DUBAI — With the UAE practicing social distancing, schools still closed and many indus-tries 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 terms from 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 percent 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 with a 90 percent search growth, followed by ‘romance’ and ‘nature’, which both saw 83 percent climbs.

Online searches for remote exercise terms also rose, with ‘home workout’ witnessing a mas-sive increase of 1,963 percent. Interest in online quizzes also jumped 122 percent.

While virtual and digital options are proving popular, Q1 saw a resurgence in the popularity of traditional ‘board games’ and ‘puzzles’ with online searches rising 326 percent and 313 percent, 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. — SG