新浪微博 (Sina Weibo)
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
新浪微博 (Sina Weibo, usually just "Weibo") is a Chinese public microblogging platform. The format is close to a feed of short posts with media and long "articles": the connections between users are asymmetric, anyone can follow anyone, and a repost with a comment turns a post into a chain.
This is how the company describes itself: «Weibo combines means of real-time public self-expression with a platform for social interaction, content aggregation and distribution… the asymmetric relationships allow an original post to turn into a live, viral stream of conversation».
A practical feature you have to reckon with immediately: the web part of Weibo is closed to outside programs. The robots file prohibits crawling the whole site for all agents except the search engines listed and a few AI robots, and leaves only /ads.txt open; the mobile version is arranged the same way. That is why this article relies on the reporting of the public company, the documentation of the open developer platform and the app store.
Who's here
The figures below belong to Weibo Corporation and are taken from its announcements of financial results. In the report for the first quarter of 2026 the company states: the monthly audience (MAU) was 562 million in March 2026, and the average daily audience (DAU) 254 million in March 2026. A year earlier the company named different values: 591 million MAU and 261 million DAU in March 2025. Comparing the two company publications gives a year-on-year audience decline of about five percent.
The company is registered in the Cayman Islands, trades under the ticker WB on Nasdaq and under the code 9898 on the Hong Kong exchange, and is governed through weighted voting rights shares. Its reporting is filed with the American regulator: the disclosure register shows a Form 20-F for 2025 filed on 23 April 2026.
An indirect pointer about distribution channels: on Google Play the 微博 app is listed under the publisher Sina.com and carries a "more than 10 million downloads" mark and 332 thousand reviews. That figure says something only about the foreign Google channel: inside China the app is distributed through the phone manufacturers' own stores.
Getting started
A verified account as the condition for business work
Access to business tools is opened not to a "business account" in the usual sense but to a verified account (微博认证帐号, weibo renzheng zhanghao). The follower service platform is described outright: it is a platform for verified Weibo users; a verified user switches on development mode, names and authorises a third-party developer, after which the developer receives rights to the interface. The sequence is this: verification first, then connecting a contractor, and only after that automation.
A developer
A developer registers on the open platform. The contracting party is the company 微梦 (Weimeng), which requires that the developer hold the appropriate qualifications, use the issued AppKey lawfully and be answerable for all activity under that key. Applications go through review: until they pass it an application can authorise only 15 test accounts, and the posts they create do not reach the general feed.
What you can publish
The set of formats is visible from the composition of the programming interface. The English version of the reference lists the sections Timeline API, User API, Direct message API, Friendships API, Trends API, Social Graph API, Favorites API, Search API and Geo API — that is, posts, comments and reposts, private messages, follows, topics, geotags and search.
In describing itself the company adds to short posts "multimedia and long-form content" — these are the platform's "articles". The content prohibitions for ordinary users are set out in the platform's community agreement.
What is known for certain is the prohibitions for applications. The developer agreement requires that you not mislead the user, not disturb them and not create junk messages; a separate line prohibits requesting platform data on the pretext of public opinion monitoring for government bodies — that requires the original of the instruction.
How to grow
What the platform says about the algorithm
Weibo describes its matching mechanics in terms of advertising rather than the feed: the company reports that it is continuously improving its "recommendation engine on the social interest graph", which lets clients market to people and target delivery by demographics, social connections, interests and behaviour.
Advertising
The advertising model is the company's main one. For the first quarter of 2026 advertising and marketing revenue was $369.8 million against total revenue of $421.3 million, that is about 88%; advertising from Alibaba is broken out separately at $43.3 million; the company names the formats itself: display of social display advertising and "promoted marketing offerings", with the advertising being "native" and styled to match the feed.
An important caveat about the division of roles: the platform agreement explicitly reserves to Weibo itself accounts, relationships, the message feed, search, payments, the advertising system, the application framework, geolocation, albums and a number of other parts — they "will not be opened to external third parties". The advertising system is on that list. A third-party service cannot connect to it "through the API".
Path to monetization
Weibo promises no direct payment to creators for views. The company splits its own revenue into two parts: advertising and marketing — $369.8 million; value-added services (VAS) — $51.6 million for the first quarter of 2026; the company explains the 11% decline in VAS by a smaller contribution from the gaming line. VAS is payments by users (subscriptions, games, virtual goods), not payouts to creators.
