How the celebs stack up on the new Starcount.com

If life is not already one big popularity contest then a new website is about to make it so.

Next Thursday, Starcount.com officially launches — a website that ranks well-known people and organisations around the world according to their popularity across worldwide social media.

So, if you want to find out who is the most popular person on the planet (it’s Lady Gaga, by the way) since the advent of social media, or what is most popular just for today (Nike Football, followed by Rihanna), then all you do is log on and click on the global chart.

Of course, the big names out there all want to be top of the Starcount, so when the site first launched last year in beta (as famecount.com), both Rihanna and Lady Gaga started lobbying their fans on Facebook and Twitter to get them to the top spot.

But despite first impressions the popularity charts are not all about pop stars.

Similar to existing services Klout or Peer Index, which both help you measure your own influence on social media against the influence of others through your Twitter and Facebook accounts, Starcount.com will begin to include members of the public in the charts, with their permission.

Soon, for example, schoolchildren will be able to measure their social-media popularity against that of their classmates or indeed against Jennifer Lopez — who was last week named the most influential person in entertainment by Forbes.

Despite, or perhaps because of the widespread disbelief and dissent over that news, Lopez currently has a Starcount.com social media rank of ninth most popular person in the world. On the music chart she comes seventh, behind the usual suspects — Rihanna, Justin Bieber and One Direction.

But just below Lopez, at number 16 is a girl most of us will never have heard of — Chinese pop star Ren Yueli. And here is the first sign that we shouldn’t underestimate the power of China in the social media charts.

Data from Starcount.com is pulled in from 11 sites, including Chinese micro-blogging sites such as Sina Weibo. So, skip to global politics and you’ll see no mention in the top 20 of David Cameron.

Instead, Chinese ministers, political groups and activists occupy most top spots — as well as Barack Obama, of course.

Oh, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.