









































Communication, Society and Media 
ISSN 2576-5388 (Print) ISSN 2576-5396 (Online) 

Vol. 6, No. 4, 2023 
www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm 

15 
 

Original Paper 

Social Media Marketing Strategy in Chinese Musical Theatre 

Industry 
Yexiaxin Xu1* 

1 College of Media and Literature, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China 
* Yexiaxin Xu, College of Media and Literature, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China 

 

Received: October 9, 2023      Accepted: October 15, 2023      Online Published: October 21, 2023 

doi:10.22158/csm.v6n4p15                       URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/csm.v6n4p15 

 

Abstract 

The usage of social media in the context of musical theatre marketing continues to grow. More and 

more musical theatre production companies in China are using social media tools such as Weibo to 

provide various services and interact with customers. In an effort to help understand how the current 

musical theatre industry conducts social media marketing and the future development direction, this 

paper describes a case study which applies content analysis to examined posts on Weibo sites of five 

top musical theatre production companies: Seven Ages, Shanghai Culture Square, Musicals, Focustage, 

and Amazing Musicals. The results provide insights into the characteristics of social media marketing 

strategies of musical theatre production companies and changes after covid-19 pandemic. The study 

results add to the rapidly evolving field of social media within the musical theatre industry marketing 

context. Moreover, it advocates for an active role for the musical companies to explore and actively 

participate in the customer and musical fan communities on social media. 

Keywords 

musical theatre, theatre experience, social media marketing, parasocial interaction 

 

1. Introduction 

The percentage of enterprises use social media for product marketing, customer relationship 

maintenance, consulting and after-sales service continues to increase. Originally, social media is only 

an optional online marketing channel, but now in the era of pandemic, industries are adapting to and 

exploring the new possibility of commercial marketing in the network space. 

1.1 Social Media 

The definition of social media has always been a challenge due to the variety of stand-alone and 

built-in social media services. Some early researchers referring to social media as social networks or 



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social networking services in the mid-2000s (Boyd, & Ellison, 2007). A more recent and detailed 

definition was proposed by Filo et al. (2015) who defined social media as ‘‘new media technologies 

facilitating interactivity and co-creation that allow for the development and sharing of user-generated 

content among and between organisations (e.g., teams, government agencies and media groups) and 

individuals (e.g., customers, athletes and journalists)’’. 

People worldwide establish extensive connections through the deep engagement of social media 

platforms. Increasingly, social media are largely considered by modern business as promising platforms 

to conduct the promotional activities as to effectively communicate with the targeted customers (Kohli 

et al., 2015).  

1.2 Social media Marketing 

According to Dwivedi et al. (2015), social media marketing could be defined as ‘‘a dialogue often 

triggered by consumers/audiences, or a business/product/services that circulate amongst the stated 

parties to set in motion a revealing communication on some promotional information so that it allows 

learning from one another’s use and experiences, eventually benefitting all of the involved parties”. 

Tuten and Solomon (2015, p. 21) stated that ‘‘the utilization of social media technologies, channels, 

and software is to create, communicate, deliver and exchange offerings that have value for an 

organization’s stakeholders”. 

1.2.1 Marketing in Musical Theatre Industry 

According to Dwivedi et al. (2015), the vast majority of social media studies were observed to be 

within the marketing area. This study mainly focuses on social media marketing in the field of Musical 

theatre industry. 

1.2.2 Broadway Marketing 

At the old times, marketing Broadway shows must be as much about advertising the show itself as it is 

about offering opportunities to purchase tickets, and a premium ticket brokerage was the middleman, 

between the producers and the audience, the role musical theatre marketing still plays today. Since the 

first Broadway musical theatre tickets were sold online in 1996, musical theatre producers have 

gradually incorporated the Internet into their marketing campaigns (MacDonald, 2017). 

Especially with the development of social media, the marketing strategy of the musical theatre industry 

has also been adjusted to have more interact with audience online. Vogel and Hodges. (2006) clarified 

that there are three areas of theater marketing: advertising, promotion (often called marketing), and 

publicity. He also discussed the importance of cast appearances on television shows and having star 

names attached to the cast. As stated, “We know we can’t give away a ticket to a bad show, yet if a 

production is hot, people will pay premium prices, especially for special limited shows or hot new 

shows in their first few months”. Also, “The online brand experience begins the storytelling that ticket 

buyers will experience at the theatre, and social media platforms allow musical fans and spectators to 



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participate in musical theatre marketing, promoting individual musicals through online activities and 

helping marketers to expand a community of ticket buyers” (MacDonald, 2017). Thus, Fan-generated 

contents on social media are ultimately providing free advertising for a commercial musical product. 

