Tokyo, Japan – 2021 proved to be another year for Twitter where gaming-related content and discussion are tweeted globally, amounting to more than 2.4 billion tweets about it. And in this instance, Japan emerged as the country who tweeted the most about the topic for the period the latest data from Twitter itself shows.
Other Asian countries that also ranked in sending out the most tweets on gaming include South Korea (3rd), Thailand (4th), the Philippines (6th), Indonesia (7th), and India (10th).
In terms of which games were most tweeted globally, miHoYo-developed action role-playing game Genshin Impact ranked first, followed by first-person shooter game Apex Legends (2nd), and idol-training game Ensemble Stars! (3rd). Other popular games that ranked as well include social simulation game Animal Crossing: New Horizons (6th), sandbox game Minecraft (8th), and battle royale game Fortnite (10th).
Meanwhile, E3 remained the most-tweeted gaming event for 2021, followed by The Game Awards. In addition, Xbox’s Games Showcase ranked third, followed by Gamescom 2021 (4th), and Summer Game Fest 2021 (5th).
For Maurizio Barbieri, head of sports and gaming partnerships for SEA and Greater China at Twitter, the platform has all been about connecting people and brands to give them the latest updates for the industry through conversations that happen.
“As we continue adjusting to life in the middle of a pandemic, people are finding new ways to make connections with various communities, and one of them is through gaming. The growing conversations that happened around gaming on Twitter reflect the increasing attention from the public on Twitter about various games, esports teams, and gaming personalities,” Barbieri stated.
Twitter continues to move forward this year as they will be covering the latest esports tournaments such as Call of Duty League, ESL Pro League, Halo Championship Series, and Rocket League Championship Series.
“Gaming continues to be the area where people are making connections and finding new communities on Twitter. The diversity of the community on Twitter shows the high appeal of the gaming industry for everyone to follow, discuss, converse, and share,” the platform said in a press statement.
Indonesia – To engage with a younger audience and create interest in writing and reading, independent agency network M&C Saatchi Indonesia has partnered with Twitter Indonesia to launch a new social media activation, where people could contribute with stories in a single Twitter thread.
The initiative is in line with Indonesia’s annual literary festival, Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, under the theme ‘Mulat Sarira’, which in English translates to ‘self-reflection’.
According to M&C Saatchi, the new social media activation has handpicked 70 contributors and curated over 270 tweets into a book, titled #TheThreadStory. It aims to promote the importance of reading to Indonesians, as the changing media habits of youngsters, especially the adoption of social media and streaming content, have further reduced their interest in reading.
Anish Daryani, M&C Saatchi’s founder and president director for Indonesia, shared that the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival has been trying to encourage writing and reading for eighteen years, but their voice doesn’t seem to be heard, which made them decide to change by harnessing the popularity of microblogging.
“We’re thankful to Twitter Indonesia for their support in coming onboard as a partner and to the hundreds of people who contributed to the first-ever crowdsourced book of tweets. We hope #TheThreadStory may have inspired many young netizens to pick up their first book and fall in love with reading,” said Daryani.
Meanwhile, Janet De Neefe, Ubud Writers and Readers Festival’s founder, noted that this initiative is drawn from a local philosophy, and is the spiritual principle of examining people’s actions, thoughts, and values to ultimately build the deepest sense of ‘self-understanding’, ‘wisdom’, and ‘interconnectedness’ in pursuit of Dharma, or “the truth”.
“I am thrilled with the outcome of #TheThreadStory and hope that we can continue to join hands with young writers and readers across Indonesia. Maybe on the way, we will also discover many new voices that need to be heard, fulfilling our dream to provide opportunities for the future writers and readers of this extraordinary archipelago,” said De Neefe.
Dwi Adriansah, the country head of Twitter Indonesia, commented, “Through #TheThreadstory, we encourage people to share their creativity in creating a book using a new way, which is through Threads. We hope this initiative helps people to rediscover their passions in literature.”
