Category Archives: Denmark
Record Twitter use in the Nordics
Recent statistics reveal near-explosive growth for Twitter in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. The social network might just get too big to ignore anymore.
Twitter has long been described as “small, but elite” – a networking tool for the chattering classes consisting mainly of journalists, politicians, and business professionals. Not so anymore:
- More than half of Sweden’s near 300.000 Twitter accounts have been created during the past year, according to the Swedish Twitter census released by Intellecta Corporate today. The number of accounts has tripled since the last census a year ago, and more than half of the accounts have tweeted in the last month.
- Twitter in Norway has doubled in size over the past two years, and now counts 11 percent of the population among the users. 410.000 Norwegians logged on weekly in the first quarter of 2012, according to stats from analytics agency TNS Gallup released last week.
- In Denmark, the number of Twitter accounts is almost doubled from late 2010 to the end of 2011, according to this beautiful infographic by Atcore and Overskrift.dk.
Swedish Twitter acounts over time. Graphics by Intellecta Corporate.
Kids lead the way
The statistics say little about possible reasons for Twitter’s growth over the past year. I can really only speak for the Norwegian Twitterverse, but my impression is that Twitter has gone mainstream. Younger users (under 30 y.o.) account for the majority of new users.
One contributing factor may be local celebrities’ use of the social network. National broadcasters NRK and TV2 have also embraced Twitter, particularly in their sports coverage. And national and international media have brought stories of Twitter as the arena for following international stars from various arenas – music, movies, sports, or politics.
Watch out!
Whatever the reasons for the recent growth spurt, Twitter is obviously a network worth keeping an eye on in the Nordics. I’ll keep my eye out for new data from Finland and Iceland as well.
In the meantime, enjoy this really interesting and fun graph from the Swedish Twitter census, where you can search for different Twitter users and see their place in the national Twitter hierarchy. Enjoy!
(Thanks to the wonderful Hanne Klintøe for sending me the Danish infographic!)
Danish sports success triggers Twitter activity
Perhaps not that surprising, but an amusing statistic nonetheless: Twitter interest in sports increases with national success.
Danish blog Overskrift.dk has tracked Twitter activity related to the men’s handball team’s success in the European handball championship. And the stats connected to Twitter hashtag #emdk show that success and interest go hand in hand:
Throughout the first few matches, which Denmark lost, activity was quite low. But as the team got into the playoff, Twitter activity increased. During the final, Twitter in Denmark all but exploded with enthusiasm and national rejoicing.
Statistics compiled and presented by overskrift.dk
Will Denmark’s new polar bear baby become a Facebook sensation?
Denmark’s new darling is polar bear baby Siku, who was born November 22 in the Skandinavisk Dyrepark zoo. His mother didn’t have enough milk to sustain her new, super cute offspring. If he stayed with the mother, Ilka, he would surely die – so the zoo administration decided to try to raise Siku themselves.
The survival of baby Siku is now in the hands of zoo director Frank Vigh-Larsen. The tiny creature needs to be fed from a bottle eight times a day – and it is working, he has grown by almost two kilos since he was born.
“Siku” means “Ocean ice” in Greenlandic. The zoo administrators hope that, if Siku reaches maturity, he can be a part of the international breeding programme for polar bears that zoos around the world participate in. The arctic bear is an endangered species, and massive efforts are being made to ensure the future of these magnificent animals.
Being a bottle-baby of the social media age, you can of course follow Siku on Facebook. Will this become Northern Europe’s newest Facebook sensation? The cuteness factor should certainly ensure shareability. And you can enjoy more photos of Siku at the zoo homepage. He has already been a massive hit on the BBC website and on the Mirror site.
And on that note, I wish all readers of Social Media Nordic a very happy Christmas!
Twitter in Denmark doubles in a year
Denmark has seen a whopping 100% increase in Twitter users in the last year. A yearly update by Overskrift.dk shows that Denmark now has approximately 55.000 Twitter users, up from 28.000 users a year ago.
Despite the growth, Twitter activity is still very unevenly distributed among Danes. The 625 most active users, or 1,2 %, create half the tweets in the Danish Twittersphere. In total, the Danes produce 22.000 tweets every day, or more than half a million tweets each month.
Screenshot of Denmark's Twitter queen's profile.
