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"Chinese microblogging platform Sina Weibo has officially rolled out subscription-based accounts for verified users on its platform, letting fans subscribe to their favorite brands and celebrities to receive updates from them automatically, Sina Tech reports (hat/tip Tech in Asia).\r\n\r\nThe Twitter-like service's latest move gives brands and celebrities a way to connect with their fans, in turn driving engagement and keeping users onboard. Verified users can send their followers updates via direct messages -- so fans won't miss anything that has been sent.\r\n\r\nThis comes amid fears that Sina Weibo is losing ground as it is being pressured by competition from messaging apps -- in particular Tencent-owned WeChat, which\u00A0already has public platforms for users to follow a particular account and receive updates accordingly.\r\n\r\nSina says that so far, more than 60,000 users have signed up to use this new channel during its beta-testing stage."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/asia/2013/10/30/users-of-chinas-twitter-sina-weibo-can-now-subscribe-to-verified-accounts-for-direct-updates/>