Six Business Models Built On Sina Weibo, Monetizing Microblog in China Sounds Easy

How to make money on microblogging? Twitter’s answers, so far, are the sponsored tweet, promoted trends and data analysis for enterprise accounts, which seems not that easy. CEO of Sina recently spoke at GMIC conference, and disclosed six business models of the super-fast growing local microblogging service, the Weibo.

1. Interactive precision advertisement;
2. Instant search;
3. Paid digital content;
4. E-Commerce platform (ref. Sina Weibo’s microcoin);
5. Social Game;
6. Wireless value-added service;

The first 3 models look familiar and fit for Twitter as well. Thanks to Weibo’s open API which enables third-party to take advantage of weibo’s large user base and build business such as e-commerce and social game on top of weibo; for the model of wireless value-added service, I am not sure.

Anyway, maybe soon one day, the young Sina weibo will beat Twitter in terms of the revenue.