For a creator what remains is earning not from the platform directly but through its sub-platforms and services. The platform agreement names its own or exclusively managed sub-platforms, among them 微任务 (Weirenwu, micro-tasks), 微游戏 and 微活动; it also speaks of the virtual currency 微币 and the Weibo payment system, and partners are allowed to earn income by charging users. 微任务 is the platform's own exchange for sponsored posts by creators. Paid services for followers go through the follower service platform, and that is open only to verified accounts.
Tools and automation
The official interface
Weibo's open platform is documented; the index page was updated on 4 March 2026 and lists sections for mobile applications, websites, e-commerce, payments and follower service; authorisation is OAuth 2.0, and development kits are declared for iOS, Android, HarmonyOS and the web.
The limits that determine everything else
The call rate is tightly restricted, and this is the main thing to know before planning automation. The platform gives examples: one authorised user within an application — 100 calls per day; one IP address — 15,000 calls per hour; the post publishing interface — 30 calls per hour per authorised user. The document page was updated on 15 May 2025. The same page says that if the limits are not enough you have to approach the commercial open platform and buy paid interfaces.
The platform recommends its own polling rhythm: once every 3–5 minutes, since the interface works by polling rather than by push notifications. A separate prohibition breaks the usual architecture of scheduling and analytics services: the open platform forbids a third-party server to store user data — caching is allowed only on the client, and exporting to your own server is not allowed.
Messages to followers
The follower service platform is compatible with the WeChat format: a developer can choose the WeChat XML format or JSON, and the reply window is set explicitly — after a user's message, a follow or a menu item tap the number of replies within 48 hours is unlimited, while a mention can be replied to once per 48 hours. The document was updated on 24 August 2015.
Limits and rules
- Robot access. The site is closed: for all agents except the list of search engines and AI robots, only
/ads.txtis allowed; the mobile version is closed the same way. - Call rate and key blocking. 100 per day per application user, 15,000 per hour per IP, 30 per hour for publishing a post; exceeding them or making frequent calls not initiated by the user leads to the application or the IP being deemed a robot and having access to all interfaces closed.
- Data and the legal frame. Operational data belongs to the platform, what has been collected may not be passed to third parties, and on ceasing operation the data is subject to immediate deletion; the contract is concluded with a Chinese legal entity and also obliges you to observe the terms of the Sina site.
- Closed areas. Accounts, relationships, the feed, search, payments, the advertising system, geolocation and a number of other parts are closed to third-party developers; for lotteries and stock market services the platform concludes exclusive agreements only.
Who it's for
It suits companies working deliberately with mainland China and ready to run the platform with a local team or agency. The audience the company itself reports is 562 million MAU in March 2026, with advertising making up about 88% of revenue: the advertiser paying for impressions is the main client here, and organic reach is secondary. It suits projects ready for the account verification procedure: without it the business tools simply do not open.
It does not suit you if you expect to run Weibo from a general scheduling panel: the limit of 30 posts an hour per user and the ban on storing data on your own server make the familiar "one service, many platforms" scheme unusable. It does not suit you if you are waiting for creator payouts from the platform: Weibo has no such programme.
Tools for this platform
The list is built from the tools' own facts: every line is a tool's statement that it supports the platform, with the source named. A tool missing from the list only means we have no such statement.
