Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Perodua, and Toyota are the fastest rising car brands in number of Internet searches made by Malaysians in the month of January, as stated in an official infographic released by Google today.
Between the five brands, Honda accounts for 42 percent of total searches among the five, followed by Toyota at 22.5 percent, Perodua at 14.3 percent, Nissan at 13.2 percent, and Mazda at 8 percent.
The specific number of searches garnered by each brand are not disclosed; Google Trends do not present absolute search volume numbers, showing only the relative popularity between each search term through data normalized on a scale from 0 to 100, with 100 representing the highest peak of the graph.
In case you were wondering, Proton did not fade into absolute irrelevance. We have checked that Proton actually pulls in a higher number of searches than Perodua and Nissan, but our first national car maker did not make this infographic because its related search terms were not fast rising enough.
Unsurprisingly, Honda’s fast rising search numbers are a direct result of strong interest for the HR-V. Honda-related searches spiked on 6 Jan, the highest all month, on the day which bookings opened for the new compact crossover SUV. The specific search term “honda hr-v” was marked by Trends as a ‘breakout’ – this, in Google’s words, means that the ‘search term experienced growth greater than 5,000 [percent]’ compared to the previous month.
For Toyota-related search terms, the fastest rising search terms, interestingly, relates to the Hilux. The search terms “toyota hilux 2015″, “hilux 2015″, “toyota hilux”, and “toyota hilux malaysia” all rose in usage between 50 and 90 percent compared to December 2014. The Hilux’s endearing popularity never ceases to amaze us.
Perodua, meanwhile, has its new Myvi facelift to thank for its rise, with the terms “perodua myvi 2015″, “myvi 2015″, and “perodua myvi” rising by 190, 140, and 80 percent respectively. In terms of overall search volume, however, “axia” and “axia perodua” are still the most searched terms relating to the brand.
Despite not pulling in as much in overall search numbers compared to the other brands, Mazda-related terms are fast growing, specifically terms relating to the newly-launched Mazda2 SkyActiv. The terms “mazda 2 2015″ and “mazda 2 malaysia” grew by 250% each, whilst “mazda 2″ grew by 190%. (Note to Malaysians: Mazda2 is spelled together!) The upcoming CX-3 compact SUV is attracting interest too – popularity of the search term “cx3 mazda” grew by 60%.
Images: Official Google release and screen caps from Google Trends.
Keyword: Google: Honda most commonly searched car brand in Jan 2015