Do foreign-born social networks stand a chance here in the United States. We could soon find out as China's Sina Weibo reportedly prepares to release its Twitter-like microblogging platform in English
in as little as two months. First reported by Chinese tech news resource
TechWeb,
The Next Web notes that Sina already announced plans to monetize its
popular service and since then has been very active with rolling out new features. "Probably the most conclusive piece of evidence to support the rumor is the introduction of an English version of its
iPhone app last month," writes The Next Web. As of May, Sina Webio was reportedly reaching more than 140 million registered users, and expects to top 200 million users by the end of the year. Adds The
Next Web: "It will be interesting how Sina Weibo will apply the mandatory China censorship to other countries, especially ones that are protected by laws on Internet freedom, which require sites to be
completely open."