(Ecns.cn)！A worm hit Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging site in China, on June 28, infecting posts with malicious links. The worm was later identified by Sina as "Samy," which had previously attacked Twitter and MySpace.
As the saying goes, happiness comes alone while misfortune loves company. Although Sina reported on June 29 that the worm had been stopped that same night, "Samy" was just the tip of the iceberg.
As one of China's largest Internet portals, Sina Corp. (NASDAQ:SINA) surged to $120 US per share in the past few weeks before plummeting to $77 US one week ago. After a resilient rebound last week, it closed at $100.54 US on June 28.
The back and forth movement shows that uncertainty around Sina.com, particularly around Weibo.com, is battering market confidence, a report in Southern Weekend said.
Facebook or Twitter?
Even as CEO Charles Chao was busy quashing rumors of its immediate plan to list Weibo on NASDAQ, microblog users got wind of Sina's attempt to restructure the site.
On the same day of the worm attack, Weibo.com launched a test version of its innovative photo album service, which allows users to upload their pics. It was seen by many as a sign that Weibo could become a more social networking site like Facebook.
Chao also confirmed that Weibo will diversify into e-commerce and online games next year.
However, many users are less enthusiastic about the restructuring. An online survey conducted by Sina on June 28 showed that 38% of the total 19,241 respondents said they would ditch Weibo if it becomes a social networking site.
"It is important to stick to your own style," a user posted. "I am not attracted to an all-inclusive site, because there are already many social network sites online."
Rivals in hot pursuit
Sina's worries may be typical for a leading player on the microblogging market, but its rivals have not slackened off.
Although Weibo is considered China's most influential microblogging site by most analysts and users, experts said that t.qq.com, the microblogging website of Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) will share the market with Sina Corp., since its QQ chat software has accumulated a huge amount of users.
"Tencent also has greater financial power than Sina," said Ye Feng, a marketing professor in Beijing. "Aside from these two players, the other microblogging websites or services will become followers without much influence."
Ye's line was answered by Sohu.com, another major portal in China, that equipped its own microblogging site with a full-version photo album on June 28, the same day Weibo.com was attacked and Sina launched a test-version of a photo album system.
While the competition is intense, the most important question for the business remains unanswered: how to make money from it?
Chao said Sina will eventually benefit from the Weibo site, while Ye claimed that these types of operations are still in their infancy in China.
"The business model for microblogging will become fully established over the next three to five years, but it is hard to predict its business potential after that," Ye said.
