Sina Weibo the domestic microblogging services including the first weibo service Fanfou. Many popular non-China-based microblogging services like Twitter, Facebook, and Plurk have been blocked from viewing since then. Sina's CEO Charles Chao considered this to be an opportunity. SINA Corporation launched the tested version of Sina Weibo on 14 August 2009. Basic functions including message, private message, comment and re-post were made possible in September 2009. A Sina Weibo–compatible API platform for developing third-party applications was launched on 28 July 2010. On 1 December 2010, the website experienced an outage, which administrators later said was due to the increasing numbers of
Sina Weibo also released a desktop client for Microsoft Windows under the product name of Weibo Desktop. Sina Weibo is available in both simplified and traditional Chinese characters. The site also has versions catering to users from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Weibo is now developing its international edition in English and other languages. On 9 January the company ran a week-long public test of its English edition. Sina Weibo's official iPhone and iPad apps are available in English language. Weilingdi (微领地, literally, "micro fief") is another service bundled with Weibo that is similar to Foursquare, a location-based social networking website based on