Yahoo Search Trends: SEA Games 2011 in Indonesia

The biggest sports event in South East Asia (SEA) — the SEA Games 2011 — has just ended, and it was a proud moment for host country Indonesia.

In support of Indonesia, Yahoo Indonesia launched an activity called Yahoo! Buka Dunia that started together with the SEA Games 2011 Torch Relay. The goal was to to give a first hand experience of the Internet to students, teachers, and others in 20 cities across Java and Sumatra.

With attention on the SEA Games, Yahoo Search Trends did some deep tracking to see what topics were most searched by Indonesian people after the games began. Through that tracking we can see Indonesian love soccer and they really wanted to see their athletes to get the most medals.

These are 10 most-searched topics related to the SEA Games, according to Yahoo Indonesia:

• Wim Rijsbergen – Indonesia national soccer team head coach. This search went up as much as 88 percent.
• Perolehan medali SEA Games 2011 – Or translated as ‘2011 SEA Games medal tally.’ People wanted to know how many medals Indonesia had so far (Indonesia earned 182 gold medals, 151 silver medals and 142 bronze medals in the final count). This search went up 56 percent
• Indonesia vs Singapura – The Group A has been called the death group because it consists of 4 great teams in South East Asia. Indonesia beaten Singapore 2-0 and the search for that matchup went up to 38 percent.
• Indonesia vs Thailand – After winning two games against Cambodia and Singapore, the game has became an important match to win for Indonesia to confirm a place in the semi-final. The “Indonesia vs Thailand” search went 32.7 percent.
• Renang indah Indonesia – Translated as ‘Indonesia synchronous swimming’, this year’s team was so promising that they were predicted to get two gold medals in the sport, but they only achieved one silver and one bronze. This search went up by 32 percent.
• Pembukaan SEA Games – On November 11, 2011 the opening attracted a lot of attention and people wanted to watch the ceremonies. This search went up 27 percent.
• Bonus medali emas – a bonus for medals winner has been promised by Andy Malarangeng.
• Obor api SEA Games – the SEA Games torch, which was kept lit for 12 days straight, used up 43 tons of liquid petroleum gas (LPG). Perhaps not the most eco-friendly, but interesting nonetheless…
• Klasemen SEA Games 2011 – Indonesians were actively monitoring the SEA Games 2011 medal standings
• Atlet Anggar – Even though the fencing athletes were inexperienced they put on a good showing in the match

Other trends included result predictions, poems for the national team, SEA Games effects, prayers before the match and the Games’ mascot. We also saw searches for Agnes Monica, who was there at the opening ceremony.

Yahoo Indonesia is an official online media partner for SEA Games 2011 and has been updating its SEA Games 2011 page and has been rallying support for Indonesian athletes with a photo competition on Flickr.