Viral Marketing Case: Sina Micro-Blog - Part II

The most outstanding advantage of viral marketing is low cost. Before the launched date of Sina Micro-Blog, Sina had invited 800 hundred people (including some artistes) to use the Micro-Blog. Through the word-of-month from these trial users, the registered blog users dramatically increased. Since Micro-Blog is an online public platform that users can post his/her messages, buzz spreads much more rapidly.



There is, however, one significance drawback of viral marketing. Once the message spreads, it cannot be controlled, especially some negative buzz. Many users feel dissatisfied with Sina as their messages are deleted and their accounts are removed when it thinks the contents include some sensitive political words. The voice of discontent widely spread via online and offline channels and that could not be stopped by Sina. There is no doubt that negative voice will affect people's desire to sign up to become a user.

Reference: http://t.sina.com.cn/, news

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