Sina Weibo

Introduction

Sina, in China is called “Xin Lang”, which means “New Wave”. It is a Chinese online media company for Chinese communities around the world. Sina operates four major business lines: Sina Weibo, Sina Mobile, Sina Online, and Sina.net. Sina has over 100 million registered users worldwide.

Sina.com is the largest Chinese-language infotainment web portal. It is run by Sina Corporation, which was founded in 1999. The company was founded in Beijing, and its global financial headquarters have been based in Shanghai since October 1, 2001.

What is Sina Weibo

Sina owns Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblog social network, which has 56.5 percent of the Chinese micro-blogging market based on active users and 86.6 percent based on browsing time over Chinese competitors such as Tencent and Baidu. The Chinese social networking service has more than 500 million users and millions of posts per day, and is adding 20 million new users per month, says the company. Sina has said it has more than 60,000 verified accounts, consisting of celebrities, sports stars and other VIPs. The top 100 users now have over 180 million followers combined.

In China as microblogging blossoms, with well over 200 million consumers engaging with thousands of brands, Weibo is now not simply a hot topic in China’s dynamic internet landscape, it’s at the forefront of marketers minds and a fundamental ingredient in communications strategies. Ensuring effective use of Weibo to market brands and engage with their target audience requires keen understanding of the platform, its users and their behavior. By the right strategy, this innovative medium can fit within a company’s broader marketing goals, shedding light on the company.

With a market size of over 420 million internet users, China is a market that has many businesses eager to establish their brand and get their messages in front of this market, a population largely willing to click on branded content for more...