Weibo Users Hit 50 Million, Sina Posts $11.5m Loss

Despite posting a loss of $11.5m this quarter, Sina annouced that it's mircroblogging platform, Weibo, has hit 50 million active users, from a potential user base of 503 million registered accounts.

In comparison, Twitter — which is blocked in China — hit 50 million daily active users back in 2011 and passed 200 million monthly active users in December 2012.

The figures from Sina Weibo are impressive considering that it is only present largely in mainland China and some Chinese-speaking parts of the world. At the end of 2012, Sina Weibo reached 503 million registered accounts.

The service has lost out in past months to feisty newcomers like Tencent's WeChat.  Initially frightened of losing control of the users that were running rampant posting rumors, gossip and hearsay about the Party elite (and the no so elite), the Chinese government implemented a real name registration system that did little curb overly communicative users.

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Journalist Arrested Ahead of Bo Xi Lai Trial

Reuters is reporting that a journalist has been arrested for "causing trouble" days ahead of Bo's trial. Song Yang Biao, a left wing supporter of the disgraced politician has been using his (now deleted) Weibo account to call for peoe to protest the trial.

A friend journalist said that Song was "no threat to society", but the raster highlights the governments skittishness about the trial.

Despite his spectacular fall from grace along his wife Guy Ku Lai, who was found guilty of the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood, Bo still has his supporters thanks to his extensive reforms and public housing projects in Chongqing. Writing on his microblog account, Song said that "All members of the Chinese Communist Party should rise up together to oppose the illegal trial in Jinan." Any inflammatory messages have been purged from Sina's servers, but have been archived on an anti censorship site, freeweibo.com.

Bo is almost certain to be found guilty at the end of the trial, and state media have been running thundering editorials in order to rally support behind the government. The case has been neatly turned around from an exposé of how the country's political elite abuse power and hoard millions into a flagship example of the Communist Party's anti-corruption crackdown.

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