How have the hobbies of Singaporeans changed due to isolation?

COVID-19 has forced most of the Singaporeans to stay at home. The shutdown of points of interest, workplaces, schools, and universities has made a colossal difference in our daily lives.

Picodi.com Analysis Team investigated Google search queries and created a ranking of the activities which gained the biggest popularity in the times of pandemic.

Trapped at home

We took a closer look at the most popular hobbies and activities, such as cinema, books, games, and many others. We checked the frequency of search queries connected to these activities in March 2020 and compared them with March of the previous year.

After evaluating statistics, it turned out that all activities that require leaving home have become less popular: cinema dropped by 93 per cent, concerts — 80 per cent, theatre — 79 per cent. Singaporeans also lost interest in photography (decrease of 22 per cent) and home renovation (34 per cent).

The biggest increase of interest was noted in PC games (900 per cent increase). Online courses placed 2^nd (733 per cent) — there is a possibility that the uncertain situation in the labour market has made Internet users seek opportunities to gain additional qualifications. Home gym rounded out the top three new hobbies with 655 per cent increase in popularity.

Various creative activities and crafts, like origami (132 per cent) or crocheting (95 per cent) have also gained popularity.

Among activities which increased by a relatively slow margin are painting, video games and foreign languages.

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Methodology

The research is based on the changes in the popularity of various keywords in March 2020 compared with March of the previous year, according to Google archival data (through Google Trends).

Public Use

Feel free to use all the data and infographics presented in this report for both commercial and non-commercial purposes as long as you indicate the author of the research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage. If you have any questions, please contact us: research@picodi.com.

About Picodi

Picodi is an international e-commerce platform which provides discount coupons for online stores. Founded in 2010 in Kraków, it currently operates in 44 countries and is listed in FT1000 ranking of Europe’s fastest-growing companies. In Singapore since 2015.

Picodi Analysis Department

The unit was established in 2017, and it analyses the market, consumer activities, prices of products and services, as well as wages.

• Head of Department: Nikolay Kashcheev
• Researchers: Katarzyna Kobyłka, Paweł Stolarczyk, Irina Egurtsova
• Graphic Design: Daria Ponomareva