An analysis of microblogging behavior on Sina Weibo: Personality, network size and demographics

Abstract

In China, Sina Weibo is one of the most popular microblogging services. The relationship between Weibo users' microblogging behavior and their personality as well as demographics was addressed in current study. 498 users completed the online survey and their social networking data was downloaded based on the Application Programming Interfaces. The results showed that: 1) Weibo users' personality was associated with some aspects of microblogging behavior, especially, Extraversion and Openness significantly positively correlated with some aspects of microblogging behavior, while neuroticism significantly negatively correlated with that; 2) There were associations between some demographical factors and some aspects of microblogging behavior, for instance, the time spent in microblogging related to the age, educational level and monthly discretionary money, respectively. 3) The effect of gender on Weibo social networking size was significant, that was the amount of male Weibo users' followers was significantly greater than that of female users'. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.