With 2019 coming to an end, it is time to take a look at the biggest trends that dominated the big online platforms. One trend that was clear for India was that cricket and politics continue to dominate across Google most platforms Twitter if the annual trends are to be believed. Here's what made a splash in 2019 for Indian audiences. Google In 2019, cricket and politics dominated Google search in India. The Cricket World Cup was a bigger search trend than the Lok Sabha Elections, which took place in May 2019. India’s Chandrayaan 2 mission came in at number three, followed by the Bollywood film Kabir Singh. Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame managed to grab the fifth spot. Globally, there was plenty of proof that India and cricket were driving search trends and dominating with sheer numbers. The India vs South Africa matches were the top search term globally, and Bangladesh vs India was at number four for all of 2019. Cricket search beat football's Copa America (which was number three). The global list saw Apple’s iPhone 11 trend at number five, while Game of Thrones, which had a very disappointing eight number season was number six. The ICC Cricket World Cup managed to appear as number 10 in the global list of top searches for 2019 globally. Other trending topics in India were How to vote, How to link Aadhar to PAN, How to check name in voter list, How to check NEET result and How to select channels as per TRAI. Chandrayaan 2 and Article 370 also featured among the top trends in India's Google Search queries. Another important entry in the list of search terms in India was “Air quality Index near me”, a reflection of the air pollution crisis that grips North India each winter. TikTok If there was one platform that was talked about the most in 2019, it would be TikTok, which faced both criticism and praise. The app was briefly taken down from App Store and Google Play Store in India following court orders because TikTok was seen as a threat to children’s safety, but it was back soon. Still that did not impact TikTok’s popularity and growth in India, US and other markets. In India, TikTok reportedly has 200 million users, and even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted the Chinese-owned app is bigger in India than Instagram. TikTok also revealed its top creators, videos and occasions for India . The top five creators on TikTok in India were Awez Darbar with 20 million followers (@awezdarbar), Garima Chaurasia with 17.2 million followers (@gima_ashi), Awal Ts Madaan with 6.7 million followers (@awalcreations) , Sangeeta Jain with 5.4 million followers (@theofficialgeet), and finally Dr Animesh MS with 3.2 million followers, who has the handle @surgeryonline. Among the top five videos was Garima Chaurasia's where she danced on the song Bhaut Hard that raked 120 million views. Second on the list was @jucqueen’s TakTakTak challenge which got 112 million views. Singer Neha Kakkar's musical comic relief got 95 million views to climb to number three position, while Sangeet Jain's (@theofficialgeet) anger management video got 26 million views. Rounding up the top five was Madhuri Dixit, whose video announcing she would join TikTok got 23 million views. The top five occasions on TikTok were Diwali with close to 29.7 billion views followed by ICC Cricket World Cup at 13.3 billion views, Independence Day at 4.3 billion, Holi at 2.5 billion and Mother’s Day at 2 billion. TikTok also revealed its top viral challenges of the year, which were #2OfMe, #MyJourney, #ILoveMyIndia #TakTakTak and #PlayCool. Each of these challenges had more than 1 billion views on the platform. The fact that many of these occasions and viral challenges had more than a billion views on TikTok alone shows just how big the platform is in a market like India. And this is not even counting the fact that many of the 'viral' TikTok videos are being shared on other platforms like Instagram, Twitter, etc. YouTube's 2019 The year was a tough one for YouTube as it fought back against critics and policy makers over issues of privacy, copyright and content moderation. Back in April this year, YouTube also revealed that India was the fastest-growing audience and the largest at 265 million monthly active users and that consumption of YouTube mobile had increased to 85 per cent. Further 60 per cent of the watch time for YouTube was coming from outside of the six largest metros in India, according to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. In 2019, YouTube also revealed its list of most trending videos in India. The biggest trending video was a comedy short film called Chotu Ke Golgappe by a channel Khandeshi Movies, which has over 14 million plus subscribers. The Hindi film had more than 700 million views on YouTube, which also shows how regional content has come to dominate the platform. Others on the list were a video called New Arabic Mehndi Design by Sonia Goyal, which has close to 41 million