Statista Logo

According to a survey conducted from May to June 2021 in Japan, close to 72 percent of the respondents stated that they googled something when they wanted to have accurate information, whereas only 11.4 percent used social media hashtags in this case. While the share of people who googled things was higher in almost all of the surveyed situations, looking up information via hashtags on social networking services was more common when people wanted to connect with others who have a similar interest as they do.

Search behavior differences between using Google and social media hashtags in Japan as of June 2021

Characteristic	Googling	Hashtagging
I use it when I want to have accurate information	71.9%	11.4%
I use it when I consider purchasing something	47.8%	15.1%
I use it when I am curious about something or something is becoming popular (a shop, meal, movie, etc.)	45.6%	23.4%
I use it when I decide on a travel destination	45.5%	12.5%
I use it when the matter I want to investigate is not clear	37.1%	9.1%
I use it when I want to obtain the information in a list	31.6%	14%
I use it when I want to know about something in real time	31.3%	25.9%
I use it when I want to know about an ongoing event, etc.	28.7%	12.7%
I use it when I want to connect with people who have a similar interest	18.3%	24.7%
Other	6.9%	1.9%
I do not make a difference in use	20.2%	48.7%

Loading statistic...

Download

Source

Show detailed source information?

Already a member?

Source

Use Ask Statista Research Service

Release date

June 2021

More information

Region

Japan

Survey time period

May 31 to June 2, 2021

Number of respondents

1,000 respondents

Age group

15-39 years

Method of interview

Online panel

Supplementary notes

Survey question: "What difference in use do you make in the case of 'googling' (using Google, etc., to search for something) and in the case of 'tagging' (using a hashtag on social networking services to search for something)?"

Citation formats