LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant joins Chinese Twitter-style website and scoops 200,000 followers within hours Fans rush to follow superstar after he posts on Sina Weibo for first time Microblogging site is China's answer to Twitter and has 400 million users Other celebrity users include the Mayor of London Boris Johnson By Sam Adams Member: LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant has joined the popular Chinese social networking website Sina Weibo Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant has become the latest household name to sign up to China's answer to Twitter. The LA Lakers player posted his first message on giant Chinese microblogging website - Sina Weibo - this morning, about an hour and a half before his team were due to play the LA Clippers. Bryant is the latest famous name to sign up to the site, which has more than 400 million users, including celebrities such as the Mayor of London Boris Johnson and the former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd. Twitter, which has around 500 million users worldwide has been banned in China since 2009 - along with a number of other western websites, including the video-sharing site You Tube. Hundreds of websites are blocked in mainland China under the country's policy of internet censorship News that Mr Bryant had joined Sina Weibo caused huge excitement amongst its users, with 200,000 following him within hours. Mr Bryant's first message on Sina Weibo read: 'Valentine's day sneaks ready to break Clippers hearts. Big game tonight. Sina Weibo verified that the NBA superstar has set up an individual account on the site. His account was created just days after a message appeared on Nike Basketball's Sina Weibo account, named Black Mamba, which read: 'Hey it's Kobe, I've decided to take over Nike basketball's Weibo handle for a few days and I wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year.' Mr Bryant is widely known and extremely popular in China, rivaling the country's homegrown basketball star Yao Ming. During the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, billboards featuring Mr Bryant dominated China's commercial districts. The Los Angeles Lakers star already has several fans pages on Sina Weibo. One of them - 'Home of Kobe' - has more than 200,000 followers. Along with other sites, it posted a welcome message for him. Popular: The site boasts 400 million users. Several western-based websites, including Twitter, are currently banned in China Celebrity users: Mayor of London Boris Johnson (left) and former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd (right) are both believed to use Sina Weibo By Friday, it was translating fans' comments into English. Hello, Black Mamba, welcome to Sina Weibo. It's been a long time for Chinese fans to wait for this moment,' the page wrote. Sina Weibo is one of the most popular websites in China, and is reportedly used by well over 30 per cent of the country's internet users. It was launched by SINA Corporation on 14 August 2009, and now hosts around 100 million messages a day. Weibo means 'Microblog in Chinese. Other users of the site include a host of Chinese celebrities, famous business and media figures, athletes, scholars, artists, and religious figures. The German national Football team also reportedly posts on the site. Despite Sina Weibo's success, many Chinese people are believed to have defied the censors and used Twitter.