It is hard to believe that there are still other microblogging services in this world other than Twitter. But one of these unheard of microblogging companies, Sina Weibo from China, is planning to soon make its English version and be as popular in the English-speaking world as it is in the Chinese-speaking world. It was quoted in the The Next Web blog, which had sourced a Chinese-language site TechWeb, that Sina Weibo (pronounced ‘way-bore’) is “actively preparing” to soon release its platform with the support of English language. This English-version of the service will put it in direct and fierce competition with the Twitter, the world-leading microblogging service of United States. It was stated in the article that this English version will be available online as soon as two to three months.
Image via WikipediaMany analysts are measuring as to how much potential damage the English version of Sina Weibo can do to Twitter. It is a tough call and the prediction is not so easy to make, though according to the statistics Twitter may need to start worrying about the rising problem. Sina Weibo, seen by the analysts to be an amalgam of both Twitter and Facebook, currently houses almost 140 million users, whereas as the company hopes to reach around 200 million by the end of this year. Comparing that number to Twitter’s global audience of more than 300 million users, only around 20 million of which are actually from the United States, marks the uncertainty.Even these statistics do not give a clear cut analysis, as it shall be considered that China itself alone has the population of 1.4 billion, while United States just has 307 million. Moreover, it cannot be declared that since Sina Weibo is successful and popular in China, it will enjoy the same liberty in the global business. But so far, Sina Weibo has proved that it cannot allow Twitter to make its market in China. It will be interesting to see whether Twitter can do the same for The United States or the global audience.
The release of Sina Weibo’s English version will make it the first ever major Chinese social networking website to expand outside the giant country. Moreover, China is notoriously famous for its extremely tightened freedom of free speech, as it constantly restricts certain topics to be discussed online, now it will be interesting to witness whether Sina Weibo changes its policies for the English version or not.
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