The book launch was live-streamed from Indus Restaurant in Ubud, Bali, on Ubud Writers and Readers Festival’s Instagram page.
Sydney, Australia – As part of improving the advertising experience on their platform, social media platform Twitter is testing out ad rollouts across tweet conversations.
In a tweet from Bruce Flack, revenue product lead at Twitter, he stated that users in the ad experiment will see ads after the first, third or eighth reply under a tweet. Said ad rollout experiment will be for a select number of global users, both on iOS and Android.
“We see a big opportunity to build an ad offering that creates value and aligns incentives for creators and advertisers. As we experiment with this format over the coming months, we’ll focus on understanding how it performs and how it impacts the people and conversations around it,” Flack stated in his tweet thread.
Starting today, we’re trying something different and testing a new ad format in Tweet conversations. If you’re a part of this test (which is global; on iOS & Android only), you’ll see ads after the first, third or eighth reply under a Tweet. 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/kvIGeYt2vp
He also mentioned that they will be testing different frequencies, layouts, contextually relevant ads, different insertion points, among others. Furthermore, they will be examining their learnings on this ad rollout endeavor and figure out if it’s something they want to make permanent.
“We’re excited about trying this out for our advertisers and we’re eager to explore how it could open the door for additional opportunities to reward tweet authors and creators,” Flack added.
Meanwhile, Angus Keene, acting managing director for Twitter Australia, commented that as the platform evolves and brings forward more ways for people to connect and talk, they will continue to evaluate how they extend this offering to their advertisers and partners.
“We are now testing a new ad placement in Tweet conversations for a small percentage of people globally. This group will see ads after the first, third or eighth reply under a Tweet. By introducing this new opportunity, we hope to create value and support users and creators who drive everyday conversation and connection on our platform, while also providing incremental scale for advertisers looking to reach untapped audiences during their most engaged moments in conversations,” Keen explained.
He added, “Over the coming months, we’ll be looking at how this experiment performs and impacts the people and conversations around it.”
This is one of the latest updates from Twitter, including more recently the creation of ‘Communities’ that serves as hubs for users on the platform to discuss similar topics, interests, or hobbies.
What a great way to start the ‘Ber’ months this year with a list of high-flying stories which gave the industry a peek of the latest developments in the startup, e-commerce, and digital payments scene.
This September, an Indian-born PR agency leading the way for communications in the startup sector has expanded its presence to Singapore. A Buy Now Pay Later platform is also ramping up its market in Southeast Asia with the announcement of its country manager for Thailand.
Meanwhile, e-commerce makes another round getting into readers’ radar with a data-driven marketing firm in Asia unveiling its new leader for its e-commerce offering.
Stories from the Philippines are also in this month’s top spots with one career coaching firm in the country sharing its business story, and also, a report that saw the convergence of consumer products and social media snared readership for the period.
Value 360 Communications, the startup-focused PR agency in India, has announced that it will be expanding its market to Singapore to unlock growth opportunities in the country’s burgeoning start-up space.
Speaking to MARKETECH APAC, Kunal Sinha, the founder and director of Value 360 Communications, shared that the company has been part of the journey of 15 unicorns in the market of India, where they have built communications from the ground up. Learning from the process, the agency eventually grounded its name and reputation in the sector.
Working with a complex market such as India, Sinha believes, gives the agency a strong value proposition to bring to the start-up space.
“We are going to focus on providing start-up PR in the SEA region, and Singapore will be the core for us in extending our services to start-ups. We are also in a discussion with other global brands who have both India and Singapore presence, and we are looking to hire talents with specific experiences in start-ups,” said Sinha.
We have an internal training module where we will be able to help them learn and understand about the start-up space.
Entering this month’s top stories is one of the latest episodes of MARKETECH Spotlight featuring career coaching firm in the Philippines, Metamorphosis Group (MG).
