Weibo, a Chinese alternative to Twitter, has been gaining in popularity internally and among western companies and organizations, according to recent articles in the Wall Street Journal and Reuters.

As Reuters has reported, the Chinese government doesn't allow most people to access Twitter, for political reasons, but with a market hungry to use a micro-blogging service, Chinese company Sina Weibo launched in 2009 and filled in the gap. 

The Wall Street Journal reported that the company launched an English-language mobile and web presence earlier this year, and it has done remarkably well, much better than expected.

In fact, Reuters reports that companies and organizations such as Louis Vuitton, the International Monetary Fund and Unilever are on Weibo along with celebrities like Tom Cruise, Bill Gates and Emma Watson.

The company claims it has 450,000 users in the United States among a total of 227 million user accounts. Twitter itself announced in September that it had passed 100 million active users. It's not clear how many users have accounts but aren't considered active.

Whatever the numbers, if you can believe any of them, it seems that Weibo has an impressive number and is catching the attention of some powerful individuals and organizations.