In the best detective movies, we learned that from a person’s rubbish you can understand many things. Today, with the technology we have, you could say the same thing by looking at the history of internet searches.
But don’t worry, we don’t want to get into your computer… there is already someone doing it for you and getting to know you to promote the best services and products based on your habits and readings.
Every year, the major websites publish their results for the year, showing us what people have searched the most on the Internet.
Just like a detective, we can deduce many trends and get a snapshot of the past year and realize what we experienced, what interested us the most, or what we are curious about.
Top searches in Switzerland
And then we discover that in Switzerland, “Euro 2021” is at #1 in Google searches for general terms, probably due to the fact that we beat our French friends (don’t blame us for this, we are a small country and enjoy small successes. Of course we are happy that you won the Nation League… Vive la France!!!).
In the wake of sporting events, the most searched Swiss sports personalities include two footballers (Yann Sommer – yes, the one who saved the penalty kick against the French…). and Xherdan Shaqiri. In third place is the talented Belinda Bencic, who brought us the Olympic gold medal in tennis: chapeau!
When taking a look instead at the category “How much…” it seems that the Swiss have some little gaps about their country: the second most popular question is “How many cantons does Switzerland have?” and the fourth most popular question is “How many inhabitants does Switzerland have?”. At number #1 in this ranking, we find a “classic” for the times we live in, and that is “How long does a PCR test last?”.
We could go on through the various categories, but I leave the link at the end of the article for the most curious where you can find all the rankings, country by country.
Top financial searches
Instead, we will take a closer look at which financial searches were the most popular on the Internet.
For this, we also look at other websites such as Investopedia, which published a list of the most popular terms in 2021, and Bloomberg, which compiled a list of the most-read articles over the course of the year.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much data from Switzerland alone on financial and economic research, so we’ll look around the world at what the 2021 trends were.
As many will imagine, among the top picks we find several references to the world of cryptocurrencies.
Dogecoin, Shibacoin, and Ethereum were the most searched cryptocurrencies.
AMC Stock and GME Stock are among the most searched stocks, which have benefited from the Reddit effect both in terms of price and internet searches.
Cryptocurrencies are back in the search queries of Internet users when the question “How to buy…” is asked and the list goes on: How to buy Bitcoin? How to buy NFT? How to buy Dogecoin? …
Looking instead at the most searched financial terms on Investopedia, we find that most people have an inordinate interest in taxes. In fact, the most searched term in 2021 was “Capital Gains Tax”. If, as you read on, you realized that you were one of those who searched for this term in 2021, you’re in luck because we have an article on the subject of capital gains taxation in Switzerland!
In second place we find the term “Fiat Money” which brings us back to the crypto world in some way.
Inflation and Hodl are in 3rd and 4th place respectively. We also have an article on the concept of HODL, but in the context of classic investment strategies (HODL is associated with the “buy-and-hold” type of strategy in cryptocurrency (Investment Time Horizon and Compounding).
In short, from a financial point of view, it would seem that cryptocurrencies have “hit the jackpot” and attracted a lot of interest.
Bloomberg provides us with a list of the 14 most-read articles published on their website during the year and selected by their readers.
We find the Covid theme several times (#4 out of #14), and it is in fact on this topic the most read Bloomberg article: “Vaccinated people are worried and scientists have no answers” in which it analyses the fact that vaccinated people would be more exposed to the delta variant, but science has no explanation for this (the article presents the facts of this analysis and is to be contextualized at the time it was written, i.e. 22 August 2021).
As a final consideration, but perhaps the most interesting and certainly the one that tells us a lot about the change in thinking, acting, and the sensitivity of the world, in the searches for 2021 on the internet we find among the “best performance entry” the theme of “climate” and everything that revolves around it.
One name that appears twice in the ranking (#2 and #13) is Bill Hwang, who made headlines for losing around 20 billion in two days in the Archegos Capital crash. People have been interested to find out how he lost this money and what happened to him.
Bloomberg’s list includes other hot topics such as Rivian and its growth expectations compared to Tesla (#3), Jeff Bezos and his superyacht (#7), and smart working, how it will change the way we work…or not (#4).
As a final consideration, but perhaps the most interesting and certainly the one that tells us a lot about the change in thinking, acting, and the sensitivity of the world, in the searches for 2021 on the internet we find among the “best performance entry” the theme of “climate” and everything that revolves around it. Terms such as ESG, impact, sustainability, and climate change have peremptorily entered the rankings. Although not yet in the Top 10 (with the exception of some categories such as ESG, which ranks 6th on Investopedia) there is a rapid increase in interest in the subject.
This is certainly not something new, the media process on this topic and the attempt to focus attention on this issue has been ongoing for several years, but finally, we are seeing something positive and people are documenting and researching more and more.
Thanking you for following us throughout the year, we hope to see you all back in 2022 full of ideas, initiatives, and a desire to invest.
We will certainly continue to provide you with material to learn and document about investments and finance in general.
Happy Holidays to you all!
PS: the #1 search in England for the category “how many” was… “How many times has Italy won the Euros?”. God save the Queen!
If you are curious, you can find out all the rankings directly on the Google, Investopedia, and Bloomberg websites.
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