(REUTERS) - Shares of Weibo Corp, the owner of a Chinese Twitter-like messaging service, rose more than 11 per cent in their US debut, overcoming worries about the outlook for tech sector and concerns that censorship in China was affecting its user growth.

Weibo's shares had been priced at the bottom end of the target range of US$17-19 (S$21 - 23), and the size of the offering had been cut to 16.8 million American Depositary Shares from 20 million.

The shares touched a high of $18.91 in early trading on Thursday, valuing the company at $3.85 billion. The offering raised $286 million for Weibo.