While the rest of the world is hooked on expressing themselves in 140 characters on Twitter, the Chinese have their own micro blogging platform called Weibo, an online community as robust and alive as its western counterparts.

Even foreign leaders are signing-up on Weibo to be heard, be read and re-tweeted, or should we say re-weiboed.

Like Us on Facebook

Israel's President, Shimon Peres, is one of Weibo's latest world celebrity additions, sharing photos and chatting with followers while on a visit to China.

Nearly 123,000 Weibo users have followed Peres's account, and the Israeli President says he is looking forward to answering questions that were sent to his account.

Aside from Peres, 200 other world leaders are Weibo members, like Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and United Nations' Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

In late March, British Prime Minister David Cameron's thoughts on same-sex marriage got a lot of cheers from China's Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) community members, both open and underground.

At least 300 non-Chinese organizations have opened accounts on Weibo, led by the United Nations (UN) with over half a million followers, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which is followed by 21 million Chinese netizens.

Many government and non-government organizations have taken up their spaces on Weibo to convey their messages directly and likewise hear directly the opinions and trends in Chinese society.

Traditional media in China such as newspapers, television and radio are still controlled by state-owned corporations loyal to the Communist Party who maintain a tight grip on their announcements.

Weibo offers an alternative option for world leaders and organizations to convey their thoughts.

World leaders admit that Weibo has given them a more realistic feel of the thoughts prevailing in China.

In the case of Israeli President, Shimon Peres, he will address a popular request for Tel-A-Aviv to ease visa requirements for visiting Chinese nationals.

David Cameron was struck and left with no immediate response when his followers asked the British Prime Minister on the latest upcoming episodes of the British television series, "Sherlock", which has apparently become a popular program on Chinese television.

Several local issues in China posted on Weibo have gone viral and like the problems in the West (or the rest of the world), netizens are also fed with disinformation, while others are also subject to "cyber bullying."

China is currently prosecuting web marketing specialists, Qin Huohuo, and his partner, Yang Xiuyu, for allegedly spreading rumors and destroying the reputation of others through the use of social networking sites.

The growing cultural influence of Weibo and its ability to power direct marketing campaigns is not left unnoticed by many and this has inspired the people behind Weibo to seek additional funding outside of China to finance expansion programs.

Weibo is seeking to list its shares of stocks in the United States to raise at least US $500 million (3.10 Billion Yuan) of fresh capital.