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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

Google

Google

YouTube

Waterpark Hidden Camera

4

Coupang

YouTube

Lottery Results

Kingsman

5

Facebook

Lottery

Google

“Veteran” (베테랑)

6

League of Legends

Facebook

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

Google

YouTube

Google

Daum

4

Coupang

League of Legends

YouTube

Webtoon

5

Facebook

Google

Lottery

Facebook

6

League of Legends

KB Bank

Facebook

Movie

7

NH Bank

NH Bank

“Ilbe” (일베)

YouTube

8

KB Bank

Facebook

Yellow Dust

Google

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

Google

Google

“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.

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