Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo now has more users than Twitter – despite Twitter also reporting positive growth in its user base in its most recent financial results.

Weibo’s monthly active users (MAUs) 340m in March 2017, up 30 per cent year-on-year from 261m, according the company’s first quarter results. 91 per cent of these MAUs come from mobile.

According to the China Internet Network Information Centre, there were 731m internet users in China as of December 2016 – which represented 53.2 per cent of the country’s population at the time. Taking this into account, Weibo’s reported MAUs equal nearly half of all internet users across China.

“We started the year 2017 with a great quarter,” said Charles Chao, chairman and CEO of Sina. “Weibo continued its strong momentum… impressive expansion of user base.”

On the other hand, Twitter – which is blocked in China – reported hitting 328m users, up six per cent year-on-year, in its first quarter results.

“Were delivering on our goal to build a service that people love to use, every day, and were encouraged by the audience growth momentum we saw in the first quarter,” said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey at the time.