Microblogging in China The website's layout, API, and mode of use was highly similar to Twitter, which was created earlier in 2006. Fanfou's users increased from 0.3 million to 1 million in the first half of 2009. The users included HP China, the "Southern Weekly", artist Ai Weiwei, writer Lian Yue () and TV commentator Liang Wendao (). Some other weibo services, such as Jiwai, Digu, Zuosa and Tencent's Taotao were launched in 2006-2009. After the July 2009 Ürümqi riots, the CPC government shut down most of the domestic weibo services, including Fanfou and Jiwai. Many popular non China-based microblogging services such as
Weibo (Tang dynasty) Weibo (Tang dynasty) Weibo (; alternatively written Wei–Bo), also known as Tianxiong (), was a province or circuit (, "dào") of the mid to late Tang dynasty. The area was governed from the capital of Weizhou () in modern Daming County, Handan, Hebei, and controlled the southern Hebei and northern Shandong regions. In the post–An Lushan period, Tang Suzong combined Weizhou and Bozhou () under the command of the Weibo Army, and Tian Chengsi became the first "jiedushi" or military governor of Weibo. The Weibo region, ruled autonomously by the Tian family, subsequently became one of the revolting garrisons of