While Facebook prepared its move into the Chinese Internet market, Xiaonei.com, one of China’s highly successful local versions, already dubbed a Facebook-clone by some, was preparing to fend off impending attack by its American rival. Xiaonei raised a staggering $430 million from investors and has been reported as saying will be used to help it expand to meet new challenges and to further develop its features.

According to some reports, Xiaonei currently has some 22 million members and well over 11 million daily visitors. The social networking site appears in Mandarin Chinese and attracts young people at high school and university. Xiaonei translates as “on campus” in Mandarin and it is well placed to put up a good fight.