China Trend Tracker: Weibo, Douyin, Baidu Hot List Alerts and Topic History

Track China's hot lists over time and get only what changed: a new topic on Weibo hot search (微博热搜), one that jumped to Douyin (抖音热榜), climbed into Baidu's top 10 (百度热搜) or dropped off the lists. Every topic carries its history: first seen, hours on the list, best rank, peak heat and the boards it reached, in order. Add watch keywords (a brand, a person, a product) to hear only about topics that mention them. 21 boards, optional English titles. $0.50 per 1,000 rows. No login, no account, no API key.

{
  "boards": ["weibo", "douyin", "baidu", "zhihu", "toutiao"],
  "watchKeywords": ["Tesla", "小米", "iPhone"]
}

Schedule it hourly. The first run returns every topic on the lists as new; from then on each run returns only the changes.

What it reports

event	When
new	A topic appears on a list for the first time
new_board	A known topic reaches another board (Weibo first, Douyin two hours later)
entered_top	A topic climbs to topRank (default 10) or higher on a board
left	A topic is gone from every board it was on; hoursOnList says how long it lasted
returned	A topic that had left is back
on_list	With output: "all", every other topic on the lists

A row carries every change of the run in changes; event is the most important one.

Why Use This Actor?

• Changes, not snapshots. An hourly snapshot of 21 lists is 500+ rows that mostly repeat. The tracker returns the 20-60 that moved, and bills only those.
• A lifecycle for every topic. firstBoard, boardsReached with times and best ranks, hoursOnList, peakHeat. See where a story started and how far it spread.
• Brand and keyword watch. watchKeywords in Chinese or English keeps only the topics that mention your brand, competitor, person or product.
• Separate histories. Each trackerName keeps its own history, so a brand watch and an all-boards feed can run side by side.
• Fair billing. A board that does not answer is skipped, not billed, and its topics are not reported as left.

Use Cases

• Brand and PR monitoring in China: an alert when your brand, product or executive reaches a hot list, and when it leaves.
• Agency and market research: how long topics stay on Weibo vs Douyin, which platform starts a story, how high it climbs.
• Newsrooms: a feed of stories as they break on Chinese social media, with the first board and time.
• Trend datasets: with output: "all", each run is a snapshot that also carries every topic's history.

How It Works

1. All chosen boards are read at the same time, from the endpoints the sites' own pages use.
2. Each topic is matched with the tracker's history by its title (case, spaces, hashtags and punctuation ignored), so the same headline on two boards is one topic.
3. The run compares ranks and boards with the last run and reports what changed.
4. The history is saved after the rows are in the dataset. A topic not seen for forgetAfterHours is dropped from it.

Boards

Board id	Board
weibo	Weibo hot search 微博热搜 (50, with label and category)
douyin	Douyin hot list 抖音热榜 (50)
kuaishou	Kuaishou hot list 快手热榜 (50)
baidu	Baidu hot search 百度热搜 (50)
baidu_novel, baidu_movie, baidu_teleplay, baidu_car, baidu_game	Baidu novels, movies, TV series, cars, games
toutiao	Toutiao hot board 头条热榜 (50)
zhihu	Zhihu hot list 知乎热榜 (30, with answer counts)
bilibili	Bilibili hot search B站热搜 (30)
bilibili_rank	Bilibili video ranking B站排行榜 (up to 100)
tieba	Baidu Tieba hot topics 贴吧热议 (30)
thepaper	The Paper 澎湃热榜 (20)
kr36	36Kr hot articles 36氪热榜 (50)
tencent	Tencent News 腾讯新闻热点榜 (50)
netease	NetEase News 网易热点 (50)
sina	Sina hot search 新浪热榜 (45)
juejin	Juejin tech articles 掘金热榜 (50)
douban_movie	Douban movies now 豆瓣热门电影 (10)

Leave boards empty for the eight main hot searches: Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou, Baidu, Toutiao, Zhihu, Bilibili and Tieba.

Input Configuration

Field	Type	Description
boards	array	Board ids from the table above. Empty = the eight main hot searches.
watchKeywords	array	Keep only topics whose title contains one of these words. English words are matched on the English titles.
output	string	changes (default) or all.
topRank	integer	Rank that counts as top for entered_top. Default 10.
translateTitles	boolean	Add English titles in titleEn (on by itself for English watch words).
trackerName	string	The history to use. Default default.
forgetAfterHours	integer	1-720. Default 72.
maxItemsPerBoard	integer	1-100. Default 50.
maxItems	integer	Cap on rows. Free-plan runs return up to 100; rows past the cap come in the next run.

