Listening to what is coming from China’s official media these days, you could believe this was a socialist country. Every other day, web pages at Xinhua, the official news agency, are bathed in red promoting a special on the ruling Communist party’s upcoming 90th anniversary.
But one recent success among the booming social media, which are all privately owned, speaks a completely different language: P1.CN, an invitation-only social network for urban affluent Chinese, has attracted 1.2m members. And its success seems to lie in a concept that reflects a class society.
As a message to unfortunate non-members on the site’s homepage makes clear, P1.CN is out to make a virtue of exclusivity: 'P1.CN is a private, invitation only social network for exceptional individuals. Therefore we pay special attention to the few people that receive the opportunity to join our network. Finding 5 of your friends on P1 will grant you access to our community.'