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Toutiao cuts ties with Weibo over content ownership spat

今日头条将叫停新浪微博登录服务

Chinese news aggregator Toutiao is severing its content-sharing links with internet company Sina, as the country’s most valuable tech companies become increasingly protective over content.中国的新闻聚合应用今日头条(Toutiao)将切断与互联网企业新浪(Sina)的内容共享关系。中国价值很高的科技公司已变得越来越注重内容保护。

The two companies have been at loggerheads for nearly a month, after Sina raised the issue of content control with Toutiao in August. Sina argued it owns the content that users create on Sina Weibo, and said Toutiao failed to obtain company permission to repost content. 在新浪于8月挑起与今日头条的内容控制问题之后，这两家公司在近一个月来一直处于不和状态。新浪主张，用户在微博(Sina Weibo)上所创建内容的版权属于新浪，并表示今日头条在转载这些内容之前并未取得新浪的许可。

Toutiao disagreed and this week notified users that it would block Sina Weibo services from its platform. Previously, users could log on to Sina Weibo through the Toutiao platform and authorise automatic republication of Weibo posts on Toutiao. The Toutiao news app also no longer hosts Weibo content. 今日头条对此并不认同，并于本周通知用户，将在自己平台上屏蔽微博的服务。此前，用户可以通过微博账户登录今日头条平台，并授权今日头条自动转载其发表在微博上的内容。今日头条新闻app也将不再刊登微博的内容。

The notice did not specify whether the severance was temporary or permanent. Toutiao declined to comment. Sina Weibo did not respond to requests for comment. 通知没有说明两者关系终止是临时性的，还是永久性的。今日头条拒绝置评。新浪头条没有回复记着的置评请求。

Toutiao has made a dizzying ascent since its founding in 2012. The platform’s key draw is a personalised news feed powered by artificial intelligence algorithms that source content from blogs and traditional media outlets based on the reading preferences of each user. 自2012年创立以来，今日头条以令人眩晕的速度崛起。该平台的核心吸引力，是人工智能算法驱动下的个性化新闻订阅，算法可以根据每个用户的阅读偏好从博客和传统媒体渠道抓取内容。

In August, Toutiao was reportedly valued at $20bn after a new funding round. The company, which is notoriously secretive about its balance sheet, declined to confirm that valuation. 今年8月，据称今日头条实施了新一轮融资，估值达到200亿美元。今日头条拒绝证实该估值。该公司对自己的资产负债表守口如瓶。

This week’s decision to sever ties with Sina Weibo suggests Toutiao is now confident it can take on internet veterans such as Sina, Weibo’s parent company. Sina once saw the platform as a way to promote its content, even sinking $100m into the news aggregator as an early investor in 2014. It has since sold its stake, while Toutiao has eclipsed Weibo in both users and valuation. 本周切断与微博联系的决定表明，今日头条如今相信自己已能够抗衡老牌互联网企业，比如微博的母公司新浪。新浪一度把今日头条视为推广自家内容的一条渠道，甚至曾在2014年以早期投资者身份向这个新闻聚合平台投资1亿美元。后来，新浪已出售了所持股权，而今日头条在用户数量和估值水平方面都超过了新浪。

Toutiao boasts 780m monthly active users, more than twice Weibo’s 340m, and its rumoured valuation outstrips Weibo’s $8.1bn market capitalisation.今日头条号称拥有7.8亿月度活跃用户，是微博的3.4亿的两倍多，据传其估值比新浪微博81亿美元的市值还要高。

“The reality is Toutiao is a lot stickier than Weibo. People were going straight to Toutiao rather than Sina, which threatens Sina’s advertising business,” said Shaun Rein, managing director of market consultancy CMR China. “Toutiao is in a much stronger position.” “现实是，今日头条的用户粘度大大超过微博。人们会直接前往今日头条而不是新浪，这危及了新浪的广告业务，”市场研究机构中国市场研究集团(CMR China)的总经理雷小山(Shaun Rein)说，“目前今日头条处于比新浪强大得多的地位。”

The dispute may also prove a turning point in Toutiao’s efforts to start churning out user-generated content. Last year, the company said it would invest $1bn in creating original video streaming content and it also allows anyone to set up a channel on the Toutiao platform to post non-news content. 这场纠纷也许会成为今日头条开始推出用户自创内容的努力的一个转折点。今日头条去年表示，其将投入10亿美元打造原创视频流媒体内容，现在也允许任何人在其平台上设立频道，上传新闻以外的内容。