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
Sina Weibo accounts and the rising threat from competitor WeChat. On September 8, 2017, Weibo gave an ultimatum to its users to verify their accounts with their real names by September 15. On February 18, 2018, Sina Weibo has provided a 'Comment moderation' function for both head users and official members. Comments received after opening this feature will not be displayed immediately, but after being approved by moderators. Users can utilize this feature to avoid illegal content appearing in their comment section. Average organic post view is around 10% – 15% on Weibo, in order to attract more followers, there are 3