British physicist Stephen Hawking tallies 2m followers on Weibo
Users of the Chinese social network Weibo have welcomed professor Stephen Hawking to the site with him generating over two million followers in a matter of hours.
Hawking, posted messages in both English and Chinese, saying hello to his “friends in China” stating “I hope to tell you more about my life and work… and also to learn from you in reply”.
He shared that he hasn’t visited the country for a decade since attending a Beijing physics conference.
Thirty minutes following the launch of the account, Hawking’s account accumulated 140k followers.
The site boasts over 230m users and is the country’s largest social media platform.
Hawking has long been a pop culture icon as well as a leading mind popularising the pursuits of science - even so in China. Most recently he appeared in a Jaguar ad as an evil genius.