UAE Residents Exploring Online And Offline Entertainment Options

With the UAE practicing social distancing, schools still closed and many industries working remotely, the country’s quest to stay informed and entertained at home saw online searches for ‘news’ and ‘movies’ lead the nation’s internet searches in Q1, according to data collected by SEMrush, the award winning digital marketing suite.

The UAE’s most searched infotainment termsfrom January – when the first COVID-19 case was announced in the UAE – to March 2020 was ‘news’ with 390,500 related online searches; ‘movies’ranked second with 310,500 searches over the same three-month period.

Streaming services Netflix and Amazon Prime saw online search increases of 124 per cent and 123 per cent in Q1, respectively, while popular Arabic channel MBC’s direct website traffic was up by 50 per cent during the same period.

In terms of entertainment and movie genres, UAE residents responded to global uncertainty by turning to scary movies. In Q1,‘horror’registered the biggest surge witha 90 per cent search growth, followed by ‘romance’and ‘nature’, which both saw 83 per cent climbs. Online searches for remote exercise terms also rose, with ‘home workout’ witnessing a massive increase of 1,963 per cent. Interest in online quizzes also jumped122 per cent.

While virtual and digital options are proving popular, Q1 saw a resurgence in thepopularity of traditional ‘board games’ and ‘puzzles’with online searches rising 326 per cent and 313 per cent, respectively.

“Web traffic indicates growing interest in well-known entertainment websites with search data breaking this down further to show a high-level of search interest in specific genres such as news, music, romance, nature and documentaries. Gaining insights into search interest at specific times and locations can be invaluable to marketing efforts, especially at this challenging period for businesses globally,” noted Olga Andrienko, Head of Global Marketing at SEMrush.