By Herman Lai, posted Feb 17, 2011 at 10:58 AM, 268 views,

Sina Weibo Adds New Features To Challenge Twitter

Sina Weibo, the Twitter-like microblog in China, now has around 10 million users growing per month, expecting to have over 150 million of users by this year. And recently, the company launched two new features called “Voicemail Tweet” and “Direct Video Uploads”.

Voicemail Weibo (语音微博)

This service allows users dial a service number on their mobile phones and record a message which will be uploaded and shared to their Weibo accounts.

Apparently, it will let mobile phone users spend less time on typing their Weibo, in which would cease the chance of accident happens while walking on the street. Even more, Voicemail Weibo has much sensation than just plain texts, users can express the feeling immediately, definitely is a better! We are thinking the Voicemail Weibo would become a new fashion, a new trend, a revolution for all social network users.

However, the negative side of Voicemail Weibo is it takes long for uploading, around 5 minutes possibly. Anyway, people tend to use this new feature much more, just like a famous Chinese singer called “Faye Wong”, she greeted her 2 millions fans with the use of Voicemail Weibo.

Direct Video Upload

With the Direct Video Upload, users can upload a video of up to 200mb, instead of simply linking to external video sites. The video will be embedded in the Weibo (equivalent of “tweets”) and shared together with the Weibo. The video uploads are ported directly to Sina’s video site (video.sina.com.cn) and can be played independently. Moreover, it supports both HTML 5 and Flash, which means compatible playback, even when accessed using smartphones.

Source: TNW, TechWeb