Sina Weibo to follow Twitter’s lead and remove 140-character limit
Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo is to remove its 140-character limit by the end of this month, opting to have a 140-character preview that expands.
A note sent out from Weibo Open Platform to developers on the platform said it would start to expand the limit from 28 January, with initial access to the new feature tested by “senior users” and a wider roll out planned for 28 February.
The chief executive of Sina Weibo, Wang Gaofei, re-posted the note from his personal account, seemingly confirming the move.
According to reports on Sina, Wang said only 140 characters will be displayed in feeds and a link will appear to show the entire content if a post exceeds the character limit during the trial run.
Sina Weibo’s announcement follows strong rumours that Twitter is doing the same, though the business has not yet confirmed the news. Despite this, the Twittersphere voiced their opinions anyway and The Drum readers' reaction was very much split.