In an exclusive conversation with the firm’s Founder, President, and CEO, Danica Octa, she shared MG’s start-up journey which began in the pandemic year in 2020. Gaining more expertise and leadership into the current job and recruitment industry in the country, the coaching firm has now firmed up its mission of becoming an end-to-end employability solution for those seeking guidance on their career development.
Speaking MARKETECH APAC, Octa shared how the firm sees its role in the Filipino workforce.
Our role [in the workforce] is to be some kind of a learning partner [and] an accountability buddy.
Octa believes that above all, it’s able to help shape people’s career journey through its future-oriented thinking.
“We are very forward-thinking, we understand the future of work, we as a company is very, very in touch with what’s going to happen 10 years later,” she said.
Octa adds, “We have the intuition, we can give our market the information they need to succeed moving forward, of course, so that they can upskill and reskill to the appropriate job that they need to have, moving forward. So I think that’s the role that we take here.”
Twitter Philippines has recently released a report on the products Filipinos love to talk about on the platform. The data shows that there are five key trends in how Filipinos converse around food, beverages, and personal, as well as home care.
Chandan Deep, Twitter’s head of emerging business for SEA, shared that people on the app and the conversations that they create are what makes Twitter unique, and that 71% have rated it as a great platform for brand interaction, making it the number one among its peers.
MARKETECH APAC conversed with Deep, and she noted that when you looked at the top mentioned brands, which were listed on their CPG dispatch, you will see some good samples on how brands can engage with their customers on Twitter, to be able to drive more meaningful conversations.
Twitter has a diverse community so they can connect with people who like entertainment, gaming, or health, making the first move as a brand by initiating conversation and making your audience enjoy it.
ADA, the data- and AI-driven marketing firm in Asia, has appointed former Chief Business Officer of Lazada Malaysia, Sherry Tan to be its regional head of e-commerce.
ADA has just unveiled its end-to-end e-commerce solution for brands in APAC, and for the new role, Tan will be leading a team of leaders who will support the growing demand for e-commerce in the region.
In the interview with MARKETECH APAC, Tan shared the challenges that brands in e-commerce are faced with in this pandemic.,
“In the last 18 months right, the pandemic catapulted e-commerce retail significantly, and there are more users in the digital space whether it is the buyers or the sellers. Now, it has become harder for brands to attract customers because there are wider options available,” said Tan.
According to Tan, besides having more choices, customers are gaining smarter as well and therefore, have higher expectations toward their shopper journey.
Brands need to stay on top of their game to predict industry trends…and then they need to enhance engagement and attraction to their brand to build loyalty and retention.
On ADA’s e-commerce solution, Tan said, “Leveraging on our data and digital shelf, we are able to craft [an] e-commerce and digital strategy based on sentiment analysis, customer insights as well as [competitive] landscape. This data allows us to understand what consumers are interested in, where they have visited over a period of time, and ADA is able to target these audiences for the brand.”
For our top story for the month, we have Buy Now Pay later platform in Asia Atome’s appointment of its country manager for Thailand, Poompong Tancharoenphol Tancharoenphol was formerly Zilingo’s country head for the country.
Speaking to MARKETECH APAC, Tancharoenphol said, “I think I have been fortunate to look at e-commerce both from AddVentures and Zilingo before. There [are] a few key factors in making an e-commerce company successful, namely the business model itself, whether it is B2C e-commerce, B2B e-commerce, and marketplaces, and there is [a] supply chain, marketing, and payment.”
He adds that with BNPL being quite new to the Thai market, it could mean either two things: it may be potentially good or something which the market may not adapt to.
I think the direct value we offer to the retailers and e-commerce players is the increase in the market size. We were able to increase the market size to 30% more than any other payment method, and this comes along with increasing sales and conversion [afterward]
Watch our exclusive interviews with the brands themselves on the latest episode of MARKETECH APAC Reports, now live on our YouTube channel.
This is in collaboration with Malaysia-based media company The Full Frontal.
