Reflecting on 2024, it's been a whirlwind of viral sensations and emerging trends shaping pop culture and seamlessly blending into Thai lifestyles. From catchy phrases to entertainment, movies, music, sports, food, spirituality, and adorable animals, digital influences have become inseparable from daily life. LINE Thailand takes you through the "10 Digital Lifestyle Trends for 2024", where highlights like "Butterbear," "Moo Deng," "Dubai Chocolate," and "Kai Palo" ruled our screens, while hot topics such as sports, marriage equality, and fraud scandals kept us buzzing.
- Butterbear & Moo Deng: Digital Darlings of the Year
- Butterbear and Moo Deng stole hearts across LINE's platforms. Butterbear's fan group on LINE OPENCHAT became the largest, boasting over 40,000 members, while Moo Deng set a record by doubling its fan base from 5,000 to 10,000 in just 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, Butterbear's hit song "Narak Mhai Mai Roo" topped the charts as the most-used track for LINE VOOM content and clinched the Black Melody Award for record-breaking downloads on LINE MELODY within just two days.
- Celebrity Stickers: Bringing Fans Closer Than Ever
- LINE STICKERS saw a surge in celebrity-themed collections, serving as a medium that connects with fan groups at every moment. This includes popular figures such as Butterbear, Moo Deng, Jung-Cullen-Dan-Judy, For Fun Family, Ling-Orm, Gemini-Fourth, and many other actors with their own fan bases. Additionally, Even quirky social media phrases like "birthday but with me" became must-have stickers, blending fun and humor into every chat.
- A Major Emoji Makeover After Seven Years
- Many people may have noticed a significant change in their chats over the past few months due to a major overhaul of emojis. LINE marks the first time in seven years that it revamped its emoji library to reflect evolving user behavior, creating a fresh, intuitive experience for communicating emotions. This rising extended to reaction emojis usage as well.
- Social Media's Food Craze: Worth the Wait
- Food trends dominated social media and reshaped the culinary scene. LINE SHOPPING's "Dubai Chocolate" sold over 30,000 pieces from September to October. Additionally, the Durian cake and Lod chong cake shop, Nie and Ivan, hold the record for the longest pre-order wait time for a cake, which reached five months.
On the LINE MAN service, it was found that orders for "Kai Palo" (hard-boiled eggs in the sweet gravy) skyrocketed, doubling in a month, driven by the viral trend from A Supachai. Collectively, more than 260,000 eggs were sold from restaurants nationwide. Similarly, "Khao Kha Moo" (Stewed pork leg on rice) gained popularity following the "Moo Deng" trend, leading to a 50% increase in searches for this menu item on LINE MAN within a week. All these trends originated from viral social media phenomena.
- Hot Topics: Sports, Equality, and Scams
- The past Olympic Games created a cheering atmosphere for Thailand that spread across the country, resulting in a threefold increase in viewership for LINE TODAY's sports content compared to normal periods. For instance, 'Tennis' Panipak Wongpattanakit winning the first gold medal for Thailand at the 2024 Olympics resonated well with fans. This surge in interest also led sports enthusiasts to discuss and cheer for their favorite sports during the Olympics in OpenChat rooms. Meanwhile, Thai people have shown heightened engagement with content related to "fraud - scammers," accumulating over 36 million page views. The most viewed content included the case of The Icon Group, followed by the story of 'Mae Tuck' gold case, and thirdly, the rise of call center gangs.
The topic of "Marriage Equality," which generated an atmosphere of excitement and celebration, dominated as the most-watched live content on LINE TODAY, with 1 million viewers tuning in to the Pride Parade. This viewership was three times higher than other live content.
- A Year of Musical Diversity
- LINE MELODY celebrated its biggest year yet, awarding 18 Black Melody Awards, given to the songs with the fastest and highest download rates on the LINE MELODY, reflecting a wide range of genre. The awards included works from signed artists, independent artists, video soundtracks from Cullen and Jong, the Korean duo traveling in Thailand with "Toxic - HateBerry," and songs inspired by social media trends like "Moo Deng" (Reggaeton) by Karat K. Additionally, Butterbear's adorable track "Narak Mhai Mai Roo" added to the festivities as the first animated character to win this prestigious title.
- "Luang Por Tan Jai" tops Thais' online blessing requests
- LINE HORO revealed 'Luang Por Tan Jai' at Chiang Mai's Phra That Doi Kham Temple as the most requested online blessing in 2024. Following closely are Dagadusheth Halwai Ganapati Temple, India, and Goddess Lakshmi at Gaysorn Village. The platform also facilitated donations for society, as LINE HORO collaborated with "Taejai" to serve as a medium for sending Thai people's goodwill to flood victims in various locations across the country. In September alone, donations from Thai citizens totaled over 800,000 baht.
- Gaming and Webtoons are the big hits
- LINE GAME's latest release, LINE Idle Ranger, revealed impressive statistics with players in Thailand spending a total of 242,023 minutes (4,033 hours) in Idle Mode within the first day of its launch. This is equivalent to exercising for 1 hour daily for 11 years! On the LINE WEBTOON front, 'I Am the Most Beautiful Count' continued its popularity by hosting a Pop-up Store at Siam Square, drawing over ten thousand fans eager to shop and engage.
- Over 2 million SMEs Level Up Through Knowledge
- LINE for Business is spreading knowledge to over 2 million SME entrepreneurs nationwide through various seminars, such as BOOTCAMP DAY and UPSKILL SME in collaboration with the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP). Additionally, events focused on tourism and the restaurant industry, like "Igniting MICE Business: Equipping Sustainable Business," in partnership with TCEB and THAI MICE Connect, are also included. Online courses such as BOOTCAMP Classroom and Talk with The Coaches program are part of these initiatives as well.
- Lahn Mah - Tee Yod 2 Dominate Ticket Sales via LINE Pay
- Local hits "How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies" (Lahn Mah) and Death Whisperer 2 (Tee Yod 2) took center stage, becoming the top movies of the year that were purchased via LINE Pay at SF Cinema tab in LINE Wallet.
Meanwhile, LINE BK, another fintech service, observed a growing interest among Thai freelancers and low-income earners in health insurance, particularly the "Out-Patient Department" (ประกันผู้ป่วยนอกเบาเบา) Additionally, cancer plans emerged as the most in-demand option within the critical illness category, reflecting heightened awareness of cancer risks. Notably, 53% of the customers for these plans are female.