Asia's search hits record high in September

Online search activity in the Asia-Pacific has reached a record-high in September, with some 38.6 billion searches conducted for the month alone, according to a new study.

Released Wednesday by online monitoring and analysis firm ComScore, the report revealed that online queries in the region, including Australia, averaged at nearly 88 per user in September.

The total of 38.6 billion search queries for the month was a significant increase from 33 billion in the same period last year, according to comScore.

Google ranked as the top search engine in the Asia-Pacific region, commanding more than 44 percent share of searches performed in September, or nearly 17 billion searches on the company's various sites.

China's Baidu.com followed with 8.2 billion searches or a 21.3 percent share, while Yahoo grabbed third position with 5.3 billion searches or a 13.8 percent share.

ComScore further reported that South Korea's NHN, which owns search engine Naver.com, saw the most prolific search intensity among the Top 10 destinations with an average of 81 searches per online user.

Searchers on Google sites averaged 59 searches per person, while searchers on Lycos sites averaged 51 queries. Other sites included in the most-visited list were Facebook, Sohu and Microsoft.

According to ComScore, Google was the most preferred search site in six of the Asia-Pacific markets: Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore. Yahoo captured the majority share of searches in Hong Kong, at 58.9 percent, and Taiwan at 65.4 percent.

Although multinational search brands led many of the markets in the region, the popularity of local brands was evident in both China and South Korea. Baidu led as China's top search destination, accounting for 63 percent for all search queries, while NHN led its domestic Korean market at 49.3 percent.

"The competition between local and global brands to capture search market share around the world continues to be an ongoing battle," Will Hodgman, ComScore's Asia-Pacific executive vice president, said in the report. "As multinational brands continue to expand across borders, understanding the online behaviors and preferences of local audiences will be a central component to implementing successful digital marketing strategies that capitalize on this lucrative and growing market."

Joel D. Pinaroc is a Filipino freelance IT writer currently based in Saudi Arabia.