(Part of Chinese innovation series, to share innovative companies and products in China)
中国人创新系列之分享中国创新企业和产品 --李开复
While Twitter was generally regarded as Jack Dorsey's baby, Sina Weibo (the "Chinese Twitter") is more of a whole-company effort led by Sina executive Peng Shaobin.
相比于通常认为是杰克`多西的孩子的推特(Twitter),新浪微博("中国的推特")是由新浪执行人彭少斌领导的整个公司的成果.
Twitter emphasizes its social elements, but Sina Weibo is undoubtedly the sharpest media ever seen in China. Twitter users have a 140-character limit, but Sina Weibo's limit in Chinese is equivalent to 500 characters in English. This allows the writer to summarize a book, to debate each other preserving context, or to give the first-paragraph abstract of a late breaking news. Most top Twitter stars talk about what they're doing and point to other sites, but Sina Weibo has become the portal for accessing news, gossip, and commentaries. I am convinced this simple difference makes Weibo a very different media than Twitter.
推特强调它的社交化元素,但是新浪微博无疑是有史以来在中国最尖锐的媒体.推特用户(发博)有140个字符的限制.但是在新浪微博(同等字符)的中符限制相当于英文500个字符.这允许发微博的人(在这140字里)来总结一本书,可以看见以前对话内容式的讨论,或者把第一段作为对最近的突发新闻的概括.大多数特上的名人谈论的是他们在做什么,然后链接到其他网址;但是新浪微博却是一个获取新闻,小道消息,评论的一个平台.我相信这个简单的不同让微博成为不同于推特的媒体.
In China, the traditional media is regulated by the government, and on many issues there is only one viewpoint. Most Weibo also provides access to alternative viewpoints not expressable【expressible】 in traditional media. This can generate debate and improve critical thinking skills of the netizens. One might say that Weibo is the first modern media in China.
在中国,传统的媒体由政府监管,(这样)在很多问题上就只有一个观点.大多数的微博同时提供了在传统媒体不可以表达的观点的入口.这将导致(网民们的)讨论,同时提高网民批判性的思考.有人可能这样评价微博--中国第一个现代媒体.
This "media DNA" came from Sina's dozen years as China's leading media portal website and BSP (blog service platform). The 1000 editors and writers were always required to keep their mobile phones on 24x7, 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 the people they used to interview to come to Weibo and speak for themselves, and to teach them how to tweet (or should I say "weib"?). From day one, Sina realized that the news they cover are great material to become the discussion topics on its Weibo. This solved the information inadequacy problem in the early days of Twitter.
这个"媒体基因"来源于新浪多年多位中国领先的门户网站和博客服务平台(BSP).(新浪的)1000多名编辑和写手的手机总是24小时开机,不论星期几.这样贴近群众的做法让他们很容易获得爆炸性的新闻.新浪微博出现后,这些人有了一个新的关键业绩指标(KPI,Key Performance Indicator,盛行于中国各大运营商内部.),即邀请那些他们曾经采访过的人来到微博,让他们发出自己的声音,表达自己的观点【不知道开复老师想要表达的可是此意思,妄自揣测,还望指教】.突然的某一天,新浪意识到他们所掌握的新闻素材能够成为在自己的微博平台讨论的话题.这解决了特推早期信息内容不充分的问题.
While Twitter (and Jack Dorsey) deserve praise for the new idea and the simple design behind Twitter, Sina Weibo has become a more fun product ready for the masses. Its early incorporation of video, music, and photos not only made the content fun, but also allowed it to usurp some of the capabilities of Instagram and Tumblr. Also, rather than using RT, //, and other geeky codes, Weibo has intuitive nested comments and discussions. This satisfies the Chinese users expectation and desire to comment.
虽然推特的背后有值得称赞的新理念和简单的设计,但是新浪微博则成为了一个更加大众化的产品.微博早期的视频,音乐,图片的元素不仅让内容更加有趣,而且拥有了篡夺Tumblr和Instagram的一些能力.同时,相比于转载(RT,retweet,推特中的转载他人的推文)//和其他让人厌烦的代码【开复老师是要注释掉这句话?】,微博有直观的嵌套评论和讨论的方式.这满足了中国用户的期望,让他们有参与评论的欲望.
Is Weibo innovative? While each feature may be a small improvement over Twitter, in aggregate, it has become a different kind of media because of the aggregate combination of the feautres (and because of the cultural and environmental differences). Sina Weibo is a more intuitive and fun product. I have heard that Twitter has been studying Sina Weibo for a while, and Twitter's new version included some of Sina's features. So yes I would call Weibo innovative.
微博有创新么?尽管每一个特性都是在特推的基础上的一个小的改进,但是总的来说,由于各种特性的组合与集成(也因为中国文化和环境差异),微博已经成为一个不同类型的媒体.新浪微博是一个更直观和有趣的产品.我听说推特向新浪微博学习很久了,并且推特的新版本已经包含了一些新浪微博的特色.因此,从这个角度来说,微博是有创新的.
I write every day on Sina Weibo, and have amassed 17 million followers on it (I also have a comparable number on Tencent Weibo). It has become a powerful vehicle for me to share my ideas, thoughts, comments, trends. A decade ago, if I got recognized on the street, it would be because I appeared in some TV show. Five years ago, it would have been because of my books. But today, it's always because of Weibo.
我每天都在新浪微博上发微博,并且已经有170万的粉丝.(我在腾讯微博上也有差不多数目的粉丝.)微博已经成为我用来分享我的创意,思想,评论,倾向的有力工具.十年前,如果我在街上得到了认可,这会是因为我出现在一些电视节目。五年前,这会是因为我的书籍,但是今天,这会是为我的微博.
As a result, Sina Weibo has 300 million users, and is changing China in many profound ways. (See my earlier piece on Sina for more information.) Check out my Sina Weibo!
现在新浪微博已经有3亿的用户,它正在用一些意义深远的方式来改变中国.(更多信息,参考我早期关于新浪的文章)看看我的新浪微博!
【翻译由cquptzx@qq.com提供.】