Why You Might Join China's Largest Social Network

Putting aside the Chinese government's little anxieties about the Internet, social networking is huge in China, and most of it centers around the website Weibo.com. With more than 140 million users, Weibo (which means microblogging) beats RenRen, Douban, Kaixin and untold numbers of Facebook knockoffs as China's preeminent social media site. It recently announced plans to launch an English interface this summer, and its English iPhone app has already turned some Westerners into converts.

Launched in 2009, the micro-blogging service is owned by Chinese interweb behemoth Sina Corp, which happens to be the same company that partnered with Google before their deals famously floundered (cf those anxieties) and Google hightailed out of China (before coming back of course).

Weibo is often described as a Facebook-Twitter hybrid, but anyone who takes a closer look can easily see that it's a different beast entirely. Actually, I would argue Weibo is better than both. Here's a breakdown of its standout features—some of which Google Plus has already included, and others that I'd love to see incorporated soon.

Instead of having to post shortened links that direct traffic to an external site, multimedia content is integrated directly into the website's interface, so that no one ever has to leave the Weibo ecosystem. Celebrities and members of the media elite—who have a huge presence on this site—frequently upload content straight to Weibo for their follower-fans to engage with. Comments are also threaded together vertically, like on Facebook, so that a single image can generate a discussion with hundreds of responses. No messy @mentions or re-tweeting; everything stays in one place.

Users who comment the most frequently on new posts get a "Sofa Collector" badge. Those who comment the most number of times on a single post get a "Weibo Controller" badge. By rewarding recurrent contributors, Weibo encourages a high level of interactivity from high-profile regulars. Even better, badges "level up" over time like in RPG games; many users also have cartoon-like avatars to represent their online presence. Think of it as social networking plus Pokemon. Sounds awesome to me.

Logging into Weibo takes users to "Weibo Square," a portal filled with endless possible detours, including the hot topics of the day, most popular tweets, and highlighted celebrity users. These updates expand beyond one's personal networks and give an insight into where the community's attention is being directed. A separate News Hub provides breaking world and entertainment news coverage.

Okay, this section should technically be labeled "e-commerce," but I got too excited over the prospect of being able to order food online through a social networking site. Weibo allows companies to customize their own pages, which look vastly different from a regular user's, and sell goods through these specialized mini-sites. Not only can I order a pizza while chatting with a friend, textbooks, music and a variety of other goods can also be delivered straight to my door. The ability to group-buy with friends gives users discounts and deals.

Probably the best part about Weibo is its all-encompassing-ness. It combines so many features (IM, social networking, e-commerce, videos, etc) that no one has to jump out of Weibo-world to access other content. (Obviously, this could be a big discredit for those wary of monopoly.) It also heavily promotes third-party apps, organizes events based on cities and not just friends, and features the Google Hangout-like, multi-person video-conferencing tool. All these options can make navigating Weibo confusing, but fortunately content is organized neatly into sub-categories like "music," "video," "pictures," and "original" – the latter being the comments coming from friends in your network.

It's neat, and apparently a staggering 90% of China's Internet users agree. Of course, success in China doesn't mean much to the Twittering classes in the West (and given the way they treat certain Tweeters over there, who can blame them). But keep an eye on your news feed for that Weibo English version. Google and Facebook are.

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