The number of Chinese microbloggers has been increasing sharply of late, as popular social networks have attracted 40 percent of China's internet users. At this year's China Internet Conference, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology Liu Lihua said that microblogging played an important role in collecting public opinion.

China's two microblog giants - Sina Weibo and Tecent Weibo - are both streaming the conference through their websites. Liu Lihua also said that microblogging was complementary to business development and traditional media. The number of Chinese netizens has now reached 485 million, while the first half of this year saw a 200 percent jump in the amount of microbloggers from 60 million to 200 million.