As Li Yangyang, a 19-year-old university student in Beijing, comes home after a hard day of hitting the books, she immediately logs on the Internet with a sole purpose in mind, updating her microblog on Sina Weibo (literally meaning microblog).

"Not a day goes by where I do not update my page. I am always eager to let people know what I am doing and how I am feeling. It is a way for me to express who I really am," Li told ChinAfrica. Like many across China, she is gripped by this Chinese version of Twitter.

The phenomenon of Sina Weibo, China's largest and best-known microblogging site, has gripped not only China, but also Southeast Asia. Millions of netizens are now using Sina Weibo as a way of communicating their feelings and thoughts on a platform that has become a global phenomenon.

Its provider, Sina Corp., has now recognized the potential that Sina Weibo has on the world market and announced that it is now developing its own English language version. This has raised the inevitable question: can Sina Weibo have the power to take over Twitter?

Statistically speaking

Sina Weibo was launched by Sina Corp., China's largest web portal, in August 2009. Starting from its headquarters in Zhongguancun, a district of Beijing that is hailed as China's "Silicon Valley," its CEO Charles Cao envisioned a portal where China's growing numbers of netizens could have their voice heard.

By the end of 2010, Weibo became the phenomenon of the year as 50 million people signed up to the service, seeing the number of users rise by millions each week.

According to Sina Corp., Weibo now has 140 million users, with 20 million new users signing up to the service each month. By the end of this year, it is expected to reach over 200 million users, rivaling the number of its global competitor, Twitter.

According to iResearch, China's leading Internet research organization, Weibo now holds 56.5 percent of the microblogging market based on its active users and 86.8 percent of browsing time compared to that of its domestic competitors, Tencent and Baidu. The company will also recruit 1,000 new staff members and has launched Lady Weibo, a service that caters to women's fashion and lifestyle.

Cao has even bigger plans for the company. Sina Corp. will pay $66 million for a 19 percent stake in the Nasdaq-listed Mecox Lane Ltd., a Chinese online apparel retailer, as part of its efforts to expand revenue and to profit from China's growing e-commerce market.

"In the Chinese market, competition is inevitable. Under this circumstance, we work hard to better services and improve user experience. Then we'll be able to attract more users and grow our market share," said Cao in an interview with iChinastock.

However, China's online community has looked at the impact that Sina Weibo has had on the Internet from all angles. Bong Ho, a famous Chinese IT blogger and analyst, noted the danger that Weibo's rapid expansion can have. "Sina Weibo's management is trying its hardest to build it into a social network, but that's very difficult in my estimation. Social networks have more value than social media sites. Enabling ordinary people to have a voice is valuable, but one shouldn't overestimate the public's desire or ability to do so. But social interaction is something that no one can go without," he told iChinastock.

Future prospects

Sina Weibo has also realized the marketing power that celebrities have and it now has over 60,000 verified accounts that consist of an array of celebrities, sport stars and entertainers. Its top 100 users now have a combined following of 180 million people. Over 5,000 companies and 2,700 media organizations are registered with the company, taking advantage of the influence that Sina Weibo has on this generation of Internet users.

The latest star to jump on the Sina Weibo bandwagon is Hollywood star Tom Cruise. Urged by his friends and fans to sign up to the service, he created an account in February this year, instantly attracting 50,000 fans in a single day.

Sun Li, a 23-year-old reporter from China Report, is one such netizen who has taken heed of the phenomenon of Sina Weibo. When asked about what he thinks the future holds for the site, he told ChinAfrica, "Just look at the success of Twitter. China's information technology is one to two years behind that of the rest of the world. I think the key fact of all the Internet products is the users. If Sina Weibo can maintain its amount of users, it can go much further."

Sina Weibo is already available in Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. Its pending English language version targets the platform's overseas users, who currently account for 10 percent of the total and mostly consist of overseas Chinese. They are also hoping to utilize the increasing number of foreigners residing in China who can become active users of their service.

Looking to Africa

Jamal Mahdi, a 26-year-old Sudanese-born Canadian national, moved to Beijing in 2008. He soon realized that he left behind social-networking comforts such as Facebook and Twitter. In order to perfect his Chinese, he began dabbling in the usage of Chinese networking sites.

"It really paid off for me as I originally came to perfect my Mandarin. After joining Sina Weibo last year, I was able to communicate in Chinese a lot better than before, as well as building up a network of friends who have helped me settle here in China."

Mahdi is optimistic about the prospects of having Sina Weibo's English version available in Africa. "China has already opened up to Africa with several technical innovations, and I think having Sina Weibo available in Africa is a positive move. Everyone knows that Africans love to talk, and by having a platform like this, I think the world is Sina Weibo's oyster," he told ChinAfrica.

With its number of users now rivaling Twitter, and an English language service in the work, it looks as if Sina Weibo is destined to be an Internet force to be reckoned with.