China's biggest Internet portal, Sina Corp, expects to monetize its most popular micro-blogging service, Sina Weibo, in the first half of next year. However, bloggers and their "fans" have been monetizing the service in their own way for quite a while – by buying and selling followers.
(Ecns.cn) – Qstheory.com, the official website and forum of Qiushi (literally "Seek Truth"), is a bi-monthly political theory periodical published by the Central Party School and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). In its latest effort to reach the general public, it opened an official weibo account on August 10 and attracted many followers.
On the very same day a pop star announced her wedding plans on Sina Weibo, a message relayed by fans 508,649 times, which entered it into the portal's "most relayed micro-blog this week" list.
Micro-blogging has become the fastest developing Internet service in the country this year. The latest report from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) shows that more than 40 percent of the country's Internet users – who totaled 485 million at the end of June – used the service.
The rapid rise in popularity of weibo sites has had a negative effect on traditional social network sites such as Renren Inc, Tencent and Kaixin001.
According to CNNIC data, the user base of China's social networking sites shrunk to 230 million in the first half from 235.1 million at the end of last year.
Sina Corp, Tencent Holdings Ltd and Baidu Inc are the major players in the weibo space, accounting for more than 90 percent of the market, according to a recent study by RedTech Advisers.
The rapid growth indicates that these giants have achieved their first-phase goals of gaining popularity – and now the time is ripe for the harvest.
Sina Corp expects to monetize Sina Weibo in the first half of next year, said a top official on Thursday. Charles Chao, chief executive officer of Sina, said the company is building advertising and payment systems for its weibo service to prepare for future monetization.
'Quality' will cost you
What Mr. Chao does not know (or is unwilling to discuss) is that the service has already long been an arena of profiteering. The schemes come in the form "weibo marketing" companies who sell "fans" to bloggers, or pay veteran bloggers (whose fans are above 1 million) to post articles in order to promote products.
Mr. Liu, a weibo user, received an advertisement from such a company on his cell phone, saying "0.5 yuan ($0.08) can buy you a 'quality' weibo fan."
A salesman from one of the companies sent Liu a price list for "fans" at all levels – a "zombie fan" (an account created by software which does not post or relay blogs) only costs 0.02 yuan, while a "quality" follower (which resembles a real person and posts and relays blogs) costs 0.5 yuan.
But as the portals clamp down on these fake followers, these popularity-peddling companies have been forced to become more cautious. Most "zombie" or "quality" followers are added late at night.
