Makati, Pasig top list of ‘Selfiest Cities in the World’

By: Nestor Corrales, Niña P. Calleja - 11 years ago

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Makati City beats Manhattan in “selfie” activity among social media users, Time magazine online said on Tuesday.

“Makati City, known as the financial center of the Philippines, can now boast another distinction: It is the Selfie Capital of the World,” Time editor Chris Wilson said in a post on the magazine’s website.

The Philippines’ financial capital also beat Paris, London, Las Vegas and other power cities in the ranking for “Selfiest Cities in the World,” Time said.

“An examination of hundreds of thousands of selfies—the low-fi, self-shot photographs that are intensely popular among younger social media users—suggests that the city, part of Metro Manila and home to 500,000 people, produces more selfies per capita than any other city in the world,” it said.

“It’s not surprising,” Joey Salgado, spokesperson of the Makati City government, said in a text message. “First, on work days you can find over 3 million cell phone-equipped office employees, shoppers and visitors in Makati.”

He said the city, especially its central business district, has many Wi-Fi hotspots.

“So it’s easy to upload selfies,” Salgado said. “We have interesting and safe places to visit for dining and entertainment, events and well-known personalities that one bumps into every day. Perfect for those selfies.”

To investigate the geography of selfie-taking, Time built a database of more than 400,000 Instagram photos tagged “selfie” that included geographic coordinates. In total, Time said it ranked 459 cities to determine the selfiest places on earth.

Makati and Pasig City topped the list with 258 selfie-takers per 100,000 people, the report said.

Second was Manhattan in New York City—the home of Times Square, Broadway and Wall Street—with 202 selfie-takers per 100,000 people.

Miami in Florida was third in the Top 10, registering 155 selfie-takers per 100,000 people.

Four other Philippine cities made the list: Cebu, ranked ninth; Baguio, 16th; Quezon City, 59th; and Iloilo, 72nd.

The photos used in the ranking were downloaded from the Instagram API in two sets of five days: from Jan. 28 to Feb.2, and March 3 to 7, Time said.

For every city in the world of at least 250,000 residents, Time said it counted the number of selfies taken within 5 miles and divided by the population of that city.

“Not all photos tagged as “selfie” are in fact selfies,” the report also said.

The Selfiest Cities in the World, according to Time:

1. Makati and Pasig, Philippines

258 selfie-takers per 100,000 people

2. Manhattan, New York

202 selfie-takers per 100,000 people

3. Miami, Florida

155 selfie-takers per 100,000 people

4. Anaheim and Santa Ana,

California

147 selfie-takers per 100,000 people

5. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

141 selfie-takers per 100,000 people

6. Tel Aviv, Israel

139 selfie-takers per 100,000 people

7. Manchester, England

114 selfie-takers per 100,000 people

8. Milan, Italy

108 selfie-takers per 100,000 people

9. Cebu, Philippines

99 selfie-takers per 100,000

people

10. Georgetown, Malaysia

95 selfie-takers per 100,000 people—With Nestor Corrales, INQUIRER.net

For the complete list, visit https://time.com/selfies-cities-world-rankings/