Take That, Twitter: Chinese Site Beats Tweets per Second Record

Sina Weibo, one of China’s premiere microblogs and alternatives to Twitter, saw a record number of messages sent per second Monday, in honor of the Chinese New Year.

Kicking off the Year of the Dragon, the new record — 32,312 messages per second — trounces Twitter’s record 25,088 messages sent per second, which was set last December in Japan during a TV screening of anime movie Castle in the Sky.

Chinese news site DoNews reports the first minute of the new year saw 481,207 messages sent, roughly three times the number of messages sent during the first minute of the last new year. That figure is on par with the site’s 296% increase in users during 2011.

Sina Weibo now has 250 million registered users, making the site slightly smaller than its largest domestic rival, Tencent Weibo, which has 300 million registered users. However, according to DoNews, Sina Weibo is the more-used of the two, seeing some 100 million users visit the site each day.

SEE ALSO: China Has 500 Million Web Users, Half of Them Are Microbloggers

Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow’s overtime touchdown pass earlier this month set the U.S. record for the most tweets per second at 9,420.

Perhaps, given the Twitter-based enthusiasm of football fans, the upcoming Superbowl Feb. 5 will give the U.S. a chance to catch up with the Chinese and Japanese microblogging records.

As China’s online population continues to grow, do you expect microblogs like Sina Weibo to continue to appeal to the mainstream? Let us know in the comments.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, kizilkayaphotos

More About: china, microblog, sina weibo, Twitter

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