"Sina Weibo is under increasing pressure from WeChat because users are heavily overlapped," said Dong.

On Dec 11, Sina Weibo signed a cooperation deal with AutoNavi Holdings Ltd, China's No 1 navigation provider by market share, to enhance Weibo's strength in the mobile sector. The company pledged to bring more location-based services to mobile users in the coming year.

"We will try more services on Weibo before it can generate profits," Wang Gaofei, vice-president of Sina and general manager of Sina Mobile, told China Daily last week.

Yet directors of Sina are busy answering another question: When will the nation's top micro-blogging platform stop losing money?

Weibo's advertising revenues doubled in the third quarter, compared to the second quarter, said Charles Chao, CEO and chairman of Sina, in a bid to placate investors' impatience.

But Chao did not specify the exact amount of the revenue.

"Sina Weibo is doing fairly well in the advertising and online gaming sectors, but it should look for other profit models," said Dong.

She also suggested that selling smartphones with Xiaomi could be an option for Sina Weibo to boost earnings only if the company is willing to join hands with larger e-commerce websites.

It will be difficult for Sina to operate a self-owned e-commerce platform because it requires heavy investment and long-term market cultivation. A better approach for Sina to choose is teaming up with existing e-commerce providers, Dong said.

gaoyuan@chinadaily.com.cn

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