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In China: All atwitter about microblogging
By Prisma News
Category:
Twitter may be capturing the lion’s share of media attention in the West, but in China, it’s a relative unknown and quite literally a has been.
Once upon a time, Twitter, along with native clones Fanfou, Jiwai and Digu, were the pioneers of micro-blogging in China. All that changed in 2009, when the four networks were either blocked or shut down by the Chinese government.
A new crop of micro-blogging services quickly filled the vacuum. Unlike their predecessors, these newcomers attempt to balance users’ desire to communicate quickly with the realities of Chinese government regulations regarding Internet content. For now, that, seems to be the magic formula.
Among China’s up and coming micro-blogging platforms, it’s Sina Weibo that reigns supreme, with some 40 million users, or 47% of the blogging population, according to China Daily. Taotao and Zuosa are reported to follow behind Weibo in popularity, although statistics are unavailable as of this writing.
Sina Weibo on the Web and mobile
Like Twitter, Sina Weibo allows for 140 characters per post. In Chinese, however, bloggers can pack much more content and meaning into those 140 characters than would be possible in English. (It begs the question whether Weibo and its kind are truly micro-blogging platforms.)
Regardless, it will be interesting to watch this trend develop over the coming months and years. Will marketers be able to harness these networks in order to reach China’s growing population of affluent Internet users? Time will tell.
For further reading:
- NYT: China’s Twitter Clones
- China Daily: Flutter over new Twitter
- Yahoo! News: China lawmakers test out microblogging
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