PEKING (dpa-AFX) - Shares of Chinese online media company Sina Corp. (SINA) soared more than 18 percent in Thursday's regular trading session amid positive news on the Chinese governments official news site that quoted a high ranking official as saying that China officials should embrace microblogging to 'serve the works of the Party and the nation,' as well as the people. The official also called for a healthy and orderly environment for such sites.
The positive news comes on the back of China introducing new regulation for stricter policing of microblogging sites such as Sina's own Twitter-like microblogging platform Weibo.com. The new regulations were seen by investors as a process to finally clamp down and shut down such sites in China.
The English language version of the official Xinhua news agency revealed that despite Chinese Internet regulator call for stricter policing of the nation's microblogs, Wang encouraged China's officials to use them to engage with citizens. The official added that microblogs should be used for 'popularizing sciences, advancing culture, and projecting social morality.'
However, the official said the government will punish those who use microblogs to spread lies, rumors and pornography. He added that no illegal information will also be allowed to be posted on microblogs.
According to Xinhua, these comments were made by Wang Chen, the director general of China's State Internet Information Office, at a government-organized seminar called 'Microblogs Serves Society.'
Meanwhile, Sina CEO Charles Chao also rolled out a Government Edition of the company's own like microblogging site Weibo.com that will help the Chinese government to get online. Sina Weibo is also preparing to release its microblogging platform in English to directly take Twitter head on.
Shanghai, China-based Sina is the owner of the Weibo, the most popular microblog service in terms of registered users in China, with more than 200 million users. Meanwhile, China also has the world's largest number of registered web users, with about 485 million users. China currently censors, regulates and blocks popular social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
SINA closed Thursday's regular trading at $92.88, up $14.40 or 18.35 percent on a volume of 16.54 million shares. The stock gained a further $1.82 or 1.96 percent in after-hours trading.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2011 AFX News
