Why Weibo is cuter than Twitter - Tricia Wang

All too often Sina's microblog service Weibo is described as a kloon of Twitter. Sociologist Tricia Wang in Wuhan has been using Weibo for a few months and starts to report on her weblog about the differences of the two. About fun, love and entertainment.

About a regular Weibo message:

"Do you like finding interesting people? Weibo is a fun place! Hurry up and discover classmates, celebrities, and cute girls and guys on Weibo!"

One thing that I've noticed is how much Weibo will explicitly push the idea of finding "cute" people to follow who aren't celebrities. Other than pointing users to celebrity's accounts, you don't see Twitter sending out messages to discover "cute" or "pretty" people on twitter. This message to all Weibo users emphasizes that it is a place to find interesting people, celebrities, classmages, and cute people. You don't see an emphasis on Weibo being a place to find out good information about local and national politics and news, even though that is why many people use it.

Tricia Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Why Weibo will surpass Twitter - Marc van der Chijs

Marc van der Chijs

China's twitter eauquivalent Sina's Weibo might very soon pass Twitter in popularity, writes Tudou.com co-founder  Marc van der Chijs on his weblog, although the rest of the world is still largely ignorant about this internet service.

Weibo is certainly already miles ahead in terms of functionality. But most people outside China have no idea about the service and its functionality. Beijing-based blogger Bill Bishop therefore put a post on his blog today with an embedded presentation of Weibo’s history and main functions, including lots of screenshots.
Silicon Valley pay attention: this product is much better than Twitter, and Twitter (or other clones or even social network sites) can probably learn a lot just by looking at some of Weibo’s functions. It’s so good that I wonder if it might actually one day be able to take on Twitter.

Marc van der Chijs is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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