Weibo And The World Cup: China Cheers For Germany During The World Cup

As anticipation for the World Cup final this Sunday mounts, lines of support have been drawn. Over in China, many World Cup-crazy fans have taken to popular social media website Weibo to show what colors they will be wearing come game day.

Similar to Twitter’s World Cup efforts, Weibo introduced a feature allowing users to fly the flags of their favorite country on their profiles. According to data by Weibo, China showed an overwhelming support for World Cup title contender Germany. The next most popular flag was China's -- despite the fact they did not play in the World Cup.

The netizen support for Germany isn’t entirely surprising considering the growing UEFA and English Premier League soccer interest in China. A survey conducted by Coventry University’s Center for the International Business Sport found that Arsenal earned the title as China’s most popular club team in China. Arsenal stars, Lukas Podolski, Mesut Ozil and Per Mertesacker also appear on Germany’s national roster. By comparison, no Arsenal players appear on Argentina’s World Cup squad.

As for the other matchup, Chinese fans seem to be favoring Brazil, with support for the host country nearly double that of support for the Netherlands.