China's microblog site Sina Weibo to remove 140-character limit

BEIJING: The popular Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo will remove its 140-character limit starting January 28 amid reports that twitter, which is banned in the country, is also considering the same move.

The decision came after media reported that US microblogging platform Twitter is considering removing its own 140-character limit, an iconic feature of the social media tool.

Twitter along with Facebook are banned in China.

China's Sina Weibo boasts over 200 million active users, according to its financial report in 2015.

On Wednesday, a snapshot of a letter from Weibo Open Platform to its developers was widely circulated on Weibo, where it said the new format is expected to be tested among "senior users" from January 28 and open to all users by February 28.

In his retweet, Wang stressed that during the pilot run, only 140 characters will be displayed in followers' feeds and a link will appear to show the entire content if a post exceeds the character limit.

Twitter's rumoured plan to remove its character limit has been fiercely debated on social media, but the company has yet to confirm it, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.