Microblogs losing out as WeChat rises
Print Edition
ALREADY the world’s largest, China’s online population grew last year but drifted away from microblogs, with the number of users falling by 32 million.
The decline shows Chinese microblogging sites failing to recover from a major setback in 2013. The second-year drop was accompanied by a rapid growth in popularity of newer products, especially the instant messaging service WeChat.
In an annual report released yesterday, the government-backed China Internet Network Information Center said China’s online population reached 649 million last year and that 557 million of them accessed the Internet via mobile devices.
But microblog users dropped by 7.1 percent to 249 million, and Internet companies pulled back investments in microblogging services, the report said.
In comparison, the number of users of mobile instant messaging services grew 17.8 percent to 508 million, the report said.
Dominating this market in China is WeChat, a product that allows users to share information among circles of friends, make online payments, play games, or distribute content in public accounts that can be followed by other users.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
