Searches for ‘Melaka’ spike on WeChat after Fan Bingbing’s ambassador role

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 (TMM2024) ambassador.

Fan’s PR manager Jersey Chong, shared that “Melaka” saw over 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.

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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 the ‘Weibo Movie Awards Ceremony 2024’ garnered 3,472,115 during the same period,” Chong said in a Facebook post on Tuesday (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 in X-Men: Days of Future Past, officially started her role as the TMM2024 ambassador on June 14.

Draped in a traditional Nyonya kebaya outfit, Fan was greeted by hundreds of cheering fans as she held meet-and-greet sessions while visiting various tourism and heritage sites.