Manila, Philippines – Gen Zs are now growing up and are now fully demonstrating to the world their unique needs and desires. Dubbed as the most digital-savvy cohort to date, Twitter, one of the go-to platforms of the said group, has released its own findings on how the generation is using the platform and the implications of each to their social inclinations and consumer behavior.
According to Twitter’s data for Q1 2021, 61% of the Gen Z audience on Twitter use the platform on a daily basis. Within their conversations on the platform, Gen Zs’ passions are as diverse as they can get where across different topics, there is almost an equal percentage of Gen Z users conversing around them such as gaming and tech with 63%, food and beauty with 61%, and music with 60%.
This isn’t surprising as according to the same data, Gen Zs see themselves as ‘open-minded’ with 81% describing themselves as such. On top of pop culture, Gen Zs also show great interest and concern towards news at large, where 50% use Twitter to read news stories to be up to speed with current events.
In terms of consumer behavior, Twitter has become a source of finding out about products and brands, where Gen Zs are shown to more likely buy brands they have seen advertised on Twitter with 60%, based on the platform’s data for Q2-Q3 in 2020.
Chandan Deep, Twitter’s head of emerging business for Southeast Asia, said that there’s no better way to understand the Gen Z mindset than to delve into their world on Twitter.
“Twitter allows Gen Zs to freely express themselves, connect with communities, and at the same time, empower them to pursue and champion their values, interests, and passions,” said Deep.
“Gen Zs have always been active on Twitter, but there are still plenty of things to learn and discover about them because their interests are so diverse. We see a trend wherein Gen Zs rule conversations and are active in engaging with brands especially if it gravitates towards the things that matter to them,” added Deep.
New York, USA – Global social media platform Twitter has announced the roll-out of a new feature called ‘Communities’ which now allows users to tweet to specific communities where they want their tweet or content to be seen, whether it is the skincare community or the large online community following cryptocurrency trends.
In a latest blog post, David Regan, staff product manager at Twitter, notes that ‘Communities’ are still publicly available so anyone can read, quote tweets, and report community tweets.
“We want to continue to support public conversation and help people find Communities that match their interests, while also creating a more intimate space for conversation,” Regan said.
imagine an alternate timeline where everyone just gets you
say hi to Communities—the place to connect with people who Tweet like you. testing now on iOS and web, Android soon! pic.twitter.com/TJdKwUa4D2
Currently being tested out on iOS and web app versions, ‘Communities’ are managed by moderators who pick the focus, create the community rules, and invite the people who will make it a great place for conversation.
“Think of Communities as places created for conversation where the vibe and tone is set by people who share the same interests and want to have relevant conversations,” Twitter said in a press statement.
Moderators set the community rules and can also invite others to moderate their space to keep things on track and focused. Right now, Community creation is limited but in the coming months, Twitter will allow more people to create Communities so everyone can talk about their ‘thing’, whatever it is.
Some of the initial Communities Twitter is testing surround popular conversations on Twitter. Examples include dogs, weather, sneakers, skincare, and astrology, with many more to come, reflecting more of the thriving and niche discussions on Twitter. Right now, one have to be invited to a Community by a moderator or another member, but the platform will be adding more ways to discover and allow others to join Communities soon.
Singapore – Global digital media measurement software platform DoubleVerify has announced that it is expanding its partnership with MoPub, a monetization solutions provider under Twitter, entailing DoubleVerify to expand its full fraud protection to MoPub Marketplace, which is MoPub’s programmatic exchange.
MoPub Exchange currently connects advertisers with more than two trillion ad requests from over 1.5 billion addressable users around the world.
Said expanded partnership stems from their original partnership in 2019 where DoubleVerify was the sole provider of fraud and invalid traffic detection (IVT) post-bid measurement for the MoPub Marketplace.
This expanded partnership, which includes DoubleVerify’s pre-bid avoidance segments and post-bid monitoring and blocking, further extends quality coverage for global advertisers and publishers across one of the world’s premiere mobile app programmatic exchanges. With DoubleVerify’s technology, MoPub can continuously refine the quality of mobile inventory available through MoPub Marketplace.
