Sina Weibo enters Twitter’s turf in Southeast Asia: Suicidal or genius? (LIVE BLOG)

Valued at $6 billion and with over 60 million active users (though mostly in China), microblog service Sina Weibo has recently set up base in Southeast Asia to tackle Chinese speaking audiences in Singapore and Indonesia. Can it win in a market largely dominated by Twitter and Facebook? Through this interview with Sina JV-company Trends Media‘s Jimmy Li at Startup Asia Jakarta 2013, we will investigate how Weibo plans to win Southeast Asia.

#10:14: We take the stage and get to introductions. Li’s based in Singapore where he heads up Sina Weibo’s Southeast Asian expansion.

#10:15: Tan asks about data for Southeast Asian users. Li says that the data can’t be given at the moment, but it will be given by the end of December. He does say that Southeast Asia makes up 25 percent of Weibo’s overall overseas market.

#10:17: In Singapore, Li says that the main users are overseas mainlanders in the country, as well as overseas Taiwanese and Malaysians in Singapore.

#10:19: Why choose Singapore and Indonesia when looking to expand in Southeast Asia? Li singles out the favorable tax policies, solid talent pool, and government grants as factors that made Singapore a natural choice for Sina Weibo to grow out from China. Indonesia, meanwhile, has a large population, with about seven million Chinese, according to Li. But Li stresses that he wants Sina Weibo to serve Chinese speakers all over the world, not just Southeast Asia. And he intends to set up and office in Indonesia in December.

#10:23: Weibo, Facebook, and Twitter are totally different, Li says. “We have all the functions of those players, but our goal is the Chinese market.”

#10:27: As for localization, Sina Weibo provides a landing page with news and content for local users.

#10:28: We pivot to Weibo’s recent campaign, “Bring Weibo to Travel.” This is a campaign that encourages Weibo users to share their travel experiences on Weibo. In two months time, 300 million users have actively participated in this campaign. The result is that various hotels, airlines, and restaurants have been able to provide prizes, which helps companies build up their image.

#10:30: Li notes that Chinese students in the US are also a very valuable demographic to Sina Weibo.

#10:33: Tan slips in a quick question about censorship, and Li says, “no comment.” And we’ve wrapped up!

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This is a part of our coverage of Startup Asia Jakarta 2013, our event running on November 21 and 22. For the rest of our Startup Arena pitches, see here. You can follow along on Twitter at @TechinAsia, and on our Facebook page.

(Editing by Josh Horwitz)