In Jason Xu’s blog (https://blogs.ubc.ca/junnanxu/2011/09/18/lessons-for-twitter/), he talked about the Chinese version of Twitter, Sina.com, as the marketing intermediary for many celebrities and major brands in China.

Sina.com boomed in the year of 2010, with visitors doubled and time spent on it tripled. As a young generation of China, I am also a user of Sina.com and a follower of many celebrities. In my opinion, Sina.com has successfully become the most popular social media platform with more than 140 million bloggers. It has a big influence on China’s young generation, since about 80 percent of those bloggers are young people, under 30 years old. The marketing strategy used by Sina.com is about opening verified accounts for celebrities and major brands as mentioned in Jason’s blog. Most Chinese celebrities use Sina.com to enhance their attractiveness through posting their daily living photos and sharing their status with their fans. On the other hand, Sina.com gains ad revenues through enhanced marketing for brands and products using promotions and videos. For example, the most popular blogger is a movie star, who has more than 9.5 million followers, and has created profits of about $1.7 million for Sina.com.

However, the power and the impact of Sina.com may make itself get into trouble. A few months ago, an ethical issue of marketing regarding Sina.com rose. A 20 years old girl called Guo Meimei showed off her expensive bags, clothes and cars on her Sina.com. And she was verified by Sina.com to be the general manager of Red Cross Society of China. She didn’t realize that she aroused national questioning against the credibility of Red Cross. The controversy was so heated that the Red Cross had to open a press conference to clarify it, and the investigation was going on. Although, so far, we know that Guo Meimei herself made up the title, the issue generally makes public lose trust in government as well as government-backed institutions.