Sina wins China's microblog battle

Sina Corp appears to be the winner of the latest battle among Chinese internet companies competing for the country’s ever-growing online audience, although the war is far from over.

Microblogging, which is known as weibo in China and is a key product for Sina, has become a 300 million-strong social media phenomenon and one that Chinese internet companies have had to themselves since government censors blocked Twitter in 2009.

“Sina is a clear winner,” according to one internet analyst. “This is negative for Tencent and bad news for Renren and Kaixin, because no-one uses traditional social networks anymore everyone uses weibo.”

With about 485...