Dancing Filipino tweets his way to the top in NZ

A FILIPINO who records himself dancing in his bedroom is New Zealand’s most- followed Tweeter – more popular with the ladies than sports star Sonny Bill Williams.

Paolo Feliciano, 20, has created a Justin Bieber-esque online persona by posting online love musings to his fans.

Under the username @ kimpoyfeliciano, Feliciano has amassed 451,330 followers on Twitter, compared to Williams’ mere 202,621, according to social media tracking website Social Bakers. The All Blacks are third, Kim Dotcom is fourth with 178,396 and Rhys Darby comes fifth with nearly 113,000. Cory Jane edges out John Key for eighth spot with just over 77,000 followers and Piri Weepu is 10th with 69,240.

Feliciano’s strong following across all social media is helped by having a potential fan base of 95,000,000 (the population of the Philippines).

The Dunedin student describes himself as a Scarfie who is also a pro-life Catholic and is a 1.8m-tall dancer and performer.

As well as posting photos and videos of himself online, he sends his teenage fans into a tizz by writing messages like: ‘‘Single doesn’t mean you don’t know anything about love, it just means you know enough to wait for it’’ and ‘‘I don’t want to be your whole world, I want to be your favourite part of it’’.

On his Tumblr account, he portrays himself as someone who ‘‘respects women’’.

However, despite young Filipino girls tripping over the online sensation’s every typed word, Kiwi teens might not understand the appeal, with most of his posts being written in Tagalog – the official language of the Philippines.