Oracle Social Cloud will provide publishing, engagement, and analytics support for Weibo, which has commonly been referred to as the “Twitter of China.” The growing social network reported 176 million active users for December, a year-over-year increase of 36%.
“We are excited about our relationship with Oracle. This relationship will enable Oracle’s global customer base to better understand and engage with Weibo’s tremendous Chinese user base,” said Bryan Cheng, general manager of Weibo Business Product and Platform Division. “Weibo strives to provide a social platform where consumers, businesses, and celebrities can better connect and engage in a lively online environment.”
Some 800,000 businesses have a presence on Weibo, practicing both customer engagement and commerce on the network. “The ability to monitor more platforms in more languages with advanced listening and sentiment analysis, and engage in real-time, in-context conversation gives organizations the ability to build customer-centric social relationships on a global scale,” commented Meg Bear, group VP of Oracle Social Cloud.
The Oracle business unit also announced that it will provide engagement and analytics services for Instagram, noting the network’s rising profile among a majority of 18- to 24-year-olds.
The Chinese Web portal Sina holds a 56% stake in Weibo; Alibaba owns 32%. In its fourth quarter earnings report released earlier this week, Weibo reported an 8% sales increase to $208 million. More than half the network’s ad revenues come from the mobile segment, and CEO Gaofei Wang said in a press release that “we are seeing significant interest from customers to learn more about Weibo marketing.”