Example: brand watch, hourly

{
  "boards": ["weibo", "douyin", "baidu", "toutiao", "zhihu", "bilibili"],
  "watchKeywords": ["特斯拉", "Tesla", "小米汽车"],
  "trackerName": "ev-brands",
  "topRank": 5
}

Output Sample

A topic that reached a second board: first seen on Weibo, on Baidu five minutes later (2026-10-29):

{
  "event": "new_board",
  "changes": [
    "new_board"
  ],
  "title": "外交部回应三丽鸥取消Vivant联名",
  "titleEn": "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to Sanrio’s cancellation of Vivant co-branding",
  "board": "weibo",
  "boardNameZh": "微博热搜",
  "rank": 1,
  "heat": 1123476,
  "url": "https://s.weibo.com/weibo?q=%23%E5%A4%96%E4%BA%A4%E9%83%A8%E5%9B%9E%E5%BA%94%E4%B8%89%E4%B8%BD%E9%B8%A5%E5%8F%96%E6%B6%88Vivant%E8%81%94%E5%90%8D%23",
  "onBoardsNow": [
    {
      "board": "weibo",
      "rank": 1,
      "heat": 1123476
    },
    {
      "board": "baidu",
      "rank": 38,
      "heat": 4167400
    }
  ],
  "newBoards": [
    "baidu"
  ],
  "firstBoard": "weibo",
  "boardsReached": [
    {
      "board": "weibo",
      "boardNameZh": "微博热搜",
      "firstSeenAt": "2026-10-29T08:33:24.399Z",
      "bestRank": 1,
      "peakHeat": 1123476
    },
    {
      "board": "baidu",
      "boardNameZh": "百度热搜",
      "firstSeenAt": "2026-10-29T08:38:50.042Z",
      "bestRank": 38,
      "peakHeat": 4167400
    }
  ],
  "bestRank": 1,
  "peakHeat": 4167400,
  "firstSeenAt": "2026-10-29T08:33:24.399Z",
  "lastSeenAt": "2026-10-29T08:38:50.042Z",
  "leftAt": null,
  "hoursOnList": 0.1,
  "matchedKeywords": []
}

Key Output Fields

Field	Meaning
event, changes	What happened this run (see the table above)
board, rank, heat, url	The topic's best-ranked board right now (the last one for a topic that left)
onBoardsNow	Every board the topic is on this run, with rank and heat
firstBoard, boardsReached	Where it started and every board it reached, with first time, best rank, peak heat
firstSeenAt, lastSeenAt, leftAt, hoursOnList	Its lifecycle
bestRank, peakHeat	Highest rank and heat across boards
matchedKeywords	Watch keywords found in the title

FAQ

Why did the first run return so many rows? A new tracker has no history, so every topic on the lists is new. Later runs return only changes. Use a new trackerName to start a history from zero.

How often should it run? Hourly catches nearly every topic. Weibo and Douyin move every few minutes, so a 15-30 minute schedule shows finer rank changes.

Two runs at the same time on one tracker? Give each schedule its own trackerName. Runs that share a history at the same moment can report a change twice.

Is the same story on two boards one topic? When the titles match after case, spaces, hashtags and punctuation are removed, yes. Boards often word a story differently, and then it is two topics.

How good are the English titles? Machine translation: good for following what a topic is about, rough on slang, names and puns.

Do I need an account or a Chinese IP? No.

Pricing

Event	When	Price
Actor start	Once per run (per GB of memory, 256 MB default)	$0.005
Topic	Each row delivered	$0.0005

Example: an hourly tracker on the eight main boards returns about 300 rows on its first run, then usually 20-60 an hour: about $0.02-0.035 an hour with the start fee. A brand watch with keywords often returns nothing and costs only the start.

Support

Found a bug or need a board? Open an issue on the actor's Issues tab and include the run link.

⚠️ Disclaimer

This actor reads public trending lists. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Weibo, ByteDance, Kuaishou, Baidu, Zhihu, Bilibili, Tencent, NetEase, Sina, 36Kr, The Paper, Juejin or Douban. Titles belong to their sites and authors. You are responsible for using the data in line with each site's terms and the laws that apply to you.

SEO Keywords

china trend tracker, weibo hot search monitor, 微博热搜 监控, douyin hot list alerts, 抖音热榜, baidu hot search, 百度热搜, zhihu hot list, china brand monitoring, chinese social media monitoring, weibo trending alerts, china trending topics history, hot search tracker, china pr monitoring