Drama alert: you can now see which friends have ditched you on Sina Weibo

Photo by woodleywonderworks

Usually, when someone unfriends or unfollows you on social media, they disappear silently. Unless you’re watching closely, you’re not likely to know they’ve abandoned you. This is probably a good thing, as it can prevent hurt feelings and angry why’d-you-unfollow-me emails. But Sina Weibo is throwing caution to the wind with a new feature that’ll let you see who unfollows you (and let others see when you unfollow them).

The feature is part of a broader data analytics package that Sina is currently testing. The base-level service will cost over US$1,000 a year, so it’s definitely marketed at enterprises rather than individuals. But for the next month, at least, some of its services (including seeing who has unfollowed you) are available as part of a free trial. It’s unclear if after that any free analytics options will remain, so if you want to get your Weibo snoop on you may want to move quickly.

You’ll also likely need to use the mobile version of Weibo, as this feature doesn’t appear to be available elsewhere just yet (although that could change).

So far, the response to this move on China’s web has been fairly negative. Commenters mostly see it as a cynical cash-grab on the part of Sina. “[Sina] is getting more and more shameless,” a TechWeb commenter posted via his Sina Weibo account.