Microblogging in China in spreading the news quickly and discussing and evaluating government response. In 2012, there were 309 million people microblogging in China. "Wei boke" (微博客) and "weixing boke" (微型博客), commonly abbreviated as "weibo" (微博), are Chinese words for "microblog". A China-based microblogging service often names itself a weibo by putting it after the name of the service (e.g. Tencent Weibo, Sina Weibo). A similar word "围脖" () is used as Internet slang for "weibo". Fanfou () is the earliest notable weibo service. It was launched in Beijing on May 12, 2007 by the co-founder of Xiaonei (now Renren) Wang Xing ().
Sina Weibo new "close friend" function enhanced the private social circle; In February 2013, the company reported total revenue of about 66 million us dollars, with more than 500 million registered users and 46.2 million daily active users; In April 2013, Alibaba acquired an 18% stake in Sina Weibo; In August 2013, Sina Weibo Taobao was launched to realize account sharing; In March 2014, sina weibo was renamed "weibo"; In April 2014, weibo was listed on Nasdaq; In November 2016, the 140-character limit for the release of the publisher was limited to less than 2,000 words; In December 2016, Sina Weibo posted