2021 Naver and Daum Most Searched Term 'YouTube' ... Number One for Over 3 Years

2021 Daum Year’s Search Keywords

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] Last year, the most searched keyword on South Korea's two major portals, Naver and Daum, was ‘YouTube’. On Naver mobile as well, ‘YouTube’ rose to second place, surpassing COVID-19 related search terms.

According to the IT industry on the 3rd, in Daum's ‘2021 Search Words of the Year’ tally, the most searched keyword was ‘YouTube’. ‘Naver’ and ‘Weather’ followed, and major search terms also included ‘Lotto Winning Numbers’, ‘Samsung Electronics’, ‘Google’, and ‘Bitcoin’. On Daum, ‘YouTube’ has maintained the top spot as the search word of the year for three consecutive years since it overtook ‘Naver’ in 2019.

On Naver, which separates PC and mobile search rankings, ‘YouTube’ held the number one position in PC searches for five years since 2017. Following YouTube were Coupang, Daum, and Google in second to fourth places. On Naver mobile searches, ‘Weather’ ranked first, and ‘YouTube’ came in second. ‘Samsung Electronics’, ‘Google’, and ‘Lotto Winning Number Inquiry’ were also in the top five. ‘YouTube’ ranked second on Naver mobile for three consecutive years from 2017 to 2019, dropped to fifth place in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but regained second place last year.

On the other hand, COVID-19 related search terms dropped significantly in ranking. In 2020, ‘COVID-19’ ranked first, with ‘Corona’ and ‘COVID-19 Confirmed Cases’ taking third and fourth places, respectively, occupying many top spots. However, last year, ‘Corona Live’ and ‘COVID-19 Confirmed Cases’ only ranked sixth and seventh.

Meanwhile, last year in South Korea, the most popular Google search term was the metaverse (extended virtual world) gaming platform ‘Roblox’, showing a different trend from domestic portals. It was followed by ‘COVID Vaccine Reservation’, ‘Squid Game’, ‘Tesla Stock Price’, and ‘Bitcoin’.