Exclusive Interview: Google Teams Up with Tianya for Q&A

The History of Google and Tianya's Cooperation

Mr. Xing Ming revealed that Google actually started business contact last year. In Tianya's first round of financing, Google became one of the investors of Tianya. Subsequently, the two parties began to discuss more in-depth technical and service cooperation.

Kaifu Lee stated that Tianya is Google's first cross-industry (different field) partner. After teaming up with Tianya, Google has no plans to cooperate with other similar domestic websites. In other words, in the forum/community sector, Google's current cooperation with Tianya is unique.

What will Tianya gain from its cooperation with Google?

Tianya will receive comprehensive technical support from Google, such as hardware, software, and development support.

What will Google gain and pay for in its cooperation with Tianya?

Tianya will be responsible for the majority of management and promotion services of the cooperative product. For Google, the most important benefit of partnering with Tianya is successfully entering the Chinese Internet community sector. It will gain support from Tianya and related products in future integrated searches, while also saving a great deal of manpower required for content management.

Kaifu also disclosed that currently dozens of engineers from Google China are helping Tianya with development and maintenance, and the scale of the development team is not small.

Differences between Google&Tianya products and similar products

Clearly, Tianya Q&A and Tianya LaiBar are in competition with Baidu's Tieba and Q&A. When discussing the differences with similar products, Mr. Xing Ming believed that thanks to the core user support unique to the Tianya community, Tianya Q&A and Tianya LaiBar will have more "human touch," helping Tianya users more conveniently find their friends while showcasing themselves.

Kaifu then joked, "We have a greater advantage in technology."

Prospects for Google and Tianya's cooperation

Chairman of Tianya, Mr. Xing Ming, revealed that under Google's technical support, Tianya's future new service development capabilities have greatly improved. Besides the soon-to-be-launched more complete SNS system, Tianya's ultimate goal is to build a suitable social and community platform for global Chinese people, allowing Tianya users to have a complete "online home and virtual life trajectory."

On the side of Google, if Tianya's SNS platform achieves tremendous success, it will help Google significantly strengthen the Chinese integrated search function. Tianya Q&A and communities are just the beginning. In the near future, Google's Chinese search will have the ability to completely target individuals. In other words, through the search engine, what you find will not only be information but also individual people.

A photo taken during the interview, with Brother Xing Ming on the left and our Kaifu on the right.