Do you want to share your opinions of the latest movie? Would you like to discuss your favorite songs with others? Are you going to upload your original reviews about the newest novels? Then you are welcome to Douban, a social networking site designed for sharing.
Douban, aChinese website which mainly serviced for college students and white-collar urbanites,was founded in March, 2005. In 2012, Douban had over 100 million users. As a socialnetworking site, Douban offered "lifestyle and culture", which
allowed its users to share reviews of books, movies, television programs,
animations, games and music. By sharing information and experience to each other, Douban encourages its
users to communicate with others more.
On the one hand,
Douban allows its users to share different kinds of information to each other. Like
most Web 2.0 sites, the contents of Douban are mainly posted by its users.
Users can upload detail information of music, books, movies, games, apps and so
on. By clicking different buttons, Douban users can collect their favorite
entries, leave comments, score entries by giving stars, and share this
information to other social media sites. In September 17, 2013, Douban added anew function called “Douban Things”. By sharing information and leaving
comments of users experience about different products, this function can help
users to find their favorite goods. Based on the analysis of users' collections
of movies, books and music, Douban will offer other similar recommendations to
its users by using its unique algorithm. Douban will also give a list called
" Things Douban guesses you will like", in order to recommend music,
books or movies which users may get interested in. In September 2013, Doubanhad 16.7 million book entries, 320 million movie reviews, 1.06 million musicentries, 27,000 independent musicians and 380,000 groups of various interest.
On the other
hand, Douban also offers opportunities to encourage users to interact with each
other. After the user provides a certain amount of collection information,
Douban may use its algorithm to find other users who have the same taste, which
allows users to find other people who have similar interests, join different
theme groups and communicate with
others. Users who live in the same area can
use the function called “Douban Location” to exchange second-hand things such
as books and CDs. This function also allows users to find detail information
and register for public activities hold in their cities such as public concerts
or book salons. By using “Douban Location”, users live nearby can join offline
activities together as soon as possible.
As a social
networking site, Douban not only allows its users to share information and
opinions online, but also encourage them to communicate more offline. This is
Douban, a website design for sharing. If you are a person who cannot wait to
post your reviews about books, share your comments of movies or recommend your
favorite songs, then wherever you are, Douban is the place to be.
"Douban: My Inner Place", a short video about Douban.
Han, I like the Douban location feature. It is sounds like a great way to connect with our neighbors and community. Have you ever used this feature and what was your experience? I think FB was trying to do something similar with its market feature. But normally when I want to purchase used items, I first turn to Craigslist and then amazon and ebay.
回复删除Hi Han,
回复删除Actually, I am a Douban user for years. But the valuable part of Douban for me is that I can read the reviews as reference before I decide to buy a book or watch a movie. I think it must be a common function for most Doubaners. But lately, there are some news about how producers use Douban for changing the rates of movie, like hiring ghostwriters, which influence the scores of movie seriously. I have been thinking how is this problem can be fixed. Because as you said, Douban is a place for sharing, but how to make sure it is for truly sharing is an important topic.