New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who launched his Weibo account on Monday, received a blockbuster welcome on the social media platform, with users across India and China appreciating the move.
This is the first such attempt by an Indian leader on Weibo.
Prime Minister Modi`s journey with Weibo stated with a simple message, where he greeted China.
"Hello China! Looking forward to interacting with Chinese friends through Weibo," he posted.
The Prime Minister`s message had a phenomenal response, with a continuous flow of posts and comments praising him, as well as welcoming him on Weibo. The number of followers crossed the 100 mark within 5 minutes of the post and within an hour, it crossed 10, 000. The post saw more than 12,000 likes, over 10, 000 comments and was forwarded more than 6,000 times.
Soon, Prime Minister Modi posted a second message on Weibo, extended his wishes on Buddha Purnima.
"I would like to convey my greetings to all of you on the occasion of Buddha Purnima. Today we remember the august ideals and mission of Lord Buddha, who spread the message of harmony and brotherhood and envisioned a peaceful world. Buddha is a binding force that connects us, Asian Nations. It can emerge as a strong unifying force to make this century an Asian Century," he posted.
The second post was also received well, with more than 3000 likes and over 2000 comments, with over 700,000 people having read the article.
The Prime Minister`s popularity can also be measured by the fact that by evening, his account had crossed the 25,000 mark.
Many users were happy with the Prime Minister`s account, with some commenting that while the Indian Prime Minister has opened a Weibo account, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and President Xi Jinping have yet to take that step.
Others complemented the Prime Minister over his grasp of the Chinese language in his posts.
Prime Minister opened his Weibo account ahead of his three-day official visit to China next week. His trip follows Chinese President Xi Jinping`s visit to India in September 2014. He also met Chinese Premier Le Keqiang in Myanmar later that year.
Prime Minister Modi is an avid user of social media and is a well followed one, with 4,43,000 followers on instagram; 2,81,47,559 followers on facebook and over 12 million followers on twitter.
According to chinainternetwatch.com, Weibo ended 2014 with 175.7 million monthly active users, with company data stating that it had around 80.6 million daily active users.
PM @narendramodi's debut on Chinese microblogging site Weibo creates a big impact. First post seen by 5 million plus pic.twitter.com/KkKjmnP7ig
— Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) May 4, 2015
