Infographic: China’s microblogging giants sized up

By | 8 August, 2011

Chinese microblogging is a topic rarely off the radar in Asia, and recently its role in overcoming censorship and information bureaus in reporting the Wenzhoubar train crash garnered considerable interest.

With that in mind, the infographic below (via TechCrunch), from competitive intelligence agency Digimind, comparing the country’s leading Weibo (microblogging) providers Sina and Tecent will be of interest to many.

So which one is ahead?

Though from TechCrunch’s Rip Empsom:

While Digimind has Sina Weibo as the clear leader in China’s microblogging space, Tencent is certainly not to be dismissed, as it is growing exponentially, has an integrated, multi-level platform from which to channel users into its Weibo, and is spending millions on marketing to bring new users to its service.

That being said, those who I spoke to at Digmind, along with sources in China (as well as iChinaStock) all agree that Sina Weibo likely outranks Tencent in terms of the quantity of active users as well as the quality. With Sina owning 57 percent of the Chinese microblogging market and finding high adoption among Chinese celebrities (not to mention have a relatively stable platform without a lot of downtime), Sina looks like the clear frontrunner. Not to mention that the company acquired“weibo.com” and “weibo.cn” — two fairly important domain names for a company looking to dominate the weibo market. Plus, they’re just easier to remember.

Those wanting further information about Weibos are advised to turn to iChinaStock, whose number include editor-in-chief and product manager Kai Lukoff – co-founder of the excellent China-focused tech blog Tech Rice – who published a comprehensive look at the two giants of Weibo (microblogging in China), Sina and Tencent earlier this year.

As I asked back in June, how long will it be until not just Tom Cruise, Liverpool FC, swimmers Tom Daley and Michael Phelps and others are part of Chinese social media sites but other international celebrities and brands looking to crack into China?



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