Douban

Douban
豆瓣

URL	http://www.douban.com
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Web 2.0, Social network service, Online movie and book database
Registration	Optional
Available language(s)	Chinese
Launched	March 6, 2005
Current status	Active

For the paste, see Doubanjiang.

Douban.com (Chinese: 豆瓣; pinyin: Dòubàn), launched on March 6, 2005, is a Chinese Web 2.0 website providing user review and recommendation services for movies, books, and music. It is also the largest online Chinese language book, movie and music database and one of the largest online communities in China. As of September 2009, it has about 10 million registered users and ranks the 24th most popular website in China according to Alexa Internet.

censorship

Like all websites in China, Douban walks a thin line between survival and self-censorship.

In March 2009, douban removed art paintings of the Renaissance for the ground that it contained 'pornographic' elements. Most of the deletion were restored later on, but the incident was picked up by overseas media as a colorful portrait of a new round of online censorship.

The year also saw the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square Incident, and douban has further extended its keyword list to ban any terms that may be relevant to the incident. One notable example is the ban on merely mentioning the name of Victoria Park in Hong Kong where the memorial gathering for the 20th anniversary was held, in the fear that it may lead to sensitive discussions. Users also found that some discussion groups, like a Hong Kong cultural study group hkren were suddenly banned and all topics were removed without any notices. The action further angered some members to move to other similar websites that employ lesser strict self-censorship policies, most of which were banned by the Chinese government later on.

External links

• Official website(Chinese)