Xiaonei.com, widely believed to be the Chinese version of facebook, was set up in December, 2005 and was the earliest Social Networking site for universities in China. 校内(xiào nèi) means “within campuses, within universities.” At Xiaonei.com, only those who have specific university IP addresses could register and this is to ensure that the majority of the registered users are college students. After registration, just like Facebook, users can create 相册(xiàngcè) albums, write 日志(rìzhì) diaries and leave 留言(liúyán) messages. Let’s take a look at the following phrases that may be helpful if you would like to get on Xiaonei:
网上相册(wăngshàng xiàngcè) is a platform for users to present their photos. Here 网上(wăngshàng) means “on the net” and 相册(xiàngcè) means “album.”
日志(rìzhì), also called 日记(rìjì), is a personal record of daily experience and reflections.
留言(liúyán) means “message.” 留(liú) means “leave something somewhere” and 言(yán) means “words, information.” 留言(liúyán) is a message left by other visitors commenting on what you write on the internet.