Twitter and Google released data on search trends and the most popular tweets in Saudi Arabia in 2020. The data elucidates users interests during a year filled with academic, scholastic, health and vocational challenges amid the unprecedented novel coronavirus pandemic.
The list released after Google analyzed billions of phrases and words searched by users and includes trends regarding individuals, events, sports and movies. A summary of the findings is provided below.
The Saudi e-learning platform “Madrasati” was the most searched term across the Kingdom, going ahead of terms like “Covid 19” and “Tawakkalna” (a state-run health application). Interest in sports is noticeably strong, the Saudi Pro-League, the word “sport” and the India’s Cricket Tour were most widely searched. “Aramco shares” searches were extremely common as well.
Interest in the US elections comes next, especially the names “Trump” and “Biden”, while local celebrities and influencers were also widely searched, and local TV series, like Prince and Eviction Notice, dominated entertainment searches.
As for Twitter users’ activity during 2020, inspiring personal stories featured heavily on the most retweeted and “liked” lists. Among them is Zaid Al-Shammari’s (@Zdmhsh) tweet about his mother's dedication and commitment to her work despite suffering from a herniated disc and problems with her knee. Telling readers that she continues to work on their food truck despite her illness, he asked for people to support her by visiting them. The tweet garnered 1.7 million views, 26.7K retweets and 22.1K likes.
As for the most widely circulated hashtags about the pandemic in the Kingdom, they varied between reminders to stay safe and act responsibly. The hashtags, in Arabic, included Corona, Ministry of Health, “go back with caution”, curfew and #stayhome.
Regarding occasions and holidays, #Ramadan, Saudi National Day and #eid topped the list, while the laughter-induced crying emoji was the most used.
To celebrate the end of the year, Twitter launched the annual emoji that will appear on tweets using the following hashtags in English or Arabic: #ThisHappened, #ThisHappened2020 and #Event_In_2020.
