RenRen’s IPO date has arrived. Shares in the “Facebook of China” will begin trading today (May 4, 2011) on the NYSE under ticker symbol “RENN.” The whole affair has the feel of being backstage before a Justin Bieber concert, which is to say traders are giddy.

Finally, we’ll get to sink our hands into a genuine social networking stock. Better yet, it hails from behind the Great Firewall in the world’s largest Internet market. Expect fireworks.

While the mainstream media has flooded the tubes with news stories on RenRen, here are five things you might not have known about the “Facebook of China”:

1) Pony up for those brand pages. RenRen may have copied the master (Facebook) in the beginning, but it’s taken a slightly different tact toward advertising. Rather than giving away “fan pages” to businesses for free, RenRen charges companies upwards of $90,000 to launch branded “mini-sites” on RenRen. That’s one way to solve the revenue problem that’s hanging over Facebook’s head.

2) It’s messy behind the scenes. News broke yesterday that one of RenRen’s audit-committee chairmen was stepping down after alleged financial fraud at a different Chinese tech company where he serves as CFO. Perhaps that’s not a big deal (since it stems from allegations at a different company), but this might give you pause: RenRen’s had trouble spitting out just how many users the site has. First, they claimed user growth of 29 percent during Q1. A week and a half later, the social networking site backpedaled, saying growth was actually more like 19 percent. Hmmm… As it stands right now, RenRen claimed to have 117 million activated users as of March 31, 2011. Take it for what it’s worth.

3) Strength in numbers. The PRC is home to the world’s largest Internet market with more than 420 million Web users, according to Internet World Stats. That’s nearly twice the number of surfers in the U.S., and China’s Internet penetration rate is just 31 percent! Compare that to the U.S., where 77 percent of the population has Web access. Clearly, the Internet growth story moving forward is going to be told on the other side of the Pacific.

4) Coupons anyone? RenRen operates a Groupon-style deal of the day clone at Nuomi.com. Launched last summer, Nuomi’s already a Top 200 site in China (per Alexa), but it does face stiff competition. The Xinhua News claims there are already more than 2,600 group buying websites in the PRC. Fortunately, RenRen’s IPO warchest might help the company market Nuomi. Execs appear more than willing to do just that as they announced plans to spend more than $30 million in advertising the site in February. They won’t lose the Groupon war without a fight.

5) Multiple social networks in one. Early in April, RenRen launched a second social networking site dubbed “Jingwei.” Jingwei targets professionals who are interested in networking opportunities. If it catches on, we might not have the opportunity to invest just in the “Facebook of China” but the “LinkedIn of China” and the “Groupon of China,” too – all in one stock. What more could you ask for in a country where only the privileged few have access to shares in Facebook, Twitter, Groupon and LinkedIn?

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Tags: Facebook, Groupon, Jingwei, LinkedIn, Nuomi, RenRen, RenRen IPO, social networking stocks

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