China’s social-media clones are diverse and likely, but careful to follow Communist Party censorship.

Western social media services are blocked in China. This clears the playing field for homegrown (and heavily monitored) firms, such as Renren (Facebook-type functions), Youku.com (YouTube-like video sharing service), Sina Weibo (Twitter-like microblogging service), QQ (MSN messenger-like), and Baike (Wikipedia-like).

See also: A geek’s guide to China’s Silicon Valley; Tencent’s QQ, not Sina Weibo, is China’s social graph