Surfing Weibo

A Brief Overview of Weibo and Social Media in China

Minghui YuWeb CoordinatorIrving K. Barber Learning Centre, UBC Library

Topics covered

1. Brief overview of Internet in China2. What’s Weibo?3. Weibo as a media4. Weibo as a research tool5. Open a Weibo account

Brief Overview of Internet in China

• Lots, lots, lots of users (591 millions as of June 2013)• Percentage of mobile users is increasing• Percentage of rural users is increasing

Brief Overview of Internet in China (cont.)

Popular Services and Websites

What is Weibo anyway?

A copycat of Twitter ?

青出於藍而勝於藍

Weibo vs. Twitter*Based on official webpage version, excluding features only available in client applications (Apps, desktop versions, etc.)

  In Twitter, it is: In Weibo, it is:

Each entry Tweet Weibo

Republish Retweet Retweet, not RT

Forward 

Twitter vs. Weibo

Please see handout

  Twitter WeiboLength limit of each entry (Figure 1)

140 characters  

140 characters But Weibo has more tricks

Republish own entry No A user cannot Retweet his own tweet

 

Yes

Republish an entry multiple times

No A user can only retweet a tweet once.

Yes  

Original entry show one time only (Figure 2)

Yes  Original tweet appears just once even it was retweeted by different users on your following list.

No If n users on your following list forwarded a Weibo, that original Weibo appears on your homepage n times.

Republished entry appears on top Does republished entry have a timestamp of when the original entry was published or when it was republished?

  

No.  Timestamp of original entry published

 Even if one of your following users just retweetted one, the one doesn’t appear on top of your homepage.

Yes Timestamp of republished moment Forwarded (original) Weibo is always bumped up.

Republish credit gives to (Figure 3)

The first user on your following list who republished it  

All users on the republishing path

Just leaving comments? Can you just comment on an entry? (Figure 4)

No When a user comment on a tweet, the comment becomes this user’s tweet and is available to this users’ followings

Yes A user can comment on a Weibo but not forwarding it

Republish with quotes (Figure 5)

No Retweet is exactly the same as original tweet.

Yes Users can add own quotes (e.g.: comments) when forwarding a Webo.

Republish path (Figure 6)

Not very clear Click “Retweeted by …” can reveal the order of retweeting

Very clear  Forwarding path is clearly indicated

Text as Image (Figure 7)

No Yes Users can write a long Weibo (up to 10,000 Chinese letters) and converted it as an image that will be embedded in Weibo.

Group management (Figure 8)

Basic Twitter’s List provides basic group management features. But “Lists are used for reading Tweets only. You cannot send or direct a Tweet to members of a list, for only those list members to see.”

Advanced Can do all Twitter’s List can do plus users can publish a Weibo to specified users only.

Protected Entry Yes No

Weibo as a media

Self-Media

What if you have thousands, tens of thousands, millions, tens of millions followers?

vs

Big V

What is Big V?

Verified Weibo users who have millions, even tens of millions followers

Left-wing Right-wing

Fast Response

2011 Wenzhou Train Collision

Survivors reported the accident on Weibo 4 minutes after the collision. Millions of, if not tens of millions of people already knew the accident before the first traditional media reported it 40 minutes later.

Teamwork & collaboration

Brother Wrist Watch Yang Dacai, former Director of Work Safety Administration Agency in Shanxi Province. His smile at a deadly bus crash scene put him on fire. Weibo users found Yang apparently had many expensive wrist watches and considered it was strong evidence of corruption. Government responded swiftly by starting formal investigation on Yang. Yang got 14 years in jail for corruption, finally.

Self-correction

Battle between Rumors/Lies and Anti-rumor

(Weibo,) China’s Rumor Mill New York Time, March 29 2012

Rumors are usually associated with different political views

vs.

“American Citizens, wherever you are, US Armed Force is always your strong backing.”

vs.“Chinese Citizens, obey local law and regulations.”

Open

Government uses Weibo as an open platform

Former star politician Bo Xilai on Provincial Court. Hearing Transcripts were put on Weibo shortly after.

Traditional media’s destiny?A famous host was caught reading Weibo to report Bo’s trial

Chaos

Spam, lots of spams

Ghost followers

Christine Lagarde Managing Director of the IMF

Government’s Reaction

CensorshipSemi-shutdown

• March 2012 (No commenting, only forwarding)Crackdown on rumors and Big V

“Xue is involved in organising prostitute party crime and other economic crimes”

--Beijing Police

Weibo as a research tool

Apps Marketplace

Data Mining

Open Data Platform (API access)

How to open a Weibo account

Personal Account

Enterprise Account

Verified Account

Weibo’s Competitors

1. Soho’s micro blog2. Tencent’s micro blog3. Tencent’s WeChat4. … …

Thank you!