Scheduling and publishing:
Social listening:
- Brandwatch — states support; source, checked 2026-07-28
- Meltwater — states support; source, checked 2026-07-28
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
Weibo Corporation, registered in the Cayman Islands, governed through weighted voting rights shares; Nasdaq: WB, HKEX: 9898
From the header of the announcement on the Hong Kong exchange
source, checked 2026-07-28
the company describes itself as follows: a combination of real-time public self-expression with a platform for social interaction, aggregation and distribution of content; the relationships are asymmetric
The About Weibo section — a company claim about itself, not an independent assessment
source, checked 2026-07-28
Who's here
the monthly audience was 562 million in March 2026
A Weibo Corporation figure from its announcement of first-quarter 2026 results
source, checked 2026-07-28
the average daily audience was 254 million in March 2026
A Weibo Corporation figure, same source
source, checked 2026-07-28
the monthly audience was 591 million in March 2025
A company figure from its announcement on the Hong Kong exchange; the year-on-year decline of about 5% is our arithmetic conclusion
source, checked 2026-07-28
the average daily audience was 261 million in March 2025
A company figure, same source
source, checked 2026-07-28
on Google Play the 微博 app is listed under the publisher Sina.com: more than 10 million downloads and 332 thousand reviews
The figure belongs to Google and counts only the foreign channel: inside China the app is distributed through the phone manufacturers' own stores
source, checked 2026-07-28
Business terms
Q1 2026 revenue: $421.3 million in total, advertising and marketing $369.8 million (about 88%), value-added services $51.6 million; advertising from Alibaba $43.3 million
Weibo Corporation data
source, checked 2026-07-28
the follower service platform is open only to verified accounts: a verified user switches on development mode and authorises a third-party developer
The document was updated on 24 August 2015
source, checked 2026-07-28
after a user's message, a follow or a menu item tap the number of replies within 48 hours is unlimited; a mention can be replied to once per 48 hours
Same source; the format is compatible with WeChat XML or JSON
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
the platform names its own or exclusively managed sub-platforms 微任务 (micro-tasks), 微游戏 and 微活动, as well as the virtual currency 微币 and the Weibo payment system
The rates and rules of 微任务 were not checked
source, checked 2026-07-28
The only condition of admission collected is verification: the page «Follower service platform» in Weibo's open documentation says «粉服平台是为微博认证用户提供服务的平台» (our translation: the follower service platform provides services to users who have passed Weibo verification)
The category of verification (blue, yellow, corporate) and the subscriber count are not named on that page. Recorded as partial: the condition exists, its magnitude is unknown. The host open.weibo.com serves no robots.txt of its own, so there is no reading prohibition.
source, checked 2026-08-07
Restrictions
the robots file prohibits crawling the whole site for all agents except the search engines listed and a few AI robots; for the rest only /ads.txt is open
The prohibition was observed and no weibo.com pages were requested; consistent with the database record where the home page was served by a visitor verification system
source, checked 2026-07-28
the mobile version m.weibo.cn is closed the same way: Disallow: / for all agents except the search engines listed
Checked separately
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform reserves to itself accounts, relationships, the message feed, search, payments, the advertising system, the application framework, geolocation and albums: they are not open to third-party developers · the source is dated 2014
The platform agreement has been in force since 1 October 2013, and the page was updated in 2014
source, checked 2026-07-28
Legal
in the US disclosure register the company is listed as WEIBO Corp (CIK 0001595761), with a Form 20-F for 2025 filed on 23 April 2026
We did not read the text of the 20-F itself: the regulator's server serves documents only to clients with a declared contact User-Agent
source, checked 2026-07-28
the contracting party is the company 微梦; a developer must hold the appropriate qualifications, use the AppKey lawfully, not pass collected data to third parties and delete it on ceasing operation
Also prohibited is requesting data on the pretext of public opinion monitoring for government bodies without the original of the instruction
source, checked 2026-07-28
API access
one authorised user within an application — 100 calls per day; one IP — 15,000 calls per hour; publishing a post — 30 calls per hour per user · the source is dated 2025-05-15
The document page was updated on 15 May 2025
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform recommends refreshing once every 3–5 minutes: the interface works by polling rather than by push notifications
Same source
source, checked 2026-07-28
until it passes review an application can authorise only 15 test accounts; the posts they create do not reach the general feed
The restriction is lifted once the application is approved
source, checked 2026-07-28
the open platform forbids a third-party server to store user data: caching is allowed only on the client
Breaks the usual architecture of scheduling and analytics services
source, checked 2026-07-28
exceeding the rate or making frequent calls not initiated by the user leads to the application or the IP being deemed a robot and having access to all interfaces closed
The platform's wording
source, checked 2026-07-28
the English reference lists the Timeline API, Weibo Access API, User API, Direct message API, Friendships API, Trends API, Social Graph API, Privacy API, Block API, Tags API, Account API, Favorites API, OAuth API, Search API, Geo API
The composition of the documentation sections
source, checked 2026-07-28
the open platform's index page was updated on 4 March 2026; it declares sections for mobile applications, websites, e-commerce, payments and follower service, OAuth 2.0 authorisation and kits for iOS, Android, HarmonyOS and the web
The update date is given at the bottom of the page
source, checked 2026-07-28
Catalogue section: all similar See also: catalogue index · region: China · scheduler comparison · find by situation · platform restrictions