Google Search Highlights Changes in Sports Fans’ Behaviour - ‘Live Searches’ During Matches Highlighted the Focus on ‘Constant Connectivity’

The world has changed to a large extent since the last Cricket World Cup in 2011. Millions of fans have used the power of internet during the Cricket World Cup 2015 (CWC’15) to pursue their love of the game. Google in its latest post World Cup trend analysis highlights the dramatic shift in the behaviour of sports fans; recoding the shift to ‘constant connectivity’ driven by the rise in smartphone searches as witnessed during World Cup 2015.

The explosion of mobile queries—a staggering average of 78% of cricket-related queries—highlights ‘Indian cricket fans’ desire to find out information in the moment with the device that’s closest to hand: their smartphone.

Here’s a look at how searches from smartphones witnessed a surge as the India vs. Pakistan match progressed during the World Cup on Feb 14, 2015. A huge leap was observed in smartphone based searches as the game progressed.

Not only the India matches, but non India matches also managed to attain high traffic on smart devices. A definite spike can be seen in mobile searches as the game progresses, with around half of Australian searches (average: 46%) coming from mobile. But it pales in comparison to the huge leap we see in India and Pakistan

Cricket fever has always been a constant with Indian fans. Nevertheless there was a definitive surge in smartphone searches on Google search between the 2011 and 2015 World Cup. Fans aren’t just searching more on mobiles; a new pattern of behaviour has emerged over time. The shift to ‘constant connectivity’ today means that many fans watching a match now have a smartphone in hand which wasn’t the case four years ago, the report highlighted. Google Search traffic from smartphones has also seen a significant spike according to the report.

The report acknowledged that availability of low-cost smartphones and dropping data plan tariffs in one of the world’s fastest growing smartphone markets-India, have also contributed significantly to the surge in number of cricket related searches emerging from smartphones during the World Cup. According to Google search trends, fans were busy searching online for noteworthy moments of the tournament, from the Duckworth-Lewis method to Virat Kohli’s hairstyle among other interesting queries touching all aspects of the game.

The buzz around Indian Premier League (IPL) that enters its 8^th season can already be seen at the very start itself and it will be interesting to see if IPL successfully overshadows Cricket’s most haloed event over the next few weeks. Either way, ‘constant connectivity’ is here to stay.

About Google Inc.

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