There were a number of tweets during a Steve Job’s Apple keynote. Michael Jackson’s death resulted in even more tweets. But the count of Tweets on New Year in Japan was far more than what Twitter had witnessed on the past two occasions.
A new record was set by Japan’s New Year with 6,939 tweets per second (TPS). It record TPS was seen four seconds after midnight on January 1st. The fresh record is more than twice of the previous record of 3,283 TPS, which was set during the World Cup last summer while Japan defeated Denmark. Twitter reported that on the New Year’s Eve the TPS record was broken 68 times within three minutes.
Twitter explains the reason behind the massive tweeting in Japan on such occasions as,
On Oshogatsu (Japanese New Year), Japan virtually shuts down as people spend the day with family and the people with whom they are closest. People make it a point to call their friends and connect with everyone they know to celebrate. With a population of over 127 million, Japanese mobile networks have been known to crash under the strain of this collective cheer. This year, on New Year’s Eve, many people turned to Twitter to celebrate.
While the world tweets, Japan alone sets a record of the highest TPS ever
Now why doesn’t United States hold the record even after being bigger than Japan and Twitter being bigger there? This is because the country is divided into three timezones (four with Hawaii). The imaginary lines separate the New Year moment in the country in different areas resulting in its failure in setting up a record. Twitter read that the east coast timezone alone tweeted at 3000 TPS. This was equal to the TPS at which the complete world tweeted in the peak moment of the World Cup.