Sounds highly unlikely, but it is true. Boris Johnson, the 48-year-old mayor of London opened his Sina Weibo account to win over Chinese communities in London to vote for him in the upcoming mayoral election in next mont
One of his weibo posts reads: “May 3 is around the corner. If you register to vote in London, please be sure to vote for me Boris Johnson. If you haven’t done so, please keep in mind that the deadline is April 18 (Wednesday). Need more reasons to support me? Please read this piece published in theChineseWeekly.”
And Boris isn’t the only celebrity or politician who finds out and gets started to leverage on the influential power of Sina Weibo, according to theAge, an Australian newspaper, Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu and Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews all opened their accounts on Weibo in an attempt to connect with the Chinese-speaking voters in Victoria.
Besides celebrities and politicians, many International institutions or organizations also made their online presence on Weibo, to name a few, the UN, World Bank, Museum of American Finance, the PritzkerPrize, the Olympics and so forth.
According to a report out couple days ago by Boston Consulting Group, as of now Sina Weibo claims more than 300 million users since its inception three years ago. The service now saw 32,312 posts published per second, surpassing Twitter’s peak traffic record.
Impressed Boris, the Man