Weibo Scraper — Extract Posts, User Profiles, Followers & Search

Fast, reliable, and cost-effective Sina Weibo (新浪微博) Scraper and Weibo API alternative. Extract public Weibo posts, creator profiles, engagement metrics, audience followers, and date-filtered hashtag searches without needing a Weibo account, login cookies, or complex browser setups.

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⚡ What is Weibo Scraper?

Sina Weibo is China's premier microblogging platform with over 580 million monthly active users, serving as the digital epicenter for consumer discussions, viral topics, brand sentiment, and influencer (KOL) marketing.

This Actor acts as a turnkey Weibo Data Extraction Engine, turning unstructured Chinese social media data into clean, structured datasets (JSON, CSV, or Excel). Whether you are analyzing market sentiment, tracking competitors, or auditing influencer networks, this Actor handles anti-scraping safeguards, proxy rotation, and session management automatically.

Key Capabilities

• 🔍 Keyword & Hashtag Search: Search posts by query or topic tag (#话题#) with customizable start and end dates.
• 📝 Full Post Details: Capture complete post texts (including extended long texts), timestamps, like/comment/repost counts, geographic publication tags, high-resolution images, and videos.
• 👤 User Profiles & KOL Analytics: Extract follower counts, following counts, verification badges, biographical details, and profile avatars.
• 👥 Audience & Fan Lists: Collect follower profiles to map community reach and audit audience authenticity.
• ➡️ Following Lists: Discover who an account follows to map industry networks, competitor ties, and creator circles.
• 🛡️ Zero Login Required: Collects public data via automated guest session handshakes without personal credentials or phone verifications.
• 🔢 Lossless 16-Digit ID Support: Automatically preserves Weibo's 16-digit numeric IDs (mid / uid) as text strings to prevent scientific notation corruption in spreadsheets.

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💡 Why Scrape Weibo? (Use Cases)

1. Influencer & KOL Marketing

Find and audit Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) and creators in China. Evaluate real engagement metrics (likes, reposts, comments) versus follower count to uncover authentic influence and avoid fraudulent profiles.

2. Brand Reputation & Sentiment Analysis

Monitor real-time consumer feedback, brand mentions, and PR crises across mainland China. Track public reaction to new product launches, press releases, or marketing campaigns.

3. Market Research & Consumer Trends

Identify trending hashtags, consumer pain points, and rising lifestyle trends. Filter discussions by custom date ranges to measure the velocity and lifecycle of social discussions.

4. Competitor Intelligence

Analyze competitor social media campaigns, user reactions, promotion cadence, and customer complaints in the Chinese market.

5. Academic & Financial Research

Feed social sentiment datasets into quantitative financial models, predictive trading strategies, or academic NLP research on Chinese social media discourse.

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📖 How to Scrape Weibo (Step-by-Step Guide)

You can extract Weibo data in minutes without any coding experience:

1. Create an Apify Account: Sign up for a free account on Apify (includes $5 free usage credits every month).
2. Select Scraping Mode: Choose one of the 5 modes:
   • searchWeibo (Search posts by keyword or hashtag)
   • weiboDetail (Extract a specific post by ID)
   • userDetail (Look up a creator profile by user ID)
   • userFans (Extract followers of an account)
   • userFollowers (Extract accounts followed by a user)
3. Configure Your Input: Enter your target keyword, hashtag, date range, or numeric ID.
4. Click "Start": The Actor launches on Apify’s serverless cloud with residential proxy rotation.
5. Download Your Data: Export your clean dataset in Excel, CSV, JSON, or connect directly to Google Sheets, Webhooks, or the Apify API.

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💰 Pricing & Cost Comparison

How much does it cost to scrape Weibo?

This Actor offers transparent, flat-rate pricing:

• $12 Flat Pricing: Only $12 flat for full access. No surprise metered bills, no price spikes when scaling, and no escalating fees as your request volume grows.
• Why Flat Pricing Wins: Most other Weibo and social media scrapers charge per 1,000 requests (often $10 to $30+ per 1,000 requests). Once you scrape past 1,000 requests, competitor bills rapidly multiply to $50–$150+. With our $12 flat pricing, your costs remain completely predictable whether you run 1,000 or 50,000 requests.
• Try Before You Commit: Test runs are supported using Apify’s $5 free credits so you can inspect output schema quality before scaling up.

