Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat Was Malaysia’s Top Trending Google Search In January; CNY Also Trending

Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (BPR), the pandemic, and Chinese New Year were at the top of Malaysians’ minds in January, according to Google’s review of trending searches. Unsurprisingly, “PKP 2.0” and “Pengumuman PM” were respectively the 5th and 10th top trending searches in January. Meanwhile, searches for Chinese New Year doubled over the past month and is up 60% in the past week alone.

“Semakan BPN 2021 / BPR Semak / Kemaskini BPR” were the top trending Google search for January 2021. It’s not surprising why – people want to check their eligibility for the government financial aid scheme during a pandemic and serious economic downturn.

On a tech-related note, “Redmi 9T” came in as the 7th top trending search. Consumers are curious about the new smartphone model Xiaomi launched on 15th January. The rest of the top trending searches had to do with sports – particularly football, cricket, and badminton matches.

Chinese New Year and the Year of the Ox are almost upon us, and so ox-related searches have predictably spiked over 5,000% in the past month, reaching their highest levels in more than a decade. Orange and mochi related searches have also jumped more than 5,000% in the past 30 days.

Of course, we live in a time of COVID, and so “sop sambutan tahun baru cina 2021” has been the top trending CNY-related search in the past week. Interestingly enough, the top trending question for CNY within the last 7 days has been “apa yang dipanggil tahun baru cina.” We don’t quite get the question – Is there another name for Chinese New Year?