Although Sina Weibo previously stated that commercialization operations would not start until next year, this plan may be accelerated. On October 17th, the new version of Sina Weibo officially opened for upgrades. Apart from adjustments in page layout, it also added new applications such as instant messaging, albums, and games, increasing more community platform attributes. In the industry's view, this redesign of Sina Weibo is a prelude to its accelerated promotion of an internet platform strategy and commercial operations.
According to the "Daily Economic News," in fact, Sina is attempting to form a stronger social relationship on the Weibo platform through a series of adjustments. The introduction of instant messaging functionality in the newly upgraded Weibo version illustrates this point.
In the new version of Weibo, users can see an online communication tool in the lower right corner of the page after logging in. Users can quickly search for friends, set their status to online, busy, invisible, or away, and chat in real-time with any online friend.
Sina’s biggest competitor, Tencent, is also trying to emphasize the SNS (Social Networking Service) nature of Weibo. According to insiders at Tencent, Tencent has already connected its WeChat product with Weibo private messages, and there will be more integration between Weibo and WeChat products in the future.
A market analysis report by DCCI shows that users who have used Weibo for over two years exhibit more significant needs in "understanding friends' updates" and "maintaining communication with old friends" compared to newer Weibo users, behaviors that clearly reflect SNS characteristics.
"New Weibo will bring about major changes in user experience and system architecture. A series of changes will provide better scalability and offer third-party developers better API development connections." During the second-quarter earnings call, Sina CEO and President Charles Chao revealed some features of the new Weibo version in advance.
According to the "Daily Economic News," as part of the Sina Weibo Open Platform, the game platform has been fully integrated into the Weibo friend network. Sina stated that all games on the game platform will be developed by third parties, and the open platform plans to charge no fees to partners and developers within one year. Currently, the Sina Weibo game platform has launched 47 games, including Micro City, Texas Poker, and San Guo Sha, with more games to be added soon.
On another note, the rumored micro-coin business of Sina Weibo has now officially launched. According to Sina's plan, micro-coins can be used for game value-added services and network application purchases on the Weibo platform, with a 1:1 ratio to the RMB. Currently, Sina Weibo offers various payment channels for users, including online banking and Alipay.
In the eyes of senior IT commentator Hong Bo, this redesign reflects Sina's urgent desire to transition to a social network. However, Hong Bo believes that the threshold for transitioning from a media community to a social networking platform is still quite high. Previously, users wanted to obtain valuable information from Sina Weibo, but after enhancing daily interactions among friends, whether Sina Weibo can still ensure high-value information becomes uncertain, which poses the greatest risk for Sina Weibo.
The "Daily Economic News" noted that the highlight of the commercial operation of the Sina redesign platform is social games. Just prior to this, market analysis firm Mirae Asset released a research report predicting that Sina Weibo would generate $75 million in substantial revenue in 2012, with $15 million from social gaming, $50 million from advertising, and $10 million from e-commerce.
Regarding Weibo advertising and e-commerce, detailed plans have yet to be announced. Additionally, according to sources, Tencent has also accelerated its commercialization process. Recently, Tencent QQ Group Buying began embedding group-buying information via Tencent Weibo.
As of now, apart from QQ Group Buying, no other merchants have adopted this advertising format. According to insiders at Tencent Weibo, this project is currently in small-scale testing, and future collaborations with other B2C vendors are not ruled out.
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