Can Renren, ‘China’s Facebook’ from the dotcom era, win back its millennial audience with nostalgia?

Once widely used by students, Renren fell out of favour in the smartphone era as mobile-focused apps such as WeChat and Weibo became more popular. It has launched its first mobile social networking app, hoping to win this demographic back. — SCMP

Guangxi resident Zeng Mou first got his Renren account in 2006. The Chinese social networking site was part of daily life for the college student, who would regularly post photos and engage with his friends on the platform.

Fourteen years down the road, the now 33-year-old civil servant still logs on daily “just out of habit”, but there is hardly anyone to engage with; “nobody uses it,” he said of the once-popular platform that was known as “China’s Facebook”.