The 2014 World Cup: Which Team Got The Most Chinese Supporters on Weibo?
Sina Weibo, arguably China’s most popular social networking service, recently launched a World Cup page for its users. An interesting function Weibo introduced is it allows users to place a national flag of any team competing in Brazil (China included too) next to his or her Weibo handle. The service has been quite popular amongst football fans on the platform.
Sina Weibo allows users to place a national flag next to their handle to show support
No, the most popular team on Weibo is not the hosting country, but Germany, with over 215 thousand users (and counting) supporting the team. China, although its national team always ridiculed by fans, surprisingly ranks second with over 200 thousand supporters. Spain enjoys a slight advantage in number over Brazil with over 110 thousand supporters. Then it’s Brazil, Italy, England, all with over 60 thousand supporters. The least supported team is Ecuador with just over 1,500 supporters.
Popularity ranking on Sina Weibo as of the time of writing:
A supporter of Germany national football team
- Germany 215,034
- China 207,410
- Spain 116,400
- Brazil 104,138
- Italy 73,774
- England 60,991
- Netherlands 36,380
- Portugal 35,156
- France 13,954
The popularity of Germany national football team should be credited in part to an official account opened by the DFB, or the German Football Association, back in 2012, when they were set to compete in the Euro 2012. The account has a high posting frequency and now communicates in both Chinese and English with football fans on the platform. The DFB also has an account on Tencent’s micro-blogging service.
According to an analysis by China Internet Watch, about 53 percent of Sina Weibo’s users are from the post-1990s age group, and 37 percent of them from the post-80s.
Related: The Most Talked About Sports Personalities on Weibo in 2013
