BlogCN was the first free

blog hosting service A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

provider in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It was established in November 2002. Based in the eastern city of

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...

, BlogCN has built the world's largest Chinese

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

community, blog hosting service, and blog

search engine A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...

. The Internet portal offers free blog space, but began to charge for value-added services, including mobile phone features, in 2005. BlogCN simultaneously introduced a virtual coin system to purchase such services. The total value of BlogCN was estimated at US$10,000,000. Sohu.com Technology

November 21, 2005. Retrieved March 1, 2007. 70-80% of its revenue comes from advertising. The website was supported by Web 2.0 software.

Notable bloggers

The company first came into the public's attention in 2003 because of its blogger Mu Zimei. Her blog contained straightforward descriptions of her sexual encounters with various men, which was a first for China. Zhiguang Hu, the founder and now director of BlogCN, was featured in an article in the August 24, 2005 issue of '' BusinessWeek'' entitled ''A Watchful Eye on China's Blogosphere''.''A Watchful Eye on China's Blogosphere''
, '' BusinessWeek''

References

External links

BlogCN Homepage
(in Chinese)
Managed Cloud HostingLayerhost Website
Chinese social networking websites Blog hosting services Blog search engines {{internet-publish-stub