The most outstanding advantage of viral marketing is low cost. Before the launched date of Sina Micro-Blog, Sina had invited 800 hundred people (including some artistes) to use the Micro-Blog. Through the word-of-month from these trial users, the registered blog users dramatically increased. Since Micro-Blog is an online public platform that users can post his/her messages, buzz spreads much more rapidly.
There is, however, one significance drawback of viral marketing. Once the message spreads, it cannot be controlled, especially some negative buzz. Many users feel dissatisfied with Sina as their messages are deleted and their accounts are removed when it thinks the contents include some sensitive political words. The voice of discontent widely spread via online and offline channels and that could not be stopped by Sina. There is no doubt that negative voice will affect people's desire to sign up to become a user.Reference: http://t.sina.com.cn/, newsSource: alvinchan
Sina Micro-Blog is developed and owned by Sina. The web site (http://t.sina.com.cn/) was launched in September 2009. Until now, there are over 75 million registered users. What is the reason causing so many people registered to become a blogger in few months? Because of the successful viral marketing strategy.
Sina Micro-Blog is a fully opened platform that users can post their messages, can read, follow, comment and forward other users' messages even they do not know each other. Therefore, information transmission in the blog is very fast. Also, since there is a verification system for artistes, singers and celebrities in Sina Micro-Blog, they are willing to become a member, willing to leave messages and photos in their blog. Due to these interesting features, the current users of Sina Micro-Blog are willing to invite and recommend their friends to sign up and use.
As the success of Sina Micro-Blog, the traditional broadcast media also reported and even used some information posted from the bloggers as their news headline. Therefore, more people know Sina Micro-Blog and are interested to sign up as a member in China and Hong Kong.
