Society moves online in brave new world

Queen of the micro blog

Social media has become the new battlefield for celebrities, whose online fight for the top always draws public attention.

A-list actress Yao Chen, who debuted on Sina Weibo as early as September 2009, was crowned "Queen of the micro blog" in 2010, with the largest number of followers.

She has been enjoying her glory in the virtual world, but in the small hours of Nov 25, Xie Na, a popular TV hostess from Hunan Satellite TV Station, gained 200,000 more followers with her funny posts.

Xie wrote on her weibo that day expressing her surprise and excitement with her victory, and she said the situation wouldn't last for long so she had to make the best of her time to show off a little bit.

Her prediction was right.

Yao, who just got married in New Zealand, posted nearly 10 posts the same day, all about her trip. She regained the throne the next day, with about 50,000 followers more than Xie.

"I think people half-jokingly call me 'queen'. It's very silly to take it seriously. Each of my posts represents my opinion and attitude toward something, and I will speak up about what I want to say, just like before," Yao told China Daily.

The 10 people with the most followers on Sina Weibo are all actors, actresses, performers, TV hosts and singers except Kai-Fu Lee, the former head of Google China, who ranks 7th, with around 26,400,000 followers.