China loses 27.8 mn micro-blog users in 2013

Johannesburg: China has seen a surprise drop in the number of online micro-blog users with more than 27.8 million people abandoning Sina Weibo in 2013.

According to News24, there has been a significant increase in users of mobile messaging platforms, with features similar to micro-blogs. The China Internet Network Information Centre`s annual report revealed that there were 281 million users of Twitter-like micro-blogs at the end of 2013, down 9 percent from the previous year. The fall marks the site`s first drop in usage amid a government crackdown on so-called `rumour mongers` online, who post micro-blogs deemed sensitive by the authorities, and new controls on what can be posted and reposted online.