“For advertising to perform, it must be seen by real people. Unfortunately, fraud follows the money — and as ad investments have shifted to mobile, bad actors are working hard to take advantage. For that reason, it’s imperative that brands have clarity into the quality of in-app inventory they buy,” said Matt McLaughlin, COO at DoubleVerify.
He also added that they are excited to expand their partnership with MoPub to promote transparency, support mobile ad quality and performance, and empower marketers to reach their consumers wherever they are.
Meanwhile, Michal Jacobsberg-Reiss, head of ecosystem Partnerships at MoPub noted that ad fraud is an industry-wide challenge, impacting publishers, advertisers and SSPs, which pushes MoPub continuously invests in keeping their Marketplace fraud-free, and having the right partnership in place is paramount for this effort.
“DoubleVerify has been a strong partner for combatting new and emerging types of ad fraud. This expanded partnership supports our comprehensive, multi-step approach to ensure MoPub Marketplace is thoroughly vetted and monitored to uphold our already stringent, high standards of traffic quality,” he said.
As part of its mobile in-app fraud solution, DoubleVerify identifies and screens the most significant types of in-app fraud, including background ad activity, hidden ads, app misrepresentation (spoofing), and measurement manipulation.
Manila, Philippines – Through time, the use of social media is becoming more intertwined into people’s daily lives, and is also becoming a major avenue for conversations that would benefit both consumers and brands.
On Twitter, whatever is happening, be it as grand as opening a new business or simple joys, people share it with their network, making the platform the go-to place to see the latest in culture and trends.
Research shows that there are five key trends on how Filipinos converse around food, beverages, and personal, as well as home care on Twitter. The first trend is around one’s creativity in the kitchen, which is the result of boredom of Filipinos amid the ongoing pandemic.
Cooking and baking have become creative outlets for new skills, and part of the people’s routine is to tweet their creations, sharing their trusted food brands and their favorite marketplace. The data from Twitter also shows that Filipinos’ most mentioned retailer for packaged food is foodpanda Philippines.
Next on the list is Filipinos’ love for coffee. Conversations about this much-loved drink continue to grow on Twitter Philippines, increasing 3% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, as cafes enticed people to look for innovative ways to make a statement with coffee. And with this, Robinsons Supermarket topped the list as the most talked about beverage retailer for Filipinos on Twitter.
Filipinos also tweet about pop culture on Twitter, which helped increase the conversation interestingly around hair care. There’s a 15% increase in the tweet volume on hair care for the first quarter of 2021 compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, as they actively pay attention and discuss the latest hairstyles or colors being sported by their favorite idols. This made Watsons Philippines rank first as the top mentioned hair care retailer among Filipinos in the platform.
Meanwhile, Filipinos gained a new perspective on self-care during the pandemic, building up their skincare routine and Twitter has also become the top-of-mind platform to look for suggestions and tips. More than 12% in April 2021of tweets are related to personal and skincare compared to May 2021. Part of this growth is the equally progressing conversation on tackling unrealistic beauty standards. Twitter revealed that Shopee Philippines is the most talked about among retailers and providers of self-care products.
And lastly, Filipinos were found to grow fondness for tweeting about being at home, making them more attentive to their own space. As the pandemic continues, people have grown interested in home improvement to keep their homes safe and clean. They can be seen sharing their aesthetic home buys, which is mainly from Lazada Philippines, therefore ranking first as the most mentioned retailer of home care products.
Chandan Deep, Twitter’s head of emerging business for SEA, shared that people on the app and the conversations that they create are what makes Twitter unique, and 71% have rated it as a great platform for brand interaction, making it the number one among its peers.
“These people lead the conversation and are passionate to share about diverse topics such as beauty, food, and health. What makes them powerful as consumers is that they try, buy, and share their experience on Twitter,” said Deep.
Manila, Philippines – The pioneering local music channel in the Philippines MYX has once again run their music awards virtually this year, with the official hashtag and title, #MYXAwards2021.
