When the HR director spotted what was happening, however, he decided he had no option but to ban Kaixin in the office. Staff did not take it seriously when the ban was introduced at the end of last year until Deng lost his job.

A report released by Web filtering software company Websense says Asian office worker spend a little over four hours a week online, dealing with private things. In China the figure is five and a half hours, although many IT managers believe the true figure is over six hours, meaning an employee spends on average of more than one hour a day on private matters at work.

Things came to a head in April when Huang Xiangru, general manager of Internet media site 8pima.com, set up an "Anti-Loser Union" with 30 other company managers. "Losers" refer to staff who indulge in online games and SNS websites at work. Within 20 days, more than 400 enterprises had joined the union, including HP China.

Huang told Beijing-based weekly newspaper Yweekend: "We are not taking aim at Kaixin but it truly takes up a lot of our employees' time."

Many companies are now blocking Kaixin. Chen Xi, a 25-year-old account executive in a Beijing PR company, says SNS websites, including Kaixin and Facebook, have been blocked from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm for several months, because her director thought it might affect people's work.

Xie Hong, a 25-year-old reporter, is just such an example of what has companies so worried. She became addicted to Kaixin at the start of the year when she came across a new game, "Happy Garden", which allowed users to plant different vegetables and fruit. Users could then sell their products to boost their ID "bank accounts" or even achieve the same result by stealing from others. From that day on, Xie spent every night "harvesting" her fruit and veg, never sleeping before 1 am. Then she'd set her alarm for 6 am - and the first thing she did after getting up was steal vegetables from her online friends.

"I opened the website at least 10 times a day. I don't know why I am so fascinated with 'stealing vegetables'. Is it because I am evil inside?" Xie asked herself.

Kaixin users clearly regard logging on as much of a "task" as their own jobs. "It is a slight Internet addiction. It will develop into a reliance on virtual social behaviors," says psychological consultant Su Gaoshu in the Maple Women's Psychological Counseling Center Beijing. "Those addicted will avoid their real life. The serious ones will even have body symptoms such as vomiting and headaches.

"Addiction to Kaixin seems to tighten people's relationships but it reflects the pressure the user feels in the real world. The less he or she faces reality, the more difficult it becomes to get used to it."

English psychologist Aric Sigman published a story in the Biologist magazine, warning that more virtual social networking sites would decrease people's chances of connecting with the real world.

"Anti-Loser Union" chairman, Huang, meanwhile, proposes its own answer to the problem. He hopes companies develop software to stop workers accessing SNS websites. That will help to rid employees of their obsession, he says.

China Daily|2009-6-25-P18