It is already a cliché now to argue that Twitter has become one of the landmark changes brought by Internet-based communications. With more and more companies in the United States using or planning to use Twitter-oriented business communication or marketing, Twitter is more than ready to compete in the business world as an independent and competitive grown-up.
On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, however, the Chinese counterparts of Twitter are still in the primitive accumulation process. In August, 2009, Sina.com, the largest web portal in mainland China, launched the first “micro-blogging service”(Sina Weibo) in China. Like the word “tweet” has become a verb in English, “zhi weibo” which literally means “to knit a scarf”—has entered the Chinese lexicon. The past two years has witnessed an era of relentlessly accelerating numbers of micro-blogging service providers and their users in China. At the beginning of this year, Sina and QQ all proudly announced that more than 100 million people are using their micro-blogging services. On January 20 2010, Netease (163.com) and Sohu, two other major web portals in China, began testing their micro-blogging services.
Sina Weibo is currently the most popular micro-blogging platform in China. Even Tom Cruise has signed up to connect with his China-based fans. Sina Weibo
Nowadays, Twitter-like services and its Chinese followers are becoming the hottest business concept and the most celebrated part of the Chinese popular culture. Unofficial data indicates that more than 20 million pieces of micro-blogs are posted every day, and 38% of them were posted through mobile devices. Despite the similarity between the products, region-based differences stand out clearly between Twitter and Chinese micro-blogging services, among which the most prominent one is that unlike the dominant position of Twitter in the United States, there is currently no single winner that takes the entire market share in micro-blogging. Although, it is estimated that Sina Weibo has an 60% market share, about 100 million users. There are a couple of service providers competing at the same time, and staggering levels of competition are facing these current and potential players.
Sina Micro-blogging: A Micro Social Networking Site
Any experienced service user can clearly figure out that the functions and settings on Sina micro-blogging are far more complicated than that on Twitter. Besides the basic functions such as “reply” and “@”, Sina allows its users to share pictures and videos. This makes Sina Weibo basically a hybrid of Twitter and Tumbler. Therefore, this is indeed a “Micro Blog” on Sina, or we can say that Sina micro-blogging is an individual-centered message board. It has been revealed that, personal tags such as “gourmet” and “traveling”, as well as micro groups based on these tags have been added into its new version, which is currently under testing. Emoticons and virtual gifting are also on the agenda. It is obvious that Sina has unraveled its ambition to build a micro social networking site (SSN) rather than featuring solely on the micro-blogging service.
Another major characteristic of Sina micro-blogging is featuring celebrities – a typical pattern shared by most of the major micro-blogging service providers in China. Unlike Western celebrities such as Obama, who began their experience with Twitter spontaneously, most celebrities on Sina micro-blogging are on a completely different track. The colossal influence of celebrities is one of the most critical strategies of Sina to explore further in the promising micro blogging market.
Sina maintains a “verified user system” to highlight the importance of opinion leaders; and most of these verified users are celebrities from business, education, media and entertainment industries.
Baidu i-Tieba: Celebrity-Oriented
In October, 2009, Baidu, the most powerful search engine service provider in China, launched its own micro-blogging service named iTieba, which is an extended service of Tieba, the largest online community in the Chinese cyberspace. As an independent brand name under Baidu, Tieba is a key word-based communication community, which has a close relationship with Baidu’s search engine service. Therefore, iTieba is positioned as an upgraded individual user center for Tieba users.
Tieba.com is currently the most popular website for entertainment celebrities and its fans groups. Consequently, featuring celebrities seems to become a destiny for the development of iTieba. It is a truth and has been outspoken by Baidu officials that iTieba only verify celebrities from the entertainment industry, media and the business world. Also, any verified iTieba must be launched and managed by the celebrity himself/herself and maintain a certain level of popularity. iTieba’s celebrity-oriented brand positioning seems to be extremely effective. The most popular celebrity in Sina micro-blogging has more than 5 million followers, while in iTieba, the number already exceeds 7 million.
163 Micro-blogging: Featuring Ordinary Netizens
163 micro-blogging has been fully determined to pay the closest attention on the ordinary netizens and their experiences. As the biggest web mail service provider in China, 163 now connects its 300 million web mail users to its micro-blogging service. 163 micro-blogging does not have any verification symbols, and its product highlights the importance of ordinary users and their potential to become the center of cyberspace attention.
Sohu Micro-blogging: Open To Non-registered Users
Sohu is the only micro-blogging service provider in China that is open to guest users. It is also the only one that has no limitation of the length of the posting. Sina and iTieba have a limitation of 140 words/posting, while 163 micro-blogging has a limitation range from 163 words to 188 words.
With over 100 million users and growing, Sina Weibo is currently the most popular Twitter-like service in China. Is it too late for other China micro-blogging services to compete for market share? Will Sina Weibo become the next killer Internet and mobile app in China?
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Sources
http://media.ifeng.com/news/newmedia/web/201002/0223_4266_1553256_1.shtml
http://www.zj.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2011-03/29/content_22398618.htm
http://tech.163.com/10/0813/16/6DVUMAT0000915BF.html
http://www.ceocio.com.cn/3/15/49809.htm
http://it.sohu.com/20110124/n279052286.shtml
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