Within 24 hours, the AlDub Nation successfully gathered a total of 3.6 million tweets with the hashtag “ALDUBMaiDenHeaven” last Saturday, 29 August 2015. As reported by PEP.ph, this hashtag exceeded the number of tweets garnered during the Papal Visit in January 2015. It also holds the record for the most number of tweets ever posted in support of a local love team.
The graph above (see Fig. 2) shows that the greatest portion of #ALDUBMaiDenHeaven tweets were posted between 1 PM and 3 PM–this was when Eat Bulaga’s KalyeSerye segment was airing. Note that after 2 PM, there was a huge drop in the number of tweets published on that day–almost 50%. What does this imply? There could be a lot of factors that may shed light on why there was a incredibly huge discrepancy between the 2 PM tweets and the 3 PM tweets, but let me focus on one which is probably the most significant: the very slow speed and expensive rate of internet in the Philippines.
According to recent reports, with only an average of 3.64 Mbps, the Philippines ranks second to the slowest among 22 Asian countries in terms of internet speed. While the average cost of internet in the country is PhP1,000.00, consumers get less than their money’s worth. According to a study conducted by LIRNEasia, top ISP’s in the Philippines failed to provide the the speed that they actually advertise. The study also referred to the government’s lack of support for internet infrastructure as one of the two factors causing slow internet in the Philippines.
Mobile users also mention that the telephone companies’ current data cap policy prevents them from maximizing their tweeting privileges. This is the same policy that imposes twitting limits on mobile users. (Some users say, for instance, that once they reach their tweet and retweeting limits–they cannot post fresh tweets and retweets anymore.) Imagine, without this limit, the AlDub Nation would have probably recorded an even greater number of tweets last Saturday.
Despite such limits, the whole AlDub Nation succeeded in attaining their goal–and that was to break their previous record of 2.5 million tweets (#ALDUBAgainstALLODDS, August 22, 2015). Sustained twitting was the key. Notice that between 3 PM and 12 midnight, AlDub supporters managed to publish an average of 157,110 tweets from 3 PM till 12 midnight.
I believe that in addition to sustained twitting, the collective effort of supporters in the Philippines and those abroad played a vital role. There seems to be a tight sense of community among AlDub fans and supporters. Despite differences in distance and timezone, they worked together in order to reach one important objective.
By gaining 3.6 million tweets and making “#ALDUBMaiDenHeaven” top trending trending topic in the Philippines and worldwide, the AlDub Nation was able to basically show that they are a force to be reckoned with, especially in the online stratosphere. However, the 3.6 million tweets weren’t only about showing support for Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza–in my opinion, it was essentially AlDub Nation’s show of force.
The Filipino Spectator 