16 January 2012
Use of microblogging in China quadrupled in 2011 compared
with the previous year, with nearly half of all Chinese Internet users
now taking to the near-instant service to gather news and spread views,
a government Internet think tank said Monday. Microblogging, or "Weibo" as it is known in China, allows users to send
short messages of 140 characters or less to their followers. Twitter,
the most popular microblogging platform in the world, is blocked by
China's censors. Sina Corp and Tencent Holdings both run popular Weibo platforms in
China, both firms claim to have more than 200 million users.
In December, city governments announced rules to regulate microblogging
operators, requiring new users to register with their real names.
The total number of Weibo users rose 296 percent to 249.9 million in
2011, data from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC)
showed, meaning nearly half of the Chinese Internet population used
Weibo. CNNIC said in its report that by the end of December, there were 513
million Internet users in China, representing an Internet penetration
rate of 38.3 percent.