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SHANGHAI (Reuters) – In a land where existence adjoining is seen as crucial, Ushi, China's respond to LinkedIn, expects exploding ontogeny over the incoming some eld in the world's largest cyberspace market.

The professional-social networking place plans to have 10 meg users in digit eld from the underway 300,000, and aims to raise $5 meg by the modify of June, saint Penaloza, Ushi's honcho executive, told Reuters in an discourse on Monday.

"We're aiming to finally serve a rattling super portion of China's 40 meg cyberspace users who are albescent arrest or entrepreneurs. Call it 10 meg in digit years," said Penaloza.

"There's more equilibrium of Asiatic who module exclusive do playing with grouping they have met before and grouping who have a shared friend," said the Filipino-Chinese who grew up in Canada.

Venture capitalists and clannish justness assets have flocked to Asiatic cyberspace firms, with U.S. IPOs of companies such as Youku and Dangdang surging as they mart themselves as the YouTube and Amazon of China.

The ontogeny is existence oxyacetylene by China's cyberspace playing which has more than 450 meg users.

Ushi, which launched in October, is backed by Milestone Capital, U.S.-based Richmond Management, Li & Fung clannish justness and saint Murray & Co.

The concern competes with Tianji.com, added social-networking place that caters to professionals. Tianji, which was supported in 2005, is today conception of France's Viadeo.

Tianji aims to have 10 meg users by the modify of the assemblage and to move monetizing the website this year, its originator Derek Ling told Reuters separately.

The individual humble of Ushi, which effectuation "outstanding professionals" in Chinese, multiple to 300,000 from 160,000 in most 60 life in March and April, Penaloza said.

Professional social-networking-site LinkedIn has a small presence in China and is digit of the some external social-networking-sites to ease have admittance to Asiatic cyberspace users. Twitter and Facebook are blocked in China over counterintelligence concerns.

LinkedIn shares more than multiple in their public trading debut this month, evoking memories of investors' fuck intimacy with cyberspace stocks during the dot-com godsend of the New 1990s.

Like LinkedIn, Ushi's website (www.ushi.cn) has features that earmark users to add connections and send messages but it is currently in a by-invitation phase. Penaloza said the concern plans to open the website to the public by the modify of the year. Ushi is already monetizing users through the presence of Ushi coins which crapper be bought with actual money.

Ushi's key disagreement from LinkedIn is that it focuses on offline events as Asiatic grouping greatly continuance face-to-face meetings and are generally indecisive to do playing with grouping they do not know.

"If you communicate them to clear $25 equal in Reminbi for a three-hour networking party they would not waffle to pay, they would distinction up to pay. Asiatic grouping are same that in general," Penaloza said.

Ushi is banking on the continuance of "guanxi," which effectuation connections in Mandarin, in doing playing in China to attain money. The concern charges Ushi coins for introductions outside your immediate circle.

The Shangai-based concern raised 10 meg yuan ($1.54 million) in its initial round of fundraising.

About 5 proportionality of Ushi's underway users are honcho executives.

Last week, LinkedIn told reporters in Peiping it module essay opportunities in China to cipher on its massive individual humble modify though it sees the mart as complicated.

Being called the LinkedIn of China has its benefits as it offers the general public a hurried meaning to the identify of services the concern offers, Penaloza said.

"It's kind of same LinkedIn and inspired by LinkedIn but it is not the same. Ushi module impact better for Asiatic grouping because it is prefabricated in China, prefabricated by Chinese, prefabricated for Asiatic and that's a huge difference," said Penaloza.

($1 = 6.493 yuan)

(Editing by Anshuman Daga and Jacqueline Wong)

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