Tim Cook opens account on Chinese social network Weibo during Beijing trip

With Apple now selling more iPhones in China than in the USA, and much of Apple’s Q2 earnings call focused on the country, it’s no great surprise that Tim Cook has today opened an account on the Chinese equivalent of Twitter known as Weibo. There is, though, a certain amount of irony involved, Weibo being one of the main sources of leaked information on Apple products.

Cook is in Beijing to announce Apple’s new environmental programs in the country, the topic of his first post.

At the time of writing, the verified account already had over 300,000 followers, with almost 50,000 likes on his first post … 

Cook shared a number of facts and figures about Apple’s performance in China during the recent earnings call, including 31% growth in Mac sales, 100% growth in App Store sales, a tripling of online Apple Store revenues and 21 retail stores now open in the country, with a further 19 to come by mid-2016.

Weibo is used by around a third of Chinese Internet users, giving it a similar penetration to Twitter in the US. More than 100 million posts are made daily. The service was launched in 2009, after both Twitter and Facebook were blocked by the so-called Great Firewall of China. The service also enjoys integration with iOS and OS X.