Denmark’s undisputed Twitter queen is tennis professional Caroline Wozniacki, who can boast of having almost 247.000 followers. NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen is a very distant second with just over 27.000 followers.
(A big thanks to Ernst Poulsen for tweeting me the Overskrift.dk update!)
Twitter launches Danish, Finnish, Norwegian version
In a quiet tweet in the nighttime (Scandinavian nighttime, that is), Twitter has announced the launch of a Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish language edition:
I am trying to get my hands on a complete list over available languages, and will update this asap.
This adds to the growing list of social media services available in Nordic languages, following the inclusion of Swedish in the LinkedIn language community last month.
UPDATE:
I have been researching the reactions to the new Nordic Twitter versions from users.
Norway:
A few users in Norway are quite vocal in their dislike of the translation – or, rather, of the translation method.
The new translations have been crowdsourced, and terms have been suggested and voted on by the users themselves. This has caused some rather peculiar translations and frequent angloisms in the Norwegian version.
For instance, the “favorite” function (as in: @username just favorited your tweet) has been translated into “@username favoriserte din tweet”. (In Norwegian, the verb “favorisere” means something slightly different than “marking as a favorite” – it’s more or less the verb for giving someone special treatment.) Other important elements of Twitter, such as the Retweet function, haven’t been translated at all – it’s still called retweeting in Norwegian, when the term for forwarding something (the term used for emails) is suggested by several users as a preferable term.
A user who has been involved in the translation tweets that the crowdsourcing has been frustrating, and feels that several good suggestions for translations have been rejected.
“You’d think Twitter could afford to hire professional help,” tweets Pål Nedregotten, head of digital development at Norwegian media house A-pressen.
Other users are pleased with the Norwegian launch, but say they wish the “trending topic” list would add a Norwegian filter soon.
Denmark/Finland:
My Twitter network is much larger in Norway than in Denmark or Finland. But I have been on the lookout for user reactions to “new Twitter”. So far, reactions are neutral or non-existent, according to my sources.
“Not much talk about Danish Twitter yet, and reactions are mostly neutral,” tweets Danish new media journalist Ernst Poulsen when I ask.
I will update this post again if I come across more Danish reactions or hear from my Finnish contacts. In the meantime: Have you seen your local-language Twitter edition? What do you think of it?
Crowdfunding enters Scandinavian cultural scene
Crowdfunding, having the public chip in to finance great ideas and projects, is hardly a new phenomenon. We’ve seen it done successfully in fundraising for years, for instance through Kiva.org and Kickstarter.
Photo: Aslakr ond Flickr/CC-BY-2.0
The arts and culture have embraced this financing model. Starting in 1992, Finnish sci-fi project Star Wreck has been an online cult phenomenon, attracting production help, downloads, and purchases from all around the world. Though not strictly a crowdfunding project, it’s definately a forerunner of the trend.
The first Scandinavian truly crowdfunded cultural project I’m aware of, was Norwegian rock group Kaizer’s Orchestra‘s collecting money from fans toward the recording of a new album in 2010. But since then, crowdfunding is rapidly becoming mainstream activity for lots of cultural innovators.
Does crowdfunding work?
The big question, of course: Does it work? Are projects getting funded? The answer is a definate maybe, so far. While there is no lack of fundraising efforts, the Scandinavian public are somewhat reluctant in opening their wallets – yet. But it’s early days, stil, and a little too soon to prophesy doom to the Scandinavian crowdfunding projects. Instead, let’s have a quick look at the status quo.
(I do not in any way believe that this is a complete list of Scandinavian cultural crowdfunding projects. If you know of any I have missed, please leave a note in the comments section!)
Sweden racing ahead
Sweden is taking the lead. Since 2010 the public have paid up for culture through the website Funded By Me. Several projects have been realized due to collective efforts online.
People in Sweden’s capital Stockholm also have the opportunity to contribute through Crowdculture.se, where they can vote for their favorite projects and help fund their development. Crowdculture.se is particularly interesting since it is in part initiated by local authorities in Stockholm. To my knowledge, this is the first example of crowdfunding efforts by the public sector in Scandinavia.
Norwegians getting started
This summer saw crowdfunding in general entering the Norwegian cultural scene as well, since Funded By Me launched a Norwegian sister-site to their Swedish operation. A local theatre group in Oslo is among the first candidates for crowdfunding. The response to the Norwegian site seems to be so-so so far, but I look forward to following their progress.
