MANILA, Philippines – What happens on China’s equivalent of Twitter on the first minute of the Lunar New Year? New posting records of course.

Sina Weibo announced (site in Chinese) that a record 731,102 Weibo posts were recorded during the first minute of this new Lunar New Year – 34,977 of which were posted in the first second of that minute. This total beat out last year’s first second tally of 32,212 posts.

The tally also edges out Twitter’s 33,388 peak tweets per second at the start of the Gregorian new year.

While Twitter tweets and Sina Weibo’s posts aren’t identical in structure, as Sina Weibo posts can elicit more engagement due to the ability to post general comments on updates rather than replies, the number is still rather impressive.

Tech in Asia adds that during the traditional Spring Gala show to usher in a new year, some of Sina Weibo’s 400 million users also “live tweeted” the event using the hashtag #chunwan, possibly contributing to the tally. Celine Dion’s appearance and duet during the show may have also had an effect.

While Sina Weibo has its fair share of detractors, both from the public and the government, the ability of social media to rack up high usage numbers, especially in China’s controlled environment, is still a sight to see. – Rappler.com