The Sewol Ferry disaster on April 16 spawned the most tweets. (image: Republic of Korea/flickr)
SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Korea Bizwire) – What happened on Twitter in South Korea this year? What was most tweeted in 2014? It is reported that the top twitter moment of 2014 in Korea was the Sewol Ferry disaster on April 16.
Twitter released its annual list of the tweets that attracted the most attention. According to the social networking company, the Sewol Ferry disaster on April 16 spawned the most tweets. Most of the messages expressed hope for passengers’ safe return. People circulated and shared the survivor list and news updates. G-dragon’s tweet with the phrase #PRAYFORSOUTHKOREA, in particular, was retweeted more than 52,000 times.
Korean outrage over apparent biased judgment against figure skater Kim Yu-na at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics gave rise to the hashtag #ThankyouYuna. As Kim lost the gold medal to Russian Adelina Sotnikova due to a questionable judging decision, a total of 63,000 tweets conveying appreciation for Yu-na’s efforts were sent from the moment of the final figure skating competition to the closing ceremony.
The third popular twitter topic was the sixth local election held on June 4. As election campaigns were authorized to use social networking, individuals were encouraged to vote through twitter messages.
The World Cup was another momentous twitter moment of 2014. During the match between South Korea and Algeria, Korean soccer fans unleashed a huge number of tweets. When Pope Francis visited Korea on August 15, Koreans also tweeted about him and his visit. These two events were the fourth and the fifth top twitter moments of this year in Korea.
They were followed by tweets about the final basketball competition between South Korea and Iran at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. The Korean team won the gold medal for the first time in 12 years. Twitter messages about the Korean holiday Chuseok, the Korean soap opera “Jang Bo-ri is here” which hit a record of 37.3 percent ratings, and the World Cup final between Germany and Argentina rounded out the list.
By Veronica Huh (veronicah@koreabizwire.com)
