Zuckerberg, you have been superpoked!

Since first hearing about Xiaonei, I have never regarded it as much more than the Chinese ripoff of Facebook. Apparently I was wrong. Xiaonei is now one of the big boys.

If you are not familiar with the site, Xiaonei's creators didn't even bother to change the blue login color scheme when designing their IP-iberal social networking site. They have, however, succeeded in growing steadily in the Chinese market over the past few years. And now they have the financial back to make real moves.

VentureBeat reports that Xiaonei has raised 430 million dollars in capital, making it better funded than Facebook

"Xiaonei, the company that likes to call itself the “Facebook of China” has raised a whopping $430 million from financial backers, VentureBeat has learned from the company’s investors.

The backing gives it a larger financial war chest than Facebook itself, and sets the scene for a showdown with the American company. "

Facebook has itself been busy raising money, but the website's war chest is still not close to rivaling that of Xiaonei.

This very well may be another case of an American tech giant having their entry to the Chinese market thwarted by a strong domestic player.