Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has opened an account on China’s leading social network Weibo to promote Rio de Janeiro's upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games among almost 600 million users in the far eastern country, official sources announced last week.

Rousseff opened the account last Wednesday and in less than 24 hours she had over 1,000 followers, according to state-run Agencia Brasil.

The president's aim is to spread information from the preparations taking place in Rio to the actual event and results.

Rousseff's Weibo profile is being promoted by Rio de Janeiro's Municipal Ministry for Sports and Leisure as it wants to let China see Rio, the social projects, the transformation legacy and the social inclusion through sport. At the same time, the online account will create business opportunities for Brazilian companies in China.

During the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Weibo reached 4 billion messages, at a rate of 20,000 messages per second. Brazilian authorities hope to exceed that figure during the Rio Olympics in August.

Source: Xihua

Proofread by John Devlin.