Sina Corp., operator of China's largest Internet portal, quietly launched a social networking platform called Huoxing.com last month in a bid to turn its strength in microblogging into additional revenue streams.

The site combines Sina Weibo – the company's Twitter-like microblogging platform – and an online role-playing to create a virtual world not unlike Second Life. Users in the game create characters and interact with their friends.

The project is now undergoing beta testing.

Whois, a domain name registration site, showed Huoxing.com was first registered in 2006 and later transferred to Sina Vice President Xie Guomin on June 7, 2011.

The domain name is worth an estimate 100,000 yuan (US$15,518), analysts said.