As China’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblog prepares for a New York listing, its management is racing to figure out how the service can maintain its relevance amid a government crackdown on dissent and stiff competition from rivals.
The numbers of users on the microblog run by internet group Sina grew last quarter at the slowest pace in the history of the service, said Charles Chao, Sina chief executive.
The company’s future depends on turning that round, said Mr Chao, although the microblog overcame slow user grow to record its first quarterly profit – of $3m – from improved advertising revenue and income from others sources including the sale of data on user behaviour.