Let’s make friends through ... erm ... SMS

Someone sent us a link today: 邻客网. It's called Belinker in English, although we have no clue what it means. We did have a little fun with the English help page of the site, which explains the function of the service in this way:

The idea is simple, you tell us where you are, and we will let your friend know. You can imagine the city map in your mind, each moving point represents your friend’s location, no more serious planning for a casual meet up, you know exactly where you are going.

For example, you are at luna to chill, you send a short message“@luna”to belinker，belinker will tell your friends where you are，at the same time, if your friends’ friend happen to be nearby and checked in as well, you will know there location too. The casual meet up will never need to be planed again, you got another reason to meet friend in china.

Come on, guys. Just drag an English teacher off the street -- they are everywhere -- and ask them to edit your English. But you should still get the gist from reading the above. (The Chinese help file is well written, we assure you.)

We know China is good for copies, and this Belinker networking website seems to be a pretty spot on copy of Dodgeball, a relatively popular US-based SMS/networking site. Even the demonstration graphics on the front page of the websites are eerily similar. But Dodgeball doesn't work in China, so we can't fault Belinker for spotting an opening in the market.

Belinker is in Beta mode now and has only launched in Shanghai. Actually, it's in pre-launch mode -- the press conference isn't until July 14. According to the person who sent us the link, the website hopes to target foreigners (if that is true they should make sure the link that says "English" on the front takes users to a page where more than just headers are in English). It's an interesting concept and worth checking out -- they say each message you send using the service costs just 0.01 yuan.

You can join the network by simply sending an SMS to Belinker. China Mobile users use 29113960，China Unicom users use 99013960. We suggest looking around their site first, though.

If you are curious, here is what Belinker currently lists as the "top venues in Shanghai" based on user "checkins":

酒城酒吧 (Jiu Cheng), 7
Hot Bar, 6
Blue Frog, 4
汉源书屋 (Han Yuan Shu Wu or Old China Hand Reading Room), 3
Luna, 3
Mediterraneo, 2
SoHo2, 2
花街 (Hua Jie), 2
蓝天 (Lan Tian), 1
舒适堡 (Shu Shi Bao or Physical), 1

We are currently @Office. Don't bother checking in with us. It's no fun here.