For web searches, 'East is East and West is West'
By Ira Machefsky and John Fernandez

JERSEY CITY, NJ - The list of top 25 searches on Accoona's Chinese search engine (www.accoona.cn) has just been released. This list, which represents the top 25 non-adult (ie, not sexually oriented) searches for the month of February 2005, shows that Chinese searchers are a much more serious and business-oriented group than the typical Western Web searcher. In fact, the aggregate search profile of Chinese users is almost the direct inverse of Accoona searchers in the United States. We further corroborated this difference by comparing Accoona's Chinese search profile with the search profile of general Web users from Wordtracker (www.wordtracker.com), a site that aggregates search keywords from a number of meta-search engines such as Dogpile (www.dogpile.com) and Metacrawler (www.metacrawler.com).

The yin and yang of search terms
The extreme difference between Chinese and Western search profiles originally surprised us, since long analysis has shown that Western searchers consistently search for the same things, with the top searches focusing on entertainment, celebrities and current events. The disparity shows us the difference between the two societies and where they are going: one developed and free, the other an emerging economic power.

Analysis of Chinese users' search terms
High on the list of search terms are holidays such as the "spring festival" (19%), also known as Chinese New Year, and the "lantern festival" (2%), occurring 15 days later. Also on the minds of Chinese searchers are current events such as the "tsunami" (12%), which devastated the Indo-Asian region on December 26, 2004. But Chinese searchers are preoccupied with more than just catastrophic acts of nature and other one-time events. They are concerned about the "elderly in China" (2%) and "emigration"  (2%). China's elderly population (over the age of 60) is estimated at about 128 million today, and is expected to grow to over 400 million by 2050, a serious demographic problem and a keenly felt personal issue. Apparently, some Chinese web searchers also want to leave China: "emigration" (2%) consistently ranks in the top 25 search terms.

Manufacturing is king
The biggest surprise, however, is the high ranking of business, and especially manufacturing-related, search terms in the Top 25 list. Seven of the top 25 search terms have to do not just with business but specifically manufacturing: "CEPA" (3%), a recently passed Hong Kong business pact; "plastic flower pot manufacturer" (3%); "copper" (3%); "Mifare MF rc-531" (3%), a technical specification for wireless chips; "textile printing ink" (3%); "thermo" (2%); and "laptop motherboard" (2%). Popular general business terms include "insurance" (2%) and, significantly, "education" (3%).

Western terms: Almost
the inverse
There is no correlation between these Chinese search terms and those most common in the West. In fact, the search term frequencies appear to be completely the inverse between Chinese and US users. Entertainment ranks as the most common search category in the US (66% at Accoona and 49% at Wordtracker), while it ranks at 0% for China in the Top 25 searches. Manufacturing ranks as the second-most searched for category in China (25%), while it ranks at 0% in the US Top 25 searches for both Accoona and Wordtracker. 



 



Even among consumer products, which rank high in both Chinese and Western search terms, these is a significant difference in focus. Chinese searchers are looking for durable goods products, such as "car" (8%), with their one nod to indulgence in "car audio" (3%). US and Western searchers in general tend to focus on consumer electronics products, such as "Dell laptops" (5%, Wordtracker).

Search Term Overlap
There are some common areas between East and West in search term frequency. Internet technologies, destinations and PC software figure in the Top 25 search terms for both China and the US. A popular Chinese instant messaging (IM) software ranks 4% on Accoona's Top 25 Chinese list, and "chat" ranks at 1% on Accoona's Top 25 US list. Also popular in China is search for "Mongolian software" (2%), which refers to a Chinese language word processing package. Search engines are commonly used to navigate to other Internet destinations. "Accoona" (3%) was a popular Chinese search, while the old stalwarts "Google" (4%) and "Yahoo" (3%) were the most popular on Accoona's US site.

Leisure time and entertainment
Entertainment searches, including celebrities and hobbies, are the most popular US searches. Some celebrities remain persistently popular over long periods of time while others fall in and out of fashion. Perennial favorites are "50 Cent" (1%, Accoona), "Eminem" (1%, Accoona), "Diahann Carroll" (1%, Accoona), "Paris Hilton" (8%, Wordtracker), "Britney Spears" (3%, Wordtracker), "Carmen Electra" (3%, Wordtracker), "Pamela Anderson" (3%, Wordtracker), "Jennifer Lopez" (3%, Wordtracker), and "Lindsey Lohan" (3%, Wordtracker). These celebrities reflect the popularity of music in general on the Internet: 8% of Accoona.com searches in February dealt with "songs/gospel lyrics". The Oscars were big in February, too, so many entertainment searches focused on them, giving those terms a transitory spike in popularity.

Gaming...and cheating
Also popular in the US are searches for various electronic "games" (1%), and perhaps dismayingly, even more popular are searches for "cheat codes" for those games (>1%). While the Chinese are out making everything from "plastic flower pots" (3%) to "laptop motherboards" (2%), US searchers are not only playing games, but feel they have to cheat to win at them.

Hair...flow it, show it, long as God can grow it, my hair
Other perennially favorite searches in the US are those having to do with the care and maintenance of body parts. "Hair styles/haircuts" were the most popular searches on Accoona's US site, representing 32% of the Top 25 list. Tattoos are a durable favorite also, in all their variety, with 17% of the Top 25 searches on Accoona.com dealing with them.

Chinese searches - all work and no play?
Amazingly, there is no counterpart to these entertainment and celebrity searches in the Accoona results for China. In fact, there is not a single entertainment or celebrity-related result in Accoona's Top 25 list for China. Overall, there is a fascinating disparity between the Top 25 searches on Accoona's US and Chinese sites. The category profiles for the two sites are the inverse of each other. Chinese searchers are focused on manufacturing and education while US searchers are focused on entertainment, celebrities and games (and looking for ways to cheat at those games). One significant consequence of this finding is that there is a considerable opportunity for manufacturing and business-focused search capabilities in China, an area that Accoona has pioneered.

Between those two extremes there is an overlap of searches for current events and holidays, but US searchers tend to focus on one-time catastrophes and current holidays, while Chinese searchers tend to focus on longer-term political issues, and especially in the recent past on aging and emigration. Chinese consumer product searches tend to be for durable goods such as cars, while US searchers tend to look for consumer electronics. The one Chinese nod in the direction of consumer electronics is for car audio. Both groups are keen searchers for Internet technologies and software, especially instant messaging systems.

Key findings - US and Chinese searchers have different goals
These search preferences tell a lot about the different preoccupations of two different cultures and civilizations. They reflect the mindsets of a free, established, and economically secure West with the time and money to pursue leisure activities, and a striving, achieving, manufacturing-based China seeking a more tolerant and open society. Our preoccupations influence what we will become, even as they reflect what we already are, and search terms give us a glimpse into the collective consciousness of these evolving societies.

Ira Machefsky and John Fernandez are staff members at Accoona. 

Accoona is a search engine providing searches in both English and Chinese. Accoona's revolutionary Interactive Search Technology, combined with proprietary artificial intelligence software that understands the meaning of words, delivers targeted search results that significantly differentiate Accoona within the search industry.

Copyright (c) 2005 Accoona, used by permission.