London-based social analytics company DataSift has signed a deal with Chinese Twitter rival Sina Weibo that will allow firms in Europe to extract consumer sentiments from billions of updates on the Chinese social network.
The social analytics company will add this to their access to Twitter's Firehose and will give customers better insight into the Chinese market. Sina Weibo is the dominant social network in China with more than 500 million registered users and upwards of 100 million messages posted per day. Sina Weibo has recently expanded beyond China to Singapore and Indonesia. Access to the data will provide companies with the opportunity to better understand local consumer preferences, demographics and interests in a market with more than 1.6 billion consumers, the firm claimed.
"China is a high growth and strategic market for many companies, and the ability to better understand Chinese market dynamics, audiences and segments is a strategic priority for many of our customers," said Rob Bailey, chief executive of DataSift. "With our leading social data platform, customers can now leverage Sina Weibo data to enable better strategy development, build custom analytics and drive improved operational execution based on real time market data."
Data from Sina Weibo will be available via the Socialgist section of the DataSift platform with subscribers able to take full advantage of the platform features. This allows customers to analyse and filter Sina Weibo data, analyse sentiment in Chinese language conversations and use link augmentation and additional enrichments as well as text mining for precise identification of key phrases and terms to specifically identify brands and products.
"Sina Weibo has proven to be a natural place for Chinese consumers to discuss the companies and brands that are important to them," stated Darren Kelly, President of Socialgist. "Weibo is now a required source for anyone who studies social media in today's global economy. The introduction of Sina Weibo to DataSift's leading social data platform creates new opportunities for global brands looking to invest in better understanding consumers around the world."
