CRI听力:Will Foreigners Use a Chinese Microblog if the Version is in English?

The word 'Weibo' might not mean much to people outside of China. But over here, it means a microblog-like Twitter. Tencent Weibo, one of China's biggest microblogs, is trying to get their name out to the world by offering a version in English.

Facebook, Myspace and microblogs like Twitter do indeed transcend boundaries and cultures. But is having a version in English enough?

Up until a few weeks ago, only expats in China and foreigners abroad with a decent knowledge of Chinese could use Weibo microblogs. This was the case for American Kevin Olusola from Kentucky. While living in Beijing, he signed up for his first Sina Weibo account.

"During my year and a half in China, I met a lot of Chinese people. I went to Chinese church and in my classes they taught me about the different microblog sphere type of thing, Weibo, Renren wang, so I started using them."

Like social networking site, Renren wang, many foreigners here or abroad may not be lured by the all-Chinese content on China's 'weibo' microblogging sites.
 
American Gong Chen from Virginia lives in Changsha, Hunan Province. He says that simply having a Tencent Weibo version in English would not be enough to make them sign up now. He's already been using Sina Weibo and likes the integrated platform.

"I used Twitter when I was back in the US; Twitter just seems a bit more streamlined, whereas with Weibo, with the Chinese Weibo, they have a lot more features. And they actually just upgraded to a new version and there's chat, you can watch video and see all sorts of pictures and it's starting to be like a blog site like if Twitter mixed with Facebook."

But will an English version make a difference abroad? Possibly, for companies, celebrities and musicians trying to brand themselves in China, using Tencent Weibo may be a dream come true.

Tom, who prefers that his surname be withheld, is a writer for "Seeing Red in China," a popular topical and trend analysis bilingual blog in China. Tom adds that this could eventually be the key point for foreign firms wanting to break into the Chinese market.

"I think what's going to be Tencent's bigger advantage is that it's going to be able to attract celebrities and companies trying to advertise to China. I don't think you're going to see an American company advertising to Americans through Tencent Weibo anytime soon. But to reach the Chinese market I think it's going to be a very big tool and offering English functionality is going to make it easier for people to reach Chinese markets in a way they haven't done or tried before."

Olusola agrees and says Chinese microblogs are an excellent way to stay connected to China's online community. When he returned to America to continue his career as a professional cellist, he continued to use Sina as a way to promote his music.

"There are a lot of Chinese people interested in what's going on in America and they really are interested in those kinds of things that I'm doing here. Right now, I'm on this TV show called the "Sing Off," and I tell people, 'Oh, hey, I picked this up from the sing off,' and I get a really good response. Also, I think that's the main thing that I'm trying to do. Also, Weibo is really useful for me. Chinese people-I get to read their blogs and find out what's going on in China. What are the hot topics? What are they tweeting-weibo'ing about? So, I try to incorporate that into my own texts. And that's when people realize, 'He's into Chinese culture.' And that also helps me promote myself as a musician"

For those like Olusola, accessing China microblogs is successful because they posts in Chinese. But for new members who only speak English, the communication issue remains.

But maybe it's not about language at all, as Chen points out. Do we need another microblogging site? His words are echoed by Tom, who reminds us that Twitter is everywhere else.

"Can it compete with Twitter abroad? I'm going to say that for a very long time, I don't think that Tencent is going to show up on Twitter's radar. They have so many languages already available on Twitter and it's already being used in countries all over the world. Tencent Weibo seems a little bit like a late one to the party on this one."

It's too early to say what will happen with Tencent Weibo's English site and Sina's no doubt not too far behind. Will the world reach out to China and can China's social media reach out to the world? It's too early to say but not impossible. After all, remember when you laughed the first time you heard someone say, "Tweet"? Maybe it's the same with 'weibo.'

For CRI, I'm Andrea Hunt.