Sina’s Weibo Suffers New Setback With Lawsuit 吉林市驻京办可能起诉新浪微博
Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo service is suffering yet another setback as the Beijing representative office of northeastern Jilin province prepares to sue the wildly popular microblogging service, marking an ominous start to the new year for the former high flyer. In this latest setback, the Jilin representative office says it will sue Weibo for defamation after a woman with “verified” status on the site falsely claimed the office as her employer and boasted of a lavish lifestyle. (Chinese article) The case underscores the difficulty Sina will have in verifying the identities of its 250 million users over the next 2 months, after Beijing ordered it and other social network sites to do so as part of a campaign to crack down on rumor-mongering and general unruliness in the space. (previous post) It also exposes the vulnerability that Weibo will face from similar lawsuits by others who say their reputations have been damaged by things that are said and happen on the site, potentially burying Weibo in a pile of legal actions that distract it from its core mission of becoming profitable. The case behind this looming lawsuit looks very similar to another more high-profile one earlier last year, which saw scandal erupt after a woman named Guo Meimei, who had similar “verified” status as an employee for a unit of the China Red Cross, boasted of a lavish lifestyle on the site. Her boasts led many to question how their donations to the Red Cross were being used, and it was later discovered that she really didn’t work for the organization despite her “verified” status. This latest case has seen another woman named Gao Yue, who had similar “verified” status as an employee of the Jilin representative office, make similar claims of a lavish lifestyle, again raising the ire of other Weibo users. The Jilin office responded by filing a formal complaint with the police, and saying it intends to sue Weibo for defamation. Luckily for Weibo, Chinese law strictly limits potential damages for such lawsuits, meaning Sina is unlikely to face serious financial consequences even if it loses such a suit. But such a development will damage Weibo’s reputation, and could open the doors to many more suits from people and organizations unhappy about activity on the site. I previously predicted that Weibo could make an IPO later this year when its business was booming last year, but now I think the service will be lucky if it can even become profitable by year end.
Bottom line: A looming lawsuit against Sina’s Weibo shows that 2012 will be a year of challenges for the former high-flyer, which will be lucky if it can even become profitable by year end.
Related postings 相关文章:
◙ Microblog Clampdown: Only Chapter 1? 实名制向网络行业吹去冷风
◙ Watch Out Weibo, Weixin Is Growing 新浪微博要小心腾讯微信要崛起
◙ Govt’s Microblog Shift Looks Good for Weibo 政府口风转变或有利於新浪微博
