DataSift to Offer Data on Chinese Twitter Rival Sina Weibo

Social media analyst DataSift is tapping into data from China's Twittter-like social media network Sina Weibo, allowing clients to analyze audiences, monitor brands and sentiment, and access real-time consumer behavior data.

Launched in the UK in 2008 and rolled out in the US in 2011, DataSift enables companies to aggregate and filter insights from billions of social media conversations, giving access to both real-time and historical data. Earlier this month, the firm raised $42m in a Series C round of funding, through which it plans to accelerate company growth.

The new deal with Sina Weibo provides access to one of the most popular sites in China, which is used by more than 30% of the country's Internet users and has a market penetration similar to Twitter's in the US. The network - which has now expanded to Singapore and Indonesia - has more than 500 million registered users posting more than 100 million messages every day.

DataSift CEO Rob Bailey (pictured) says the ability to better understand Chinese 'market dynamics, audiences and segments' is a strategic priority for many of his firm's customers.

Web sites: www.datasift.com and www.weibo.com .