When Searching for Information, Men Prefer Google and Band, Women Prefer KakaoTalk and Instagram

Increasing Number of Users Searching for Information on SNS
Divided by Fields Such as Location and Hobbies

Naver and Google have long been regarded as the epitome of search portals. However, the landscape is likely to change significantly in the future. According to a new survey, internet users are utilizing various search platforms depending on the type of information they are seeking.

On the 10th, consumer data platform Open Survey released the 'Social Media & Search Portal Report 2023.'

Open Survey conducted a survey last month targeting 5,000 adult men and women on the 'platforms used for information search within the past week.' The results showed that 91.3% of respondents used Naver, and 85.2% used YouTube. Following these were KakaoTalk (80.6%), Google (66.1%), Instagram (56.7%), Daum (36.8%), Naver Band (25.1%), and Facebook (22.6%).

In the past, 'information search' was mainly dominated by portal sites like Naver and Google. However, as social networking services (SNS) such as Facebook and Instagram have become more active and these companies also support search services, more netizens appear to be finding information through SNS.

Various platform services Photo by Yonhap News

In fact, Open Survey's research highlighted the growth trend of SNS platforms. Instagram increased by 3.3 percentage points (p) compared to the previous year, and YouTube rose by 2.4 p. On the other hand, the search portal Daum decreased by 2.9 p, and ZUM showed a significant drop from 13.7% last year to 9% this year.

Users showed a tendency to choose platforms depending on the field they were searching for. For example, Naver's usage rate was 86.1% when searching for local and spatial information such as restaurants and cafes, overwhelmingly higher than competing platforms like YouTube (38.8%) and Instagram (35%). Naver's dominance was also evident in information related to product and brand reviews. However, in searches related to hobbies and leisure, the gap between Naver (77.4%) and second-place YouTube (56.2%) narrowed significantly.

Differences were also observed by gender and age group. Men primarily used Google, Naver Band, and Facebook when searching for information. In contrast, women had a relatively higher usage rate of KakaoTalk and Instagram compared to other platforms.

People in their 40s and 50s searched for information more on Daum, Naver Band, and Kakao Story than other age groups. Meanwhile, those in their teens and twenties used YouTube and Twitter much more actively.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.