Cost & Feature Comparison

Feature / Metric	This Weibo Scraper	Other Weibo / Social Actors	Enterprise SaaS Platforms
Pricing Model	$12 Flat (Predictable flat rate)	Metered per 1,000 requests ($10–$30/1k)	$99 – $299 / month + setup fees
Cost for 10,000 Requests	$12	$50 – $150+ (charges grow with volume)	$150+
Charges Over 1,000 Requests	❌ None (Flat $12 rate)	⚠️ Metered surcharge on every extra 1,000 requests	⚠️ Tier upgrade penalties
Free Trial Available	✅ Yes (via Apify credits)	❌ Often no free trial	⚠️ Requires sales demo call
Account / Login Required	❌ No credentials or cookies needed	⚠️ Often requires personal login	⚠️ Requires company credentials
Anti-Bot & Proxy Rotation	✅ Built-in Residential Proxies	⚠️ Extra surcharge for residential proxies	⚠️ Extra proxy add-on bills
Lossless 16-Digit IDs	✅ Preserved (No Excel rounding)	⚠️ Often truncated as floats	⚠️ Varies
Cloud Scheduling & API	✅ Included (CRON, Webhooks, API)	⚠️ Often limited to manual runs	⚠️ High API tier upgrade needed
Visual Run Report	✅ Interactive HTML summary included	❌ Raw dataset only	❌ None

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⚙️ How to Use: Input Parameters

Configure the scraper using the user-friendly form in Apify Console or provide JSON input:

Parameter	Type	Required	Description	Example
operation	String	Yes	Scraping mode: searchWeibo, weiboDetail, userDetail, userFans, or userFollowers.	"searchWeibo"
keyword	String	For search	Query text, hashtag, or mobile search URL. Supports Chinese and English.	"#新能源汽车#"
startDay	String	Optional	Filter posts published on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD). Defaults to 30 days ago.	"2026-04-01"
endDay	String	Optional	Filter posts published on or before this date (YYYY-MM-DD). Defaults to current date.	"2026-05-01"
weiboId	String	For post detail	16-digit numeric post ID (mid).	"5249718969175092"
userId	String	For user modes	Numeric creator account ID (uid).	"2760523085"
maxPages	Number	Optional	Number of pages to paginate (1–50, default 5). Each search page has ~10–15 posts; fan pages have ~20 profiles.	5
proxyConfiguration	Object	Optional	Proxy routing settings (defaults to Apify Residential Proxies).	{"useApifyProxy": true}

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📋 Input Examples

Example 1: Search Posts by Keyword with Date Range

Search recent Weibo posts regarding electric vehicles within a specific month:

{
  "operation": "searchWeibo",
  "keyword": "新能源汽车",
  "startDay": "2026-04-01",
  "endDay": "2026-05-01",
  "maxPages": 3
}

Example 2: Retrieve Specific Post Details

Get full text, high-res images, and engagement numbers for an individual post:

{
  "operation": "weiboDetail",
  "weiboId": "5249718969175092"
}

Example 3: Creator Profile & KOL Metrics

Extract biography, verified status, follower counts, and avatar for an influencer:

{
  "operation": "userDetail",
  "userId": "2760523085"
}

Example 4: Audience & Fan Network Extraction

Extract public follower profiles for an account to evaluate audience demographics:

{
  "operation": "userFans",
  "userId": "2760523085",
  "maxPages": 5
}

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📊 Output Data Structure

The Actor produces clean, structured records ready for immediate spreadsheet analysis or pipeline ingestion.

Output Field Reference

Field Name	Type	Description
weiboId	String	Unique 16-digit numeric post ID (mid)
bid	String	Alphanumeric short code (e.g. QkRpSCuRm)
weiboPageUrl	String	Direct URL to the post on Weibo
text	String	Clean text content of the post
textLength	Number	Character count of the post
isLongText	Boolean	true if the post contains expanded full text
postedAt	String	Publication date and time (YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss)
repostCount	Number	Number of shares / retweets (转发)
commentCount	Number	Number of comments (评论)
attitudeCount	Number	Number of likes / reactions (点赞)
regionName	String	Author's geographic publication region (e.g. 北京, 上海, 海外)
source	String	Publishing client or device (e.g. iPhone 16 Pro, 微博网页版)
topics	Array	Topic hashtags extracted from post
atUsers	Array	User handles tagged with @
picUrls	Array	Direct HTTPS image links
videoUrl	String	Playable MP4 / media stream link (when available)
userId	String	Creator's unique numeric user ID (uid)
screenName	String	Creator's public display handle
verified	Boolean	true if officially verified
verifiedReason	String	Verified account description / credentials
followersCount	Number	Total followers (in profile rows)
friendsCount	Number	Total following count (in profile rows)
statusesCount	Number	Total published posts (in profile rows)
avatarUrl	String	High-resolution HTTPS avatar image
userPageUrl	String	Direct profile URL (https://weibo.com/u/{userId})

