I have been to the Chinese Blogger Conference annual event twice, and have gotten to know some great geek bloggers. But based on the number of comments on their blogs and other measures of popularity, I know they are not the most popular ones in terms of page views and visitors. So who are the most popular Chinese blogs right now? And aslo, what else topics and subjects are popular that attract a lot of traffic and who are these non geek bloggers.
Sina and Sohu come to mind as the best place to start our search. For the past two years, there has been a fierce competition between these top two portals–who are also blog service providers (BSP)–to win celebrities and best seller authors as bloggers. Though the top Chinese search engine Baidu.com replaced Sina.com as the biggest online advertising market share owner in China in the first six months of 2007 (source: Analysys International) , most Chinese users are still accustomed to visiting portals instead of search engines for information. So to host a celebrity blog on a portal is a win-win solution for both the BSP and the blogger.
All the data is on Dec. 25, 2007.
#1:Lao Xu (老徐): blogger Xu Jinglei (徐静蕾), hosted on Sina, 132 million Page Views (PV) since Oct. 2005.
Xu Jinglei was a popular teenager idol back in mid 1990s and became well-known after a TV show about the love and life stories of a few college students. She has been running a digital magazine since her Sina blog became unexpectedly popular. She is basically the first super celebrity blogger. Xu blogs about her life as an actress, a movie director and an editor. She likes to share personal stories and photos.
#2: Han Han (韩寒): blogger Han Han (韩寒), hosted on Sina, 111 million PV.
Han Han’s story of ” dropping out of high school to become a full time novelist” caused a controversial debate back in late 1990s. People disagreed on whether a person could live a better life without a college degree. I think the answer is known today–based on the number of copies of his books sold. Han blogs about current news, society, personal stories. His writing is fun to read but sometime his point of view is very representative of the “born-in-80s” generation.
#3: Lao Sha Blog (老沙博客): blogger：Sha Minnong (沙黾农)，hosted on both Sina and Sohu, 105 million PV on Sohu and 79 million on Sina.
Lao Sha is the founder of 4 financial newspapers. He blogs about financial stuff. If you know about the craziness of China’s stock market in the past two years, you will understand why a financial blog receives nearly 200 million PV. I wouldn’t know about this blog had I not done this research. Laoshao keeps a column called “ Stock Market 8 AM” which he reivewed the world stock market status on the previous night and headline news of the day. I bet it is a MUST read for many “stock cizitens” on every trading day.
#4: Acosta——极地阳光: blogger Acosta (Chinese name is non avaliable), hosted on Sina, 79 million PV since Mar 2006.
Acosta is the first “grassroots” blogger to crank up to the top 3 on Sina blog. Nobody knows his real name, but he posts a lot of his personal images. Quite some of these images are very high quality, and he himself is a good looking guy with sweet smile. I think being mysterious is a secret source of his popularity. But he is definitely not a “grassroots” person, as evidenced by a photo showing him sharing dinner with a super famous TV actress and her husband. Acosta writes short stories and reviews on current events, and his writing is highly endorsed by a few writers.
# 5: Zhufeifei’s Blog (朱菲菲的Blog): blogger Zhu Feifei, hosted on Sohu, PV 78 million.
Her blog tagline is “To share things in entertainment. I feel happy if people enjoy them! ” (发一些娱乐圈的事，众乐，我亦乐). There are only blog titles on her blog homepage and you need to click on “read more” to read a word. Here is the title of her most recent post: The Beautiful Daughter of Jiang Kun was a Singer (images).姜昆的漂亮女儿曾是歌星(图). (Note: Jiang Kun is a well-known commedy show actor). The blog is updated around once a month, but all with photos of celebrities.
# 6 -#10: On both lists of Sina and Sohu, the bloggers fall into the four categories: novelist/writers, financial bloggers, entertainment reporters or teenager idols.
Sohu Top 10 Most Viewed Blogs
Sina Top 10 Most Viewed Blogs
Let me know if you are intereted in any of above blogs and want to learn more, or let us know if you want to recommend other Chinese blogs.
