Barcelona have overtaken La Liga rivals Real Madrid to become China's most popular soccer club online, according to Mailman's 2020 Red Card report, writes www.sportspromedia.com/.
Barcelona moved from fifth last year to first in Mailman's 2020 rankings due in part to their impressive growth on Chinese social media. The club's followers on Chinese social media platform Weibo grew 104 per cent year on year, from eight million to 16.3 million. Barca's engagement on Weibo was also up 45 per cent on their 2018 efforts.
The club also found success on short form video platform Douyin, with Lionel Messi's penalty pass to Louis Suarez ranking as its fourth most watched video last year as it racked up 64 million views and 2.3 million engagements.
Chelsea, who sit third in Mailman's overall standings, are the most popular club from England, with two more Premier League outfits in the top five – Manchester City are fourth and Manchester United are joint fifth alongside Juventus. City rose from ninth place in 2019's standings to overtake rivals United this year, while Liverpool sit seventh, a drop of one place for the Reds.
The Premier League itself is the most popular competition with China's digital community, ahead of the La Liga which overtook the Bundesliga to claim second place. The German top-tier sits third, recording its lowest ever ranking.
