On January 23, the Center for Social Media Research (CSMR) of Peking University School of New Media (PKUSNM) published the 2014 Wei-Power rankings of the 211 Colleges and Universities. Among the 50 universities listed, Wuhan University ranks No. 1 and Peking University No. 2, with Amoy University, Tsinghua University and Shaanxi Normal University ranking from No. 3 to No. 5.

The 2014 Wei-Power Rankings of 211 Colleges and Universities 

The rankings are powered by PKU Institute of Media Convergence, PKU Language Computing & Web Mining Group and Index Media. The indicators of Wei-Power rankings include the operation maturity, propagation strength and the developing state of universities’ official Weibo and Wechat platforms. The concept of "University Wei-Power" is put forward along with the rankings.

With the rapid development of social media in China, the propagating influence of social media platforms weighs more in the influence of institutions. Therefore, the quantitative evaluation of institutions’ social media influence becomes a focus in the research field.

"Wei-Power" is the power of spreading information and providing services with new media platforms like Weibo and Wechat. The rankings are based on open operation data of universities’ official Weibo and Wechat accounts. On the basis of the updates, follower coverage and interactions, the influences of these accounts are measured and showed in dynamic webpages. As this project goes on, the research team will expand the ranking scope and add more evaluating indicators.