Ackman, N. (2017) explored how Hamilton, a Broadway hit musical can be marketed using social 

networking, viral marketing and online advertising providing content for fans, creating a significant 

online presence, and keeping people engaged. He concluded that “Hamilton’s creative, marketing, 

social media, and advertising teams ensured that fans had access to original content, in the form of 

projects like the PBS documentary, book, and #Ham4Ham shows. Much of their marketing efforts 

promoted these products rather than tickets to the show itself; in fact, the advertising team had to do 

remarkably little because the show survived greatly on word of mouth. Hamilton fans continue to 

engage on social media with the official accounts, cast members, and other fans and have built a 

community, aided by Karns, Hamilton’s account runner. Thus, the Hamilton fans may be counted on to 

purchase Broadway, West End, and national tour tickets to see the show, despite the difficulty of 

obtaining tickets”. 

Another Study has explored the continuing diversification of musical theatre fandom of a musical 

called Dear Evan Hansen via social media and the interactive ways in which productions harness fan 

engagement. The musical’s producers and marketing team frequently invite interaction around the 

musical’s core mantra, ‘You Will Be Found’. These interactions can benefit fans by potentially eliciting 

feelings of social inclusion that may be experienced as empowering (Rush, 2021). 

1.3 Musical Marketing in China 

In China, market-oriented musical theatre companies have gradually rose in the early 21st century, 

which is also the time of the rise of social media. With more and more people engaged in social media 

platforms, Musical theatre producers began to focus on the operation of social media accounts to 

promote their products. But unlike the United States, market-oriented musical theatre production 

started very late, only a very small number of people are familiar with this form of stage performance, 

so the marketing of musical products is very difficult both online and offline.  

However, this situation was changed by a variety show called Super Vocal. This show presents many 

excellent musical actors who perform some of the songs from classical musicals which draw a lot of 

attention nationwide. This foreign performance art was introduced to more audiences in China and 

attracted many fans into the theater to watch the plays. The musical theatre market was more active 

than ever before. This is the time when Chinese musical theatre producers realized the business value 

of musical fandom, and they started to put effort to interact with online users (mostly young people) 

and try to turn these fans to theatergoer.  

Since the spreading of covid-19 pandemic, theaters have been closed from time to time, resulting in a 

huge loss of profits for musical companies. Using social media for product marketing and managing 



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relationship with fans and audiences is an effective way to turn around the company. Because the live 

performance was stopped, the musical company was unable to provide actual products, so they need to 

create experiences to meet consumer expectations by providing content, creating a significant online 

presence, and keeping people engaged. Thus, understanding the ways in which musical companies can 

preserve the intimate relationship qualities offered by social media while still meeting consumer 

expectations amidst the escalating volume of interactions has become essential. 

Labrecque, L. I. (2014) proposes that parasocial interaction (PSI) theory may be used as a theoretical 

lens for designing successful social media strategies. Labrecque’s study provides evidence of PSI’s role 

in the development of positive relationship outcomes. It reveals that this sense of feeling connected 

with the brand goes beyond the interaction itself and drives increased feelings of loyalty intentions and 

willingness to provide information to the brand.  

Musical is a highly experiential product and people can only get a complete viewing experience when 

they enter the theater. Therefore, how to make the audiences get the best experiences and satisfaction 

through online social media is also a difficulty.  

This study sought to examine the efforts of five musical theatre companies’ social media marketing, 

compare the changes of their social media marketing strategies before and after the pandemic, and their 

main obstacles in interacting with fans and audiences. While scholars have discussed many Broadway 

shows and their digital marketing success, whether these can be applied to the marketing of Chinese 

musical market remains to be verified. Because the scale of China’s musical market is far smaller than 

that of the United States, and there is a lack of popular original musical production like Hamilton. This 

study will explore the current situation and problems of social media marketing of Chinese musical 

theatre from the perspective of musical production companies and hope to offer marketers some 

guidance for fostering relationships in social media environments. To be specific, this paper explored 

the questions as follow: 

1) What are the characteristics of social media marketing strategies of different types of musical 

companies?  

