Renren

Renren, which started as Xiaonei.com, was founded by a group of students, including Wang Xing, Wang Huiwen and Lai Binqiang at Tsinghua University and Tianjin University in December 2005. Joseph Chen, who had himself tried to launch a student community website called ChinaRen as early as 1999 and sold it in 2000, acquired Xiaonei through his new company Oak Pacific in October 2006.

Born in 1970 in China, Chen moved with his family to the US where he studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later earned an MBA from Stanford University. He remains the chairman and CEO.In March 2008, Xiaonei launched its WAP version, which users can access through mobile phones. Xiaonei features an instant messaging service designed typically for its users using XMPP, which is more popular than Facebook chat.In August 2009, Xiaonei officially changed its name to Renren, as well as its domain to www.renren.com. And also, the logo has changed from the Chinese word "xiaonei" to the Chinese word "renren". This name change from 'inside the school' to 'everybody' reflected the expansion aspirations held by Oak Pacific – to be more than a network dedicated to students, but instead be the biggest Chinese social network website.In April 2011, the company filed with the SEC to raise $584 million in a US IPO, offering Renren stock on the New York Stock Exchange. The company reported 2010 revenue of US$76 million.Initially, users were only able to use the site from specific IP addresses belonging to colleges. This was done to encourage users to use their real identities on the service.