Year in search 2018: Here’s what China was ‘Baidu-ing’ this year

Editor’s note: A version of this originally appeared on Radii, a new media platform covering culture, innovation, and life in today’s China.

In the US, the list of what we were all Googling over the previous 12 months has become almost as much a part of year-end tradition as the Times Square ball drop. In China, the nation’s biggest search engine Baidu has been shadowing the “Year in Search” extravaganza with a data drop of its own for a few years now—and they just released the 2018 version.

Matching Google’s most searched term this year, top of Baidu’s list of searches in 2018 was “World Cup“. Despite China’s men’s team failing yet again to even get close to qualifying, the country was glued to coverage of this massive sports event—and Baidu wasn’t the only one paying attention, with a host of Chinese brands slapping their logos all over the tournament.

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