Mike Andrew Consulting

Asia Pacific Search Volume Reaches Record Level in September

By mike, Nov 04 in blog with 0 comments

New research out today highlights the growth in local search rates in the Asia Pacific region with Google continuing to dominate as the preferred search engine particularly in Australia with 83% share and New Zealand with 80.5% share.

This really does demonstrate that you need to get your web site up to scratch when it comes to getting a high ranking in the search results, make sure your site ranks highly for those keywords or phrases that your customers use, and if you don”t know what they are then please ask me and I’ll do a free SEO audit on your web site for you.

The study found that 38.6 billion searches were conducted in the region in September 2009, with searchers averaging nearly 88 queries per person during the month. Google Sites ranked as the top search destination in Asia Pacific, commanding more than 44 percent share of searches performed in the region.

Google Sites Captures Largest Share of Search in Asia Pacific

In September 2009, Internet users in Asia Pacific conducted 38.6 billion search queries, an increase of 33 percent from the previous year. Google Sites was the top search destination with nearly 17 billion searches performed on its sites during the month, accounting for 44.1 percent share of all searches in the region. Baidu.com Inc. followed with 8.2 billion searches (21.3 percent share), while Yahoo! Sites grabbed the #3 position with 5.3 billion searches (13.8 percent share).

Searchers in the region averaged nearly 88 searches per person during September. South Korea’s NHN Corporation, which owns search engine Naver.com, saw the most prolific search intensity among the top 10 destinations with an average of 81 searches per searcher. Searchers on Google Sites averaged 59 searches per person, while searchers on Lycos Sites averaged 51 queries.

Top 10 Search Properties in Asia Pacific by No. of Searches September 2009 *Total Asia Pacific Internet Audience, Age 15+ – Home & Work Locations Source: comScore qSearch**
	Searches (MM)	Share of Searches	Searches Per Searcher
Total Internet	38,585	100.0%	87.5
Google Sites	16,997	44.1%	58.5
Baidu.com Inc.	8,228	21.3%	44.5
Yahoo! Sites	5,340	13.8%	41.3
NHN Corporation	1,959	5.1%	80.5
Microsoft Sites	1,093	2.8%	9.5
Lycos Sites	997	2.6%	51.0
Alibaba.com Corporation	949	2.5%	15.6
Tencent Inc.	790	2.0%	8.6
Facebook.com	259	0.7%	8.0
Sohu.com Inc.	230	0.6%	8.9

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Local Players and Global Brands Compete for Searcher Loyalty Across Markets

An analysis of top search destinations across the 10 individual markets in the Asia-Pacific region currently reported by comScore revealed various search brand preferences across markets. Google Sites was the search market share leader in six of the markets including Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore. Yahoo! Sites captured the majority share of searches in Hong Kong (58.9 percent) and Taiwan (65.4 percent).

Although multinational search brands led many of the markets in the region, the popularity of local brands was evident in both China and South Korea. Baidu.com Inc. led as China’s top search destination with 63 percent share of searches performed, while NHN Corporation captured 49.3 percent of queries in Korea, leading the market as the top destination.

Top Search Property in Individual Asia Pacific Markets by Share of Searches September 2009 *Total Internet Audience, Age 15+ – Home & Work Locations Source: comScore qSearch**
	Top Search Property in Market	Share of Searches
Australia	Google Sites	83.4%
China	Baidu.com Inc.	63.0%
Hong Kong	Yahoo! Sites	58.9%
India	Google Sites	89.1%
Japan	Google Sites	47.5%
Malaysia	Google Sites	71.1%
New Zealand	Google Sites	80.5%
Singapore	Google Sites	72.3%
South Korea	NHN Corporation	49.3%
Taiwan	Yahoo! Sites	65.4%

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

The report is compiled by ComScore,a leader in measuring the digital world

About the author

Mike Andrew has been working with the Internet and small business for over 12 years. Mike has been a keynote speaker at conventions and seminars and conducted social media training sessions all over the world. Mike has an extensive media background having worked in electronic media for over 30 years. Mike specialises in social media and Internet marketing strategy, SEO techniques and search engine marketing campaigns. His articles appear on numerous blogs around the web as well as national magazines.