Microsoft seems bent on exploring and competing in all the areas of computing.  The company must be impressed with Twitter that it suddenly launched something quite similar to this networking site. At the moment, however, the application is still limited to just one country, China.

MSN's Juku

Microsoft made use of its existing application, the Windows Live Messenger, and expanded it into a micro-blogging service. The software giant’s chat messenger is a big hit in China. So, Microsoft decided to take advantage of that. Dubbed MSN Juku, the Twitter-like service is in its beta version already. Juku users get to post 140-character messages that can be scrolled through a timeline. Users can also check out friends’ timelines for their messages, announcements, or status updates.

Though the service looks and functions like Twitter, Microsoft denies that its MSN Juku had been designed after Twitter. The company insists that Juku is MSN China’s own innovation. Juku’s name comes from the Chinese used for the words “cool” and "gathering." However, some critics could only agree to the gathering part of the meaning. This is because an application based on another is thought of as a copycat of sorts. While Americans may think of Juku as a knockoff of Twitter, Chinese locals may think of it as a Plurk bandit. Plurk is another Twitter-like service, which is popular in Asia. Bandit, on the other hand, is just another way to call a knockoff.

MSN Juku, however, does not limit itself to micro-blogging like Twitter. The application also allows users to play simple games where users can win prizes. Users can announce wins through icons they can display over their Juku. Critics should not zero in on Juku when it comes to the supposed Chinese innovation’s similarity to Twitter, which is a micro-blogging network popular worldwide. This is because there are a lot of other applications, with Twitter-like functions, that have come out.

Social networking in China

Social networking, as a whole, has become very popular in China that 124 million people from the country are using at least one social networking site. Authorities actually had to block these services for months because of their fear of what could be passing to and from Chinese citizens, and possibly passing from other countries. It could then be argued that MSN Juku is a great step for the Chinese as they move towards greater communication avenues. Microsoft, however, may not be thinking about that when it made to move towards creating MSN Juku. The company just likes to cover all grounds, hoping to reach further in the world of social networking. Juku is also a promotion of the Windows Live messenger. After all, a lot of people today prefer to use Facebook and Twitter to get their point across. Social networks also have their own chat service. So, a chat service could also move towards social networking.