2) What are the changes in the social media marketing of musical companies after the pandemic?  

3) How do musical companies interact with the fans and audience on social media? 

 

2. Method 

2.1 Data Collection 

Data for this study were collected via go through five top musical production companies’ official social 

media accounts on Weibo (Note 1). 

Content analysis will be used in this study. Based on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, this 

study chooses five musical theatre companies’ official accounts to analyze their contents in a certain 



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period of times. These companies are Seven Ages, Shanghai Culture Square, Musicals, Focustage and 

Amazing Musicals. They were chosen based on their market shares according to a report on the top 30 

Chinese musical theatres in 2019. Their social media influence and recent activity were also considered. 

Table 1 shows some basic information of the top five musical theatre production companies, and how 

many followers they had on their social media sites (Note 2). 

 

Table 1. Basic Information of the Top Five Musical Theatre Production Companies 

Company 

Name 

Start 

Time 
Business Scope Production Follower 

Seven Ages 2012 

Localized production of 

foreign musicals + 

Introduction of original 

foreign musical 

Man of La Mancha, Avenue Q, 

How to Succeed in Business 

Without Really Trying, The 

Sound of Music, Les Choristes, 

Cinderella, Next to Normal, 

Matilda (original) 

122k 

Shanghai 

Culture 

Square 

2011 

Localized production of 

foreign musicals + 

Production of original 

Chinese musicals 

Spring Awakening, Maybe 

Happy Ending, Fan letter, My 

Bucket List, Rachmaninoff, 

Romeo and Juliet, The Throne 

and The Poetry 

100k 

Musicals 2015 

Production of original 

Chinese musicals + 

Localized production of 

foreign musicals 

Teddy & Friends, The Moon and 

Sixpence, The Bad Kids, The 

Long Night, The Fiction, Flames, 

The letters, Mr Sunshine’s 

Grocery, Tick Tick Boom, Vincent 

van Gogh, Rock of Ages 

76k 

Focustage 2018 
Localized production of 

foreign musicals 

Black Mary Poppins, Flowers for 

Algernon, Mia Famiglia, Santa 

Lucia 

50k 

Amazing 

Musicals 
2018 

Production of original 

Chinese musicals 

Pink Ladies, What If, One Fine 

Day, Light Keepers  
38k 

 

2.2 Procedures 

To answer the research questions, this study conducted a social media content analysis for the Weibo 

sites of the Top Five Companies by following two phases. 



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First, this study collected quantitative data from their individual social media sites such as number of 

followers, number of postings, comments, reposts and likes in April. 2022. In this month, Shanghai was 

lockdown due to the spreading of Omicron, and theaters are largely shut off. Social media is the best 

channel for musical theatre company to rely on to promote their product. So a lot of online activities 

were hold during these times to manage the relationship with the fans, connect the producers, actors to 

the audiences. 

Then, to compare the changes of social media marketing and user engagement before and after the 

Covid-19 pandemic, musical companies’ posts during February 2019 is chosen to represent the times 

before pandemic. At that time, the variety show Super Vocal was popular and just finished broadcasting, 

which led to a lot of discussion on social media. People started to learn about this live performance art 

more than ever before. It’s a huge success for that show to expand the market for musical theatre 

industry, and many of the show participants were later joined the musical theatre industry which 

brought a lot of fans to watch plays in the theater. Therefore, the musical producers were paying more 

attention to use social media to manage the fan relationship and enlarge the potential audience.  

Secondly, this study applied text mining to analyze the text messages posted on their Weibo sites in 

order to discover new knowledge and patterns, and to acquire a deeper understanding of how the five 

musical production companies are using social media in practice. For the above reasons, this study used 

the posts collected between April 1, 2022 and April 30, 2022 as the sample for text mining. The posts 

were saved into Excel Spreadsheets for analysis. 

The text mining process includes multiple steps. Firstly, raw data was transformed into a usable format, 

mainly by cleaning, segmenting words and counting out high-frequency words. Subsequently, text 

mining techniques were used to examine the data sets in order to gain insights about companies’ social 

media activities. ROSTCM6 was used to explore and extract key concepts, generate categories, and 

help to quickly gain insights from the textual data. By pre-processing, applying text mining, and 

evaluating the mining results and recognize actionable information, to identify new knowledge 

including patterns, issues, and themes from the collected social media data.  

