Mixed Messages-- The Rise of Microblogging(a)

Have you Plurked today? Tweeted anything? Have you seen the comments on my latest Facebook update? Such questions have become common among online Taiwanese lately, and what they are referring to are the websites Plurk, Twitter, and Facebook, three services that have exploded in popularity with the rise of microblogging.

Just how big is microblogging? The most popular microblogging site, Facebook, has almost 300 million members. At the beginning of 2009, Taiwanese users accounted for a bit over 100,000 of these, but as of the end of September, it had exploded to more than 3.22 million. Plurk, another extremely popular microblogging site, has over 300,000 Taiwanese members. Twitter, which grabbed the media spotlight for its part in boosting the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, has had trouble breaking into the Taiwanese market due to its lack of a Chinese-language interface. As a result, Taiwanese Twitterers only number between 30,000 and 50,000.

The strength of microblogging cannot be underestimated. These new services have begun gradually rewriting the relationships between users and their friends. More to the point, with these services offering a place to speak your mind and have your words transmitted to others almost instantaneously, people have unknowingly begun letting their most personal details slip out.

Online trend analyst George Liu notes that unlike earlier social networking sites, which relied more on word of mouth to draw in like-minded users, these new services are more about actively pulling users' friends in by casting a net across their whole social network.

In addition to this, the other big draw for Facebook users has been its addictive games—most recently a Facebook game called Happy Farm has been a tremendous hit with Taiwan's nine-to-five set.

　　『你今天噗∕推了没？有没有看到我在 Facebook的最新发言？』这是近来台湾网友极为流行的问候方式，指的其实就是 Plurk（噗浪）、Twitter（推特）和 Facebook（脸书）等最近爆红的微网志服务。

　　微网志到底有多『夯』？最热门的 Facebook 全球会员数已逼近 3 亿人，台湾使用者更从 2009 年年初的 10 余万人暴增至 9 月底已超过 322 万人；另一项超人气的『噗浪』微网志网站，本土会员数也超过 30 万人。至于曾是美国总统欧巴马胜选推手而受到瞩目的 Twitter，则因尚未出现中文化接口，推广较为困难，目前在台使用者约在 3 到 5 万人间。

　　微网志威力不容小觑。这项新服务已正悄悄改写使用者和朋友间的亲疏关系，更在『有话就说』、实时便捷的讯息传递中，不知不觉地透露每个人最私密的生活细节。

　　网络趋势专家刘威麟分析，有别于过去社群网站以『人传人』方式，吸引志同道合的网友加入互动，新兴的微网志则进化到『人拉人』，主动出击，将使用者的人脉关系一网打尽。

　　除此之外，Facebook 另一项『杀手级密技』，是提供让使用者欲罢不能的小游戏，最近让台湾上班族为之疯狂的『开心农场』，就是其中翘楚。