The Myx Music Awards has been around since 2006, and just like all events during the pandemic, it saw the music brand pivoting its awards event to virtual in 2020. Due to its success last year, MYX once again celebrated Original Filipino Music or OPM virtually with #MYXAwards2021 which is in partnership with Twitter.
Right off the bat, Filipino music fans flocked to Twitter as the event unfolded on 7 August, tallying over 4.3 million tweets dedicated to the event for this year. According to Twitter Philippines, this was almost the same volume of tweets racked up last year.
Twitter said the conversation peaked at around 11 pm as everyone watched till the end of the event, which was streamed live across YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as on MYX’s own website and on kumu.
As expected, #MYXAwards2021 ruled Twitter trends on the event day as fans expressed their excitement and reactions as it happened. Twitter recorded the top 10 hashtags used by netizens including #bts, #sb19atmyxawards, #myxawards2021, #sb19, and #bgyoonmyxawards2021.
Fans hashtagged around local Filipino five-member boy band, SB19, the most as the group racked up the top awards by MYX such as ‘Music Video of The Year’ for its song ‘Alab’, including the award ‘Song of The Year’ for the same song. SB19 was also named overall ‘The Artist of The Year’.
— ✨sarah is into stelljun✨ (@SarahnghaeSB19) August 7, 2021
Since 2018, Twitter releases a special emoji for the Myx Music Awards. Fans used the official hashtags #MYX, #MYXAwards, and #MYXAwards2021 as they showed their support to their favorite artists and to unlock the special emoji.
Aside from the special emoji, fans also utilized other emojis to express their sentiments. The most used emojis are the Purple heart, musical notes, the trophy emoji as well as the sparkle, and bawling emojis.
The most retweeted tweet of the night goes to BTS (@BTS_twt) for winning International Video of the Year for Dynamite, proving the Filipino ARMYs impassioned love for the group.
With this, the K-pop group emerged as the top mentioned celebrity during the event, followed by local music groups SB19, BGYO, Ben&Ben with part of the conversations during the night also centering around Ed Sheeran.
Carl Cheng, head of entertainment partnerships at Twitter for SEA & Greater China, commented, “Apart from the power of music, MYX Awards 2021 also showcased the power of conversations in hyping up the moment and keeping the excitement alive. The energy of music fans and communities here on Twitter is simply compelling, and we are equally excited to bring more of #WhatsHappening in entertainment closer to home using Twitter.”
Other awards by MYX included New Artist of The Year, Mellow Video of The Year, and Rock Video of The Year, among others.
Manila, Philippines – As more and more gamers around the world come to Twitter to discuss all of the latest happenings and trends, Twitter Philippines has released its gaming and esports insights on how local gamers have leveled up their voices and excitement on the platform’s gaming scene in the first half of 2021.
According to the data collected, Filipino gamers went from 9th place in 2020 to 6th place this year, surpassing India, France, and the United Kingdom. The open-world game Genshin Impact has reigned the rankings as the most talked about game among Filipino gamers on Twitter. This was followed by shooter video game VALORANT, and virtual universe game Roblox landing in the third spot.
Meanwhile, video game Minecraft came out in the fourth spot, while Among Us, a multiplayer social deduction game, capped the top five.
Twitter has also recorded that Filipino gamers on the platform showed their support for their favorite teams and players and connected with the source themselves. The most talked about esports teams among Filipinos on Twitter are T1, Sentinels, OGesports, Team Secret, Cloud 9, FNATIC, G2esports, and 100 Thieves, as well as TNC Predator, and TSM, which ranked one to ten respectively.
“Even though the year is almost halfway over, there’s still plenty to look forward to in the second half of the year. Be sure to stay tuned for even more gaming events like Gamescom & The Game Awards, along with plenty of esports content from Call of Duty League, League of Legends Esports, Overwatch League, and the VALORANT Champions Tour, among others,” said Twitter.
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