One of the most popular NBA players in the game today has taken his social media act worldwide.
Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers' superstar shooting guard, has opened an account on the Chinese version of Twitter known as Sina Weibo, marking yet another major step that the five-time NBA champion has taken in his expansion on social media.
Bryant, who only had a Facebook account-but has 15,819,685 likes and 187,787 users talking about him as of Thursday-ventured into the Twitter world for the first time last month, opening his own Twitter account which has since grown to 1,321,382 followers.
His newly opened Chinese-based Weibo account, which he opened on Wednesday, has already drawn thousands of followers.
While he hasn't posted a single word on his day-old account, more than 100,000 followers have already begun following Bryant, according to Sports Illustrated.
Bryant had apparently left a message on Nike Basketball's Sina Weibo account reading, "Hey it's Kobe, I've decided to take over Nike basketball's Weibo handle for a few days and I wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year.''
Apparently, Bryant is on the same footing in China as their most widely beloved hoops superstar, eight-time NBA All-Star Yao Ming. In fact, Bryant's popularity was widely on display during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where Kobe played on a star-studded Team USA Basketball team that included Chris Paul, Jason Kidd, Carmelo Anthony and Dwayne Wade that won the gold medal.
Billboards and ads with Bryant on display were abundant throughout Beijing, one of the largest cities in China with more than 19 million people living there.
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