Sina Weibo Wants Marketers to Think Social Business

Hong Kong-Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo will launch in English, making it a potential rival to Twitter. The company’s big push this year is to commercialize its platform, starting with brands in China.

Sina Weibo, established in 2009, belongs to China’s largest Internet portal Sina Corp. The social site has more than 140 million registered users and is expected to hit 200 million by year-end. Weibo is the literal translation for microblog and is often referred to as a Twitter-clone for China.

Sina Weibo took less than two years to gain half the 300 million users five-year-old Twitter has today. Weibo is only available in Chinese now, whereas Twitter has rolled out in America, Europe, Japan, and Korea.

While Twitter recently announced its own photo sharing service, Sina Weibo already has a feature-rich interface that allows users to embed and repost photos, videos, participate in polls and thread comments to encourage group conversations – features that brands could use to create buzz and engage fans.

Sina’s national GM Li Xiang said one of the company's plans is to help businesses create commercial opportunities on Weibo. More than 30,000 businesses are on Sina Weibo from McDonald’s and Starbucks to beauty and sports categories such as Maybelline, Clinique, Adidas, Nike, and even luxury brands like Burberry and Cartier.

In May, Unilever used Sina Weibo as its key activation platform to kick off a three-month campaign for Dove, inviting millions of Chinese women to share their personal beauty stories. Weibo's commercial features include display, location-based services, community, video, and apps.

In April, Sina launched a new domain name Weibo.com, including a new logo and branding efforts. Li explained the move aims to promote and develop microblogging as a key trend in China’s Internet space to drive social media use in the country.

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