Twitter’s Chinese version, Weibo files preliminary prospectus for IPO

The Chinese version of Twitter, Weibo, filed a preliminary prospectus yesterday for an initial public offering in the US to raise $500 million.

Weibo developed by Nasdaq-listed Sina Corp,  now owns the 77.6 per cent of Weibo, while a subsidiary of Alibaba Group owns another 19.3 per cent through a $586 million investment made last April.

The IPO might come as a step toward Weibo's long-predicted spin-off from Sina. According to the filing, the transaction agreement ''contains provisions relating to the company's carve-out from Sina,'' and that $250 million of the net proceeds would be used for repayment of loans to Sina.

The 2009 launched, Weibo boasts 129-million monthly active users as of December, its IPO filing said. Weibo users can post a feed of up to 140 Chinese characters with multimedia attachments, December alone saw some 2.8 billion of those feeds were posted. The prospectus said.

''Weibo allows people to be heard publicly and exposed to the rich ideas, cultures and experiences of the broader world, the prospectus said.

''Media outlets use Weibo as a source of news and a distribution channel for their headlines. Government agencies and officials use Weibo as an official communication channel for disseminating timely information and gauging public opinion to improve public services,'' it added.

Meanwhile, industrial standards for China's internet advertising went into effect today as concerns increase over users' information security.

Under the standards, created by the China Internet Association, require that the collection, use, transfer and sharing of user information should conform to mutual agreements and comply with laws and regulations.

Websites are required to make clear to users when they were collecting user information.

Further they are required to notify users in a timely manner for privacy protection. The standards require collection of sensitive only after agreement by users.

According to the association, unlike traditional advertising, online advertisers could target special groups of users based on their online behaviours, which could be recorded and analysed, leading to privacy concerns.

The association said, mainstream internet companies, advertising firms, and third-party companies had also participated in creating the standards.