Sina Weibo is a social networking and microblogging service based in China with more than 368 million registered users. Sina Weibo was launched in 2009 and is owned by SINA Corporation, the largest Internet portal in China.
In Chinese, Weibo means microblog. The site's features and structure are similar to those of Twitter. Weibo employs mentioning and talking to other registrants using the "@UserName" format, hashtags with #s and reposts of multimedia content. Posts include photos, images, emoticons, music, video clips and text with a 140-character limit. Weibo also has threaded comments and a chat function. Well-known people and organizations are given a verification badge on their accounts. The social media site rewards registrants with a virtual currency called Weibi, which is earned through posting or by using real currency. Users can use Weibi for online Sina Weibo games.
Twitter is banned in China, as is Facebook, and Chinese authorities are known to patrol Sina Weibo. If officials perceive a post to be negative, offensive or damaging to the Chinese government, they have it deleted. In March 2012, Sina Weibo's comment section was shut down for three days.