Experian Hitwise, a part of Experian Marketing Services, recently announced data from Singapore internet users following the recent SMRT disruptions in December 2011.

Many Singaporeans flocked to online sites to share and keep updated with news following three major disruptions of SMRT train service.

Experian Hitwise found that top search variations used by Singaporeans include SMRT breakdown, SMRT twitter, SMRT CEO, SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa, SMRT news, SMRT Facebook and SMRT disruption (see Figure 1). Variations for the word "SMRT" on all search engines in Singapore saw an increase of 38% in related search clicks on the week ending 24 December, the week after the disruption of train services.

“SMRT” remained the key search term used by Singaporeans within the two weeks. Figure 1 reflects the fast moving event-related search terms from the two periods that include specific person searches, SMRT CEO and SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa.

Figure 1: Top search terms containing SMRT (Comparison between 24 rolling weeks ending 10 December and 24 December)

Ex-SMRT CEO, Saw Phaik Hwa, was widely discussed during the crisis. Search terms around her name generated high online traffic in several social media websites and community forums including Facebook (17.98%) and Singapore HardwareZone Community (10.11%) (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Websites receiving traffic from SMRT CEO related terms over 24 rolling weeks ending 24 December

SMRT’s corporate site remained the top website receiving traffic from the search terms during and after the incident despite a 20% decline of search clicks share over the course. Traffic figures on social media and news websites, however, increased the most over the course. (see Figure 3)

 

Figure 3: Top websites receiving traffic from terms in SMRT Disruption Period (Comparison between 24 rolling weeks ending 10 December and 24 December) (Source: Experian® Hitwise®)

By MediaBUZZ