SINA WEIBO, CHINA'S MICROBLOGGING SOCIAL SITE, CLAIMS 300 MIL USERS, NOW REQUIRES ID VERIFICATION AND TOP USER HAS 18 MIL FOLLOWERS

 

Sina Weibo Requires ID Verification

China's popular micro-blogging platform, Sina Weibo, expects that 60 percent of its users will verify their identities by a government-mandated deadline of March 16.

According to the BBC, the government is requiring users to provide the service with their full name and phone number. Only those with verified accounts will be allowed to continue to use the service.

Similar to Twitter, which is blocked in China, Weibo allows users to post short messages and collect followers.  Sina Weibo claims it has 300 million users.

The Chinese government has required users of the service to provide their personal information in order to stop the "spread of harmful" false rumors. Among those rumors are a story that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had been assassinated while staying in the country's embassy in Beijing, and another claiming that people had collected syringes infected with HIV in the city to use in attacks.

In 2011, the number of Internet users in China soared to 513 million, half of which used micro-blogging services such as Weibo, a January report from the government-run China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) found. Last year, the CNNIC said that the number of microbloggers quadrupled, and the number of Internets users in the country increased by 12 percent in December alone, compared to the same time frame in 2010.

The Internet in China is, of course, closely monitored, and the government is particularly sensitive about the spread of purported "rumors" on microblogs. Last August, these platforms caught the scrutiny of the so-called "Great Firewall of China" because of discussions about the health of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin as well as talk about the government's mishandling of a high-speed train crash, prompting Beijing to tighten its grip around Weibo.

Commmunist Party secretary Liu Qi paid a personal visit to Sina's offices and told the company that it must "resolutely put an end to fake and misleading information" and better manage users on its micro-blogging platform.

The identity verification tactic is the government's latest step in controlling microblogs, and as they grow, they will likely face more government regulations. 

Sina Weibo Top User Rankings

As China’s strict new real-name policy on microblogging sites such as Sina Weibo came into effect, the platform’s most-followed user Yao Chen has become the first to reach 18 million followers.

The government policy was brought into effect on March 16 in an attempt to stop users from spreading “harmful” or false rumours while using a pseudonym but some users are concerned that enforcement will lead to further government censorship on social networking sites. 

Chinese actress Yao Chen (picture) is the first Sina Weibo user to hit a total of just over 18 million followers. Her fan count is just shy of Twitter’s second most popular user Justin Bieber whose list of fans has grown to 18.57 million. 

Lady Gaga, Twitter’s top microblogger, has raced past 21 million followers after hitting a record 20 million fans just weeks before.  In a blog post dated February 8, 2012, Lady Gaga announced that she would launch littlemonsters.com, her own social network.   

This week Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez both reached out to their fans on Twitter to thank them for their support as they toured the world. 

Swift tweeted:

“Tonight we ended a 13 month tour. It was a beautiful trip around the world and I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything. Thanks guys.” Gomez posted a video on YouTube and tweeted: “It took me a while to get it up but, I wanted to send out a Thank You video to all cities/countries I visited.” 

Third party estimates put Twitter at more than 500 million registered users. Sina reported that it had more than 300 million registered users on Sina Weibo in February 2012.

Most popular people on Twitter:

• Lady Gaga (21,042,894 followers)
• Justin Bieber (18,574,890)
• Katy Perry (16,235,613)
• Rihanna (15,136,322)
• Shakira (14,921,984)
• Britney Spears (14,261,168)
• Kim Kardashian (14,128,548)
• Barack Obama (13,084,879)
• Taylor Swift (11,756,340)
• Selena Gomez (10,969,110)

Most popular people on Sina’s microblog (Weibo):

• Yao Chen (18,006,766 followers)
• Dee Hsu (17,412,257)
• Yang Mi (15,231,999)
• Xie Na (15,101,705)
• Kevin Tsai (14,720,573)
• Zhao Wei (14,480,905)
• Leehom Wang (14,390,159)
• He Jiong (14,101,954)
• Li Bingbing (13,061,076)
• Chen Kun (12,514,872). — AFP-Relaxnews

COMMENTARY:   Sina Weibo is operated by Sina Corporation (NASDAQ:SINA), a public company.   Sina Corporation reported revenues of $482 million for the year ending December 31, 2011, but in Sina’s Q3 2011 the company had to write off $350 million on its wireless MVAS business and its acquisitions in China Real Estate Information Corp (CRIC) and Mecox Lane (MCOX), both of which made sense at the time of acquisition when the company was expanding its real estate and ecommerce advertising verticals.  The result was a net loss of $336 million for Q3 2011, and a net loss for the entire year 2011 of $302 million.    

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Sina's stock has suffered a series of ups and downs.  Sina's stock peaked at $142.83 on April 20, 2011, but by June 20, 2011, its stock had plunged to $77.62.  Following the writedown of its wireless and real estate businesses, its stock price plunged to $67.90 on October 3, 2011.  By January 9, 2012, Sina's stock had dropped to an all-time low of $50.69.   It has since rallied, and is currently trading at $70.91.  The Chinese government is cracking down on all its social networks, and now requires all registered users to verify their ID.  According to Sina management, the governmental requirement will negatively impact their earnings due to higher expenses to comply with the new regulations, and this will more than likely affect their future stock price. 

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In a blog post dated February 14, 2012, I reported that Tencent Weibo, the No 2 microblogging site in China, had announced plans to enter the U.S. market with an all-English site, and would compete head-on with Twitter, the No 1 U.S. microblogging social network.   Rumors that Sina Weibo may follow suit and also enter the U.S. have not been confirmed, but anything is possible. -

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For nearly a year now, I have been warning my readers about China's social networks because of their eradic earnings, questionable traffic data, less stringent accounting requirements, and volatile stock prices.  I would carefully watch all these Chinese social networks as the Chinese government's censorship hammer comes down hard.  This should be a warning to Facebook and Twitter, from making any overtures to enter the Chinese market.  

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Courtesy of an article dated March 20, 2012 appearing in The Malaysian Insider, an article dated March 12, 2012 appearing in PC Magazine and an article dated March 7, 2012 appearing in The Wall Street Journal China