Mohammed tops UAE ’17 Twitterverse
dubai — Leave it to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to get us all excited, upto-date and informed on Twitter.
Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) sent out the two mostretweeted messages in the UAE during 2017 — one congratulating Saudi Arabia and Egypt for qualifying for the 2018 Fifa World Cup, and the other on the occasion of the birthday of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan — according to Twitter Mena’s top tweets and trends list.
And he also bannered the top trends in the nation, using the platform to announce some of the most important news of the year: the announcements of two new ministries in the country — the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and the Ministry of Food Security — and the UAE’s commitment to joining the global effort to send humans to Mars.
Meanwhile, the tweet of 16-yearold Carter Wilkerson (@carterjwm) calling for a year’s supply of free nuggets from Wendy’s, which became the most-retweeted tweet of all time — knocking off Ellen DeGeneres’ Oscars’ selfie in 2014 from its perch — caused a trend to spread in the Mena, particularly in the UAE: Dubai-based banker Hasan Sajwani (@HSajwanization) asked to take 25 orphans to the movies, which garnered support from several brands, including du, Vox Cinemas and Pepsi. Vox even raised that number to 100.
The top hashtags in Arabic in the UAE during 2017 were Year of Giving, Flag Day, Year of Zayed and National Day. In local sports, Arabian Gulf League, Al Hilal, Real Madrid and Barcelona FC made the cut. The top football team handles were @Alainfcae (Al Ain), @ManUtd (Manchester United), @AlWaslSC (Al Wasl) and @AlWahdaFCC (AlWahda).
As far as Arab celebrities are concerned, Emirati singer Ahlam Al Shamsi (@AhlamAlShamsi), Lebanese actress Nadine Nassib Njeim (@nadinenjeim), Lebanese singer Elissa (@elissakh) and Egyptian singer Mohammed Saad (@MohammedOSaad) topped the list.
International celebrities, meanwhile, were headed by Filipino actor Alden Richards (@Aldenrichards02), who is one-half of the famed AlDub tandem; Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan (@Iamsrk); English singer Harry Styles (@Harry_ Styles); and Canadian singer Justin Bieber (@justinbieber).
Around the world
Globally, the most-shared Twitter moments were Nasa finding seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a nearby star, Beyonce’s new pregnancy, the gathering of thousands for the Women’s March in Washington and a high school letting seniors go in costume for their ID cards.
After Wilkerson’s nuggets tweet, next most-retweeted messages were former US president Barack Obama’s tweet on racism, Penn State IFC’s call for help in the Houston floods, Ariana Grande’s message after the shootings during her concert and Obama’s ‘thank you’ tweet as he prepared to leave office.
Obama’s racism message, plus another showing support for cancer-stricken US Senator John McCain, and Grande’s tweet, were the most-liked.
Over to the big screen, the mosttweeted-about movies in 2017 were Wonder Woman, La La Land, Dunkirk, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Justice League, It, Beauty and the Beast, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther and Fifty Shades Darker. The most-tweeted-about fan armies are those of Demi Lovato (#lovatics), Lady Gaga (#littlemonsters), Fifth Harmony (#harmonizers), Justin Bieber (#beliebers) and Five Seconds of Summer (#5sosfam), while the most-viewed live stream broadcast on Twitter was the inauguration of US President Donald Trump.
— alvin@khaleejtimes.com