8 ms·
Twitter is now worth less than its Chinese clone
- inimino 10y ago"Chinese clone" makes a catchy headline but is pretty far from an accurate characterization.
- tribaal 10y agoAs someone who is ignorant of said "clone", I feel compelled to ask: What would be an accurate characterization? I'm genuinely curious.
- inimino 10y ago"Microblogging platform" is pretty accurate. Calling it a clone is kind of like calling Bing a Google clone. Yes, they are both search engines, but no.
- josefresco 10y agoA quick Google Image search of Weibo shows mixed results: http://technode.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/anatomy-new-sina-weibo-mainpage.jpg http://technode.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/anatomy-new-s... - lots of "inspired by Twitter" features there. Also, most of the articles I found about it referred to it (lovingly or positively) as a Twitter clone.
- dawson 10y agoWhen Sina launched Weibo in 2009 it was very much a 'clone', however, I agree not so much now.
- wodenokoto 10y agoWeibo is Chinese for microblogging, and Sina and Tencent weibo started off as twitter clones, but today they come with everything but the kitchen sink.
- wfeui3 10y agoComparing apples and melons. Weibo has very strong payment system.
- janekm 10y agoI wouldn't consider the Weibo payment system "strong"... it seems to be based on alipay and I've never heard of anyone using it instead of Wechat or Alipay. But other than that indeed Weibo is now very different from twitter, they've continued to evolve while twitter has staid essentially the same for all these years... 140 character limit and all.
- siculars 10y agoPeople keep talking about Chinese everything. At the risk of being downvoted into oblivion let me ask you... would you use a Chinese email provider? Chinese Facebook clone? Chinese Twitter clone? I don't know about you, but I'd think twice before feeding my child Chinese formula or taking a flight in a Chinese made airplane. Physical products are one thing but informational products are clearly another. China's reach is China. They may have a billion person market but last I checked that was only 1/7th the world. I'd venture to say that most folks would rather use some other option than something made in China.
- tachion 10y agoAnd what does it mean to be 'Chinese'? I am asking, because in way or another, that formula you've mentioned, it parts, the wheat its made of (or whatever else), this plane, its parts, its materials... Some of them, probably a lot are in one way or another 'Chinese'.
- Akkuma 10y agoMy personal definition would be a product assembled, regulated, and QA'd in China. If parts are made in China and sent to the US, the US company has to QA the part, assemble the final product with the part, and is regulated by US law with the final product.
- dilap 10y agoIn the past at least you could have pointed to Twitter as having a strong commitment to free speech, but that has completely evaporated.
- handedness 10y ago> I'd venture to say that most folks would rather use some other option than something made in China. The device on which you typed that, where was it made?
- asdfologist 10y ago> Physical products are one thing but informational products are clearly another.
- faitswulff 10y agoI wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that 140 Chinese characters contains way more information than 140 Latin characters. Then again, even Weibo raised its character limit to 2000 characters.
- yeukhon 10y agoThis kind of comparison is dull. It may be worth less for whatever reason, but the Twitter brand is still so much more recognizable at a global scale. When you go to a job fair outside of mainland China and you see, Twitter, Tecent, Sina and Baidu there, which one would you prefer to visit first?
- sammoth 10y agoBaidu...?
- nullnilvoid 10y agoTecent for sure. WeChat is years ahead of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. It is the future.