"Travel" most popular search word across Asia reveals Yahoo! survey

Yahoo! announced its annual “Top 5 Fastest Growing Businesses in Search Marketing” and “Top 10 Most Popular Search Keywords,” which could be key indicators for enterprises’ online search marketing investments. In the first half of 2010, an integrated analysis was conducted on Yahoo! Search marketing data from five Asian nations (Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and India). The results showed that the most popular search keyword all across Asia in the period was “travel”. This could signify a booming Asian economy and tourism market in the first half of the year. The second most popular search keyword in Taiwan, Singapore and India for the first six months of 2010 was “gaming”, attributed to the growing “stay-at-home” economy.

Employment opportunities were also sought during the economic recovery. “Job hunting” ranked No.7 on Yahoo!Kimo’s* (Taiwan) top 10 search keyword list while “part-time job” ranked No.1 in South Korea. In Hong Kong, the first two hottest search keywords were “after-school tutoring programs” and “English training programs”. This could imply that consumers wanted to invest in themselves for better career opportunities during the market resurgence.

Coming out from a recessionary phase, India’s trend held no major surprises with the growth in the popularity of "Jobs", "Travel", "Mobile" and "Matrimony" segments. Local online job portal Naukri.com is ranked no 1 followed by Monster.com and Monster Jobs in the most popular search keyword list. Job portals turned out to be a major destination for Indian users and the search varies from different mediums. Trending well with the growth of the Indian economy and increasing telecom and broadband penetration is “Nokia Mobile” and “broadband providers”, which also features among the top keywords in India.

Overall, most of the top 10 most popular keywords on Yahoo!Kimo (the offical website of Yahoo! in Taiwan) were investment and consumer related keywords like “financial and economic services”’, “investment”, “retail”, “home purchasing”, and “3C products” while those in South Korea were consumer related words, such as automobiles, shopping centers, clothing and accessories, and brands. In Hong Kong, keywords relating to “interior design”, “renovation”, “banking”, and “software” were the most popular. The ongoing economic recovery indicates that the strong consumption power will continue throughout Asia.

Indian users seemed to take great interest in travel and tourism with “Travel” related search keywords also becoming popular, thanks to resurgence in the hospitality sector. The reliance on Internet services to build relationships also indicated a shift in consumer behaviour: the first half of 2010 witnessed a considerable rise in the search keyword “matrimony” perhaps due to the imminent wedding season in India.

Based on the “Top 5 Fastest Growing Businesses in Search Marketing” in the first half of 2010, “travel and tourism”, “education”, and “medical cosmetology” businesses were the fastest growing businesses in the search marketing market due to the booming travel business, great emphasis on education and training programs, and pursuit of beauty and health in various Asian nations.

Yahoo!’s search marketing service is supposed to be a marketing tool, through which advertisers may find their potential consumers with the most interest in various products.