views, followed by a choreography video from the channel Team Naach which the O Saki Saki | Batla House, and this one had close to 42 million views. Cricket.com's video on the second Gillette ODI where Kohli, Dhoni proved to be too good for the Aussies is also on the list and so is the Discovery Channel India sneak peek of the Man VS Wild episode with Bear Grylls and PM Modi. Finally, the last trending video in this YouTube list is one titled Chewing gum vs Hot oil experiment by a channel called Experiment King. It's not surprising given that no YouTube list is every complete without such content, which can only qualify as 'timepass'. YouTube also revealed its list of top trending music videos in India with Rowdy Baby from the film Mari 2 emerging on top with close to 700 million and more views. Others on the list were Vaaste, She Don't Know, COKA Coca Cola, Ve Maahi, Dheeme Dheeme, Lehanga, Pachtaoge and O SAKI SAKI. One interesting thing to keep in mind with the top trending music videos is that almost all of these had more than 300 million views on YouTube, which shows just how popular the platform is when it comes to consuming videos. In contrast, the regular trending videos are rarely raking in such high views in India when compared to the music streaming videos, if one goes by the list. Twitter Twitter might not have the biggest user base in India, and its global growth has remained stagnant at under 350 million users, but it still is the platform where everyone makes a lot of noise. Some of the biggest conversations in India still take place on Twitter. Trends for 2019 revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tweet celebrating BJP’s re-election victory was the golden tweet of the year, as it was the most retweeted and liked tweet of the year. Given that the Indian Prime Minister is the second most followed leader on Twitter with 52.5 million followers, it is not surprising that his victory tweet would garner such a huge reaction on the platform. सबका साथ + सबका विकास + सबका विश्वास = विजयी भारत Together we grow. Together we prosper. Together we will build a strong and inclusive India. India wins yet again! #VijayiBharat — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 23, 2019 The most retweeted tweet in sports in India was Virat Kohli wishing MS Dhoni on his birthday. Kohli has 32.9 million followers on the platform, while Dhoni has a more modest following of 7.8 million in comparison. Happy birthday mahi bhai @msdhoni. Very few people understand the meaning of trust and respect and I'm glad to have had the friendship I have with you for so many years. You've been a big brother to all of us and as I said before, you will always be my captain 🙂 pic.twitter.com/Wxsf5fvH2m — Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) July 7, 2019 The most retweeted tweet in entertainment in India was by Tamil actor Vijay who shared a poster of his film Bigil, once again revealing the dominance of South Indian cinema on the platform. When it comes to Twitter trends, fans from the South are easily beating Bollywood, which also indicates their stronger presence on the platform. #Bigil pic.twitter.com/m8dpzSUDla — Vijay (@actorvijay) June 21, 2019 The top 10 most tweeted about Hashtags in 2019 in India were #loksabhaelections2019, which was not surprising given how politics dominates most discussions on Twitter. With 2019 being, the election year, it was natural that Lok Sabha elections would end up being the biggest hashtag. This was followed by #chandrayaan2, and #cwc19, which is the Cricket World Cup. Other hashtags that trended on Twitter were #pulwama, #article370, #bigil, #diwali, #avengersendgame, #ayodhyaverdict and #eidmubarak. Spotify Spotify came to India in 2019 joining the list of other music streaming apps like Apple Music, Amazon, YouTube Music. It was voted the top app by users in the country on the Google Play Store for the year. In 2019, Spotify revealed that Arijit Singh claimed the spot of most-streamed artiste in India. This year’s most-streamed song was Señorita by Shawn Mendes and Camilla Cabello, followed by Kabir Singh's Tujhe Kitna Chahne Lage by Arijit Singh and Mithoon, followed by Bekhayali by Sachet Tandon and Sachet-Parampara. Kabir Singh was also the most-streamed album on Spotify in the country, according to trends by the company. Read more: How podcasts fit into Spotify’s strategy to increase engagement and subscriber base in India The top love-themed playlists include Bollywood Mush and Warm Fuzzy Feeling. Other playlists like Today’s Top Hits, followed by All Out 10s, Top Hits Hindi, and New Music Hindi were also popular. The year also saw the growing popularity of podcasts on the platform with On Purpose by Jay Shetty being the most-streamed podcast on Spotify in India. This remains the number one on Spotify’s India podcast chart since the time of launch. Second on the list was VIEWS with David Dobrik and Jason Nash, followed by The Misfits Podcast.
