Residents of Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia and largest city in Southeast Asia, are the most active Twitter users in the world. Thanks in part to notoriously congested roads and massive traffic jams, many of Jakarta’s more than 10 million residents opt to spend a lot of time plugged into social media accounts on their smartphones. The city’s inhabitants are responsible for 2.4 percent of all tweets worldwide. As a whole, Indonesia is also Facebook’s fourth most active country in the world.
At last night’s Miss Indonesia pageant, two new titles served as a national reflection of lives increasingly spent online: Miss Chatting and Miss Social Media. A third award, Miss Online, was introduced in 2011.
“Miss Chatting was awarded to the woman who received most votes from WeChat users; Miss Social Media was chosen based on the number of likes on each contestant’s YouTube videos as well as Facebook and Instagram picture; while Miss Online was picked through voting on the official event website. Voting was open for about a week,” wrote Tech in Asia.
The pageant, organized by MNC Media, has a close business relationship with Tencent – the Chinese internet giant and app maker behind messaging app WeChat. The companies formed a joint-venture last February with the intention of further capitalizing on Indonesia’s booming online market.
WeChat topped the Google Play store in Indonesia last year, coming in a close second on the Apple and Blackberry app stores. After Tencent launched television commercials in Indonesia, the company claimed adding 90,000 WeChat users per day.
“The growing proximity between China and Indonesia’s political and business circles has also helped boost its popularity,” said Want China Times. “Before WeChat entered the Indonesian market, Facebook was the largest social media network in the country. Market observers said that an outstanding marketing strategy was the key to WeChat’s success … as the app has captured considerable market share in a short period of time through advertising.”
The Miss Indonesia crown was awarded to Maria Asteria Sastrayu Rahajeng, who represented West Sulawesi. Miss Chatting was given to Siti Anida Lestari (West Java), Miss Social Media was given to Olivia Pramaisella (Bangka-Belitung Islands), and Miss Online was given to Jesslyn Anggasta Hardi (Riau).
