Weibo, previously Sina Weibo (Chinese: 新浪微博; pinyin: Xīnlàng Wēibó), is a Chinese microblogging (weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China,[1] with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily active users) as of Q1 2022.[2] The platform has been a huge financial success, with surging stocks, lucrative advertising sales and high revenue and total earnings per quarter.[3][4] At the start of 2018, it surpassed the US$30 billion market valuation mark for the first time.[5][6]
For other uses, see Weibo (disambiguation).
Type of site
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
English (partial)
Yes
Optional
14 August 2009[1]
Active
新浪微博
Sina Microblog
Xīnlàng Wēibó
Xīnlàng Wēibó
ㄒㄧㄣ ㄌㄤˋ ㄨㄟ ㄅㄛˊ
Shinlanq Ueibor
Hsin1-lang4 Wei1-po2
Sin-làng Wei-bó
Sānlohng Mèihbok
san1 long6 mei4 bok3
In March 2014, Sina Corporation announced a spinoff of Sina Weibo as a separate entity called simply "Weibo", and filed an IPO under the symbol WB.[7][8] Sina carved out 11% of Weibo in the IPO, with Alibaba owning 32% post-IPO.[9] The company began trading publicly on 17 April 2014.[10] In March 2017, Sina launched Sina Weibo International Version. In November 2018, Sina Weibo suspended its registration function for minors under the age of 14. In July 2019, Sina Weibo announced that it would launch a two-month campaign to clean up pornographic and vulgar information, named "Project Deep Blue" (蔚蓝计划).[11] On 29 September 2020, the company announced it would go private again due to rising tensions between the US and China. Sina had gone public on the Nasdaq in 2000.[12] As of September 2021 Sina Weibo had 523 million active monthly users, with three in seven of those using the site daily.[13] Sina Weibo has attracted criticism over censoring its users.[14]
Name[edit]
"Weibo" (微博) is the Chinese word for "microblog". Sina Weibo launched its new domain name weibo.com on 7 April 2011, deactivating and redirecting from the old domain, t.sina.com.cn, to the new one. Due to its popularity, the media sometimes refers to the platform simply as "Weibo," despite the numerous other Chinese microblogging/weibo services including Tencent Weibo (腾讯微博), Sohu Weibo (搜狐微博), and NetEase Weibo (网易微博).[15] However, the latter three have stopped providing services.[16]
Background[edit]
Sina Weibo is a platform based on fostering user relationships to share, disseminate, and receive information. Through either the website or the mobile app, users can upload pictures and videos publicly for instant sharing, with other users being able to comment with text, pictures and videos, or use a multimedia instant messaging service. The company initially invited a large number of celebrities to join the platform at the beginning,[17] and has since invited many media personalities, government departments, businesses and non-governmental organizations to open accounts as well for the purpose of publishing and communicating information.[18] To avoid the impersonation of celebrities, Sina Weibo uses verification symbols; celebrity accounts have an orange letter "V" and organizations' accounts have a blue letter "V". Sina Weibo has more than 500 million registered users;[19] out of these, 313 million are monthly active users, 85% use the Weibo mobile app, 70% are college-aged, 50.10% are male and 49.90% are female. There are over 100 million messages posted by users each day. With more than 100 million followers, actress Xie Na holds the record for the most followers on the platform. Despite fierce competition among Chinese social media platforms, Sina Weibo remains the most popular.[20]
Users[edit]
According to iResearch's report on 30 March 2011, Sina Weibo had 56.5% of China's microblogging market based on active users and 86.6% based on browsing time over competitors such as Tencent Weibo and Baidu.[34] The top 100 users had over 485 million followers combined. More than 5,000 companies and 2,700 media organizations in China use Sina Weibo. The site is maintained by a growing microblogging department of 200 employees responsible for technology, design, operations, and marketing.[35]
Sina executives invited and persuaded many Chinese celebrities to join the platform. Users now include Asian celebrities, movie stars, singers, famous business and media figures, athletes, scholars, artists, organizations, religious figures, government departments, and officials from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Macau,[21][22][36][37] as well as some famous foreign individuals and organizations, including Kevin Rudd,[38] Boris Johnson,[39] David Cameron,[40] Narendra Modi,[41] Toshiba,[42] and the Germany national football team. Like Twitter, Sina Weibo has a verification program for known people and organizations. Once an account is verified, a verification badge is added beside the account name.
According to research by Sina Corporation, the number of active users reached over 400 million by Q1 2018, making Sina Weibo the 7th platform with at least 400 million active users, and daily usage increased by 21%.[43]
In June 2020, Weibo was among 58 other Chinese apps that were banned by the Government of India. Following this, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi's account was deactivated.[44]
(in Chinese)
