Google Trends: a big rise in interest in bitcoin specially in Africa

[Pursuer]

Google trends for the past year: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%2012-m&q=Bitcoin
and past 3 months: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&q=Bitcoin
both show a big rise in interest in bitcoin and surprisingly the top leading regions are from Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa)

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[eternalgloom]

I wonder what prompted this sudden interest from Nigeria especially?
Is Nigeria's currency somewhat unstable at the moment or are the scammers there just discovering Bitcoin all of a sudden?

[mobnepal]

Checked for Nepal https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%2012-m&geo=NP&q=Bitcoin
Found similar increase here in Nepal too, and i think this trend is worldwide as sudden price increase may have drawn attention from new people and media is covering news about bitcoin price surge which is adding more fuel to this trend.  

[SyGambler]

yeah even some arab countries are showing some interest in bitcoin especially the gulf countries , and this may be a great sign cause there are many millionaires there who may take this opportunity
in general these trends are due the last price , cause nothing changed in bitcoin except the price and now more online networks are covering it 

[talkbitcoin]

yeah even some arab countries are showing some interest in bitcoin especially the gulf countries , and this may be a great sign cause there are many millionaires there who may take this opportunity
in general these trends are due the last price , cause nothing changed in bitcoin except the price and now more online networks are covering it 

yeah, sadly this part is true. the increased interest is because of the price rise and not the fact that people suddenly found bitcoin as a good currency. i wish there was a way to find out what exactly they are searching about, the suggestions google is listing at the bottom seems to be similar searches not what those searchers were interested but it is interesting that everyone has been searching about price and investment about bitcoin.

[calkob]

Bitcoin will eventually take over in Africa, at the minute, especially in Kenya, Mpesa is the leading form of mobile payment and i think actually rivals the national currency in.  But this system requires a middle man and is open to fraud and corruption, think what will happen when the people of Africa learn about a system that requires no 3rd party to send and receive and they can secure it on their phone will a seed back up....... never mind the moon, mars here we come    

[pinoycash]

one reason, most online network marketeer shift from paypal to bitcoins, and most MLM companies, MMM like program are only using bitcoins as a mode of payment/transfer.

[Denker]

I wonder what prompted this sudden interest from Nigeria especially?
Is Nigeria's currency somewhat unstable at the moment or are the scammers there just discovering Bitcoin all of a sudden?

Nigerian scammers probably doing some research how to pull money out of people's pockets in the future.They have to keep with technology you know.  
This is the first thing which comes to my mind.
As far as I know their currency isn't inflating that much right now and I also haven't hread or read about any bigger regulation or war on cash going on.
Maybe it's the interest why some digital currency like bitcoin is having so much grwoth at the moment.People showing interest in something new is always good.

[mombay]

Bitcoin it spreads like an epidemic over the world.

[Carlton Banks]

The economies of African countries are usually 3rd world commodity based affairs. Commodities are taking a beating on the financial market when aggregated together, and nations that rely on commodity exports tend to suffer some of the consequences of this phase of the market cycle through the exchange rate of their national currency.

It's not just African countries that are affected in this way, commodity based economies like Chile, Russia, Saudi Arabia etc have all been having a currency crisis of some form or another as of late.

[Juggy777]

Google trends for the past year: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%2012-m&q=Bitcoin
and past 3 months: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&q=Bitcoin
both show a big rise in interest in bitcoin and surprisingly the top leading regions are from Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa)

That's strange but not totally surprising, Africa economy is decent and Bitcoin offers a high growth compared to their currency. Secondly betting is legalized in Africa, so it could be used for betting purposes, as the person who bets shall never come to know. I mean a outside person using African as a proxy and wiring the money, and people won't doubt also as it's legal, and thanks to Bitcoin identity won't be revealed. That's my guess on this so far.

[Cryptological]

I believe, there are 2 reasons for that: 1) there are some problems in Africa that can be solved with Bitcoin, such as remittances 2) MMM, obviously 

And it also allows many Africans to make money, you know. If they are able to buy Bitcoins on exchanges, they can later sell them to other people at a higher exchange rate for ZAR.

Makes sense they google about that and create websites on where to buy Bitcoins, such as this one.

So, everyone tries to do business in this world

[Xester]

The central bank of Nigeria has seen merits on the use of bitcoins in their society and that is possibly why there are many Nigerians who are using bitcoin. Nigeria is also a frontier in MLM marketing services and such and thats why since they are so familiar with online transactions they are the best market for bitcoin. With the MLM networks that are there in Nigeria promoting bitcoin as an investment is no longer a big deal.

[Winner]

Cool stuff to see Pursuer,

the popularity of Bitcoin rising is really something to look at. The surprising fact that most people that own Bitcoins don't really know that the people in Africa are very into Digital Payments especially since the South African rand can't be transferred quickly from one area to another.

Code:

https://cdn.mg.co.za/crop/content/images/2015/07/11/barakamarketmogadishumoneychangergetty_landscape.jpg/633x356/

Transferring that rack to a client/person only causes problems and unwanted attention. If the person has a smartphone then they could use something like M-Pesa or some sort of Digital Payment system such as Bitcoin (depending on the client) the client/person will receive the money without the public's attention. That is why mobile payments are getting popular in that area.

[Mometaskers]

The price increase probably attracted them. Those who have money will try to find ways to keep it. Since they saw the the price has increased steadily over the months, they must have though it's a good store of value. Like someone mentioned, they can also sell the coins for a profit to others there. Remittances is also another possible factor. I don't have exact numbers but I believe there are a lot of Africans working in Gulf countries.

[Gleb Gamow]

Checkout Bitcoin's interest at Quark's bar:




"I can't wait till we start accepting XRA and RES."

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I wonder what prompted this sudden interest from Nigeria especially?
Is Nigeria's currency somewhat unstable at the moment or are the scammers there just discovering Bitcoin all of a sudden?

That's the first thing I thought, all the Nigerian scammers.  But who knows?  From what I've read on this forum there are quite a few Africans interested in bitcoin.  It's an asset that's made a lot of money for a lot of people, so it really isn't surprising to me that it's a big thing worldwide.  Go Africa!!

[Loganota]

I find this data very interesting. It is great to see that Third World countries are becoming interested in Bitcoin and how it can change the life of a country in the future. Here in Brazil it is very interesting to also see the growing number of people interested in Bitcoin and I foresee that this number goes up more and more ..

[Zadicar]

When i do heard about Nigerians the hting comes to my mind is about "TBC" not btc because most buyers on those mlm scheme and now they are going to the legit thing which is bitcoin, its a good news that those people who already got interested to bitcoin since they do know that BTC does have a value rather than on those TBC scam coin.

[Winner]

When i do heard about Nigerians the hting comes to my mind is about "TBC" not btc because most buyers on those mlm scheme and now they are going to the legit thing which is bitcoin, its a good news that those people who already got interested to bitcoin since they do know that BTC does have a value rather than on those TBC scam coin.

Most people inside Africa and Malaysia already know that Bitcoin has a monetary value sort of tied to it. The reason why the big people such as the owner of The Billion Coin [TBC] ask for people money virtually is because they secretly want to stock up on Bitcoin BTC.

If you look real closely at the HYYIP programs that are on social medias and search engines, you would notice that most of them accept BTC. Weird isn't it? Not really.

Bitcoin been around the internet for many years and it's I am sure that the owners of the HYYIP websites have built website after website just so they could stock up BTC from the people that give away their money.