Weibo May Look Like Twitter, But Its IPO Probably Won't

Bill Gates uses the site to talk about public policy issues to his more than 3 million followersTom Cruise uses the service to promote his latest films and press appearances to more than 5 million followers. Prominent politicians like David Cameron and Shimon Peres are on it talking about their travels, though with significantly smaller followings

No, it's not Twitter, but rather Weibo, a Chinese social network whose name literally translates to "microblog." In 2009, three years after Twitter launched in the U.S., one of China's largest web portals called Sina launched Weibo to break into China's microblogging space. Weibo quickly signed up tens of millions of users and emerged as the most popular microblogging service in the country. Read more...