Twitter, Looks, China

Media Asia has an interesting round of reports that Twitter is planning to launch a Chinese language version of its popular micro-blogging service.

[CEO Jack] Dorsey…spoke of Twitter’s plans to open a Chinese registration page during a conference in New York, said that “it’s just a matter of time” before Twitter is available in the country.

According to the Associated Press, Dorsey added that, “step one is translation, getting the site accessible in a Chinese version … That’s something the company is really pushing to do.”

Twitter is of course banned in China [so much so that the country is less users than tiny British island Jersey] although Media Asia suggests Dorsey was unaware of this until a few weeks ago.

China’s blockage of Twitter has led to the rise of a series of immitations like Fanfou, Jiwai and Zuosa the latter of which, according to Thomas Crampton, had more than 600,000 uses back in 2008.

The popularity of such home-bred services is likely to count against Twitter, as will China’a stringent business laws.

Media Asia continues.

According to William Bao Bean, partner at Softbank China & India Holdings, Twitter would be expected to start from the ground up in China in order to launch its operations, which means registering itself as a new entity and vow to adhere to censorship regulations, similar to a policy that Google China is trying to shed.

“To launch a site in China, you have to conform to Chinese regulations, which means that you have to apply and receive an ICP licence,” he said.

The lure of the Chinese market is once again tempting a major Western new media brand to look at the potential of the business in the country.

Twitter is, infamously, a company without a monetisation model – visibility amongst China’s enormous population would certainly have its financial rewards, although exactly how Twitter will monetise remains unclear.

The Chinese government, hurting from scraps with Google, may welcome Twitter.

Or alternatively it may prefer its home-grown models which are proving popular and may be easier to regulate.

Either way developments will be interesting.