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Free World Cup Viewing Boosts ELTA’s Hot Search Ranking to Ninth
December 14, 2018
Every December, Google releases its annual keyword search rankings, highlighting the most searched terms and trending topics in Taiwan. In 2018, the globally celebrated “FIFA World Cup” not only claimed the No. 1 spot but also helped related topics such as “Sports Lottery” and “ELTA,” the official broadcaster, secure the 4th and 9th places on Google Taiwan’s top trending search list — demonstrating the enormous popularity of the tournament.
World Cup Fever Drives 120 Million Page Views for ELTA
Looking back at June 2018, it truly was a “nationwide World Cup frenzy.” Despite being held in Russia, the favorable match times and high-profile games drew massive attention from Taiwanese audiences. During the tournament, ELTA TV’s website recorded 120 million page views, averaging 4.31 million per day. During the group stage, unique daily viewers reached 1.03 million, and the final match drew 1.3 million viewers — all breaking site records. ELTA CEO Sally Chen fondly recalled that during the World Cup, whether in stores or on people’s phones, you could always hear the familiar voice of ELTA’s sports anchor Hung Chih-Wei. In front of Sports Lottery shops, crowds gathered to watch live matches — for that entire month, everyone’s life revolved around football, from team results and star players to betting odds and predictions.
World Cup Popularity Boosts ELTA’s Search Rankings
The World Cup’s massive popularity was also reflected in online searches, as people frequently looked up match schedules, broadcast information, ELTA’s TV listings, and betting odds. As a result, “World Cup” topped Google Taiwan’s 2018 trending keyword and topic lists, while “Sports Lottery” and “ELTA” ranked 4th and 9th respectively. According to CEO Sally Chen, the rise of these keywords shows not only how passionate Taiwanese fans were about football, but also how actively they sought information online. Additionally, ELTA’s decision to make the World Cup available for free without login further fueled search traffic, setting new viewership records. Meanwhile, the 2018 Jakarta–Palembang Asian Games — co-broadcast by ELTA and other networks — also entered Google’s trending topics list at No. 6, thanks to Team Taiwan’s impressive 17 gold, 19 silver, and 31 bronze medals.
Google Taiwan 2018 Top Rising Search Keywords:
1. World Cup 2. Story of Yanxi Palace 3. Earthquake 4. Sports Lottery 5. Central Election Commission 6. Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace 7. Referendum 8. Han Kuo-yu 9. ELTA 10. Vote Counting
Google Taiwan 2018 Top Rising Search Topics:
1. World Cup 2. Local Elections & Referendums 3. Earthquake 4. Typhoon Class Suspensions 5. Travel Frog 6. Asian Games 7. Chunghwa Telecom 499 Plan 8. Taichung Flora Expo 9. Honey Lemon 10. Puyuma Train Derailment