MSN China announces partnership with Chinese social network Renren

RenrenMicrosoft’s joint venture firm MSN China announced today that they had just inked a partnership with China’s social-networking site Renren.com, often referred to as the Facebook of China, to cooperate in areas of instant messaging and social networking using Microsoft’s Messenger Connect.

According to Chinese website DoNews.com, the partnership will feature the following:

  • Windows Live ID integration – Users can now sign in to the social network Renren.com using their Windows Live ID:
    Renren Messenger Connect Login
  • Messenger Social integration – After users connect their Renren account to Windows Live, any updates (such as photos and status updates) they post to Renren will also appear on their Messenger Social feed:
    Messenger Social
  • Instant Messaging – Users can now communicate with their friends on Renren using Windows Live Messenger

This is not the first Microsoft partnership in China. Ever since Microsoft released Messenger Connect, Microsoft has established several partnerships with Sina.com, 163.com, and Tencent’s QQ.com over the past year in areas of blogging, micro-blogging, instant messaging, and social networking. It almost feels like Windows Live is doing better in China than they are in the US (Twitter still hasn’t made it back to Windows Live)!

(Thanks LiveSino.net for the heads up and screenshots!)