It is the era of social media now but how do you evaluate Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui, Wang Liqin's popularity 10 years or 20 years ago when social media like Sina Weibo even not existed? At that time, people watched TV and read newspaper, not counting everything and talking everything on social media.
In terms of Sina Weibo, Liu Guoliang has 1.5 million Weibo followers since he opened his Weibo account last Sep. Kong Linghui stopped using Weibo in 2013, with 0.45 million followers (Zhang Jike had about that many followers 1 year ago). But as I said before, the number of Weibo followers says nothing of real popularity among real people. Do you think Liu Guoliang is more popular than Kong Linghui, based on the number of Weibo followers?
And I have said many times that Zhang Jike is popular and he is more popular than other current CNT players. But what surprises me is that I do not see the "cash-out" of the popularity. Why do you care about the media coverage but not commercials and appearances in top TV programs? Those are real money and real impact from. Give you an example, the second popular Chinese male swimmer based on Sina Weibo follower numbers and media coverage, Ning Zetao (8 million followers; #1 is Sun Yang, 32 million followers, London 2 gold/1 silver/1 bronze and Rio 1 gold/1 silver medalists) who did not win any medal in Rio Olympic Games and recently was kicked out of national team, showed up in Adidas new commercial along with the captain of women's volleyball team (China got women's volleyball gold in Rio). However, there is no new commercial of Zhang Jike from Anta Sports after Rio. Zhang Jike is one of Anta's brand spokespeople since Nov 2013. FYI, Kong Linghui used to be Anta's brand spokesperson and made Anta #1 Chinese sports brand in 2000. Sun Yang attended many variety shows after Rio as and do you really want to compare the popularity and view numbers between the shows Sun Yang attended and Zhang Jike attended?
If you think it is nonsense to compare a swimmer and a TT player, although Zhang Jike is the most popular male athlete in 2016 according to Sina Weibo and more popular than Sun Yang and Ning Zetao, I've told you Liu Guoliang attended more popular variety shows and Ma Long had Audi commercials. Can you explain me why?