Sina Weibo App - Weico

Since I started my Sina Weibo, its been quite a ride, I guess its geographic circumstances... but everyone I met here in Beijing has a weibo account and instead of asking my mobile number or email, they asked for my weibo ID.

Thanks to my good pal Foniz, which has been cruising on weibo for a lot longer than I do. He shared with me this really cool weibo app - Weico and I have to say after using it, I really don't want to use anything else.

To start with, here is the list why I like it:
  • Design wise its really clean and not straight clones from Twitter or Sina weibo own's iPhone apps.
  • Got lots of different themes, my favorite is the Fish Eye, cool sleek soothing blue.
  • If you are already following someone on weibo, you can easily use the "@" sign to mention that person, instead of manually typing it (which sometimes result in typo).
  • The pound or hashtag is not there yet as the function above, hopefully it will be soon and it should include the latest trending topics.
  • The built-in lomo camera effects, pretty much like Instagram, but different (so again not straight clone).
  • If you've been categorizing the people you follow into lists or groups, then this is the right app as you can filter out streams now by groups.
  • Built in check-in location, you can either use your geotag or sync via JiePang.
  • Best of all it's free, you can download it here :)

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Flipboard from Sina Weibo

I guess social network concepts and mobiles are not the only one copied in China, but also iTunes app. Check-out this one SinaMag, which is very very similar to Flipboard. It streams content only from Sina Weibo right now, maybe in the future they can combine it with Kaixin001, Renren or other Weibo channels. The app also has several magazines available for reading, but very limited at the moment.

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Got my Sina Weibo Account Verified

And voila on my fourth day of cruising around the Sina Weibo, I've got my account verified. In case you come across http://t.sina.com.cn/adhigoen it is really me :)

How's that for speed? I've been using Twitter almost two years now, I guess I need to wait another couple more years or become a celebrity to get my account verified. Getting your account verified is relatively easy, just go to their dedicated verified page. 

Sina gives verified account to the following:
  • Famous celebrities (of course, what else).
  • Well known or respective figure in the community, guess this is for entrepreneurs or millionaires?
  • Media, publication, journalists and editors.
  • Company or a person representing that company (you may need to present business license or ID that you actually works there).

Two thumbs up or Sina Weibo!

FYI, you need to at least have tweeted... er posted more than 10 original weibo.

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A Review of Why Sina Weibo is Awesome

After a very long struggle I've finally give in to the awesomeness of Weibo and finally opened my account - http://t.sina.com.cn/adhigoen.

Here is a list on top of my own why I think it is not a direct Twitter clone, but a better one:
  • Launched officially in August 2009, it reached 50 million users by November last year. (Technode has the full story)
  • First off, Sina has always been a strong news website that has similar concept like Yahoo!.
  • Obviously their years of success in China results in a lot of fundings. This means they are able to develop partnership easier and more technology support for further improvement.
  • Sina was also one of the early platform with Sohu that develops bloggers, they educate the blogging scene in China. This helps them a lot in terms of having an immediate database access for them to work with.
  • They also actively approach well known Chinese celebrities, this definitely draws a lot of attention. Where Twitter has never really worked on this, but rather celebrities open up on their own.
  • When you subscribe on Sina Weibo, you'll be prompted with questions like your mobile, your ID, where exactly do you live.
  • Further to that they also ask (optional) where you have worked before, the company names. This also makes it easier for you to connect to your friends or colleagues a lot faster. As you will be connecting with people you already know.
  • Synchronize your Weibo account with mobile (I know Twitter has this, but it doesn't support a lot of carriers and certainly not China).
  • Rewards, this is something like Foursquare badges. There are different awards and I haven't explore all of it yet.
  • Unlike Twitter that doesn't have their own hosted site on what API they have open, Sina Weibo host their own app store like Apple - http://t.sina.com.cn/app. This gives people a certain level of trust.
  • Desktop users can either use the web or their Adobe Air app.
  • Customize the background, this is probably the only thing that is similar to Twitter background setup. But they do come with more preset themes.
  • Hashtags, similar like Twitter but they use double # (pound) # signs.
  • The way the whole Weibo is layout is customized on how a Chinese would use it, it is also remarkably easier and more like blogging meets BBS - the two things Chinese social media scene like.
  • They also have their own dedicated hotline to handle enquiries or complaint about Weibo, how's that for customer service.
  • Sina Weibo is also a lot more faster in terms of giving verified account status compared to Twitter, you'd probably have to wait after Twitter check millions of people first. But you will need to provide ID and several verification that you are really representing who you are. Currently they will provide 4 types of verified account status:
    • Celebrities - movie star, artist or sport person, etc
    • Well known figure in public, e.g. entrepenuer
    • Well known companies and representatives such as PR, executives, etc
    • Media, publications, editors and journalists
  • Last they have been very aggressive and were able to achieve probably twice if not ten times faster than Twitter - the integrated check-in service, photo, video, voicemail, native iPhone and iPad apps. It took twitter quite a while until they have their own native apps, by then other people like Uber Media has launched their own. Photo service is still not integrated into Twitter yet, not mentioning video.
  • Last year they also launched partnership officially with MSN, I guess they foresee the coming combat with Tencent Weibo.
  • Finally I don't believe there is a fail whale for Sina Weibo, although they do have 警察叔叔 (you'll know this word if you're here in China).
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Sina Microblog iPad App Review

