Sina Weibo: Profits at ‘China’s twitter’ Surge

China’s largest Twitter-like site, Weibo, has raked in profits worth millions for the owner Sina Corp. It reported a net profit of $44.5m in the October-to-December period, from $2.4m a year ago.

The figures come amidst reports that Sina is planning to list Weibo in the US and to raise nearly $500m by selling Weibo shares. Weibo claims that it is the largest micro blog provider in China and that it has over 500 million registered users.

China is the world’s biggest internet market and social networking sites have become increasingly popular with users. Many companies have turned to these sites for advertising their products and services to attract new customers.

But a report published last month indicated that the number of Weibo users declined steeply in 2013. The China Internet Network Information Centre said in its annual report that almost 28 million people abandoned Weibo last year. The vast popularity of Weibo has given an opportunity to users for expressing themselves online. But the authorities took measures to curb the voice online. New law was introduced to allow the Chinese government to jail micro bloggers and dozens more were arrested.

Infoeditor