Google Trends and bitcoin

[Rikafip]

Despite bitcoin reaching more than double the price of the last all time high, I don't see around me and in my country (Croatia) as much interest as in late 2017/early 2018 so I was curious what's the situation according to Google Trends and how popular "bitcoin" as term is.

Timeframe I set was from January 1st 2009 up until today, January 13th 2021. As you can see from the screenshot below, users worldwide googled "bitcoin" less now than compared to December 2017 (approximately 20% less) when interest was at it's peak, despite the price increase which usually triggers the interest.

Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means that there was not enough data for this term.

This map shows in which countries people googled for bitcoin the most, darker the blue, higher percentage of "bitcoin" term being googled, relative to all other searches in that country. Grey colour means that there is no enough data available.

I knew that Nigeria will probably be high on the list, but I had no idea that "bitcoin" term  is googled so much in a  few other African countries like Ghana and South Africa.




Top 10 countries:
Nigeria            100
South Africa     65
Ghana             58
Austria            46
Netherlands     43
Switzerland      41
Singapore        41
Slovenia          40
Australia          38
Canada            35

Rest of the list you can find here. Out of those big markets, Germany is ranked 11 with 34 score, United States are 14th with 31, United Kingdom 21st with 26 score. What surprises me is that South Korea is ranked 52nd, Russia 61st and the last is Japan, with score 2.

Values are calculated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 is the location with the most popularity as a fraction of total searches in that location, a value of 50 indicates a location which is half as popular. A value of 0 indicates a location where there was not enough data for this term. A higher value means a higher proportion of all queries, not a higher absolute query count. So a tiny country where 80% of the queries are for 'bananas' will get twice the score of a giant country where only 40% of the queries are for 'bananas'.

I fully understand that just because someone googles "bitcoin" doesn't mean he will actually buy it, but it still give us some idea on the current interest, which usually coincides with increased price. So, what's the situation around you and in your country, do you notice more or less interest compared to 2017?

[joniboini]

Hard to say precisely how much the interest has progressed in my country, but it's clear that crypto is becoming more regulated here and exchanges are growing compared to 2 years ago. I'd say it's a good thing even though most exchanges only have around 1 million total registered users (not sure how many of them are actively trading).

My guess is those who tried to jump the ship in late 2017 no longer care about Bitcoin because their money was burned (selling at the bottom), and they don't check crypto since then. Some of them stay in the community but they already know one or two things about crypto so searching about "bitcoin" doesn't really help. In my case for example, I usually search "0.xxx BTC to USD" or something similar if I wanted to check the price, never once since 2018 I search about "bitcoin".

[BrewMaster]

there wasn't that much interest in bitcoin back in 2017 either. and google trends doesn't really show the interest in bitcoin either. in fact even with all the price rises that we had so far the real bitcoin adoption remains very small which is why we still don't see that many people aware of bitcoin's existence and its potential.

additionally your comparison is wrong because you are looking at the google trends by the end of 2017 which was everything at its maximum meanwhile right now even the hype is still too tiny and just getting started to build up.
if you compare the trends of today with of those in 2016 you can see how they match easier.

[masterzino]

This could be because the latest interest is more from big players and individuals. Most of my contacts are more aware of cryptos.. to repeat me daily how the bubble will burst. The higher is the price, the more annoying are they.

[Rikafip]

Hard to say precisely how much the interest has progressed in my country, but it's clear that crypto is becoming more regulated here and exchanges are growing compared to 2 years ago. I'd say it's a good thing even though most exchanges only have around 1 million total registered users (not sure how many of them are actively trading).

Same situation here regarding the regulations, almost everyone asks for KYC now while it was quite different just a few years ago. But that was kinda expected once bitcoin started getting more into mainstream, unfortunately.

there wasn't that much interest in bitcoin back in 2017 either. and google trends doesn't really show the interest in bitcoin either. in fact even with all the price rises that we had so far the real bitcoin adoption remains very small which is why we still don't see that many people aware of bitcoin's existence and its potential.

Google trends simply show how popular term "bitcoin" was on Google, and that's about it. Doesn't show adoption or how many people bought it in the end. But as I said, it's no surprise that every time there is spike in price, interest goes up. It shouldn't be taken too seriously, as almost anything in life

additionally your comparison is wrong because you are looking at the google trends by the end of 2017 which was everything at its maximum meanwhile right now even the hype is still too tiny and just getting started to build up.

As stated in my first post, that's exactly what I wanted to see, difference between previous all time high and now, as I noticed that people around me and on social media are less hyped about bitcoin despite prices going 2x compared to 2017. What we have now is much healthier imo.

This could be because the latest interest is more from big players and individuals. Most of my contacts are more aware of cryptos.. to repeat me daily how the bubble will burst. The higher is the price, the more annoying are they.

True, there might be something in that as that's what many people agree on, that this bull run is different as more big players are getting into all this.

[lifeforcepools]

Google hates Bitcoin, I don't know why, but it is.

[20kevin20]

During bull runs, I honestly do Bitcoin (and crypto in general) searches way more often - probably up to 10 times more often than I usually do. So I would honestly not consider this a good or accurate indication that a lot of people are getting into BTC. If all older users constantly keep looking for BTC or crypto prices during bull runs more often than they used to, it leads to such stats..

[dothebeats]

Google Trends re: bitcoin usually spikes whenever there are substantial gains posted from the cryptocurrency. It is not really surprising since people would surely be curious as to what bitcoin is exactly and what reasons are there which made it that expensive. Also, this recent rise in price will also get the attention of third-world citizens looking for ways to save them from poverty. Those topping the list, Nigeria, South Africa, and Ghana, are known to be not that well-off when it comes to economy. Naturally, their citizens will find a way to get out of the poverty line and they see that on bitcoin. You get the idea, whenever an opportunity arises, those who needs it the most will seek it the most, and that's why the top 3 contenders--and the majority on the list--are third-world countries.

[Indymoney]

Google hates Bitcoin, I don't know why, but it is.

They was in haters club but now they are changing things due to business right now they cannot afford to be in bitcoin haters club its really big business and its spreading very quickly so they are now in bitcoin friendly list even its hypcrasy but they are changing very quickly for future business.