We like continental cars more than Japanese cars, are addicted to visual entertainment, adore Google and Facebook, love Liverpool more than Manchester United, and bet on horse races across the region
Singapore, 9 December 2010 – Experian Hitwise, a leading online competitive intelligence service, has released an analysis of web searches by Singapore Internet users in the past six months, providing a host of interesting insights into Singaporean social habits relevant for marketers and commentators alike.
“Local web search patterns are a reflection on the interests and, in some instances the psyche, of Singaporean consumers. These patterns have become a great tool to help marketers understand their target audience across verticals that are most relevant to their marketing campaigns,” said Graeme Beardsell, Managing Director for South Asia, Experian. “These insights identify key search trends among Singaporeans, providing marketers with intelligent and actionable information needed to market forward and improve audience engagement in the digital media space.”
“Predictive insights across key local verticals can further help marketers implement well planned Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns that are an extremely cost effective, measurable form of online advertising. These campaigns can also provide a highly targeted lead generation tool for marketing success,” added Beardsell.
Key social insights from Experian’s inaugural half-year online analysis are as follows:
Experian Hitwise Insights:
Automotive
• Interactive platforms that offer different types of motoring information are king of automotive resources, with SGCarMart.com and MyCarForum holding a one-two lead over other websites in the list of top ten automotive websites
• Singaporeans showed a preference for continental car brands over Asian car brands, with Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen outranking Toyota and Honda 3-to-2 in the top five manufacturer rankings
• In a country governed by speed limits, Singaporeans seem to have a taste for speed online, with F1-related websites taking five of the top ten websites for motorsport
• SGCarMart.com, a local motoring resource was the top search term driving traffic to the automotive category, accounting for almost 4% of total search clicks
Computers and Internet
• Social networking continues to be popular among Singaporeans, with Facebook taking almost 17% share of visits compared to search engines like Google Singapore, which held on to second place with almost 14% share of visits
• Singaporeans revealed they liked Google more than Yahoo, with Google Singapore and Google.com taking the top two spots and holding over three quarters of total share of visits to the top five search engines
• Forums just didn’t make the cut for Singaporeans, with social networking leading the way and Facebook, YouTube and Twitter taking a combined total share of visits of 66% in the top 10 sites for social networking and forums
• Facebook continued to maintain its social networking dominance as the top search term driving traffic to the computers and Internet category
Entertainment
• Singaporeans love anything visual with the top five entertainment sites searched for including Razor TV, xinmsn Entertainment, Channel NewsAsia and Tudou.com, with YouTube leading the pack with 22% of total share of visits
• Singaporeans showed great interest in Japanese comics, with the top ten animation and comics sites all being popular sites for Japanese manga. The top four sites; Manga Fox, MangaStream, AnimeCrazy.net and Mangareader together held 41% of total share of visits
• Asian-made games experienced continued popularity among Singaporeans, with Maple Story, MapleSEA, Asiasoft Forums and Warriors of the 3 Kingdoms being some of the most popular gaming websites searched
• A preference for movies at Golden Village (GV) over Cathay Cineplexes was revealed, with GV taking almost 10% of total share of visits and Cathay claiming only 5% of total share of visits.
• YouTube took top spot as the most searched for term driving traffic to the entertainment category, claiming almost 3% of search clicks
Lifestyle
• Beauty talk among Singaporeans was high on the agenda at the CozyCot (25%) and Flowerpod (24%) forums, with both websites taking first and second in rankings for most popular beauty websites
• Singaporeans shopped everywhere for good fashion online, with local brands like Forever 21 and ASUS popping up alongside international brands like Kate Spade, Coach, Louis Vuitton and Victoria’s Secret in a top ten ranking of fashion websites.
• The local homosexual community showered favouritism on Trevvy.com, which took 31% of total share of visits, with Blowing Wind Gay Forum and fridae.com taking second and third places
• The Temasek Review, an Internet newspaper which reported on socio-political affairs in Singapore, was the top term driving traffic to the lifestyle category over the last six months
Sports
• Singaporeans love soccer more than any other sport locally with soccer-related sites like ESPN Soccernet, LiveScore.com, AsianBookie.com, Goal.com and Footytube collectively taking almost 30% of total share of visits among the top ten listed sports sites
• Singaporeans showed their love for betting online, particularly on horse races, exploring not just local sites like the Singapore Turf Club, but also searching for regional websites including The Hong Kong Jockey Club, Pan Malaysia Pools, Sky Racing and TAB Racing NSW and Victoria
• Liverpool seems to have earned itself more fans than Manchester United, ranking fifth in the list of most popular soccer websites while Manchester United took sixth place
• Soccernet by ESPN was the top search term driving traffic to the sports category, accounting for 2.3% of search clicks
Beardsell adds, “With capabilities to help businesses convert data into insights and delve into the search patterns of about 1.5 million internet users in Singapore, Experian Hitwise can play a vital role in helping marketers identify local opportunities in specific verticals to strategically conduct effective marketing campaigns. Thus ensuring sustained brand visibility and awareness among their target audience in an increasingly competitive environment.”
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Contact:
Margaret Lam
Experian Public Relations
+852 2839 5276
margaret.lam@hk.experian.com
About Experian
Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients in more than 90 countries. The company helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision-making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft.
Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2010 was $3.9 billion. Experian employs approximately 15,000 people in 40 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; Costa Mesa, California; and São Paulo, Brazil.
For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com .
For more information on Experian Asia Pacific, visit http://www.experian.com.sg
Experian and the marks used herein are service marks or registered trademarks of Experian Information Solutions, Inc.
About Hitwise
Hitwise, an Experian company, is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,500 clients around the world with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive Web sites and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.
Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with Internet service providers around the world, Hitwise uses its patented methodology to anonymously capture the online usage, search and conversion behaviour of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into an easy-to-use, Web-based service designed to help marketers better plan, implement and report on a range of online marketing programs.
Hitwise, an Experian company (FTS-EXPN), http://www.experianplc.com , operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at http://www.hitwise.com/sg .
For up-to-date analysis of online trends, visit the Hitwise Intelligence – Analyst Weblogs at
http://weblogs.hitwise.com