Microblog insights

Topic 1:

During the Spring Festival, the tourism revenue in Central China's Henan province amounted to nearly 5 billion yuan ($794 million) with the retail revenue of consumer goods reaching 25.2 billion yuan. Purchases surged during the Spring Festival on a variety of items, including expenditure in restaurants, gift costs, transportation fees and the lucky money given to children as a lunar New Year gift. Many micro-bloggers are in heated discussion about their expenditure during this period as they return to work.

HAOHAOCC: I just read the news report about the costly meal in Sanya during the Spring Festival holiday - a three-dish meal at a seafood stall cost 3,600 yuan - and also other rip-off cases in Hainan Island. The tourism market in Hainan lacks order and regulation. The room price of star-level hotels always rises significantly during holidays, which makes me believe that what is spent in Hainan during the holiday could better be spent going to Thailand a couple of times.

SONGSHANX: The Spring Festival is a time for you to spend a lot. In just seven days I have already spent more than 10,000 yuan.

HAPPYTREE'SHOME: During the Spring Festival, all I did was invite others to dinner or attend get-togethers, and all of these cost me a lot, not just money but physical strength. However, I didn't find those expensive meals tasted good.

Topic 2:

Facebook Inc, the world's dominant social-networking website, officially submitted files to launch an initial public offering (IPO) on Feb 2. It aims to raise $5 billion, a record figure globally in the Internet IPO world. The company is considering a valuation of $75 billion to $100 billion. According to files from the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the website, as the top stockholder with 28.4 percent of the shares, will have a net worth of $28.4 billion in stock if the valuation reaches the ceiling, catapulting him into the top 10 richest in Forbes' listing.

BOQUNYISHUBA: With Facebook's IPO, a story about a wall painter's way to wealth soon takes off on micro blogs. In 2005, a man called David Choe painted the walls of Facebook's headquarters. When he finished work, he was offered two choices as a reward: thousands of dollars in cash or the equivalent in shares. He chose the latter. The value of his shares is expected to be $200 million with the company's IPO.

JINLIJIN: In a report, Facebook said that the monthly active users around the globe have reached 845 million, but it appears that it is not content with the number, and it states in its prospectus that it will still strive to enter the Chinese market.

MUMUSHANFENG: How many active users could Facebook have if the website was not blocked in China?

ALL THE INFORMATION IS FROM SINA WEIBO.

(China Daily 02/07/2012 page14)