Weibo.com has launched a new program for “we media” to encourage more unique and quality content creation on Weibo.
Weibo “We Media” Program is for verified individual Weibo accounts to apply, whose monthly posts have more than one and half million monthly views and total number of fans are below five million.
1,000 individuals, across 23 categories, was invited to apply for this program.
Users under this program will have optimized display of their articles and can also write long post (a lot more than 140 characters) on Weibo mobile client. Their content will be promoted on multiple channels including some under collaborations with UC and Qihoo 360.
Weibo will share revenue with those users, generated via advertising, paid topic discussion and product selling.
Weibo stock price rose 19.06% after IPO to USD 20.24, and Weibo’s market value reached USD 4.1 billion on 18 April, 2014. This is another smart move by Weibo for more revenues. Currently, there are quite some number of grassroots influencers and unverified content accounts, who probably already cash with some under-the-table deals, just like some Chinese celebrities on Weibo.
This program will turn those influencers into active collaborators by empowering them, giving them some privilege, and co-sharing the revenue.