Sina Weibo launches real-time messaging air client, challenging Tencent's core IM business

Weibo News Network (reprinted from Phoenix News)

Note: The download address for the Sina Weibo air client is: http://down.tech.sina.com.cn/content/48220.html

Over the past decade, Tencent has lived in a world with almost no rivals. The Sina Weibo air client has the potential to end such days. A war has already begun, but the climax has yet to come.

On March 4, Sina launched its air Weibo client, which includes all web-based Weibo functions such as browsing the homepage, posting tweets, commenting, and private messaging. The most eye-catching feature is instant chat. By clicking the chat button at the bottom of the client interface, the central user interface will display all mutual fans' contacts. Clicking on these contacts will open a dialog box, just like Tencent QQ.

A relevant person in charge of Sina's public relations department did not disclose the download volume of the air client over the past few days, stating that there were no specific data available yet. However, an employee of Sina posted a tweet about the download link of the air client, which was forwarded 2,059 times and commented on 190 times within three days.

An unnamed internet executive believed: "Tencent finally has a real rival. 360 is not scary as it does not impact Tencent's core business. Tencent's core is IM, and Weibo completely possesses the strong relational attributes of Tencent QQ."

However, internet observer Xie Wen believed: "The scale of Sina Weibo determines the scale of air; the growth of Weibo air will not automatically lead to the growth of Weibo itself. In other words, whether Sina air can challenge Tencent depends on the development of Sina Weibo itself, rather than the development of the air client."

air vs QQ

By copying the friend relationships from Weibo to the air chat list, Sina owns a relationship network as valuable as QQ's chat list.

The past year has been a period of rapid growth for Sina's stock price. At the beginning of 2010, Sina's stock price was approximately $30, while on March 6, 2011, it reached $84.12, with a market capitalization of about $5.1 billion, more than doubling in a year. The capital market highly values Sina due to the rapid development of Sina Weibo. During this period, the number of Sina Weibo users grew from zero to over 100 million.

Of course, compared to Tencent, Sina is still relatively small. On March 6, 2011, Tencent's stock price was HK$221, with a market capitalization of HK$395.926 billion, approximately $51 billion. The difference in market value between the two companies is exactly tenfold.

However, the rapid development of Sina Weibo cannot be ignored by the internet industry, including Tencent. The battle between Sina and Tencent began last year when Tencent launched Tencent Weibo. Due to the significant influence of the client, although Tencent did not surpass Sina, it still far exceeded Sohu and NetEase. In the microblogging field, Tencent has become Sina's largest potential competitor.

The aforementioned internet executive believes: "The launch of the Sina Weibo air client marks a new stage in the covert competition between the two parties. By copying the friend relationships from Weibo to the air chat list, Sina air owns a relationship network as valuable as QQ's chat list."

The relationship network of Sina Weibo may be even more valuable. Over the years, many QQ friends have stopped contacting each other and become dormant relationships, whereas on Weibo, many friends have recently forwarded or commented on your tweets, or will soon exchange private messages, making them active relationships. This person said.

President of Zhengwang Consulting, Lü Bówàng, believes that the challenge for Sina Weibo is user penetration. He said: "Although the registered users of Sina Weibo have exceeded 100 million, compared to Tencent's user base, there is still a considerable gap. Currently, Tencent has over 100 million simultaneous online users and over 1 billion registered users."

Founder of 5G Consulting, Hong Bo, believes: "QQ is like a mobile phone; Weibo cannot replace the mobile phone, it can only achieve some of its functions. He thinks Weibo is a dissemination tool, not a one-on-one communication tool. This identity makes it unable to replace QQ. QQ has its own value in the Weibo era." Xie Wen said: "Tencent has a strong client influence, which can serve as a powerful weapon to move towards the cloud."

Cloud Era: Client Competition

All major internet companies are accelerating the launch of clients.

Sina's plan to capture clients through Weibo has just begun, and in 2011, this plan may accelerate.

According to the data provided by Sina Weibo, from the perspective of Weibo applications, there are already 35 desktop clients covering systems such as WINDOWS and LINUX (the number of clients covered by each system can be queried on the website); in terms of mobile devices, there are already 95 Weibo applications related to mobile phones, covering multiple systems including iPhone, Android, Symbian, WindowsMobile, BlackBerry, Kjava, Bada, and iPad. Among these, there are 10 official mobile Weibo clients, several third-party developed mobile Weibo clients, and some mobile Weibo applications.

Data provided by Sina shows: The Weibo mobile client Weico was launched on Apple's AppStore on November 10 last year, and within just three days, downloads exceeded 30,000 times, ranking first in the social application category. Sina Weibo plans to launch four more official mobile clients this year.

Relying on QQ's influence, Tencent is the king of clients in China's internet industry. However, this king status is being challenged by Sina. Apart from Tencent, all major internet companies are speeding up the launch of clients. On January 19, Baidu launched a new client called Browser Companion, which provides quick access to multiple Baidu products in the form of a plugin and also offers security protection functions similar to 360 Security Guard. On February 15, Baidu launched a video playback client called Baidu Yingyin. Clearly, in 2011, Baidu will implement a strategy to capture clients.

Sohu has secured a place in the client market through Sogou Pinyin Input Method.

360 Chairman Zhou Hongyi once analyzed: "In China's internet sector, one company controls the client (referring to Tencent), and another controls traffic (referring to Baidu)." This pattern is facing challenges: Sina Weibo is rapidly rising both as a web application and a client application.

However, Xie Wen somewhat dismisses the competition for clients. Clients are the product of a certain historical stage and will eventually be replaced by web applications (cloud applications and cloud services). He suggests that Sina learn from Facebook and turn chat, email, and other applications into web applications to ultimately win the future.