5 Facts You Must Know Before Talking About Sina Weibo and Twitter

By Gang Lu on September 19, 2011

Twitter now has a Chinese version, and Sina Weibo might have an English version by end of this year. It seems that more and more foreign media love to talk about Sina’s Weibo and compare it with Twitter, the creator of microblog. I’ve been reading those stories, some points I agree with, and some I don’t and some I think are really nonsense.

Before we talk about Sina Weibo and Twitter, I do think there are 5 facts you must know.

1. Twitter is Never popular in China

Even before Twitter got blocked, it did not have many users in China at all, probably only geeks were playing with it. Now we got millions of Weibo users, I bet most of them do not even know Twitter’s existence. I was in a panel discussing about Weibo’s business value in APEC SME Summit, the panelists sitting besides me even have over one million followers and are now so-called social media experts, but they never used Twitter.

2. Twitter has No Chance in China

Twitter is coming to China because it’s launching its Chinese version? Come on! The answer is not something like, if it comes it is already too late (which could be the proper answer to Facebook’s coming to China), etc. The answer is just a Definitely Impossible. How can Twitter handle the content monitoring? You can not imagine how much effort Sina spent on it and the enormous pressure from different authorities. Besides, Twitter’s Chinese version is just a finished project from its translation community. Twitter is to serve oversea Chinese? it sounds silly, the oversea Chinese can still use Weibo, and if they can live oversea they should understand at lease the foreign language.

3. Sina Weibo’s English version, so What?

I don’t think Sina is serious about oversea market. English version of Sina Weibo is coming by end of this year? Mightbe. But if it’s just an English interface, it is an easy job. Sina said 10% of its weibo users are from oversea, fine, but how many of them are Not Chinese? I have some foreign friends now on Weibo, but they are living in China! Sina Weibo has an ambitious goal ahead in Chinese web market, which is big and interesting enough to keep it very busy for a long while.

4. Weibo is Not Twitter

It’s better not to compare Twitter and Sina Weibo. Sina Weibo is Not a simple microblogging service any more. We have discussed this many times, and the new version of Sina Weibo makes it even more clear. Microblog is the core in Sina’s ambitious plan, but Sina eventually wants an all-in-one social platform which comes with games, eCommerce, applications etc. Although I still think it is risky for Sina to mix so many stuff on Weibo. If Sina can not leverage the media and the platform, it might piss off many loyal users who have already positioned Weibo as a reliable new media resource.

5. Sina is Not the Mighty God

This actually happened to some Chinese media which believes Sina Weibo is creating a new world. We can not overstate Sina Weibo’s value. I do agree Sina has done a great job on Weibo and has been innovative to drive a microblogging service to the next level. However Cao Guowei, CEO of Sina is not the father of microblogging, and we can not ignore the fact that Weibo is inspired by Twitter. Before Sina Weibo’s launch the power of microblogging has been discovered by Twitter and other microblogging service, and it is Not Sina Weibo’s magic!

You may also Read:

About Gang Lu

Gang Lu - Founder & Chief Editor of TechNode. Independent Asia/China Internet business observer and adviser, known speaker and tech blogger, open concept/technology evangelist and entrepreneur. Dr. Lu is also the co-founder of OpenWeb.Asia Workgroup and co-founder of kuukie.com. Dr. Lu got his BSc from EastChina Normal University and has MSc and PhD in wireless communications from the University of Sheffield, UK.

http://twitter.com/dhjo Daniel Hjort

I made a small Weibo/Twitter app for Android a year ago just for fun that mashed both services into one feed and posted to both. What amazed me was that the Java library Sina provided was a copy of the Twitter4J open source lib renamed Weibo4J and with most (not all) of the references to Twitter search and replaced with Weibo. Back then the APIs was almost identical. Now I’m sure the Weibo API has expanded a lot. As you say, it’s not just micro blogging anymore.
Lixinr

Weibo was born in China for chinese ,Twitter was born earth for all man around the world.
Anonymous

Weibo was born in China for chinese ,Twitter was born earth for all man around the world.
Hhao99

weibo is copied from twitter, weibo filter user comments
http://www.globalrencai.com Joy Chen 陈愉

thanks for your good analysis. the world is not as flat as some may think.
Tatamall

In my opinion,though the weibo is copied from twitter,now he is really a very strong in China. I have an account on the twitter:http://twitter.com/#!/VV_zhou.My name is lvy_zhou,other name is tatamall. At the same time,i have an account on the sina weibo:http://www.weibo.com/1955144534?wvr=4. Welcme to add me.
andrea hunt

I would like to get your comments for a quick radio report and am having a hard time reaching any of you, can you give me an email?
Goodluckcn668

yes, weibo is not Twitter, but weibo includes the functions of twitter and have much more beautiful api. The gunpowder was also copied from China, but west used it to invade east and america 150 years ago, now east is using their intelligence to invade west.
Goodlcuckcn668

the world is shifting, but don’t be angry, that is the nature law. I am pretty sure west won’t go back to stone age.
Renovatethis

Is weibo still planning on launching an english version?
alan

were is the English weibo help
Linda

I’m Chinese and it pisses me off that Chinese people even accuse of twitter of copied their weibo shit. Just look at all the shit in our country… Counterfeits everywhere and china is kiinda know for its ability to plagiarize and copy from other products and etc.