Shanghai (CNS)--The First Half of 2011 Chinese Microblog Report was released by the Yuqing Study Lab of Shanghai Jiaotong University on July 7. The report showed the growing influence of public opinions expressed on microblogs and their influence in arousing the attention of government departments at all levels. In response to this, many government institutions and officials have opened up microblog accounts. By July 6, of this year, 4,920 institutions and 3,949 officials had created profiles on the Sina Weibo platform (similar to Twitter in the US).
The report found that this phenomenon derives from the popularity of officials' microblogs during the 2011 National People's Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference sessions. Microblogs were used as a means to gather suggestions from Web users and encourage public participation.
The ten most popular government institution microblogs in the first half of 2011 had over 5.08 million fans, had sent out 6,055 "tweets", and had followed 2,898 people. Apart from the top ten, many "star" officials and institutions are among the list with millions of fans.
Guangdong provincial offices have the most microblog accounts among all the regions. Public security departments made up 75% of all government microblog accounts. Out of the top ten ranking Chinese governmental institutions, departments in Guangdong Province have five spots.
According to the report, as government microblogs increase, as more and more microblogs of government institutions and officers were created, they have become hotspots, or points of interest to the public. Microblogs have become crucial to upgrading their practical capacity and promoting public interaction.
The fast development of microblogs in the first six months of this year is still in an early stage, the research shows. This trend will continue on, in terms of microblog users, product development, profit model exploration, as well as market creation and competition. Microblogs have joined the mainstream media and imposed an ever growing impact on public social life.
