Sina’s Weibo, the Chinese domestic micro-blogging platform, is going to enter the market that is currently dominated by US-based Twitter with its English version.
As mentioned in the articles, around 56 million accounts have been opened on Twitter, yet only an estimated amount of 21 million users actively publish each month. On the other hand, Weibo has 40 million users and 50 million active monthly users. Generally, about 10 million new accounts signed up each month, and there is an expected significant growth of revenue from Weibo in the following years. From the number illustrated above, it’s obvious that Weibo is used more commonly in people’s daily life than twitter. Base on my own experience, Weibo has already become an indispensable part of Chinese people’s daily
life.
Marketing is playing an essential role here as 60,000 accounts of Weibo are verified accounts for celebrities and major brands. Weibo is making itself a successful marketing intermediary by enhancing marketing for brands and products using promotions and videos (“pushing campaigns out at peak time
s – 10 to 11.10am and 2 to 3.30pm – and looking at other chargeable service for brands”). Marketing authorities predict that Sina’s advertising revenue will grow about 50% due to this phenomenon. Sina’s Weibo appears to have become the social media of choice for most brands to stage their engagement with the Chinese market.
Twitter should definitely be aware of the potential considerable threats of the English-version of Weibo.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/pda/2011/jul/15/weibo-twitter-china