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A quick Google Image search of Weibo shows mixed results: http://technode.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/anatomy-new-s... - lots of "inspired by Twitter" features there.

Also, most of the articles I found about it referred to it (lovingly or positively) as a Twitter clone.

As someone who is ignorant of said "clone", I feel compelled to ask:

What would be an accurate characterization?

I'm genuinely curious.

"Microblogging platform" is pretty accurate. Calling it a clone is kind of like calling Bing a Google clone. Yes, they are both search engines, but no.

Weibo is Chinese for microblogging, and Sina and Tencent weibo started off as twitter clones, but today they come with everything but the kitchen sink.

When Sina launched Weibo in 2009 it was very much a 'clone', however, I agree not so much now.