I just found out Plurk is a Chinese-owned company.

Traditionally, these companies have been EXCEEDINGLY bad about privacy, because violations are largely unenforceable.

And I'm *not* going to fund, albeit indirectly, a government who funds viruswriters. Period.

Two years ago, there was a Chinese government funded virus that got into my SQL databases that was downloading viruses onto every visitor's

computer, for instance. And when we finally figured out the problem and removed it, we found out that it was funded by the g'ment in order

to, and I quote, "steal American money".

Uh. Yeah. Ugh.

venturebeatprofiles.com/...

my only quibble with that theory is that I don't see how plurk makes any money at all. So I don't think it benefits China in any way.

I could be wrong though.

hmm, interesting. I was under the impression that plurk is Canadian and that Microsoft had been stealing code from it a while ago *confused*

the jobs page makes it clear that anyone from Taiwan get's preference so I'm assuming that is where they are based. Also requests

that mandarin is spoken if possible

Yes, it looks like Taiwan, which I don't consider China.

I always knew it was Chinese in origin...it's the most popular microblogger in Asia...and yes Microsoft was supposedly stealing code

(not sure if they really were but...I wouldn't put it past them)

That's just it -- they're looking for someone to do marketing stuffs for them, which means monetization must be on the way.

And considered or not, Taiwan is legally part of China.

And the Microsoft thing? Rediculous. M$ should know better, but apparently not.

I guess I think that lumping Taiwan and the societal attitudes and business practices with mainland China bothers me.

The same goes for Hong Kong. Yes, it is part of mainland China, but the people I know from Hong Kong are lightyears away philosophically

from the practices of mainland China. Different currency, passport, a one country-two systems model. And the Taiwanese do NOT see themselves

wanting to have anything to do with mainland China and their ethics and practices (or, more precisely, the lack of them).

Taiwan is not PRC, whether China thinks so or not. But I wouldn't fight to hold you to a service you don't like.

I thought plurk was trying to get the service *in* China and having a lot of trouble.

Thanks Eevee. I thought that's what I read. So what happened. Did China buy Plurk?

According to Plurk's terms page.....

"These Terms of Use shall be governed by the laws of Canada and you submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Canadian courts."

plus all of their contact addresses (for IP registration and other things) list Canadian addresses

At any rate, I refuse to use twitter. It doesn't work very well on my computer. (Though I do follow you there anyway, )

huh...I thought it was based in China..I read somewhere that it was the biggest microblogging tool in Asia (including china)

from what I've read, Plurk is very popular in Asia, and Microsoft wanted to develop something similar in China. It's called Juku

the people working for Microsoft and developing Juku stole the code from Plurk for their competing microblogging site

That's what I understand from all the articles anyway.

can't find anything saying Plurk is Chinese either....

yes but if they're trying to expand into China, that could be why

that and if they're based out of Mississauga, there's a large Asian community there too so, that could be why as well

www.crunchbase.com/compa... confirming information

Pretty sure that Plurk is based out of Canada. They got really popular in East Asia and are going to open up offices out there, but they're

Canuckianlanders to the best of my ability to determine.

whether the iphone will be ditched too, seeing as it's made in china

it is definitely a Canadian based company - I've spoken to them way back when they first started about some issues with the site and other..

things, such as opportunity - they are expanding into Canada

maybe they're just moving their technical staff to taiwan?