This article covers the top ten searches for 2015 on Korea’s three main search engines – Naver, Daum, and Google – as well as a comparison with the most searched keywords from 2014. The similarities and differences in the searches across the search engines and between the two years provide an interesting insight into the users of each platform and how they have changed (or not changed) over time.
2015 Top Searches on Naver, Daum, Google:
|
Ranking |
Naver (PC) |
Naver (Mobile) |
Daum |
Google Korea |
|
1 |
YouTube |
Weather |
Naver |
MERS |
|
2 |
Daum |
Daum |
Weather |
Namu Wiki |
|
3 |
|
|
YouTube |
Waterpark Hidden Camera |
|
4 |
Coupang |
YouTube |
Lottery Results |
Kingsman |
|
5 |
|
Lottery |
|
“Veteran” (베테랑) |
|
6 |
League of Legends |
|
NH Bank Internet Banking |
Lee Tae Il (이태일) |
|
7 |
NH Bank |
“Ilbe” (일베) |
KB Bank |
Assassination |
|
8 |
KB Bank |
Yellow Dust |
Coupang |
“Ganshin” (간신) |
|
9 |
Woori Bank |
Webtoon |
Gang Jung Ho (강정호) |
Jang Sung Woo (장성우) |
|
10 |
Exchange Rates |
Coupang |
Woori Bank |
“Twenty” (스물) |
The above shows that keyword searches are most similar between search engines Naver and Daum. Between Naver (both PC and mobile) and Daum, there are 8 common search terms. Notably, keyword “Daum” was consistently searched on Naver for both PC and mobile, and “Naver” was searched on the Daum search engine. Moreover, keyword “YouTube” ranked highly for both Naver (PC and mobile) and Daum, reflecting the popular use of Google’s video platform in Korea.
In contrast, the top ten search keywords on Google appear to focus more on current issues and trends (e.g. “MERS”, “Waterpark Hidden Camera”) rather than brands, services, and companies (e.g. “Facebook”, Korean banks) that dominate the searches on Naver and Daum.
Taken from our previous blog entry on the most popular searches in 2014, the keywords in 2014 for the 3 search engines are summarized in the table below, together with the 2015 rankings for comparison.
2015 and 2014 Naver Top Searches:
|
Ranking |
2015 Naver (PC) |
2014 Naver (PC) |
2015 Naver (Mobile) |
2014 Naver (Mobile) |
|
1 |
YouTube |
Daum |
Weather |
Weather |
|
2 |
Daum |
Weather |
Daum |
Lottery |
|
3 |
|
YouTube |
|
Daum |
|
4 |
Coupang |
League of Legends |
YouTube |
Webtoon |
|
5 |
|
|
Lottery |
|
|
6 |
League of Legends |
KB Bank |
|
Movie |
|
7 |
NH Bank |
NH Bank |
“Ilbe” (일베) |
YouTube |
|
8 |
KB Bank |
|
Yellow Dust |
|
|
9 |
Woori Bank |
Woori Bank |
Webtoon |
G Market |
|
10 |
Exchange Rates |
Webtoon |
Coupang |
“Ilbe” (일베) |
The notable change between the two years for Naver is in the rankings of keywords “YouTube” and “Google.” For both PC and mobile, the keywords have moved up in the rankings, taking one of the top four spots compared to 2014 when only “YouTube” was in the top four searches on PC.
2015 and 2014 Daum and Google Top Searches:
|
Ranking |
2015 Daum |
2014 Daum |
2015 Google Korea |
2014 Google Korea |
|
1 |
Naver |
Naver |
MERS |
Weather |
|
2 |
Weather |
Weather |
Namu Wiki |
“Auction” (옥션) |
|
3 |
YouTube |
YouTube |
Waterpark Hidden Camera |
G Market |
|
4 |
Lottery Results |
NH Bank |
Kingsman |
“Bobaedream” (보배드림) |
|
5 |
|
|
“Veteran” (베테랑) |
Frozen |
|
6 |
NH Bank Internet Banking |
KB Bank |
Lee Tae Il (이태일) |
Coupang |
|
7 |
KB Bank |
KOSPI |
Assassination |
“Alba Haven” (알바천국) |
|
8 |
Coupang |
Lottery |
“Ganshin” (간신) |
“11st” (11번가) |
|
9 |
Gang Jung Ho (강정호) |
Exchange Rates |
Jang Sung Woo (장성우) |
“Ppomppu” (뽐뿌) |
|
10 |
Woori Bank |
Coupang |
“Twenty” (스물) |
“Ruliweb” (루리웹) |
Compared to Naver, Daum’s most searched terms have remained more or less unchanged, even for the keywords “YouTube” and “Google” that have seen the most change on Naver’s search.
Top keywords on Google have also remained quite trend-focused, although the absence of online shopping stores “G Market” and “11st” from the list of top searches in 2015 may indicate a shift in the use of Google as a search engine in Korea.
How different or similar would the list be across the three Korean search engines in 2016?
We look forward to answering this question and more in our coverage of 2016 top searches in the coming year.
