Twittering, Jiwaiing, Taotaoing – Microblogging in China
Twittering, Jiwaiing, Taotaoing – Microblogging in China
“Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.” – Wikipedia
Isn’t Twitter just a big waste of time? This is the question that always kept me from becoming an active user on Twitter despite having had an account for some time. I just couldn’t understand the appeal of reading and writing 140 character long posts that would risk my transformation into a Twitterholic, spending seemingly entire days connected tweeting and reading others tweets. After reading articles like this one and encouragement from other bloggers, I finally became an active user about a month and a half ago (@joelbackaler). It did not take me long to realize the value of microblogging goes way beyond answering the Twitter question, “What are you doing?” Microblogging helps build communities centered around shared interests and keeps groups of followers and those being followed up to date with the most recent happenings in their area of interest. It is so effective that I have even observed there are some outside observers who are so active on Twitter and the China blogosphere that they are just as if not more knowledgeable than some of us here on the ground. It was this train of thought that inspired me to write this post on microblogging in China. Over the course of my research I came across this excellent post from the 56minus1 blog entitled “Chinese microblogging platforms.”
The author (@ajschokora) explains:
“Twitter itself is the choice of China’s more internationally-oriented digerati: (a) because they were early adopters, before the Chinese clones got off the ground, and (b) because there’s little interoperability among all of the different choices, so users tend to join services where there are already conversations they want to follow”He then provides an introduction to his “top 5” microblogging platforms in China:
Taotao ?? www.taotao.com
Fanfou ?? www.fanfou.com
Jiwai ?? www.jiwai.de
Zuosa ?? www.zousa.com
Douban Broadcast ???? www.douban.comFor those of you interested in keeping an eye on China through Twitter here are just a few people whose tweets I like to follow (definitely many more not listed):
@pdenlinger/@wolfgroupasia/@danharris/@imagethief/
@sagebrennan/@niubi/@christinelu/@raykwong/@elliotng
What do you think are the top reasons to microblog? Do you think one of the Chinese microblogging platforms listed above will become THE China Twitter? Leave a comment and start the conversation…
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