"'Gyeomryeong' 'Yoon Seok-yeol' Surge 1000%... Dominating Top Portal Search Rankings"

Google Trends Weekly Analysis Results Show
Search Volume for 'Gye-eom' and 'Yoon Seok-yeol' Surges by 1000%

Since President Yoon Suk-yeol's declaration of martial law on the 3rd, amid the ongoing impeachment crisis, search term rankings on domestic portal sites have been dominated by terms related to martial law.

According to 'Google Trends' search data, the words that saw the largest increase in domestic search volume over the week from the 2nd to the 9th were 'martial law' and 'Yoon Suk-yeol.' Each term was searched over 500,000 times during the week, representing a staggering 1000% increase compared to usual search volumes.

Search volume trends on Google Trends. Screenshot of the Google homepage.

Among the 25 words with the greatest increase in search volume over the week, 15 were directly related to the martial law situation or impeachment. The term 'impeachment' was searched over 200,000 times, while 'Kim Yong-hyun' and 'Han Dong-hoon' were each searched around 100,000 times, and 'Chu Kyung-ho' and 'Kim Kun-hee' were each searched about 50,000 times.

Meanwhile, the term 'cheering light stick' also attracted attention with a 200% increase to about 50,000 searches. Currently, candlelight protests calling for President Yoon's impeachment are being held across the country, but unlike in the past, citizens are using cheering light sticks that emit light instead of actual candles.

On the 7th, the day of the vote on the impeachment motion against President Yoon Seok-yeol, citizens are urging the impeachment of President Yoon in front of the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung

On Naver, the largest domestic portal site, the search index for 'Yoon Suk-yeol' reached its highest level in over two years as of the 4th, marking the highest point since the presidential election results were announced on March 10, 2022.

The search index represents the relative value at a specific time when the highest search volume during the query period is set to 100. Since Naver began compiling search data on January 1, 2016, the search index for 'Yoon Suk-yeol' on the 4th was 72.1. The peak of 100 was on March 10, 2022, the day after the presidential election, and the third highest was 88.9 on May 19, 2017, when President Yoon was appointed head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office during the Moon Jae-in administration.