New Danish site
The Danish cultural scene has recently been expanded by the launch of Boomerang, a new crowdfunding site for arts and culture. Not many projects seem to have caught the eye of financers as of yet – but again, it’s early days and too soon to deem any crowdfunding efforts a success or a failure.
Less culture, more crowd: Iceland and Finland
Though not a cultural project per se, the Finnish crowdfunding efforts of Hub Helsinki pave the way for new crowdfunding projects in Finland.The cooperative of people trying to change the world are attempting to raise €50,000 towards the refurbishing of their new premises in Helsinki. The Aalto Social Impact initiative has taken a serious interest in crowdfunding in Finland.
I have not been able to find examples of crowdfunded cultural projects on Iceland. This is probably due to my abysmal comprehension of Icelandic – the country which crowdsourced its new constitution must surely have some interesting projects to show for. If you know of any, please leave a note in the comments section!
If you are interested in crowdsourcing as a phenomenon, check out this extensive list of crowdfunding sites. Among the inspirations for this post are the blogs of Danish Mikael Mejlvang, a.k.a. “Municipality Man” (blogs in Danish), and Arts and Business Norway (in Norwegian). Thanks!
Islands are Facebook crazy: Iceland, Faroe Islands top Nordic Facebook stats
New post in Socialmedianordic.com series Stats on Thursday!
A fun discovery: The Scandinavian Northern European obsession with Facebook is most extreme in the west, and diminishes the further east you live.
Islands at the top
According to Facebook statistics from Socialbakers.com, Iceland has the highest Facebook penetration of the population in Northern Europe – in fact, with two thirds of the population facebooking, Iceland is the third most Facebook-saturated country in the world!
Facebook penetration gets less intense the further east you get in Scandinavia (international penetration ranking in parentheses):
- 68 % in Iceland (3. place)
- 60% in Faroe Islands (5. place)
- 54% in Norway (8. place)
- 50% in Denmark (15. place)
- 49% in Sweden (29. place)
- 39% in Finland (43. place)
Facebook penetration in the Nordic countries, according to Socialbakers.com data, September 2011
Record-breaking Twitter traffic: Danish election in social media
The Danish election a week ago gave us a new Danish record: Twitter traffic was driven to new hights, according to the Overskrift.dk blog.Election day, the Danes sent an impressive 28.000 tweets:
Danish Twitter stats in the 30 days leading up to the national explosion, with a new record on election day. Graph courtesy of Overskrift.dk.
The Danish stats also reveal that social democrat leader Helle Thorning Schmith was the subject of more tweets than her rival Lars Løkke Rasmussen. She ousted him as prime minister in this election.
While I don’t automatically believe that the fact that more tweets mentioned “Thorning” than “Løkke” leading up to the election should be interpreted as an indication of the outcome (Thorning-Schmidt was also way ahead in polls), it is certainly an interesting correlation.
Tweets mentioning "Thorning" before the Danish election. Graph: Overskrift.dk
Tweets mentioning "Løkke" before the election. Graph: Overskrift.dk
Thanks to Stefan Bøgh-Andersen for letting me use their wonderful graphs!
Social media no. 1 source of political info for 10% of Danes
Celebrating the one-week anniversary of this blog and the brand-spanking-new domain Socialmedianordic.com, I hereby introduce the new weekly feature: Stats on a Thursday! Today, in honor of the election in Denmark today: Danish politics and social media.
Almost 10 percent (9,6%) of Danes now get most of their information on politics from social media, according to a study by KMG Denmark (site in Danish). The social media experts at the Digitale Tanker blog have summarized the key findings, and I will take the liberty of translating them into English:
Screenshot from the Facebook page of Danish social democrat party leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt
- Using social media as a source of political info is most common in the capital, Copenhagen, and among younger voters.
- Almost one-third of the population cite the politicians’ home pages as important sources of information.
- Television is still the preferred source of political information for 3/4 of Danes.
While it’s not surprising that television still is the most popular information source, it is nothing short of remarkable that social media has become this important in just 6-7 short years.
The Danes cast their ballots today, and I will be sure to bring more news on social media use in the Danish general election when the results are in!