Sina Microblog has been on the offensive move, within a year they have achieved more than what Twitter can. Currently Twitter features over 200 million users, but Sina Microblog reached 100 million just in a year. This year they announced two service - direct video uploading and voicemail for sending tweets, as well as Sina LBS or geo-location check-in service directly via their native app (plus you can also now stalk your favorite celebrities). I guess they don't want to lose the race and momentum, as there are many other microblog service in China market. I do think Twitter needs to learn more from Sina Weibo, for example their process is a lot faster on verified accounts if you provide the necessary ID and proved that you are actively using their service.

Below are my review of the iPad App:
  • Looks strikingly similar to... this
  • Its free, that's always a good thing :)
  • Different than the iPhone app
  • Easy to use if you're accustomed to Twitter's native iPad App
  • Preview message on the right side pane
  • Access direct message
  • Upload photo directly, you can also rotate the photo if you wish
  • You can announce where you are directly via their location service
  • You can use the automatic hashtag feature to tag your topic
  • Here is something different from the native Twitter App, the capability of changing the background although currently there are only 5 wallpapers available (hopefully they will open this for users to be able to upload their own favorite wallpaper)
Sina Weibo HD App (launched in 24 February 2011) is available on iTunes and can be downloaded here.
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SMWHK Day 2: Navigating China Social Media Space

I just came back from Hong Kong, attending 1 day of Social Media Week which originated in the US and being brought down to Asia for the first time. One of the event I co-organize is China Social Media which I have to say generated a lot of interest. Aside from highlight of growth potential, people were also asking if any of China major player of SNS like Renren or Sina would go International, so far their reply is that they still have a lot of ground and room to cover within China.  People were also asking in regards to censorship issue, upcoming trends and also Weibo as a mass communication tool in China.

Dr. Gang Lu the moderator posted one overview of the presentation from Meg Lee - General Manager of Sina Hong Kong on "Weibo Is the Mass Communication Platform Beyond the Media". One of the media partner - Smoothweb did a live broadcast via Facebook, I'm hoping it will be available at a later date for offline viewing (will keep you posted on this one when I have the link).

All and all Social Media Week Hong Kong is a groundbreaking success in getting people more involved whether it is for marketer or for community.

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China Microblogs

Microblogging is definitely on the rise of China social media world, with more mobile comes with pre-installed apps like Nokia, Android or iPhone.
Ever since Twitter hit the deck, it became popular up until the point it was banned from China. So people here do the best they could, create their own version of Twitter and not only one version, but more.

Here are some of China's version of Twitter:
- Sina Microblog - it's probably one of the earliest, according to Sina they have been nurturing bloggers for quite some time and hosting offline event to promote their bloggers base to actively microblog, so far the effort has paid off with many celebrity or bloggers with high impressions has started to 'tweet' a bit more often. Furthermore they connect their blog and microblog account saving users to open up two accounts.
- Sohu Microblog - both Sohu & Sina has been in fierce competition for a long time, whatever one of them does the other will do it as well. However I have to admit I do like Sohu's microblog, it is clearly defined by topic, trending keywords and celebrity microbloggers.
- QQ Microblog - (although I am quite sure their trending topics is about the 360 antivirus incident).
- Hexun Microblog - is a business focus microblogging service and the first kind I've seen so far, it also promotes celebrity financier or business people's microblog accounts.
- 163 Microblog - honestly I haven't tried this one yet, but worth to mention that 163 has quite a large user base due to their free email service (I am wondering if they did integrate their microblog service within their email).
- There are quite a few more sites that provides microblog service, above are probably some of the largest providers.

Although as far as we go, I have not found a Microblog channel service like HootSuite or CoTweet to manage your microblog or schedule it, much less to track how far does your "tweets" travel. It is a bit frustrating not being able to measure that influence and looks like these Microblog service providers wanted users to log time to their web service rather than opening API service for other developers of platform. So far I've asked several social media analytic companies - popular one such as Radian6 has not yet included the monitoring of Weibo listed above, hopefully this will come up soon.

All of the above Microblog service provides mobile app service.
Above are just some that I've managed to find, but would welcome if there are more you can add to.

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