Weibo is being scrutinised by investors and the Chinese government

But not all the similarities between Weibo and Twitter are good news. Like its US rival, Weibo – whose name translates to “microblog” - does not make any money. Its revenues may have doubled year on year in the first quarter, to $65.7m, but its losses widened from $19.2m to $47.4m. Investors in the Chinese company are also concerned that it will share in Twitter’s slowdown in growth. People are still signing up to join Twitter, but its first set of results as a listed business showed a dramatic drop in the rate at which they are doing so.

Those concerns have contributed to a roller-coaster few months for Twitter’s valuation, which has deflated from highs of nearly $40bn last December, to just north of $26bn on Wednesday. Now they are expected to put a dampener on Weibo’s market debut – the first major IPO since the tech sell-off earlier this month.

Sina Corp, which used to own the majority of Weibo and will spin it off in Wednesday’s IPO, has admitted that the growth of its user base is slowing. Independent research also suggests a 70pc drop-off in the number of messages its users are posting – although Sina Weibo disputes the accuracy of these figures.

Just like Twitter, Weibo can take some steps to address any apparent drop off in demand. It can make its platform more enticing by adding new features and making it simpler. However, there is one limitation that Weibo has and Twitter doesn’t, which is very hard to address: the issue of censorship.

Weibo is heavily monitored by Chinese authorities, who ban discussion of certain controversial topics, so it employs 150 staff – all male – to filter the messages posted. It is an arduous task, which results in making the entire platform more anodyne.

Twitter is most potent when there is a major breaking news story, or as a platform for political unrest that can – literally, in the case of the Arab Spring – turn into revolution. While China clings to its policy of censoring content, Weibo can never have that same electric appeal. Twitter and Weibo may both be “public” and “real time”, but investor appetite for the latter may be dulled by the fact it can never be truly “conversational”.

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