Google Search Trends for Banks in UAE - 2011

A known fact - people in need of Financial Services flock to the Internet to conduct their preliminary research. A largely ignored fact - Online Sentiments determine the demand and supply in the 'offline' world and online research helps the customers make their purchase decisions. An excellent example of Sentiment Analysis is; how Google Index trends along with the UAE's housing pricing index to show fall in online searches when the property bubble burst. Search engines are one of the most popular ways for people to conduct their research for financial products. Google being one of the most popular search engines is able to give data on customer's online behavior and their search habits.

I have used few queries to determine the Google search habits of people in UAE. The below analysis is on Google using 'Rising Searches' and 'Top Searches' for Financial Services Industry in UAE. According to Google "Rising searches highlight searches that have experienced significant growth in a given time period, with respect to the preceding time period" and "Top searches refers to search terms with the most significant level of interest." The below data could be used in planning your online acquisitions, positioning your products/channels online, competitor analysis, understanding customer behavior etc.  

Banking

The 2011 searches for the "Banking" category shows that, people are keen to know about the recently introduced "iban" payment system. "Rakbank Online" seems to be a very popular followed by 'emiratesnbd'. HSBC and Emirate NBD's online banking also fall in the top 10 searched keywords. Overall Emirate NBD the largest bank by assets in Middle East, seems to attract lot of searches on Google. IFSC code is another payment system used by the banks in India.

Cards

The search criteria were to use the keyword 'Card' in the Credit Cards category to derive the results in the chart. 'Prepaidcard' is the most searched term in this category. Interestingly, First Gulf Bank card seems to be popular search term among the online users. Emirate NBD is also listed in the top 10 category. NBAD is listed in the top 3 as a preferred search term in the credit card category.

I also did an analysis on what were the Top most searches for cards on Google in the Credit Cards Category during 2011. 

Visa Card makes an entry in this category. "Prepaidcard" keyword is no. 1 in the rising searches category. To connect the dots, probably Visa Prepaid Card was something people may be searching for. HSBC, Mashreq and ADCB also have made it into the top 10 keyword search list.

Auto Finance

There has been a sudden spike in Auto Finance online ads in UAE. Probably this data can be useful to banks to position their online campaigns. The most common terms used on google search are 'lease' and 'leasing'. Availability of second hand cars and steady fall in the price pf popular cards in the region would make the auto-financing a hot proposition.

Home Finance

Post crash of the property market in UAE, there has been several inaccurate predictions with the real estate pundits on how the market will perform in the near future. For the banking industry there lies an opportunity to encourage borrowing. I have used 'home loan' and 'mortgage' as keywords in the Home Financing category to arrive at these results. 

(زايد للإسكان) Zayed Housing Scheme is the top keyword searched on google in UAE.  It is a housing scheme run by the government of UAE to help nationals buy/build a home by granting them loans. 'ADCBloan' is a popular keyword searched online. Calculators also are very popular search, which shows that banks need to invest in having easy to use calculators on their public websites.

Insurance

Insurance is one of the hottest Businesses at present; thanks to all the uncertainness in the world. I have used the 'Top Searches' category for the below analysis. 'LifeInsurance', rank's 2nd in the search list followed by 'healthinsurance' and 'carinsurance'. Medical and Travel insurance fall at 7th and 8th most searched keywords respectively. AXA  and RSA are the only two companies that fall in the top 10 keywords list.

Online Banking

Online Banking usage in UAE has significantly grown and the channel remains popular among customers for conducting their banking transactions. I have queried 'online banking' and 'internet banking' keywords in the 'Banking' category to determine these results. In the 'internet banking' keyword category HSBC clearly takes the lead in the most searched keyword for online banking followed by Emirate NBD. Interestingly two bank, Axis (Indian Bank) and BDO (Philippines Bank) also turn up in the top 10 list.

In the 'online banking' keyword category the results are strikingly different. NBD takes the lead for the most searched keyword followed by Standard Chartered. Mashreq and ADCB are the other two banks who appear in this search.
It is important to understand how a bank has positioned itself on internet for various keywords. Some banks are able to leverage on the keyword 'internet banking' while other top the list of 'online banking'.

Google Search Index v/s Dubai's House Price Index

Below is a comparison of how the Google Search Index varies when the housing bubble burst in Dubai in 2009. From the charts you may notice that a peak in the search of 'Home Financing' category happened few quarters before the bubble burst in UAE. This is very interesting and probably tells a lot about the fact that sentiment plays a very important role in the market movements. Surprisingly, the search for housing information drops before the bubble bursts and stays lower while the prices are wiped off and most of the people lose their homes.

However, at a macro level the trends match and show that online sentiments do determine the demand and supply of a commodity.

There is a surge in the search for property on Google in 2010, which matches with the house price index trend.

Click here to read Google Trends 2011 for Banks in UAE

Image take from - http://www.globalpropertyguide.com

What did Middle East Search in 2011 on Google - Trends Part 2

This series covers Google Trends 2011 for UAE,  Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Oman and Lebanon.

