Year in Search: Google’s top searches for S’pore in 2023

SINGAPORE – 2023 has been a year for Singapore residents to seek out fun even as they try to cope with rising costs in the country.

“CDC (Community Development Council) vouchers”, “GST vouchers”, “Ticketmaster”, “Taylor Swift” and “Oppenheimer” were among the country’s top keywords on Google in 2023, according to a statement by the Internet giant on Dec 11.

The Google Year In Search list is compiled from one trillion search queries it receives each year.

In the category of Trending Singapore News, the top search term “Ticketmaster” and the eighth “Taylor Swift Singapore” showed many were eager to emerge from the pandemic to reclaim their regular lives.

Yet the no. 4 term “CDC vouchers” and no. 10 “GST vouchers” made it clear that day-to-day life was still rooted in reality.

Local public figures such as former MPs Tan Chuan-Jin and Nicole Seah, and Transport Minister S. Iswaran were also among the top 10 searches in the category.

“F1 Singapore 2023” was no. 1 in Trending Activities in Singapore, yet another sign that Singapore was ready to have post-pandemic parties.

Other exciting experiences and places searched by netizens in Singapore include “Halloween Horror Nights 2023” (no. 4 Trending Activities in Singapore), “Van Gogh Singapore” (Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, no. 5 Trending Activities) and “Bird Paradise” (no. 5 Trending Places in Singapore).

Blockbuster films Oppenheimer and Barbie – which were released around the same time and birthed the term “Barbenheimer” – took the first and second place in Trending Movies.

Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh, who made history as the first Asian woman to win Best Actress at the Oscars, came in second under Trending International Personalities, after Swift.

Mandopop singer Jacky Cheung’s concert, which played a record of nine sold-out shows at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, was ranked seventh under Trending Activities.

The local community also binged on a myriad of South Korean television shows such as The Glory, Physical:100, and King The Land, which were no. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, under Trending TV Shows.

Singapore Internet users also stayed abreast of international news, with their Trending International News searches including “War in Israel and Gaza” (no. 1) and “Turkey earthquake” (no. 4).

In the same category, the gruesome murder of Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi was ranked second, while the Titan submersible implosion during an expedition to the Titanic wreckage site, which was ranked seven in the list (“Titanic submarine”), “kept locals intrigued”, according to the Google statement.

It was also a year of farewells as Singapore bade adieus to popular Mandopop singer Coco Lee (no. 1 in Trending Farewells); American-Canadian actor Matthew Perry (no. 2), who was best known for his role as Chandler Bing in television sitcom Friends; Creative Technology founder Sim Wong Hoo (no. 4), and local actor Timothy Nga (no. 6), who had appeared in Channel 5 drama Fighting Spiders.

Sporting events such as the IPL (Indian Premier League), Cricket World Cup, and Wimbledon 2023 were also crowd favourites.

According to market research firm Statista, Google led the search engine market in Singapore with a 95.1 per cent share of the market as of September 2023.

Bing and Yahoo followed with 2.51 per cent and 1.41 per cent market shares, respectively, in the same timeframe.

Google Singapore communications manager Ho Xiuxian said Google Search was launched 25 years ago to help people find answers to questions big and small.

“Likewise in 2023, we continued to connect Singaporeans to the information they were looking for – from keeping abreast of local and global events, exploring new activities in the country and discovering the world of artificial intelligence (AI),” she said.

Trending Singapore News

Trending International News

Trending Movies

Trending International Personalities

Trending Activities in Singapore