Vaping has emerged as the most discussed trend, generating 48% of all Twitter conversations related to tobacco alternatives by leading industry experts during the first quarter (Q1) of 2020, tracked by GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of Tobacco Alternatives Influencer Platform, which tracks leading industry experts and their discussions around emerging trends, insights and overviews, new fields of innovation and technology, and other popular areas on Twitter, revealed nicotine as the top discussed sub-trend among vaping conversations. This was largely led by the investigation by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other health partners about association of lung injuries with nicotine vaping products.

Ankita Sinha, Consumer Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “With discussion around cap on nicotine content in e-liquids and the ongoing regulatory amendments in several countries, it is not surprising that nicotine has turned out to be the most tweeted keyword among vaping conversations.”

In terms of intensity of discussions, the UK, the US, Austrailia, Canada and China emerged as the top five most mentioned locations among vaping conversations. The conversations about the UK were largley related to the fact that the UK’s top public health experts asked tobacco consumers to ignore new warnings about vaping issued by WHO.

An analysis of conversation related to ‘Flavors’ revealed ‘menthol’ and ‘mint’ as the most mentioned flavors among vaping discussions, followed by chocolate, strawberry and ice-cream.

This is quite aligned to consumer preferences, with 47% of global e-cigarettes smokers having a high preference for mint/ menthol flavors, according to GlobalData’s Q4 2019 Global Consumer Survey.

Charles A. Gardner, Director of Health Science and Technology at Foundation for a smoke-free world, was the top contributor on vaping on Twitter, followed by Edward Hubert, American editor and publisher and Gregory Conley, President of American Vaping Association. The conversations by Charles were largely focussed on the benefits of vaping, requesting states to consider roll-back of ban on vaping products.

Sinha concludes: “The outbreak of Covid-19 is disrupting all markets, and vaping is no exception. The impact of strict lockdown on sales of vaping products, as well as the ongoing buzz around supposed linkage between Covid-19 and vaping in affecting the respiratory system has translated into Covid-19 acquiring one of the top spots in vaping related tweets.”