As Weibo has become the most popular social media in China, an increasing number of sports teams, leagues and brands have opened their official accounts on the social platform with the aims of enhancing their fan base and presence in China.

There are now over 1,200 official sports organizations on Weibo – an 18% year on year increase and the likes of sports teams, leagues and players are enjoying an incredible popularity on Weibo.  

Liverpool FC is ranked as the #1 most influential European football club on Weibo, ahead of Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. Taking all teams into consideration, both Chinese and European, Guangzhou Evergrande is Number 1, followed by Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Beijing Guoan and Manchester United.

With regard to leagues, the NBA leads all social presence on Weibo, followed by the CSL, the Premier League and the Chinese University Basketball League. Also, like twitter, hashtags rule and the NBA has the two most engaged hashtags of the year, with a combined 9.1 billion reads.

As to the most influential player on Weibo, the only non-Chinese athlete ranked in Weibo’s top 10 most influential sports stars is Beijing Ducks Stephon Marbury at number six. The rest of the list are all Chinese stars.

Source: Mailman & Joe Favorito

Proofread by John Devlin