Sina's launch of "weibo.com" seen as clever branding move

Sina's launch of "weibo.com" seen as clever branding move byXinhua writer Li Huizi

BEIJING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese microbloggers are revelingin Thursday's launch of the Sina Corp's new domain name "weibo.com"as China's largest Internet portal aims to attract more users bygiving its blog site another name.

Sina (Nasdaq: SINA)'s microblog, or China's equivalent toTwitter, with more than 100 million users currently, launched thepinyin domain name with a new logo, a scarf, which in Chinese isalso pronounced as "weibo."

Currently "weibo.com" and "t.sina.com.cn" use the same platformand are identical in content. Sina started its microblog service inAugust 2009.

The same is true for Sina microblog's mobile site, with Weibomirroring the previously existing site.

With 420 million Chinese netizens, the largest in the world, theonline community is seeing an increasing number of Chinese pinyindomain names, although this is the first time for Sina, which has56.5 percent of China's microgblog market share, to host one.

"It's a milestone for Sina Weibo," said Sina president and CEOCharles Chao, adding that the company will continue to investheavily in microblogging services.

The new domain name, and development of the Weibo brand, is "Onesmall step for Sina, one giant leap for microblogging," a netizenhas said.

Microglogger Xuechenzi said, "It's no exaggeration to say thatweibo.com will enter the main page of China's media history, as it'monopolizes' the Chinese word, with Sohu, Tencent and otherInternet portals having to choose other words to name theirmicroblogging services."

He said Sina's brand value is expected to soar immediately asSina Weibo quickly captures more Internet traffic, putting pressureon its rivals.

The launch of weibo.com was advertised in an unprecedented wayThursday with depictions of online embedded ads printed on thefrontpages of major metropolitan newspapers across the country.People have even collected Thursday's Beijing Times to commemoratethe launch of Weibo.

According to Google trends, a tool indicating online searchingfrequency and popularity, the flow rate of Sina Weibo has alreadysurpassed those of homepages of Sohu and Netease, and it is alsoapproaching the click rates of Tencent and Sina. The four websitesare all major Chinese Internet portals.

Though dubbed as "China's Twitter," Charles Chao denied Weibocopied the model of its western counterparts, arguing that "theevolution of Chinese social media will be different from Twitter orFacebook, as Weibo features high interactivity."

With Sina's share prices surging over the past six months, WallStreet has shown enthusiasm for Weibo's possible spin-offs andindependent IPOs.

Social networking websites have gained a foothold in China inrecent years, with Facebook-like site "kaixin001.com" and othermicroblogging sites popular among young people. Top Chinesemicrobloggers include mainland TV stars Yao Chen and Taiwan'sentertainment star Xu Xidi, or "little S."