Tim Cook has joined Weibo

11 May 2015

Seeing as Apple are killing it in China right now, the time appears to be right for the company’s CEO Tim Cook to join the country’s most popular social network Weibo.

A microblogging site akin to Twitter, Weibo boasts 143.8m monthly users, and with just one post to his name, Cook’s verified account has already attracted close to 350,000 followers at time of writing.

“Hello China! Happy to be back in Beijing, announcing innovative new environmental programs,” he wrote in the update, referring to Apple’s recently-announced expansion of its renewable energy and environmental protection initiatives in China, which include a new multi-year project with World Wildlife Fund to significantly increase responsibly-managed forests across the country. A data stamp on the post also revealed that, yes, Tim Cook uses an iPhone 6.

Tim Cook has joined Weibo

Tim Cook has joined Weibo

China has become an increasingly important stronghold for Apple. The consumer tech giant’s most recent quarterly financial results revealed that revenue in the country grew by a huge 71pc to US$16.8bn, while Apple is now be the top smartphone vendor in China, having overtaken Xiaomi.

Incidentally, Weibo is where Jia Yueting, founder and CEO of Chinese tech firm Leshi TV, likened Apple to Adolf Hitler by posting an image of a cartoon Hitler wearing a red armband with the Apple logo replacing the Nazi swastika. “Under the arrogant regime of iOS domination that developers around the world love yet hate, we are always carefully asking, ‘is this kind of innovation okay?'” he wrote.

Tim Cook image, via Valery Marchive on Flickr

 

Dean Van Nguyen was a contributor to Silicon Republic

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