A tweet for the masses

A platform of 457 million netizens and 303 million people using mobile phones for Internet access has made micro-blogging a hugely popular activity. Liu Zhihua reports.

A typical day in the life of Beijing jewelry designer and fashion freelancer Wang Xiaomo begins about 9 am, when she logs onto the micro-blogging service Sina Weibo. "I cannot imagine life without it,?the 26 year-old says.

In August 2010, she used the service for the first time and quickly saw its worth. She soon made new online friends and found opportunities to boost her career, such as tweeted details of her college graduation designs and illustration samples.