Google: One brand dominates 90% of top 10 tech search trends in Malaysia

2020 has been an interesting year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To provide an insight on what Malaysians have been searching for, Google Malaysia has just released its annual Year in Search 2020 recap. What’s interesting is the dramatic change in the top 10 trending searches for tech as a single brand dominates 9 out of 10 spots versus just 1 in 2019.

Top Trending Searches for Tech

According to Google Malaysia, “Realme 6 Pro reviews” is the top trending search term for gadgets in the year 2020. This is followed by “Realme X3 60x“, “Realme 6 reviews” and “Realme Buds Air review“. The only non-realme search term in the top 10 trending list is “iPhone 12“.

The Realme 6 Pro is the company’s mid-range smartphone which was launched in May 2020 with a price tag of RM1,399. It comes with a 90Hz refresh rate display and it runs on a Snapdragon 720G. It’s closest competitor is the Redmi Note 9 and the Poco X3 NFC, but both fail to appear on the top 10 trending list.

According to Google, the top trending terms doesn’t necessary mean the “most searched”. It represents terms that have have shown the “highest spike” in searches over a period of time. This implies that more Malaysians have searched for the Realme 6 Pro during the launch period compared to any other smartphone throughout 2020.

If you take a look at Google Trends for Malaysia, more people have searched for “Realme 6 Pro Reviews” and “Realme X3 60x” in a short period compared to “iPhone 12”, “MCO” and even “COVID-19”. However, it’s worth pointing out that the spikes for Realme terms are only for a short period and the overall search volumes for “iPhone 12”, “MCO” and “COVID-19” are still higher for the whole 2020.

As a comparison, the top search trends for tech in 2019 had a pretty good mix with 5 brands on the list. Last year, “iPhone 11” took the top spot, followed by “Huawei P30”, “Huawei P30 Pro” and the “iPhone 11 Pro Max”. 4 out of 10 were Huawei devices, while the “Realme 5 Pro” took 9th position on the list.

Overall Top Search Terms

Overall for 2020, the biggest search trend is “US Election 2020” where US President Donald Trump seeks to secure a second term as president. This is followed by “Google Classroom”, “Bantuan Prihatin Nasional”, “Bantuan Sara Hidup” and “Coronavirus”, which aren’t surprising due to the current pandemic situation.

Top Search Terms by Category

Google has also revealed other interesting trends for other categories. Dalgona Coffee is the most trending search term for recipes followed by Dalgona Milo and Biscoff Cheesecake. As more people are affected financially due to lockdowns, there’s also a huge surge in searches for Bantuan Prihatin Nasional and Bantuan Sara Hidup.

When it comes to entertainment, ‘法 证 先锋 4’ (Forensic Heroes IV) dominates the top spot, followed by 7 Hari Mencintaiku 2 and The World of the Married. For the Sports category, unsurprisingly, the English Premier League is the most trending, followed by NBA and the Indian Premier League.

You can view Google’s Year in Search 2020 for Malaysia here.

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