Weibo

Lore & Background

Weibo was launched by Sina Corporation after the July 2009 Ürümqi riots led to the shutdown of most domestic microblogging services, including Fanfou, and the blocking of foreign services like Twitter and Facebook. Sina CEO Charles Chao saw this as an opportunity, and the tested version of Sina Weibo went live on 14 August 2009. Basic functions such as messaging, commenting, and reposting were available by September 2009. The platform grew rapidly, surpassing 100 million registered users by February 2011 and adopting the domain weibo.com on 7 April 2011.

In April 2013, Alibaba Group acquired 18% of Sina Weibo for US$586 million, with an option to buy up to 30%, which it exercised when Weibo listed on the Nasdaq in April 2014. Sina carved out 11% of Weibo in the IPO, with Alibaba owning 32% post-IPO. The company began trading publicly on 17 April 2014 under the symbol WB. An international version of Weibo was originally launched in 2011, with a major relaunch or update in March 2017. In November 2018, it suspended registration for minors under 14, and in July 2019 launched a two-month campaign called 'Project Deep Blue' to clean up pornographic and vulgar information.

Reader's Guide

Weibo's significance lies in its dominance of the Chinese microblogging market, holding 56.5% of active users and 86.6% of browsing time over competitors like Tencent Weibo and Baidu as of March 2011. It has over 500 million registered users, with 313 million monthly active users, 85% using the mobile app, and 70% college-aged. The platform features verification symbols—orange 'V' for celebrities and blue 'V' for organizations—and hosts over 100 million messages per day. Actress Xie Na holds the record for most followers, with over 100 million. Weibo's features resemble Twitter's, including a 140-character limit (later increased to 2,000), @mentions, hashtags in a double-hashtag format, and URL shortening via t.cn. Despite competition, it remains the most popular Chinese social media platform. Its legacy includes being a key tool for communication among celebrities, government departments, and businesses, while also facing ongoing censorship controversies.

Did You Know?

• Weibo's name is the Chinese word for 'microblog'.
• The platform had over 582 million monthly active users as of Q1 2022.
• Alibaba owned 32% of Weibo after its April 2014 IPO.
• Actress Xie Na holds the record for most followers, with over 100 million.