Microblogging in China Committee of the Communist Party of China, the People's Daily, also launched its own People's Weibo (人民微博) in February 2010, with some governmental organizations and officials blogging on it. Recent studies have shown that official microblogging has become a sophisticated e-government effort for social management, especially for local governments and state units. It has led to a gradual change in local government's social governance strategy and functional change from being a service provider to a 'service predictor'. The latter requires enhanced capabilities to deliver individualized services and institute state surveillance via commercial service providers. In doing so, government units are
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