The number of people using Sina microblogs has grown at a breakneck pace since the service was established in August 2009, reaching 50 million recently. And the number of Twitter users have swelled from 30 million to 175 million over the last two months.

Many Internet companies are trying to tap into the nascent microblogging sector in an effort to earn more in the wake of the financial crisis. Sohu, Netease and Tencent all have their own strategies, indicating that the start of the microblogging era is right around the corner.

After the tussle between QQ and 360 that forced millions of Internet users to choose one over the other, these portals have spared no expense investing in these microblogging services. Sohu even made its microblogging strategy a top priority, a potentially costly decision that allows the company to dip into its 600 million yuan ($90.3 million) cash reserve at any time.

Using stars as soft publicity is another way to promote this fledgling business. Sohu CEO Zhang Chaoyang has mobilized a gaggle of film and pop stars to set up microblogs, which may attract a lot of attention from their fans and help this new media expand to a much broader part of the public. Different from Sohu, Sina's microblogs approach has been to attract well-known people from specific communities, such as entrepreneurs, academics, writers, musicians and even the odd celebrity.

Zhang swears that Sohu's microblogging service will overtake Sina's share of the market. Other developers are nipping at Sina's heels, hoping to get their own bit of the market.

Despite the bright prospects for microblogging, there are still many hurdles to jump, like the role microblogging should play in the media industry, the converging power of its developers and the mode of profitability.

As an upstart business, microblogging needs support from all types of media. Sohu combines the microblogging with its well-known entertainment section, while Sina picks up many domains, like financial experts, analysts and writers, whose fame can promote microblogging for educated users.

Sina is ahead of other microblogging providers on the Chinese mainland, but after 15 months, the company has still not found a clear-cut path to profitability. The situation has drained nearly all of the website's resources. This has become a common failing among nearly all Chinese web portals.