Dubai Metro grabs No 1 spot on Twitter

The Dubai Metro on Wednesday became the most discussed topic on Twitter, thanks to a campaign urging users in the region to mention the city’s urban railway system on the day of its opening.

Gulf Twitterers used the hashtag #dubaimetro so many times that Dubai’s flagship transit system took the number one spot on the service’s “trending topics” list early Wednesday.

But as European users woke up and began to log on it slipped to second place, as more people started to talk about The Beatles, whose remastered catalog is being released by EMI on the same day.

“I'm only writing this to keep Dubai Metro as the most trending topic,” wrote Twitter user Mahmoud Chemaitelly.

Making it onto the Trending Topics list meant people in other parts of the world took notice of the project.

“Dubai metro has free WiFi? Great! Singapore's SMRT built it, and we even don't have that here,” wrote Shashank Nigam in Singapore.

“Coool, Dubai's first metro service opens today! It was still under construction when I went,” a Sydney-based user wrote.

Other popular topics on Wednesday were Apple, which is holding its annual music-themed media event later in the day in San Francisco, and rap singer Jay-Z, whose album went on sale on Tuesday, three days earlier than planned, after it was leaked on the internet.