Twitter’s big gains in the PH

If you look up international news on Twitter, it’s not exactly painting a pretty picture. Everything from the company not being able to attract new users, to senior leaders leaving, to users complaining about changing features (like the star icon for favorites being turned into a heart), to low stock prices. Tech pundits have been predicting the demise of the social network for a while. But the service still has a sizable 320 million monthly active users—although if you contrast that with 1.5 billion users on Facebook, as was last reported by Wired in January, the contrast is great.

Twitter is getting aggressive though with trying to get more users. They continue to experiment with new features, some getting more positive reactions than others—like a GIF button to let you reply to tweets with whatever appropriate GIF the moment calls for or a new algorithmic timeline that shows you popular tweets you might have missed when you were gone instead of one that just shows the chronological order of tweets. The former getting a more positive reaction than the latter (hello, #RIPTwitter).

But if local figures are to be taken into account, the global figures also seem to be in stark contrast to what Twitter is experiencing in the Philippines. “I haven’t seen any country embrace Twitter like the Philippines has,” Rishi Jaitly, Twitter’s vice president for Asia Pacific and Middle East, said during a Twitter press event on February 18 at Mind Museum.

Big issues, events, and personalities like the Pope’s visit, AlDub and the AlDub charity concert, and Miss Universe easily garnered millions upon millions of tweets not just from Filipinos locally but from many people abroad, too.

And that’s the charm of Twitter. You get to experience an event in real-time not just with your friends and family but also with some of the biggest celebrities and personalities in the world. Twitter positions itself as the “live connection to culture.” You get to see what’s the latest and most important issues from different parts of the world. And it seems we Filipinos like being in the thick of things, or at least sharing our thoughts about them online.

And for this part of the world, Twitter’s had a great year. The region is said to be its fastest growing market and Philippines is one of the reasons for it. That’s why the the social network wants to celebrate how big 2015 was for Twitter in the Philippines through #TwitterCityPH. This temporary experiential space in Mind Museum puts in a physical space how Twitter has become the live connection for Filipinos to their culture and passion. It covers everything from faith, sports, TV, food, entertainment, and politics. Head over to Mind Museum to see the different areas covered.

There’s also a new @TwitterPH account to check out the latest hot topics and trends in the country.

The social network plans to be more aggressive and more visible in the country. According to Jaitly, they continue to work with Twitter phenom AlDub and have whatever tools they have available to them and they want to present that to other brands, personalities, and the like.

In fact, they’ve partnered with COMELEC for the first ever #TwitterElection. What this does for the COMELEC is Twitter will help cull the data for them. And for the first time, voters can use the service to tweet @COMELEC to report any election-related violations to them.

Jaitly said in a press release, “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. 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.”

We’re not sure how tides might change in the social media world and if Twitter is really up for big things this year but while it’s still around we know we’ll still be tweeting.