Chinese Social Media Giant Weibo Looks to Invest $700M in New Acquisitions

Over the other side of the world in China, the social media landscape is very much unrecognisable from our own. Established western platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram hold no domain in these foreign lands; the population instead looks to local offerings such as WeChat and Weibo, the latter of which looks set to make some pretty substantial investments in the near future in an effort to secure the growth of the business.

Weibo is in many ways similar to Twitter, albeit far more profitable than the famously money-shy western alternative, operating at its core as a micro-blogging platform. The site boasts 159 million daily users (361 million monthly) and a reported quarterly profit in the region of $101.1 million, rising from $73.5 million in the previous quarter. With that in mind, it came as no surprise to hear them announce last week their intent to offer up to $700 million in convertible senior notes in order to finance “working capital needs and potential acquisitions of complementary businesses.”

There is no word as of yet on any specific acquisitions to company is looking to make, although it is expected for them to focus on Chinese enterprises in the fields of video and entertainment, in which Weibo is currently achieving solid traction, and ad tech, in which the company has already made some recent investments.

The company themselves credit their substantial jumps in revenue (the previous quarter had seen profits increase by 184% year-on-year) to its surging video and mobile ads business, complimented by the platform’s reputation within its home country as a gathering place for celebrity news amongst the younger generations.

Weibo’s biggest backers are parent firm Sina (media) and e-commerce giant Alibaba, both of which help funnel advertising revenue to the business. Together the two investors own more than 70% of Weibo, as reported by TechCrunch.