Tired of ads? Enjoy an ad-free experience by signing up.
Willis Wee · · 2 min read

Japan Broke Twitter Record on New Year Day

Twitter is popular in Japan and its popularity was evidently shown on New Year day, or in Japanese ‘Oshogatsu’. Just 4 seconds after midnight in Japan, Twitterers set an all time record by sending 6,939 tweets per second (TPS).

A huge volume of Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu (Happy New Year!) was sent within the community. Of course, Twitterers from the same time zone (Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Australia and Singapore) had also helped to set the record.

The new record doubled the previous of 3,283 TPS, set during Japan’s victory over Denmark in last summer’s World Cup. Below is a visualization of tweets from Japan during New Year day.

Twitter has enjoyed success with Japan ever since launching its Japanese version back in April 2008. 6 months ago, we reported that 16.3 percent of Japan’s Internet users are on Twitter. It was also estimated that Japanese tweet about 8 million times a day, which contributes to 12 percent of the global total. A chart recently released by comScore showed that Twitter is gaining full steam ahead; almost to the point of overtaking Mixi.jp, Japan’s largest social network.

“Japan is enjoying the richest and most varied form of Twitter usage as a communication tool,” Daisuke Tsuda, 36, a writer with more than 65,000 followers on Twitter said last year.

Facebook, however, isn’t able to enjoy the same success as Twitter. There are currently 1.8 million Facebook users in Japan, which is only equivalent to 1.9 percent of the total online users in Japan (94 million estimated Japanese online users in 2010).

Stay ahead in Asia’s tech landscape

You've reached your 2 free content limit for the month. Sign up for free to read the full story.

🏄 For casual readers / 👶 Free

Basic

US$0

Free forever

Get instant access to this article and more every month

0 premium content

Unlimited news briefs

5

5 articles

Ad-free reading experience

Just US$0 per day

⌛Sign up in 20s. No payment details needed.

📖 For learners / 👍 Starter

Lite

US$4.92/month

Billed annually at US$59/year

Get instant access to this article and more every month

4

4 premium content

Unlimited news briefs & articles

Ad-free reading experience

Just US$0.17 per day

Cancel anytime

Our subscriber community includes professionals from these companies:

Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.

Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.

Community Writer

Willis Wee

Founder at Tech in Asia. Aspires to build a company and product that people love.