微博：中国最有力的媒体

Weibo: the most powerful media in China

微博：中国最有力的媒体

KaiFu Lee

October 25, 2012

inShare8

 (Part of Chinese innovation series, toshare innovative companies and products in China)

（中国式创新系列，分享中国的创新型公司以及产品）

While Twitter was generally regarded as Jack Dorsey's baby, Sina Weibo(the "Chinese Twitter") is more of a whole-company effort led by Sinaexecutive Peng Shaobin.

Twitter被认为是Jack Dorsey的孩子，而新浪微博（中国Twitter）则是在新浪总裁Peng Shaobin带领下的公司力量的体现。

Twitter emphasizes its social elements, but Sina Weibo is undoubtedly the sharpest media ever seen in China.  Twitter users have a 140-character limit, butSina Weibo's limit in Chinese is equivalent to 500 characters in English. This allows the writer to summarize a book, to debate each otherpreserving context, or to give the first-paragraph abstract of a late breakingnews. Most top Twitter stars talk about what they're doing and point to othersites, but Sina Weibo has become the portal for accessing news, gossip, andcommentaries.  I am convinced this simple difference makes Weibo a verydifferent media than Twitter.

Twitter强调其社会属性，新浪微博则被认为中国有史以来最犀利的媒体。Twitter用户有140个字符的限制，新浪微博则将其扩展到500个英文字符。这个足以总结一本书，或者来写争论彼此隐含的意思，或者给出即使新闻的第一段。很多资深的Twitter用户在说他们正在干什么，或者给出一个链接来指向其他的网站，可是新浪微博却变成了一个接触新闻，闲谈，和解说的一个窗口。我深信这些简单的改变使新浪微博变成一个和Twitter不同的媒体。

In China, the traditional media is regulated by the government, and on many issuesthere is only one viewpoint. Most Weibo also provides access to alternativeviewpoints not expressible in traditional media.  This can generate debateand improve critical thinking skills of the netizens.  One might say thatWeibo is the first modern media in China.

在中国传统的媒体被政府管控，在很多事件上，所有的媒体看上去只有一种观点和视角。很多微博给了人们接触在传统媒体上接触不到的多元的观点。这些可以产生争论，以及提升网民批判性思维的技巧。有些人可能会说微博是中国第一个现代媒体。

This "media DNA" came fromSina's dozen years as China's leading media portal website and BSP (blog service platform).  The1000 editors and writers were always required to keep their mobile phones on24x7, and thus were always ears-to-ground, and often able to get breaking news. After Weibo emerged, these 1000 people got a new KPI: to invite thepeople they used to interview to come to Weibo and speak for themselves, and toteach them how to tweet (or should I say "weib"?).  From dayone, Sina realized that the news they cover are great material to become thediscussion topics on its Weibo.  This solved the information inadequacyproblem in the early days of Twitter.

这个“媒体基因”源于新浪十几年的作为中国领导型的门户网站以及博客服务平台的经验。超过1000个编辑被要求移动电话24*7小时开机，保持他们的新闻敏感性，所以经常能得到突发新闻。微博出现之后，这1000个人有了一个新的KPI：邀请那些他们采访过的人来到微博来说说他们自己，教他们怎么用微博。从那时候起，新浪意识到了他们所报道的新闻是可以变成微博上人们讨论的很好材料。这个解决了在Twitter发展初期信息不足的问题。

While Twitter (and Jack Dorsey) deserve praise for the new idea and thesimple design behind Twitter,  Sina Weibo has become a more fun productready for the masses.  Its early incorporation of video, music, and photosnot only made the content fun, but also allowed it to usurp some of thecapabilities of Instagram and Tumblr.  Also, rather than using RT, //, andother geeky codes, Weibo has intuitive nested comments and discussions. This satisfies the Chinese users expectation and desire to comment. 

在Twitter因为简单的设计思想而饱受夸奖的同时，新浪微博却已经变成了广为大众欢迎的充满乐趣的产品了。其与视频，音乐，以及图片的结合使内容更加有趣，同时也使其侵占了Instagram和Tumblr的一部分潜力。而且出于直觉，新浪添加了评论的功能，这满足了中国用户对评论的期望与需求。

Is Weibo innovative?  While each feature may be a small improvementover Twitter, in aggregate, it has become a different kind of media because ofthe aggregate combination of the feautres (and because of the cultural andenvironmental differences).  Sina Weibo is a more intuitive and funproduct.  I have heard that Twitter has been studying Sina Weibo for awhile, and Twitter's new version included some of Sina's features.  So yesI would call Weibo innovative.

微博创新了吗？可能每一个功能都是对Twitter的一个小的改进，但是总体上，他因为总体上功能的集成（可能还有不同的文化，以及环境）变成了一个不同的媒体。而且新浪微博是一个更直接，更富趣味的产品。我就听说Twitter已经研究新浪微博有一段时间了，而且Twitter的新版本中加入了一些新浪的功能。所以我说微博是一个创新。

I write every day on Sina Weibo, and have amassed 17 million followers onit (I also have a comparable number on Tencent Weibo).  It has become apowerful vehicle for me to share my ideas, thoughts, comments, trends.  Adecade ago, if I got recognized on the street, it would be because I appearedin some TV show.  Five years ago, it would have been because of my books. But today, it's always because of Weibo.

我每天在新浪微博上写作，拥有1700万粉丝（在腾讯微博上我也有数量相当的粉丝）。这个给了我分享想法，思想，评论，趋势的很大的动力，10年前，如果我在大街上被人认出来，可能是因为我在一个电视节目上出现了。5年前，可能是因为我的书，可是今天，肯定是因为微博。

As a result, Sina Weibo has 300 million users, and is changing China in many profound ways.  (Seemy earlier piece on Sina for more information.) Check out my Sina Weibo!

新浪微博拥有3亿的用户，而且正在以深刻的方式改变中国。