 

3. Result 

3.1 Phase 1 

This study collected quantitative data from their individual social media sites such as number of 

followers, number of postings, comments and likes, frequency of posting, posting and response time.  

Below is the trend of posts numbers in April, 2022 for the top five musical companies: namely Seven 

Ages Weibo site (https://weibo.com/7ages), Shanghai Culture Square Weibo site 

(https://weibo.com/shculturesquare), Musicals Weibo site (https://weibo.com/u/5542720743), 

Focustage Weibo site(https://weibo.com/u/6582303814), and Amazing Musicals Weibo site 

https://weibo.com/u/6582303814


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(https://weibo.com/u/6641891098). 275 posts were collected from the five Weibo sites in total. Among 

them, Seven Ages’ Weibo site had the largest number of posts; 130 messages were posted on their site. 

Focustage posted 45 messages, Shanghai Culture Square and Musicals both posted 40 messages, while 

Amazing Musicals posted 20 messages. Figure 1 shows the number of messages posted on the five 

Weibo sites in different days in April. As illustrated in the figure, the reason for the disparity is that the 

five musical companies had different events and special activities such as live stream, luck draw at 

different days. 

 
Figure 1. Trend of Posts Numbers in April for the Top Five Musical Production Companies 

 

Figures 2-6 show the number of reposts, comments, and likes posted on the five companies’ sites in 

different days in April. Typically, the user engagement reaches the peak when the companies announce 

a new production and casts, upload videos, or start a live stream involved popular musical actors. In 

total, Seven Ages received 739 reposts, 1189 comments and 2433 likes; Shanghai Culture Square 

received 206 reposts, 177 comments and 991 likes; Musicals received 3591 reposts, 901 comments and 

7695 likes; Focustage received 2097 reposts, 5946 comments and 7222 likes; Amazing Musicals 

received 842 reposts, 392 comments and 1935 likes during the month of April in 2022. Overall, 

Focustage had a higher level of engagement than its four competitors in terms of comments. But 

Musicals received more reposts and likes than others did. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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This study compared the average posts and user interactions (reposts, comments, likes) of each 

company before and after the covid-19 occurred. The purpose is to find out whether there is any 

significant change in the use of social media by musical companies and their user engagement. In this 

study, t-test was used to analyze the significance of sample differences between February 2019 and 

April 2022. The study found that the pandemic has no significant impact on the number of posts (t = 

-1.37, p = 0.208>0.05) and user interactions (t = 0.815, p = 0.439>0.05) of musical companies. 
In order to further test the change of user interaction volume of each company, this study collected the 

average reposts, comments, and likes of each company in February 2019 and April 2022, and made an 

independent sample t-test on these data (see Table 2). 

 

Figure 2. Seven Ages’ User 

Engagement Trend in April, 2022 

Figure 3. Shanghai Culture Square’ 

User Engagement Trend in April, 2022 

Figure 4. Musicals’ User 

Engagement Trend in April, 2022 

Figure 5. Focustage’s User 

Engagement Trend in April, 2022 

 

Figure 6. Amazing Musicals’ User 

Engagement Trend in April, 2022 



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Table 2. Independent Sample T-test Result 

    Average repost Average comment Average like 

Seven Ages 

Before  131 67 233 

After 10 16 20 

T 2.344 1.816 3.537 

P 0.023* 0.074 0.001* 

Shanghai 

Culture 

Square 

Before 54 34 44 

After 8 6 25 

T 1.161 1.158 2.091 

P 0.258 0.26 0.045* 

Musicals 

Before 942 881 1111 

After 109 35 208 

T 1.983 3.678 3.592 

P 0.066 0.002* 0.002* 

Focustage 

Before 31 27 42 

After 70 198 172 

T -1.243 -0.856 -1.816 

P 0.219 0.396 0.075 

Amazing 

Musicals 

Before  12 9 15 

After 56 26 97 

T -1.933 -1.46 -1.962 

P 0.072 0.163 0.064 
*Indicates significant at 95% confidence interval. 

