Weibo: Facebook's new shop, Baidu's new gadget, Xue Manzi's drivel
This week’s tech round-up from the microblogging realm is a flurry of interesting but unrelated news bits, as the world gets back to work following the end of the summer holidays. Leading the list is the latest effort by Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) to find a backdoor into China, which comes in the form of a new Weibo account that isn’t verified but has at least one tech executive spreading the word and encouraging people to follow the page.
Meantime, online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) generated some microblogging buzz when it unveiled an unusual pair of high-tech chopsticks in Beijing. Last but not least there's Xue Manzi, a tech investor also known as Charles Xue, who was busy hyping a tech start-up on his microblog. Xue is a man I came to dislike over the years for his largely empty talk, even as he built up a base of more than 10 million followers on Weibo (Nasdaq: WB). But then he got sent to prison for becoming too influential and political, making me more sympathetic, before his release in April and quick return to vacuous blogging.
I've had a look myself, and there's no "V" on the account, which means its authenticity hasn't been verified by Weibo. The site also has a reliability rating of "1", the lowest rating that is automatically assigned to all new accounts. This account is indeed quite new, and has only been posting since August 31. And yet despite that newness, it already has an impressive 130,000 followers. The postings on the account also aren't too exciting, totaling only five to date when I checked it out. But if it's authentic and receives the coveted "V" rating, it could become an interesting window onto what Facebook is planning for China.
36kr.com's post doesn't give any of its own evaluation of the product, probably because Baidu hasn't given any to users yet. The idea sounds interesting in concept, especially in a place like China where food safety scandals appear weekly. I have to credit Baidu with creating an innovative idea that the market is likely to embrace at least initially, though reliability and ease of use will ultimately determine the product's success.
Finally we'll turn our attention to Xue Manzi, a Chinese-born naturalized US citizen who has become a controversial figure for techies over the past year. Many people who know the man say he's quite generous with his time and money, and has helped to nurture many Chinese tech start-ups. He was one of the earlier people to open an account on Weibo after the service's launch, and quickly built up his massive follower base that now totals nearly 11.5 million.
I won't repeat his hype here, which reads more like an advertisement and hints that Xue is probably one of the company's backers. On the one hand, I can't blame Xue for wanting to avoid controversy after his recent jail experience. But on the other hand, I honestly can't see people taking him seriously or following his microblog for too much longer if he continues to post this kind of vacuous material on his page.