Google has once again released its annual Zeitgeist report, showing the fastest rising searches for countries all over the world. Saudi Arabia and Egypt were covered as part of the MENA region. I have used Google Trends to do the analysis of other countries in the Middle East.

Part 1 covers - UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Part 2 cover Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan

Jordan 

Youtube and Facebook take the lead in the searches. Saraya a popular news website is also among the top 10 searches. 

Gaddafi is a most sought after person on Google Jordan. 4Share a file sharing site is a popular in Jordan.

Interestingly Chrome browser is a among the top 10 rising keyword searches.

Egypt

Egypt has the highest number of Internet Users in the MENA region (20,136,000 as of 30 June 2011, according to internetworldstats.com). 

With all the political action happening in Egypt, no doubt ‘youm7’; a news website is among the list of popular searches.  Terms like ‘

Tahrir Square

’ and ‘Revolution of 25 January’ are among the top rising searches in 2011. Youtube and Facebook remain in the top 10 searched keywords.

Hossini Mubarak remains the most searched person on Google followed by Wael Ghonim one of the key activist in the Egyptian revolution.

Lebanon 

The country has internet usage penetration of 29%. Most of the searched terms are in English language. ‘Twitter’ is also appearing among the top 10 searched words. 

Applications like ‘whtsapp’ and ‘ebuddy’ are popular searches. 

Lots of users are taking interest in searching for the keyword ‘Syria’, assuming out of interest in the current political situation.

Click here to read Part 1 of this series

Click here to read about Middle East Google Trends for 2010

What did Middle East Search in 2011 on Google - Trends Part 1

This series covers Google Trends 2011 for UAE,  Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Oman and Lebanon.

Google has once again released its annual Zeitgeist report, showing the fastest rising searches for countries all over the world. Saudi Arabia and Egypt were covered as part of the MENA region. I have used Google Trends to do the analysis of other countries in the Middle East. 

Part 1 covers - UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman. 

Part 2 covers - Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan 

UAE 

The country has the highest Internet Penetration rate of 69 % (via - according to internetworldstats.com) in Middle East. Most of the search terms are in English. After ‘Dubai’, ‘Facebook’ remains the most search term. In the rising searches, ‘Al Jazeera’ and ‘Dubizzle’ are amongst the top 5 searched terms.

Cricket and related websites like ‘cricinfo’ are amongst the top emerging searches, giving credit to the world cup held this year.  

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia – The country with the highest number of Internet Users (11,400,000 as of 30 June 2011 according to internetworldstats.com) in Middle East region. Most of the searched terms are in Arabic, which shows popularity of the language in the online world. ‘Facebook’ and ‘Youtube’ remain popular searches amongst the internet users. Photos and Game are some of the most searched categories in Saudi Arabia. Spongebob and Twitter are also popular keywords among the Saudi users. With the recent investment of $300 million by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in Twitter, the website’s popularity will surge in the country. 

Oman

Oman – The country has an internet penetration rate of 48.4%. Facebook and Youtube are popular searches in the country. Al Sablah seems to be popular community forum in Oman, which appear in the existing and rising search trends. Hotmail is also among the rising searches in the country. Elakiri Community is another forum listed in the rising searches. 

Click here to view Google Trends for 2010.

Google Trends for Middle East 2010

The below study covers UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.

Check out below the Top Keywords that the users searched on Google in 2010. The searches are dominated by social media sites.

One interesting point to be noted is how users are searching their interests in Arabic (العربية) on Google.

Dubai emirate has dominated search in UAE, considering it has been in highlights for financial issues through out the year. Facebook remains the most sought after site in the search world.

User search for صور (Games) was the 3rd highest in Oman. Forums (منتديات ) stands at 7% of the top 10 searched items. 

Youtube is the most popular video engine site in the Middle East and Facebook the most popular Social Media Site.  People are keen to play games, view photographs and participate in forums. 

Interestingly Lebanon has Nokia among the top 10 searches, which can predict that it may be one of the most popular brands there. 

Facebook and Twitter - Trending Topics 2009

After the search giant, Google and Yahoo, both the social networking websites Twitter and Facebook released a list of trending topics in 2009.

Starting with Twitter, Iran Elections dominated the tweeting scene during the year, followed by Swine Flu. The Hash Tag list also has #iranelections at the 2nd position after #musicmonday. Micheal Jackson was the most popular celebrity on Twitter; similar trend has been noticed in the search engines as well. Google wave is the most discussed technology on the site.

Facebook Memology trends are loosely spread topics ranging from the expected Facebook application to “I”. The most interesting fact is that “Twitter” is one of the trending topics on Facebook, whereas there is absolutely no mention of Facebook on Twitter. Mark Zuckerberg needs to watch this trend carefully.

Amongst Facebook gaming applications Farmville dominates the scene by end of the year. Across the year "Farm" has been the favourite application on the website but later has been subdued by Farmville.

Just in case you were wondering what is FML – “F” stand for you to interpret “M” – My “L” - Life. Its kind of funny, but yeah, this was the second most trending topic on this website.

If we carefully observe the topics, Twitter has more focus on what’s happening around the world whereas Facebook talks about what’s happening in its own world.