UAE residents rely on web search for personal loan info

Google Mena announced on Tuesday the findings of a UAE-focused deep dive report which shows that search engines are the most used and most preferred tool for finance research, with almost half of online research for products such as bank accounts and personal loans starting from search engines. Additionally, close to 40 per cent of people report banking online on a monthly basis.  Google commissioned the study into digital purchasing, researching and banking behaviours as part of its commitment to developing the digital ecosystem in the UAE.

“People across the world search on Google for information billions of times a day. The stats show that Middle East and North Africa region is a fast emerging market with the searches per day showing a growth rate of 25 per cent year on year, having the UAE among the fastest countries in search activity”, said Mohamad Mourad, Google Gulf regional manager. “The results of this study along with the trends of search activity in the UAE implies that companies in the finance and banking industry should enhance their presence on search engines to provide their customers base with the most relevant information about their products.”

The study showed that while consumers mostly prefer to purchase finance products offline, much of the research done happens online, with 52 per cent of the 1,000 people surveyed saying they used a search engine to search for product information.  While the UAE as a whole is digitally savvy in terms of research, conservative purchasing behaviour was observed, with respondents only buying, on average, 1.2 finance products in the previous 24 months, indicating the digital finance sector has ample room to grow in the coming years, and that companies would well to increase their online presence to attract customers.

In terms of online banking, the internet is becoming a popular channel for processing banking transactions, with four out of ten respondents engaging in at least one online banking transaction on a monthly basis.  Paying bills, transferring money, and keeping an eye on account balances and account transactions are the most popular online banking activities, and while the vast majority of users access their online banking system via stationary internet, nearly 30 per cent report using some kind of mobile device to engage in online banking activities, displaying strong growth potential for mobile banking and finance applications.

“The pace of innovation in search continues to accelerate and today, we’re making serious strides towards a knowledge engine,” continues Mourad.  “More engineers are working on search today than at any time in the past to achieve our goal to help people convert data and information into knowledge. We conducted the UAE-focused deep dive report to help companies get insight into the industry online trends and provide them an opportunity to make informed decisions about investing in the future.”

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