MANILA – Twitter recently launched its #TwitterCityPH in the Philippines at the Mind Museum in Taguig, Metro Manila. The first in the Asia Pacific region, the launch was undertaken to thank Twitter’s local community of users, partners, and advertisers for their support. The Philippines was one of Twitter’s fastest growing markets in 2015 with millions of Filipinos using Twitter as an essential part of their national, cultural, and everyday moments.
“As one of the largest social media markets in the world, the Philippines has been an amazing success story for Twitter in 2015,” said Richard Alfonsi, Twitter’s Vice President of Global Online Sales. “Twitter helps Filipinos of all ages, communities, and backgrounds connect to one another every day, but it also connects the rest of the world to the country’s vibrant culture. We appreciate all of the love from Filipinos and we’re launching our first Asian #TwitterCity in the Philippines to show our commitment to our users, partners and advertisers here.”
#TwitterCityPH is a temporary experiential space that shows Twitter is the live connection to culture and how Filipinos’ passions — faith, sports, TV, food, entertainment, politics — have been discovered, shared, and enjoyed more with Tweets. Tweeting certain keywords entitle visitors to Twitter City to experience getting their pictures taken with standees from the Gilas-Pilipinas team, securing free halo-halo from one of the vendors, or having a photo opportunity with the crown of Miss Universe.
Filipinos flocked to Twitter in 2015 as proven by some key #PinoyPride cultural highlights. There were over 3.3 million local Tweets for the Pope’s visit in January, over 2.7 billion global views of Tweets related to the Manny Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather fight in May, and over 41 million global Tweets for the AlDub charity concert in October, in addition to the 1-2 million daily Tweets about the Aldub social TV sensation. There were nearly 700,000 global Tweets for the APEC Summit held in Manila in November last year while there were over 6.7 million global Tweets for Pia Wurtzbach’s win at the Miss Universe Pageant in December.
Maraming salamat Dabarkads at AlDub Nation sa suporta at pagmamahal! Grabe kayo! God bless us all!!! #AIDubEBTamangPanahon
— Maine Mendoza (@mainedcm) October 24, 2015
To further highlight Twitter’s live connection to Filipino culture, the so-called “2015 Golden Tweet for the Philippines” came from that inescapable hashtag that became known as #AlDub. Maine “Yaya Dub” Mendoza’s Tweet at 4:06pm on October 24, 2015 had over 76,000 Retweets and was viewed nearly 2.4 million times on Twitter.
“2016 will be an exciting year for Twitter in the Philippines and there’s never been a better time for Filipinos to be on Twitter today,” noted Rishi Jaitly, Twitter’s Vice President for Media, Asia Pacific and Middle East. “From the upcoming #TwitterElection and other news, sports, TV, and entertainment moments in the Philippines this year, you can be sure that Twitter will be the first service people and the media use to see what’s happening in the world, direct from the source and live as it unfolds.”
Every piece of culture in the world happens on Twitter, every second of every day, and a whole lot of Filipino culture will happen on Twitter in 2016 – ranging from entertainment such as Miss Universe’s homecoming trip, to politics with COMELEC for the first-ever #TwitterElection in the Philippines, to basketball such as PBA and the FIBA World Olympic Men’s Qualifying Tournament, and much more.
