LIVE FROM MOBILE ASIA EXPO 2014: Wang Gaofei, CEO of Chinese microblogging service Sina Weibo, used his keynote to highlight the radical difference he sees between PC and mobile internet users.
Those users who access Weibo and other internet services via a PC – a minority – have seen an alteration to how they spend time in an office or internet cafe but what has happened with the mobile internet impacts everything, he said.
“The PC change affects two hours of daily life but mobile and the internet of things changes all twenty-four hours,” said Gaofei, who added 70 per cent of total daily users access the service with a mobile device.
And domestically, while the PC is used mostly in a study, mobile usage is anytime and anywhere.
“The mobile internet is not an extension of the internet,” he said.
However, Weibo is anxious to carry their old-school PC users with them, even though they represent a minority. “We want them to avoid feelings of confusion when they move from one to another [PC to mobile],” said Gaofei.
“When we launch new services, they go first on mobile and if it’s good then move to PC as well,” he explained.
Since its launch four years ago, Weibo has accumulated a monthly active user base of 144 million.
Among Weibo’s future plans is greater user of location-based services, so that it can offer more targeted services to users, he said.
