China\\\'s Twitter sets for Wall Street debut

Sina Weibo, widely known as China's version of Twitter, is set to go public in the United States this week -- after three weeks of sell-offs took their toll on technology stocks. The microblogging subsidiary of Chinese Internet behemoth Sina is scheduled to debut on the Nasdaq exchange on Thursday under the symbol "WB" in an initial public offering (IPO) expected to raise at least $340 million. Sina Weibo -- launched in August 2009 to provide services akin to Twitter, which is banned in China -- is a leading social media site in a country with the world's largest population of Internet users at 618 million. But the estimated value of the IPO, filed by Weibo with the US Securities and Exchange Commission this month, was down on the sum of up to $500 million indicated in March -- reflecting discretion amid a gloomy market outlook after the Nasdaq index was down for more than three weeks, according to AFP.