, and how often they are used. They took pictures of each other, their food in restaurants, their papers, their hair, each other, and US! We had not seen so much technology in such constant use in the states, so we were a little unprepared for its pervasiveness there. So, I am interested in the Asian social networking sites.

1. What was the target audience for this social networking site?
According to Wikipedia (which I did not edit in this instance) the original intent of one of the first Asian social networking sites, AsianAvenue, was to capture an ethnic audience that shared common political ideas.

2. How long was the site in existence?
The site has been in existence since 1997 and has been very popular, claiming to have attracted more users than Black Planet, which is a "community sister site."

3. Why was it popular? What was its demise?
It seems that most of its popularity arose from its strong political activities and the successes it experienced getting some advertisers to change the way they portrayed Asian women, particularly in relation to white women. Conflicting design intent was stated by a writer who interviewed Yao Ming for the site in which he described the site as being used mostly for dating. So the original intent of the site seems to be a little unclear. Due to the fact that "sometime in 2003" the site began to offer previously free services to "premium users" only, the site lost followers. Subsequently, the site relaunched in 2005 and added more social networking features, which I'm guessing they made available to all members. Since then many musicians have used the site for launching their music, and Barrack Obama created a profile on the site during the presidential campaign.

4. Is/was there another competitor in the same market that was more popular?
Other competitors in their market include MiGente, Cyworld and Black Planet, but I'm not sure whether any of these sites was or are more popular than AsianAvenue. It seems the reason for its falling off was due to cutting some networking services to some of its members.

5. Would you ever consider creating an account and using it? Explain your reason using a personal experience as an example.
Because I am not Asian and this site is for geared toward an Asian community, I would not consider creating profile on it. I'm also not running for a political office, nor am I in a rock band. But more seriously, I have never used a social networking site, even though I have many friends on Facebook. (I may join after this class!) My children are also not quite old enough to have a personal space on any of these sites, but I realize the day is coming and it would be great if I were a baby step ahead of them…maybe?