Sample Output Record (JSON)

{
  "_operation": "searchWeibo",
  "_sourceKeyword": "新能源汽车",
  "weiboId": "5297759758582315",
  "bid": "QkRpSCuRm",
  "text": "全国新能源汽车保有量突破新纪录，智能座舱与高阶智驾逐渐成为标配...",
  "textLength": 76,
  "isLongText": false,
  "postedAt": "2026-05-12 14:22:10",
  "repostCount": 42,
  "commentCount": 89,
  "attitudeCount": 350,
  "regionName": "北京",
  "source": "iPhone 16 Pro",
  "topics": ["新能源汽车"],
  "atUsers": [],
  "picCount": 2,
  "picUrls": [
    "https://wx1.sinaimg.cn/large/006X04fFly1...jpg",
    "https://wx2.sinaimg.cn/large/006X04fFly1...jpg"
  ],
  "userId": "2008330545",
  "screenName": "TechInsights_CN",
  "verified": true,
  "verifiedReason": "知名数码博主",
  "weiboPageUrl": "https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5297759758582315",
  "userPageUrl": "https://weibo.com/u/2008330545",
  "status": "success"
}

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🔗 Export Formats & Integrations

Your scraped Weibo data can be delivered anywhere you need it:

• Direct Downloads: Export your dataset anytime as CSV, Excel (XLSX), JSON, XML, or HTML Table.
• Cloud Storage & Databases: Ingest directly into PostgreSQL, MySQL, BigQuery, Snowflake, or AWS S3.
• No-Code Automations: Connect runs to Make (Integromat), Zapier, or Google Sheets to automatically trigger alerts or update spreadsheets whenever a new keyword appears.
• REST API: Trigger scraping runs programmatically and query datasets via standard HTTP endpoints using Apify API client libraries in Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or cURL.

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is scraping Sina Weibo legal?

Yes, scraping public information that is freely accessible without logging in is widely recognized as legal for competitive intelligence, market research, and academic purposes. This Actor only scrapes publicly accessible posts and profiles. Always ensure compliance with relevant local data protection regulations (such as GDPR or PIPL) and do not scrape private, restricted, or copyrighted personal data.

Do I need a Weibo account or login cookies?

No! This Actor uses automated guest session generation. You do not need to register an account, supply login cookies, or solve Chinese mobile SMS verification codes.

How do I find a Weibo User ID (UID)?

Visit the creator's profile page on Weibo in any web browser:

• Mobile URL format: https://m.weibo.cn/u/2760523085 — the numbers at the end are the userId.
• Desktop URL format: https://weibo.com/u/2760523085 — the numeric path is the userId.
• You can also find user IDs in the userId field of any post search result.

How do I find a Weibo Post ID (weiboId)?

• On mobile (m.weibo.cn/detail/5249718969175092), the 16-digit number in the URL is the weiboId.
• On desktop, you can also copy the post URL and run a keyword search to locate the exact 16-digit ID in the resulting dataset.

Why do some User Fan lists return privacy notices?

Sina Weibo provides an account privacy setting that allows individual users to hide their followers or following lists from guest visitors. When an account has enabled this privacy restriction, the Actor records an informative notice item so your run completes gracefully without crashing.

How can I avoid Excel showing scientific notation for IDs?

Spreadsheet applications (like Microsoft Excel) often convert long numbers into scientific notation (e.g., 5.24972E+15). This Actor formats all IDs as string values to preserve full precision. When importing CSV files into Excel, select the ID column and set the column data format to Text.

Can I schedule the scraper to run automatically?

Yes. Using Apify's built-in Schedules feature, you can set the Actor to run every hour, every day at midnight, or on any custom CRON schedule to track fresh posts continuously.

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🛠️ Support & Custom Solutions

Need custom data extraction, high-frequency enterprise crawling, or dedicated connectors for other Chinese platforms (such as Xiaohongshu / RED, Douyin, Bilibili, or Zhihu)?

• Submit an issue or feedback through the Apify Console.
• For custom business requirements or enterprise scrapers, reach out directly via the Actor discussion page.