Searches for ‘Melaka’ spike on WeChat after Fan Bingbing’s ambassador role
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Fan Bingbing officially started her role as the Visit Melaka 2024 ambassador on June 14.
PHOTO: SIN CHEW DAILY/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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PETALING JAYA – “Melaka” is trending on Chinese social media, with searches for the term surging after Chinese actress Fan Bingbing’s appointment as the Visit Melaka 2024 ambassador.
Fan’s public relations manager Jersey Chong, who is from Malaysia, posted on Facebook that “Melaka” saw more than 320 million searches over two days, based on the latest statistics from China’s WeChat.
On June 14, “Fan Bingbing” garnered 334,883,965 searches, and “Melaka” followed with 165,082,653 searches on the Chinese app.
On June 15, “Fan Bingbing” had 461,138,243 searches, and “Melaka” had 161,972,679 searches.
“For comparison, searches for ‘Shanghai International Film Festival’ had 2,280,795 on WeChat, while ‘Weibo Movie Awards Ceremony 2024’ garnered 3,472,115 during the same period,” Ms Chong said on June 18.
This bodes well for a potential boost in tourism in Malaysia and possibly even the local durian industry after Fan expressed her love for the iconic fruit recently.
Fan, known for her roles in The Empress Of China and X-Men: Days Of Future Past, officially started her role as the Visit Melaka 2024 ambassador on June 14.
Wearing a traditional Nonya kebaya outfit, Fan was greeted by hundreds of cheering fans as she held meet-and-greet sessions while visiting various tourism and heritage sites. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
