Do you know Weibo? Do you write a Weibo? If you don't, you are "out"! Weibo means microblog. People may spend much time writing a blog, but it takes a little time to write a microblog. Why? Because every message on a microblog is less than 140 words.

Microblog started in the USA. It came to China in 2009 and it has developed very fast. In 2011, the number of Chinese microbloggers grew to 300 million. Now more and more people are interested in writing microblogs. For many microblog users, it is a great way of learning the freshest news, talking with friends and sharing different kinds of information, including news, daily life, pictures, music and so on. Many stars and famous people also write microblogs and share good things with their fans.

It is easy and fast to send a message on a microblog. However, this can also lead to problems and even cause panic. For example, when the big earthquake and tsunami (海啸) hit Japan in March, 2011, messages like "Salt can protect people from radiation" were hot on microblogs. It soon caused a crazy buying of salt. Later people realized it was just a rumor(谣言).

In a word, microblog plays a new role in the life of Chinese people.