TechGuruHere

Microsoft has decided to capitalize on the popularity of Windows Live Messenger in China, launching a new service called MSN Juku, which they call a “local innovation developed by MSN China.”

The service, however, is a lot like Twitter: It lets users connect with their other Live Messenger contacts and post 140-character messages. There’re a couple of important visual differences between this service and Twitter; old messages scroll to the right, for example, just like in another Twitter clone, Plurk. But it’s still a microblogging service, and one local media report actually called it a knock-off of Plurk, which is also quite popular in Asia.

Juku, which is currently in beta, brings several other innovations to the table; it lets users play games and win prizes, something that sounds like science fiction when it comes to the traditionally feature-shy Twitter. However, at this point, Microsoft hasn’t announced any plans to internationalize the service and perhaps position it as a direct competitor to Twitter.