Philippines and Malaysia took the most Instagram selfies in Asia

Time Magazine’s map of the selfies in the Philippines

The act of taking a photo of yourself and posting it on social media sites, more popularly know as a “selfie”, is especially popular in Asian countries. This is according to Time magazine’s recent The Selfiest Cities in the World report.

Through Instagram’s API, TIME counted the photos with #selfie hashtags and geographic locations for two five-day periods between January and March. Through this they came up with their list of the selfiest places on Earth.

The Philippines: selfie leader

The study shows Makati and Pasig in the Philippines top the global list, with a combined 258 selfie-takers in the selected period. Time grouped the two nearby cities together.

The results aren’t surprising. As early as 2011, the Philippines was already considered the “social capital of the world”, where Facebook became even more popular than Google. To top it off, smartphone adoption in the country is relatively high. A survey by mobile rewards platform Jana shows around 63 percent of its respondents own a smartphone, and 40 percent are Android users. These trends are the perfect ingredients for a high selfie rate.

Apart from cities Makati and Pasig, here are the other Philippine cities included in the list:

• 9: Cebu City
• 16: Baguio City
• 59: Quezon City
• 72: Ilo-ilo

(See also: Ready for your close-up? Here are 10 great selfie apps)

Malaysia follows by example

After the Philippines, Malaysia follows suit with the second-most selfies in Asia. Petaling Jaya is the fifth selfiest city in the world, and George Town takes the tenth spot.

Like the Philippines, Malaysia is also a social media-heavy country, led by its Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak who once invited his friends on social media to a tea party. Razak was recently spotted taking a selfie with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Apart from the prime minister, Malaysian celebrities are also leading in the selfie charge. No wonder so many Malaysians are doing the same.

Apart from the two mentioned cities, Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru in Malaysia also made the list at 21st and 50th, respectively. Countries like Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia are also among the Asian countries included in the top 100 selfiest cities list.

(Source: Time via ABS-CBN)

(Editing by Paul Bischoff)