Tim Cook gets more than 100k Chinese followers in 30 minutes on Weibo account

Call it “pulling a Zuck?” Apple CEO Tim Cook is now apparently on Weibo, as evidenced by a verified account and a message to followers that surfaced about thirty minutes ago.

“Hello China! Happy to be back in Beijing, announcing innovative new environmental programs,” said Cook in his inaugural post. He also showed off some Chinese, perhaps with the help of a bilingual assistant.

The post has been up for less than an hour, and it has racked up more than 8,500 shares, 14,000 comments, and 12,000 likes. Cook’s account has more than 138,000 followers. Reminder: China is big and moves fast.

The environmental programs Cook is referring to include a collaboration with the World Wildlife Foundation. This morning Apple announced it would work with the non-profit to responsibly manage up to 1 million acres of Chinese forestland used to harvest paper products.

Will Cook also show his face on WeChat, China’s mobile chat app of choice? It’s possible, but unlikely. Non-Chinese citizens who don’t have proper IDs or +86 phone numbers don’t qualify for official accounts that face mainland Chinese users. That makes setup for a guy like Cook a group effort.

Cook’s appearance on Chinese social media comes soon after Xiaomi founder Lei Jun greeted Indian fans with clunky English, hyping up the audience by asking “Are you okay?”

In other Apple news, research firm IDC named Apple as China’s top smartphone vendor of Q1 2014 when measured for shipments. The firm said strong demand for the iPhones 6 and 6 Plus amidst a generally contracting market caused the boost.

Editing by Michael Tegos, top image by Mike Deerkoski