Culture

Chinese Origins of Hip-Hop, Viral media at work

by cynthia yoo | December 3, 2007 at 03:34 pm

535 views | 12 Recommendations | 3 comments

passing through a Chinese blog, a youtube vid titled "True Origins of Hip-Hop Music" catches my eye...
it's smartly produced and for a moment, i go "huh?"

it's cute, catchy and v. viral

it's an ad for China's newest social networking site: www.cool.nseries.com

Nokia has launched a new social networking site, www.cool.nseries.com, touting it as China's first online meeting point for the brand's core twentysomething demographic, who are invited to post, discuss and argue about what's cool or not.
The website, designed and produced by Eight Partnership, encourages users to congregate to exchange opinions, photos and links on fashion, gadgets, music, style, movies and cool hangouts, with vistors able to create their profiles.

"True Origins of Hip-Hop" was produced by One Production, under the direction of Wuershan from Beijing. The star of this viral vid, is MC Farmer, a farmer from inner-China (Mongolia) that tells you how hip-hop really began.

With a successful viral ad under its belt, Nokia's strategy for its new site is the following:

A key element is the ‘Battle for cool’, challenging users to compete and vote to rank coolness. The topic for battle is chosen each month by well-known personalities. Further engagement will be driven by exclusive one-to-one video interviews with the celebrities.

The website has been extended into a WAP portal, allowing users to upload cool findings directly from their mobile phones, as well as preview the monthly winners.

The site is designed to promote Nokia’s N-series range of phones, and there will be an exclusive NSeries user section on the WAP site to reward existing Nokia phone holders.

“Content in trendy magazine is often dictated by editors, but this is a website for individuals who are seeking a real viral community where they will find a depth of involvement with their peer group,” says Simon Xue, digital marketing manager at Eight Beijing.

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ifindtrends

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 00:01 on December 4th, 2007

That was so funny. Thanks for the translation. Too bad it was an ad huh? But it does show how fast the culture is changing in China. How has the government handled sites like this so far? Are they still attemting to block certain types of websites?

I just saw the story here on Nowpublic how in Iran it is basically illegal to "rap".

Good stuff.

cynthia yoo

at 00:57 on December 4th, 2007

thanks~~can't take credit for the translation, just the usual NP-editor addiction to blogs...asian blogs being my beat of sorts...

China is undergoing tremendous change...can't imagine the Chinese gov't having much to complain about sites like this, it's creative sure but nothing subversive unless buying Nokia is (pls free to wax philosophical on how Nokia maybe so) the intent here is to get you to buy Nokia (but dang, N95 is sure pretty!)

we've all heard of the great wall of china, yes?

keep up the good work ifindstrends~~