英语新闻视频：微博与微信，孰为熊掌，孰为鱼?（在线收听）

China’s twitter-like information sharing and social contact platform, Weibo has seen a surge in popularity. But now it is facing a competitor.

　　The battle among China’s social networks is heating up.

　　It turns out that when it comes to instant messaging through social platforms, people are choosing WeChat over Weibo.

　　"I choose WeChat, it’s more convenient."

　　"WeChat. I don’t use Weibo very much."

　　WeChat, formally called Weixin, literally translates from Chinese for Micro Message, is a mobile application designed by Tencent Company for sending voice or text messages, video and pictures through smartphones and tablets. This app, which allows information sharing only among friends, is posing a big challenge to Weibo.

　　Shi Anbin, Professor of Tsinghua Univ., News and Communication School, said, "People hope to use more accessible tool…weixin is a big challenge to weibo..."

　　By the end of March 2012, the most popular microblog, Sina Weibo had more than 300-million users. The number increased to more than 400-million by the end of September.

　　But a surge in users hasn’t really translated into a surge for the company’s bottom line. That’s the biggest problem for Sina according to Professor Shi Anbin. He suggests Weibo to learn from its competitor, which already has a mature revenue channel.

　　"Weibo doesn’t create income… I think it should learn from WeChat, which creates a consumer circle..." Shi said.

　　Professor Shi says Weibo should find a proper business model to translate its popularity and social function to benefit the company.