Weibo in Smart Telecom Tie-up, Silly English Move 微博与中国电信合作实属明智之举 推英文版纯属浪费时间

Ever since Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) officially cut ties to its popular Weibo microblogging service earlier this year, it seems like Weibo has been making strategic and innovative moves on nearly a weekly basis as it looks to monetize its business for what Sina hopes will eventually become a blockbuster IPO. In one of the latest moves, Chinese media are reporting that Weibo has entered into an agreement with China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) that will see China’s third-largest mobile carrier make Weibo easier for its subscribers to access from their cellphones. (English article) This is exactly the kind of agreement that Weibo should be pursuing, as mobile Internet is clearly the direction that microblogging is moving. I’d be even happier if Weibo signed a similar deal with China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHA), the country’s largest mobile carrier with 70 percent of the market, or even the second biggest carrier, China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU). But let’s give Weibo some time. The second recent development will see Weibo launch an English-language service, presumably for foreigners who want to access to this wildly popular service but can’t read Chinese. The only problem is, there’s already a much better English language microblogging service out there: Twitter. And as anyone in China will tell you, the primary reason that Weibo has flourished in the first place is because Beijing officially blocks Twitter in China. Sure, maybe there are one or two foreigners living in China who would rather use an English language Weibo than finding other ways around the Chinese firewall to use the real Twitter. But those people are few and far between, and Weibo would be better served to focus on its home market and leave the English language world to Twitter.

Bottom line: Weibo’s tie-up with China Telecom is the kind of move it needs to make in its march to profitability, while its introduction of an English service is a complete waste of time.

自从新浪<SINA.O>今年稍早将其微博业务剥离出去後，新浪微博似乎每周都推出战略创新之举，新浪希望，微博业务最终能进行首次公开发行（IPO）。中国媒体近期报导称，新浪微博与中国电信<CHA.N>达成协议，中国电信用户通过手机访问微博将更方便。这的确是新浪微博应该开展的合作，手机上网显然是微博的发展方向。不过，若新浪微博与中国移动<0941.HK><CHL.N>或中国联通<0762.HK><CHU.N>签约，我会更高兴。但让我们给新浪微博一点时间。新浪近期第二项举措是，将推出英文版微博，针对的用户群可能是，想使用新浪微博但不懂中文的外国人。唯一的问题是，现在已经有更好的英语微博服务了，那就是Twitter。在中国，人们会告诉你，新浪微博能这麽受欢迎的主要原因是，人们在中国无法登陆Twitter。当然，可能会有一两个住在中国的外国人确实想用英文版新浪微博，而不是翻墙使用Twitter。但这样的人终归是少数，新浪微博应重点关注国内市场，把英文市场留给Twitter。

一句话：新浪微博与中国电信合作是实现盈利的举措之一，而推出英文版微博则纯属浪费时间.

Related postings 相关文章:

◙ Sina’s Latest Weibo Move Looks Like SNS 新浪似要发展社交网站

◙ New Weibo Makes First M&A Move 新浪微博并购忙

◙ Sina Gearing Up for Weibo Spin-Off 新浪欲剥离微博