 

The study found that there were significant differences in the average number of likes of Seven Ages, 

Shanghai Culture Square and Musicals before and after the pandemic (t1 = 3.537, p1 = 0.001<0.05; t2 

= 2.091, p2 = 0.045<0.05; t3 = 3.592, p3 = 0.002<0.05). Also, there were significant differences in the 

average repost of Seven Ages (t4 = 2.344, p4 = 0.023<0.05) and in the average comment of Musicals 

(t5 = 3.678, p = 0.002<0.05). There was no significant difference in the rest. This shows that, in general, 

the covid-19 has no significant impact on the social media utilization and user participation of musical 

companies. At the same time, this study also found that the user engagement of the top 3 companies 

Seven Ages, Shanghai Culture Square and Musicals showed a downward trend, while the user 

engagement of Focustage and Amazing Musicals showed an upward trend. 

 



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3.2 Phase 2 

This study applied text mining to the text collected in order to discover new knowledge and patterns. 

As there were no criteria available to compare the social media content of the musical companies, this 

study combines the textual data from the five companies to discover main shared themes first. After 

themes were established, then examine and compare the detailed efforts of the five companies. The 

summary of the five themes and results of the text mining are listed below. 

(1) Musical related introduction 

A major theme was found is musical related introduction and knowledges share (around 24%). The 

companies would share the scripts, songs, and characters of classic musical dramas, introduce theater 

customs, theater seat layout, share video clips of stage performance. For example, Seven Ages has a 

fixed topic column #musical treasure chest#, and Shanghai Culture Square has #little-known facts of 

drama# to share anything about musical theatre. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Focustage also connect the theme of the musical drama with social topics. One of their shares is about a 

song “In the name of love” from the musical “Flowers for Algernon”. They wrote, “#Flowers for 

Algernon## World Autism Awareness Day# ‘Look at this colorful world with your heart, you will find 

Figure 7. Photo of Seven Ages’ Post with 

#Musical Treasure Chest# Introducing 

Important Awards in the Theater Industry 

 

Figure 8. Photo of Shanghai Culture Square’s 

Post with #Little-known Facts of Drama# 

Sharing Knowledge about Ghost Light on the 

Theater Stage since the 19 Century 

 



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love everywhere’. We hope everyone can feel the power of love”. 

(2) Casual socialization posts  

This study noticed that the posts (around 17%) sometimes are holiday greetings, wishes for an early 

end to the epidemic, and casual chat, which creates a friendly socialization atmosphere. In other words, 

the musical companies were trying to make their online presence on Weibo more like an online 

community or a circle of friends. 

 

Table 3. Examples Related to Casual Socialization Posts 

Topics Examples 

Holiday greetings #All Souls’ Day# Cherish and remember forever. They live in you.                             
On the first day of the holiday, wish you all keep the health code! 

Wishes for the end of the 

pandemic 

Please take care of yourself and look forward to our reunion in the theater 

as soon as possible.                 

Although we can’t meet during these days, but the pandemic can’t stop the 

hearts of missing each other. 

Casual chat Good morning! Is the musical you recently saw a tragedy or a comedy?                           

Follow me to bathe in the sunshine on this warm spring day. 

 

(3) Ticket purchase and refund information 

Some messages were related to the musical theatre ticket purchase and refund such as recent 

performance arrangement, cast adjustment, ticket purchasing channel. Due to the spread of covid-19 in 

Shanghai in April, theater performances were suspended, so many performance delay announcements 

and explanation of ticket refund methods were included. 

(4) Feedback on customers’ purchase 

This study also found that a few messages were responses to customers’ reviews and experiences after 

watching a performance. For example, Seven Ages regularly selects some of those for display.  

(5) Company and online activity  

The musical companies also posted messages about company and online activity information such as 

open new official account, live stream, lucky draw, membership activities, actor recruitment 

information, which accounted for nearly 35% of the total initial messages they posted. There were 

many live stream activities in April including musical actor performance experience sharing, online 

Live Action Role Playing games, music radio, etc. Based on analysis and observation, these activities 

seemed effective strategies to engage the Weibo audiences.  

Finally, this study examined the messages that were re-tweeted the most. They all were messages 

posted by Musicals. The post with the largest number of reposts is about a neighborhood concert 



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initiated by a musical drama actor cooperated with the company under the circumstance of community 

epidemic prevention and control.  

