WeChat has been dominating the Chinese online landscape for a while now - does it mean Weibo is not important anymore?
Insights
Weibo might have performed well since the start. Regardless the road is still rough and several multi-functional social platforms are piling up for a competition.
Though they do have the upper hand of being niched in the industry and surpassed twitters with a broader user-based platform. A lot is unpredictable and perhaps Weibo could survive for now, but if they don’t accustom to the ever-changing high-tech market, they will not last for long.
What is Weibo?
Since Twitter was launched China faced a number of restriction from Social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). This was a Golden opportunity for Chinese companies such as; Sina & Tencent to take advantage during the censorship.
Weibo is a microblogging platform that was named ' the twitter of China' when it was launched. Today it rivals with the likes of Wechat and Toutiao. It has gained over 400 million monthly users at the end of 2018. With functions resembling both Facebook and Twitter, it is the largest microblogging platform in China.
Weibo's Competitors!
“Wechat, QQ, Douyin and other platforms are still chasing after market shares to expand even more”
Several similar launching attempts after Sina Weibo were made by other Chinese corporates; Wangyi Weibo, Tencent Weibo (claimed they would stop the investments and currently undergoes constant testings). Unfortunately, none succeeded in doing so, turning Sina Weibo as the true successor.
Taking on China's social platform by storm, the young uprising blogging platform has a long journey ahead. As massive multiple platforms; Wechat, QQ, Douyin etc. are still chasing after market shares to expand even more.
Weibo might be niched in its branch but will still face copies and imitations from other companies. One main company stands out right now; Toutiao. Toutiao tried to use similar service or features that resembles Weibo services. Designs: news feed, comments, and several resembling ones are creating commotions for Weibo.
Toutiao was invested by Weibo and became a supported growth by Weibo. The result was that the competitor started to mimic Weibos services. Since it was Weibo who funded them, they gained access to their data. Weibo being unaware of the competitors' goals. It allowed Toutiao to expand, try to steal market share & become a threat to the microblogging platform.
Weibo's Growth!
Weibo's rapid growth is even surpassing giants like Twitter and paving the way ahead of other minor social networks. Despite all that Weibo has a significant advantage in the market place. Even though we might not be aware of their financial development. With the help of advertisements and marketing, it started to show some interesting rising figures in the past couple of years.
In addition, Weibo offers cheaper advertising impressions allowing its users to have a better involvement with brands they like. Which also attracts more niched companies too.
Weibo's Benefits!
Starting a few years later after the giant platform Twitter. Weibo has had remarkable advantages since launching. A pioneer in its branch, with significant influence on the younger generation. Twitter reached more than 326 million users. Wibo outnumbered twitter in just a couple of years. The platform reached staggering figures with short video's features being one of the main reasons. During the world cup, the views regarding the title 'Football' were more than 16 billion. Only the topic 'world cup' peaked over 90 billion views!
"The Chinese Twitter" vs Twitter
Weibo was inspired by Twitter prior to its launch. there is a possibility that both platforms share similar interest if not the same. Weibo recently exceeded the number of users compared to Twitter, though Twitter has revenue that's almost twice as Weibo's revenue. However, chances are that Weibo will sooner or later catch up to the giant. Twitter, on the other hand, missed winning opportunities when Weibo started to introduce a limitation of words per post, photo sharing and live recorded videos. Surprisingly Facebook, Instagram seized the opportunity and started launching photo sharing, live video recording, and video sharing.
Weibo's Netizens
Another critical factor to take in consideration is the fact that the Platform has a number of users ranging from the age of 20-40 years old. Where most users are between the age of 23-30. In total, more than 80% of netizens were less than 31 years old. This shows that Weibo has a strong influence on the younger generation.
By the digits
Weibo´s revenue increased by 1.71 Billion dollars (Q3,2018)
Weibo reached 446 million monthly users by 2018
Over 93% are mobile users
90% internet traffic derives from mobile
More than 60% of users are less than 30 years old
Weibo users are composed of 57% males 43% females
Sources
https://walkthechat.com/is-weibo-still-popular-in-china
https://jingdaily.com/weibo-revenues-q4-2018/