MSN China was a joint venture of the global

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

corporation

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, part of its MSN service, located in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Unlike most other international versions of the MSN portal, which have used the same layout as the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

since 2014, MSN China utilized a unique design and had a separate editorial division. In 2010 MSN China announced a partnership with

Sina Sina may refer to: Relating to China * Chin (China), or Sina (), old Chinese form of the Sanskrit name Cina () ** Shina (word), or Sina (), archaic Japanese word for China ** Sinae, Latin name for China Places * Sina, Albania, or Sinë, a vi ...

to integrate each other's services as a reaction towards one of mainland China's largest internet companies,

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. ( zh, s=腾讯, p=Téngxùn) is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimed ...

. In 2016 Microsoft announced that they would discontinue the MSN China website on June 7 in favor of

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

services and would redirect their portal to a number of Chinese websites and their search engine,

Bing Bing most often refers to: * Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer * Microsoft Bing, a web search engine Bing may also refer to: Food and drink * Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread * Bing (soft drink), a UK brand * Bing cherry, a varie ...

MSN Juku

In November 2009, MSN China launched an Internet application called ''MSN Juku'' in

beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; or ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represe ...

. Commentators described it as a "

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

-style"

microblogging Microblogging is a form of blogging using short posts without titles known as microposts or status updates. Microblogs "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links", which may be the ...

service, although MSN China rejects that description. From the beginning, observers noted similarity between the MSN Juku

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...

and that of established microblogging service

Plurk Plurk () is a free social networking and microblogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as plurks) through short messages or links, which can be up to 360 text characters in length (as of 2016). Updates are then shown ...

, which was blocked in China in April 2009. On December 14, 2009, the official Plurk blog posted an accusation that MSN China plagiarized about 80% of Plurk's original code, as well as elements of their CSS and unique user interface features. Microsoft stated in a press release that it looked into the accusations. The next day, Microsoft confirmed that MSN Juku (which, it stated, had been developed by a Chinese contractor) did contain copied code, and stated that the service would be indefinitely suspended.

Mobile apps

Microsoft lists their Chinese MSN apps for the

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft Mobile for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design languag ...

platform under ''Microsoft Online'' (alternatively known as ''MSN China'' in Google Play and ''Shanghai MSN Network Communications Technology Company Limited'' in iTunes) lists several applications that are and aren't MSN branded such as the Bing Dictionary (必應詞典), Bing Reader (必讀), Star-Bing (追星必應), Bing Images (必應圖片),

Bing Maps Bing Maps (previously Live Search Maps, Windows Live Maps, Windows Live Local, and MSN Virtual Earth) is a web mapping service provided as a part of Microsoft's Bing suite of search engines and powered by the Bing Maps Platform framework which al ...

(必應地圖), Bing Mind-Reading Robot (必應問答), Chinese MSN, msnNOW,

Windows Live Messenger MSN Messenger (also known colloquially simply as MSN), later rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, was a Cross-platform software, cross-platform instant messaging client, instant-messaging client developed by Microsoft. It connected to the now-di ...

, Xiaoice (微軟小冰) and several others in the Windows Phone Store and on other platforms.

References

External links

* Blog hosting services Chinese websites MSN Defunct social networking services {{china-stub