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Unless you are a total cave man, no doubt you have heard of Pokemon Go, the app that took over the world at the beginning of July.
Just two days after its launch, the game became a phenomenon, defeating the giant online dating app Tinder in the number of installations on Android devices. Not only that, it nearly caught up with the number of daily active users on Twitter.
Even before Pokemon Go's official launch in Southeast Asia last Saturday, the game was already the hottest trend on Google in the region, according to iPrice, an e-commerce platform which is available in seven countries in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam.
If we take the number of searches for Pokemon Go as a baseline (=100), only iPhone 5's launch in September 2012 and the FIFA World Cup held in Brazil in June 2014 can be comparable to the “Pikachu” craze across Southeast Asia. The latest Niantic game even outshined the fast-flying Flappy Bird, which also took the internet by storm in 2014.
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Search popularity in Southeast Asia, compiled based on Google Trend. Reported by iPrice on Jul 8, 2016. For interactive visualization, click here. |
One can only imagine how much the craze has intensified over the last three days. Pokemon Go total downloads shot up by 73,000 in 15 minutes on both iOS and Android devices, according to appinstitude.
The players in Southeast Asia are buzzing with excitement over the arrival of the Pokemons. Google Trend revealed that Pokemon Go is the most searched term in Southeast Asia as of August 7.
Here's a glimse of the craze in Hanoi on August 8:
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Photo by VnExpress/Ha Phuong |
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Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Hoang |
Pokemon Go is a free-to-play game of Nintendo developed by Niantic, Inc. for iOS and Android devices. It was released on July 6, 2016 initially for the U.S., Australia and New Zealand before officially launching in its original country Japan. Recently, the Niantic game was launched in 15 more countries in Asia and part of Oceania.
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