Microblogs losing out as WeChat rises

Already the world's largest, China's online population grew last year but drifted away from microblogs, with the number of users falling by 32 million.

The decline shows Chinese microblogging sites failing to recover from a major setback in 2013. The second-year drop was accompanied by a rapid growth in popularity of newer products, especially the instant messaging service WeChat.

In an annual report released yesterday, the government-backed China Internet Network Information Center said China's online population reached 649 million last year and that 557 million of them accessed the Internet via mobile devices.

But microblog users dropped by 7.1 percent to 249 million, and Internet companies pulled back investments in microblogging services, the report said.

In comparison, the number of users of mobile instant messaging services grew 17.8 percent to 508 million, the report said.

Dominating this market in China is WeChat, a product that allows users to share information among circles of friends, make online payments, play games, or distribute content in public accounts that can be followed by other users.

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