 
4. Discussion 

The results reveal that the five musical production companies are actively in social media and have 

committed substantial resources for their social media efforts. The examined data show that they were 

committed to providing delightful experience for their customers. For example, during the lockdown, 

many performances were canceled, and the customer service staff of Musicals responded to customers’ 

demand for ticket refund and exchange quickly. All companies attach great importance to the 

introduction of company and online activities. Because the epidemic has made offline performances 

impossible, online activities have become the main way of interaction. Compared with other companies, 

Seven Ages and Shanghai Culture Square put more efforts in musical theatre introduction and causal 

social chat. The reasons behind this remains to be further studied in the future. Since Focustage has 

more performances per month, it also has the most posts related to performance cancellation and 

refund. 

On the other hand, this study also found that only Focustage and Amazing Musicals continued to 

increase in the amount of user interaction after covid-19 compared with the other three companies. The 

user interaction volume of Focustage even exceeds that of its all competitors. Their social media efforts 

are more noticeable considering that their number of fans (7.60%) is smaller than Seven Ages, 

Shanghai Culture Square and Musicals. Based on data analysis and observation, the posts related to two 

popular musicals Mia famiglia (also known as The Bistro by fans) and Santa Lucia produced by 

Focustage have the highest number of likes. Mia famiglia has started an immersive performance in 

field mode in China. In a small space that conforms to the plot design, the audience can immersively 

participate in the drama and greatly enhance the interaction with the actors. This mode has changed the 

traditional layout of the actors on the stage and the audience off the stage and has won great popularity. 

Unlike other musicals, it is a long-term resident performance, with more and fixed performances per 

month, thus, the popularity lasts for a long time. 

The study demonstrates that the five musical production companies have made significant social media 

efforts to increase interaction with customers and build brands in the online communities, in the form 

of actively paying attention to user demands, timely reply and informing the company’s production 

arrangement. It is also worth noting that each company shapes its social media image into a friendly 

character. For example, Seven Ages call themselves little seven, Amazing Musicals call themselves 

little whale, and Musicals conducts personification interaction with other official accounts belong to the 

company in the role of big brother. This way will create a friendly and interactive atmosphere. This 

creates a friendly communication atmosphere. In general, social media is a convenience platform for 



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musical companies to develop online customer communities and fan group. However, this study only 

preliminarily explored the current situation of social media marketing in China’s musical industry from 

the perspective of musical product providers, the changes after the pandemic, and the overall 

characteristics of social media marketing. It did not make an in-depth comparison of the marketing 

strategies and effects of different companies, and it needs to be further studied in the future. 

 

5. Conclusion 

Social media has become an important concern of many industries, so it is important to understand the 

marketing strategies applicable to social media. This case study analyzes the current situation and 

characteristics of social media marketing in China’s musical industry through content analysis and text 

mining. The results show that musical companies have put a lot of efforts in social media marketing. 

They provide social media users with information in front of and behind the stage of the musical 

theatre through live stream and video clips and pay attention to customer needs and feedback. Not only 

to promote products, but also to maintain the relationship with customers and strengthen the stickiness 

of musical fans. All in all, social media plays a positive role in expanding the audience market in the 

musical industry in China. However, in this process, in addition to the role of musical companies, the 

contribution of the audience cannot be underestimated. Future research can pay more attention to the 

impact of this musical community formed on social media on the musical industry marketing. 

 

Acknowledgement 

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during the writing of this paper. 

My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to Professor Krishna Jayakar, my paper advisor, for his 

constant encouragement and guidance. He has walked me through all the stages of the writing of this 

paper. Without his consistent and illuminating instruction, this paper could not have reached its present 

form. 

I am also greatly indebted to Professor Long Wei, Ms. Zhao Lijun, who have instructed and helped me 

a lot throughout my studies. 

Finally, I could not have completed this paper without the support of my family and friends, who gave 

me their help and time in listening to me and helping me work out my problems during the difficult 

course of the paper. 

 

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Notes 

Note 1. Weibo is a Chinese microblogging website, similar to Twitter. It was created in 2009, and has 

since grown to become one of the most popular social media platforms in China. Weibo allows users to 

post short text, images, and videos, as well as interact with others through comments, likes, and reposts. 

Note 2. The number of fans of each company’s account continued to increase during this research, but 

the ranking remained unchanged. 


