The Social Threadwork: Is Weibo Better Than Twitter?

Say goodbye to tweeting. In China, it’s far cooler to 发微博 (fa weibo).

These days even expats are talking about Weibo (t.sina.com.cn), the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. Launched in August 2009, this microblogging platform has already attracted over 100 million users, and continues to grow at a rate of 10 million new users per month.

Where the website has shown especial impact, however, is on the media and style community. Both Nels Frye and Business of Fashion (BoF) have already posted insightful articles on the reasons behind this phenomenon; see here and here.

BoF points out that fashion has emerged as the 9th overall most popular topic on Weibo – perhaps in part due to the high number of fashionably-inclined users which include movie stars, singers, designers and other celebrities.

As we’ve noted several times before, all eyes are on the Chinese consumer right now. And the potential for growth on the Internet is huge: the latest reports count over 400 million Chinese web users to date. According to BoF, major Western labels like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Burberry have all begun testing ideas for campaigns or other projects on Weibo as a means of “[researching] their most promising market of the future from the inside.”

From the view of smaller retailers, it’s a way to connect directly and instantly with those in-the-know – anyone who’s socially and technologically savvy enough will be “following” the right users, and can spread up-to-the-minute news about events, collection launches, runway shows, sales, etc.

So is Weibo better than Twitter? Only time will tell. For now, having snagged up nearly one-fourth of China's Internet population within the span of 1.5 years isn't too shabby a start. (Did we mention Sina met with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the winter holidays? Now that's promising.) We plan to keep an eye on the evolution of this social networking service.