Google Israel Ltd. reports that in the first half of 2009, Israelis were more concerned about swine flu than Mexicans and were already worried about Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. (TASE:AFIL; Pink Sheets:AFIVY), bonds even before last week's collapse.
Israelis, according to Google Israel, are particularly interested in the global cellular market. The anticipated arrival of the new iPhone in Israel, the launch of Bezeq Israel Telecommunications Company Ltd. (TASE:BZEQ) unit Pelephone Communications Ltd. GSM network and the expansion of cellular companies into the music content field with Pelephone's Musix, Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) Cellcom Media and Partner Communications Co. Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE:PTNR; LSE:PCCD) Orange Time have resulted in a high rate of search for these services.
Google Israel media and telecom sector head Nir Korchak said, "Without doubt, the biggest new buzz over the last six months was the much talked-about iPhone. The late launch did not curb the appetite of Israelis for the coveted handset and may even have strengthened it. Searches for it were astronomical and broke all records for handset searches."
Korchak added, "We can draw conclusions from this about Israeli consumers. He loves gadgets and is quick to take up new technologies, and this trend is expressed in the largest number of searches even before the launch. In other words, the enthusiastic Israeli public sees itself as part of the global village, and does not wait for the local launch to get information about something which is already being sold abroad."
He said, "The Israeli public uses the search engine at every stage in the purchasing process: from initial interest through searches like 'critique of Nokia N97 through market surveys, 'iPhone price comparisons' and onto the order stage 'buy mobile phone.'"
According to Google Israel financial services head Oren Hefetz, a survey conducted in February found that Israelis search for words such as loans and financing but mainly for items that do not characterize an economic crisis. He said, "We found that 55% of Israelis looked for a loan to finance a vacation, 25% to renovate their home and only 20% in order to repay debts."
The difficulties encountered by Africa-Israel Investments controlled by its chairman Lev Leviev, are also reflected in Google searches.
Hefetz said, "For the most part search enquiries are for bonds or government bonds but many specify the corporate bonds of just one company - Africa-Israel."
These were already popular search words at the end of 2008, which shows that Israeli investors were already concerned about Africa-Israel's bonds back then.
The biggest health concern over the past six months has been swine flu. There was major interest in the topic even before the first case of the disease was diagnosed in Israel. There were two peaks in searches for swine flu in both English and Hebrew - the first was after the initial outbreak in Mexico and the second was after the outbreak of the virus in Israel.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 8, 2009
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