CityIN, a Chinese social network, launched a few weeks back with one small differentiating factor: geographic-based friend recommendations for media. Now that CityIN has had a chance to get its feet wet, it's onto the next milestone--opening up its platform.
That may not seem like a big deal, especially since CityIN is brand new. Why would anyone care that a small social networking site is opening up its platform? It's a case of the chicken and the egg, but it's one that will be interesting to follow, even from afar.
[img src="" caption="" credit="" alt=""]There are a couple of things going on with this particular release. Opening its platform for application developers gives CityIN a first mover advantage in the Chinese market. In doing so, CityIN will be providing a Chinese version (essentially) of Google's Open Social, which is something Google hasn't fully done yet (though we may see some progress towards that end, given Google's increased workforce in China).
So there's the chicken. Where's the egg?
With hopes of growing quickly and becoming a dominant social network in its space (which will soon expand beyond China), CityIN is hoping to lure developers in China and outside China with its open platform approach. Simon Chan, co-founder of CityIN, has indicated that he is already in talks with game developers in China for creating games to work on CityIN.
But Chan is also hoping that the extension of the Open Social platform will lure in developers and publishers from across the globe, as CityIN can provide localized applications to work on its network.