Singapore's year on Twitter
Photo: Twitter
SINGAPORE — Singapore's milestones on Twitter this year ranged from a declaration of love to grief over founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's passing.
The most retweeted tweet of the year in Singapore was posted by Twitter user @Fatynn, whose photos of a handmade anniversary gift for her boyfriend garnered more than 15,000 retweets and more than million views on Twitter, said the microblogging service today (Dec 7).
The local Twittersphere saw several firsts, including the launch of two emojis — the SG50 logo and Singapore national flag — to commemorate Singapore's jubilee year. These were first rolled out by blogger Kinmun Lee (@mrbrown) using the hashtag #5wordSingapore.
KEY INFLUENTIAL MOMENTS IN S'PORE
Twitter also highlighted several moments that resonated most with Singaporeans.
Among these moments was the passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew on March 23. A total of 1.2 million tweets used the hashtag #RememberingLKY between March 23 and 29, with tweets per minute peaking at 650 in the afternoon of March 29, the day of the late Mr Lee's State Funeral Service.
This year's National Day Parade set a new Twitter record for most number of tweets for a one-day event in Singapore, with more than 230,000 tweets using the hashtag #NDP2015.
The General Election resulted in 360,000 tweets posted with the hashtag #GE2015, in the period of Aug 22 to Sept 13. Tweets per minute peaked at 320 in the early hours of Sept 12, when the results were announced.
And as Singapore was shrouded in haze from September to November, users sent some 250,000 tweets with the hashtag #SGhaze.
"Other top moments in Singapore this year revolved around the nation as a regional sports and entertainment hub," said Twitter.
One Direction's concert on March 11, in particular, resulted in more than 100,000 tweets with the hashtag #OTRASG, the country's highest ever tweet volume for a one-day concert held in Singapore.
The Singapore F1 Grandprix (#SingaporeGP), held from Sept 14 to 20, saw nearly one million tweets over the race week by local fans and visitors alike while the #WTAFinals held in Singapore from Oct 19 to Nov 1 resulted in more than 460,000 tweets.
Some of these events made it in the top 10 most popular hashtags — #leekuanyew was ranked fourth, #sghaze was sixth and #ge2015 was in 10th place.
Korean boy bands occupied four of the top 10 spots for Singapore, while the top spot went to a fictional couple termed "AlDub" — a portmanteau of the characters' names — in a popular Philippines noontime variety show Eat Bulaga. The hashtag #AlDubEBTamangPanahon set a global record with 41 million tweets and was the number one Twitter trend in nine markets, including Singapore.
MOST FOLLOWED SINGAPORE ACCOUNTS
As of Dec 1, the top most followed Twitter account in Singapore belongs to Singapore Airlines (@singaporeair) with more than 340,000 followers, with an increase of more than 194,000 new followers in the past year. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (@leehsienloong) jumped seven places to come in fifth with 243,000 followers, with an increase of 138,000 followers over the year.
Popular bloggers XiaXue (@xiaxue) and Kinmun Lee (@mrbrown) reigned at 3rd and 7th place, with 275,000 and 208,000 followers respectively. Other notable accounts belonging to Stefanie Sun (@Stefsunyanzi) and the National Environment Agency (@NEAsg) came in at 9th and 10th place respectively.
The list does not include Singaporeans based outside of the country as well as regional, news and media accounts.
2015 ACROSS THE WORLD ON TWITTER
Globally, One Direction members accounted for half of the 10 most retweeted tweets, including the three most popular tweets. All the One Direction tweets were either directed at bandmates or the group's fans.
The fourth most retweeted post was by US President Barack Obama with a tweet in June that hailed the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage as "a big step in our march toward equality". Other top 10 retweeted tweets were from Saudi Arabia King Salman after his crowning, Kayne West, Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy before he died, and Caitlyn Jenner introducing herself after her transition from Bruce Jenner.
Top influential moments globally for 2015 included #JeSuisParis after Nov 13's terrorist attack in France, #BlackLivesMatter after police shootings of African-Americans in several US cities, #LoveWins after the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage, #RefugeesWelcome as people fled the Middle East for Europe and #BlueandBlack/#WhiteandGold after a photo of a dress in different light went viral.
