Flickr in China

June 5, 2005 1:25 PM

Chines government loves Flickr interface! So, Chinese government copies Flickr interface? So similar that Flickr users have no problem joining and creating accounts. Quickly, they have the most popular photo: The kitchen sink. As one Chinese user writes "evrything is free in china , you know ,4 example the software that microsoft made"
posted by vacapinta (27 comments total)

I was a bit confused by seeing all the familiar names and faces in that second link -- it made me think that site was actually somehow lifting Flickr's content. However this is not the case -- those guys have simply all signed up there, probably following Striatic's Flickr Central thread about it.

If the names aren't familiar to you there's a good chance you won't be confused this way, but I thought I'd clarify just in case: they've ripped off Flickr's interface and, as Striatic pointed out to me, they seem to have just plain stolen the small green public icon that goes with some of the photos.
posted by nthdegx at 1:45 PM on June 5, 2005

probably a better example of the 'lifted' interface is looking at one of the photostreams.

note the sets lined up on the left and the "beta" superscript above the logo.

the admin center is also patterned after flickr almost exactly.

there is even a chinese version of the flickr blog.
posted by striatic at 1:46 PM on June 5, 2005

I love kitchen sinks!
posted by Balisong at 2:05 PM on June 5, 2005

Oh noe! Bear is driving car, how can that be?!
posted by keswick at 2:35 PM on June 5, 2005

The most popular search term at the moment of writing is : "Pigdog".
posted by sgt.serenity at 2:51 PM on June 5, 2005

I hope they make a chinese version of metafilter next...
posted by Dreamghost at 2:51 PM on June 5, 2005

Chines government loves Flickr interface! So, Chinese government copies Flickr interface? So similar that Flickr users have no problem joining and creating accounts

The chinese government? What makes you think this is a government opperation? WTF?
posted by delmoi at 3:07 PM on June 5, 2005

It says right on the bottom of the page delmoi: "Charm network 2003-2004"

Obviously that's just code for "Chinese government."
posted by eyeballkid at 3:22 PM on June 5, 2005

Huh. I take that back. There's a link on the bottom of the page, underneath that, which takes you here.
posted by eyeballkid at 3:24 PM on June 5, 2005

The chinese government? What makes you think this is a government opperation? WTF?

yeah the link at the bottom of every page that takes you to the governments website kinda clears that up.
posted by puke & cry at 3:41 PM on June 5, 2005

Well, where or what is "miibeian"? Without knowing more it COULD be like saying the state government of Oklahoma is the United States government because it has the us.gov. Or that someone wouldn't use that link without having the right to.

Without joining I can't see a lot of the proof Striatic has posted (you get the login page), but I don't see that I need a reason to mock China, with or without this site.
posted by artifarce at 3:45 PM on June 5, 2005

(ok, I was wrong on my example; it'd be either ok.us or ok.gov, but the example still stands).
posted by artifarce at 3:46 PM on June 5, 2005

So what's the connection between these folks and fotolog.net? And was fotolog.net around before flickr, or am I misremembering?
posted by box at 3:53 PM on June 5, 2005

Wow. Somebody copied somebody else's look. That's old skool net.
posted by srboisvert at 4:42 PM on June 5, 2005

I hope they make a chinese version of metafilter next...
posted by Dreamghost at 5:51 PM EST on June 5 [!]

Don't you mean a chines version of metafilter?
posted by shmegegge at 5:07 PM on June 5, 2005

Meiibeian seems to be part of the Department of Intellectual Property (IP). The site has a lot of information on laws and regulations governing IP online and other communication-related regulations. The link seems to be a registration number with that department, the first character of which leads me to think that this site is located in Guangdong. The link does not in any way mean that the site is government-run.
posted by sudasana at 7:58 PM on June 5, 2005

Miibeian is the office of Information Technology, or so it says on their page.

I'm not sure what characters indicate that it's out of Guangdong province. All the contact numbers have Beijing area codes.

Blah Blah this is all about China not respecting intellectual property rights. If they weren't making a killing off of DVD's and software being sold for as low as 60 US cents, then there'd be no problem getting them to stop.
posted by taschenrechner at 8:09 PM on June 5, 2005

taschenrecher: I'm assuming that like license plates, the first character of the ICP number (the text of the link to Meiibeian) refers to the location of the fotolog.com.cn site. Not that important though.
posted by sudasana at 8:27 PM on June 5, 2005

Striatic squared the circle (you know, like this. Oh god, haha, I'm starting to cry, it's just too good.
posted by NickDouglas at 8:58 PM on June 5, 2005

So similar that Flickr users have no problem joining and creating accounts.

Are you implying that Flickr users are drooling numb-nuts who would be so confused by even the slightest difference that they would be unable to create an account?

Wow. Somebody copied somebody else's look. That's old skool net.

Bitch stole my html!
posted by spazzm at 10:11 PM on June 5, 2005

<p>end</p>
posted by puke & cry at 10:21 PM on June 5, 2005

How embarrassing for users of the website flickr.com.
posted by futureproof at 2:00 AM on June 6, 2005

[???]
posted by mosch at 2:28 AM on June 6, 2005

Apprently MeFi doesn't like chinese characters.
posted by mosch at 2:28 AM on June 6, 2005

No pictures of dead birds?
posted by Jongo at 9:38 AM on June 6, 2005

The MII in MIIbeian looks like the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry. BBC has a story on them.
posted by sudasana at 2:35 PM on June 7, 2005

Got this in email. Adding this for future reference:

"Hi -

Browsing Metafilter and came across your post. To head off wild, aimless
speculation, I'd like to point out that the link at the bottom of the page
is legally required on any registered website, but is especially enforced
on those that perform financial transactions. This one just points out its
registration number in Guangdong, and links to the government registrar.

Compare to similar links at the bottom of major portals www.sina.com.cn
and www.sohu.com ."

Left out the sender's name since this was sent as a private message.
posted by vacapinta at 9:45 AM on June 8, 2005