Sina Weibo Leak: Virtual Goods and QWeibo Profiles on the Way?

At the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing, Sina CEO Charles Chao announced Sina Weibo’s intended 6 revenue streams, telling the world that his empire of now 140 million registered users will generate revenue soon. Now, a leaked screenshot reveals more details, showing Sina Weibo’s plans in virtual goods, eCommerce, and new “QWeibo” profiles.

To review, the 6 intended sources of revenue are: 1. Interactive ads; 2. Social gaming; 3. Real-time search (added value); 4. Wireless added-value services; 5. eCommerce; 6. Data services (added-value).

Since the announcement, Sina has been busy upgrading the Weibo platform into a complete social network that extends far beyond a mere microblog. Sina is angling for more sophisticated services and possibilities of generating revenues.

But users are mostly kept in the dark as to exactly how Sina will be making money off them. Still, rumors spread fast on the web, even predicting that Sina Weibo will be spun off for a U.S IPO, which was refuted by Sina. So the question comes back to how exactly will Sina monetize Weibo?

Have a look at this:

New Sina Weibo profile layout (Click for full view)

This screenshot was leaked by a user on Weibo. Following the portal link, I came to qweibo.sina.com.cn which displays a message that says the site is still in closed beta and will launch soon. Judging from the Chinese name, the site will be called QWeibo.

What’s so compelling about it? This screenshot reveals two of the six revenues sources that Charles Chao announced: value-added services and eCommerce.

Weibo is Changing Once Again: Virtual Goods on the Way?

QWeibo fundamentally changs the original layout of Sina Weibo. At the top, the news feed timeline can now be sorted by:

1. Weibo posts from users you co-follow
2. Users in your geographical region,
3. Posts on related topics (interest based?)
4. Posts from most active users
5. Random posts.

The main portion of the page now hosts avatars of users you followed. Along with the option to decorate your Weibo profile page, we can safely assume that this is one of the value-added services that will require users to exchange virtual currency in order to purchase fancy avatars and decorative virtual goods. It may seem strange to have a customizable profile, but it’s hugely popular in Asia, especially in the South Korean SNS CyWorld.

eCommerce Coming Soon

Though no details are available yet on exactly how Sina will implement eCommerce through Weibo, it is definitely coming. At the top right corner of this screenshot we can clearly see a portal link to a “mall.”

There will be two options for Sina: One, build a complete eCommerce platform from scratch. Or two, link Weibo to an existing eCommerce site. The recent partnership with Alipay indicates that Taobao.com, China’s current top online shopping site, is the most likely partner if Sina goes the second route. But with the ambition of Charles Chao in setting Weibo up as the Facebook of China, I’m willing to bet my money on the first option, which is establishing an eCommerce site under sina.com.cn.

Messaging, Profiles, and Social Gaming: My Predictions Are Coming True

Last week when I wrote Can Sina Weibo Become Facebook of China? I made a number of predictions that appear to be on the way in this screenshot. On the top right corner are a message center and user name cards. Messages from all services within Sina Weibo will presumably route to a centralized message center and the user name card could be an updated version of the current Sina Weibo user profile in a more socialable format.

My other predictions include the coming of social game center, which Sina’s Chief Product Director Peng ShaoBin (his Sina Weibo: @老兵) announced will be open to all developers and completely free for the first year, meaning every cent made through social games in Weibo will go to developers. Sounds good?

Sina Weibo’s Social Reach Continues to Grow

Click for fullview

Sina Weibo’s social reach continues to grow, according to the latest data from Jiathis, one of China’s largest social sharing button providers. Sina Weibo (9% of sharing) ranks second behind Qzone (15%), but well ahead of all other competitors in Weibo (Sohu and Tencent are both at about 3%).

But what’s even more amazing is that Sina Weibo generates 15% of returning clicks, ranking first of all sites (Qzone is next at 9%, followed by Tencent Weibo at 5%). Renren lags far behind at only 1.5%.

The high level of activity of Sina Weibo will surely attract the attention of advertisers.

But playing the devil’s advocate, the well-known tech analyst, blogger, and investor Keso recently commented in an interview that CEO Charles Chao could wreck the Weibo platform by doing too much:

Question: At the GMIC conference, Sina CEO Charles Chao expressed six ways to monetize Sina Weibo: 1) targeted advertising; 2) social games; 3) real-time search; 4) value-added services; 5) e-commerce; 6) data analysis. One industry expert criticized this, as it could disrupt the user experience. How much should Sina Weibo build its userbase before trying to monetize?

Answer: [Sina CEO] Charles Chao is trying to bite off more than he can chew, he could wreck Sina Weibo.

(Here is the full interview)

Sina is indeed stretching it’s product line as wide as possible for Weibo. So will it be able to monetize and become China’s dominant social network? Can it command the largest user group and is it financially capable of fending off competitors such as Tencent with whom they are fighting a Weibo war?

Sina is building its Weibo empire in a most unconventional way by Chinese internet standards: they are focused on the quality of the platform from a technical perspective. This will give them an advantage over other Chinese social networks that are far too focused on prematurely monetizing their sites, leading to rapid scaling on ill-designed infrastructure that will eventually crumble.