Regular readers of Coffee Break may recall recently reading about the phenomenal growth of China’s Tencent and its mobile messaging app. It seems that emerging economy, China, continues to go from strength to strength…especially where the internet is concerned.

For both Chinese internet companies and users, these are undoubtedly good times. While the government continues an unprecedented crackdown on outspoken liberal bloggers, e-commerce sites are thriving with about 10 percent of China’s retail sales now conducted online. About 600 million people have internet access in China, with 450 million smartphones and tablets in regular use. None of the leading Chinese internet companies are state-controlled, and those listed overseas have a combined market capitalisation approaching $300 billion.

Sina Weibo is a Twitter-like site, with more than 500 million registered users. Even British Prime Minister David Cameron has signed up, albeit ahead of a planned diplomatic visit to China. It is popularly used as a news feed and as a way to follow celebrities, opinion-makers, and even government press offices commenting on the daily news. Meanwhile, popular musician and heartthrob Li Yundi also took to Weibo last week to introduce fans to his new girlfriend which at the time was the most-read post on the site!

With so many news junkies tuned into Weibo, traditional cost-per-click advertising and ads imported from e-commerce sites such as Taobao.com have high growth potential as an advertising-based business model. Tencent Weixin as we previously reported, also goes from strength to strength as it could potentially charge for subscriptions to online games, specialised news services, or further value-added services such as e-coupons to be used in online stores.

Predictions are looking rosy for players in the Chinese internet market as they continue to build significant global businesses of increasing value. It seems that monetising Chinese social media knows no bounds!