Weibo Increases Character Limit

You might have mastered the art of getting the message across Twitter despite of the 140 character limit, but sometimes 140 characters are simply not adequate to get the job done. Having said that, it seems that Weibo, which is Twitter’s equivalent over in China, might have something to say to influence the outcome of Twitter’s decision in the future where character limits are concerned – it looks like Weibo will be expanding their 140 Chinese character limit to touch the 2,000 mark.

A trial of the service with the new character limit is said to kick off this coming 28th of January, where a month following the trial, there will be an update that will target the remaining 500 million users to bring their communications to the next level. This character expansion on Weibo will not visually affect user timelines drastically, where posts will still depict the first 140 characters, while the remaining message remains truncated until readers click on the “enter” button.

A Weibo spokesperson mentioned, “According to Weibo’s big data, only about 10 percent of original posts surpass 120 Chinese characters. But we are extending the text limit to offer greater choice and a better user experience. It will be available to our VIP members from Jan. 28 and the rest of the public from Feb. 28.”

This is hot on the heels of word that Twitter might let users share up to 10,000 characters, although nothing concrete from Twitter has been delivered just yet.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: Twitter, weibo