Social messaging soars almost eight-fold on King news

Social messaging soars almost eight-fold on King news

The number of messages Thais sent via social media surged by almost eight-fold upon learning of the passing of King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Oct 13, according to a Bangkok-based social media analysis firm.

Earlier, there had been 2,802 messages an hour on average. The great loss was officially announced at about 7pm and from 6pm to 8pm the number of messages reached 42,421, or 21,210 on average, according to Thoth Zocial Co.

From Oct 12 to 17, Thai people sent 1.15 million messages related to King Bhumibol via social media, and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were their main channels, said Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, director of Thoth Zocial.

Of the messages, 62% went through Facebook, 12.8% Twitter, 10.7% Instagram, and 1.6% YouTube.

The traffic peak during the period happened on Oct 12 and 13. The most common check-in location through Instagram was Siriraj Hospital where the late King had been treated.

On Oct 13, page views increased 3.4% to 156 million and unique visitors rose 6.5% to 3.3 million, said Piya Tanthawichian, chief technology officer of Internet Innovation Research Center Co, which rated websites in Thailand.

It also found that the peak time of website visits changed from 6pm-6.59pm to 9pm-10pm on Oct 13 and the most-visited site was that of the Bureau of the Royal Household.

Mr Piya also said traffic from international users increased 20% on Oct 13.

Apisilp Trunganont, co-founder and chief technology officer of Internet Marketing Co, which operated Pantip.com, said traffic increased after 9pm on Oct 13 sharply to 80,000 users per minute from normally 50,000. 

The most popular topics were expressing sorrow on the loss, followed by warnings against ill-intended requests for personal data in exchange for falsely claimed free souvenir T-shirts, he said.

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