Google Trends: The Stock Market and Coronavirus Aid
Recent spikes in conversation regarding the stock market and Covid19 stimulus packages can be attributed to people’s interest in making money while the economy is down. View search comparisons between DogeCoin and Bitcoin, and COVID19 and the stimulus packages throughout the pandemic.
The Stock Market: DogeCoin and Bitcoin
According to a Google Trends data analysis, Dogecoin has spiked above Bitcoin in search on January 24th of 2021, and stayed above Bitcoin until February 6th, 2021. Dogecoin has become of recent interest after the Gamestop stock market surge involving Reddit users and top stock market investors on January 24th, 2021. Dogecoin was originally a cryptocurrency based off a meme, but has now spiraled into a money making investment. This Google Trends comparison shows Bitcoin’s steady search since the New Year, however Dogecoin has come into the picture, and surpassing Bitcoin as more and more young and wealthy investors purchase the stock. The Dogecoin self-proclaimed “leader,” Elon Musk has taken many actions towards increasing the value of Dogecoin, including reaching out to investors to sell their stocks and making plans to build a new city in Texas and having its ruler be “The Doge.”
Dogecoin’s search has gone increasingly down since the January 24th spike, but conversation has not ended on the cryptocurrency. More and more companies are discussing accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment as Bitcoin is expected to reach $500 thousand dollars relatively soon. Dogecoin began as a meme, but Reddit users and younger investors are using its malleable nature to learn about stocks and investing altogether. Many people have actually made money off of Dogecoin, and that’s not expected the end any time soon.
COVID and Government Aid
COVID has been a top search on Google trends since the break of the pandemic in 2020. According to an analysis of Google search data, COVID-19’s largest search spike in 2020 was in March, specifically March 15th- 21st. This is about the time that reports rolled in that COVID-19 had made it to the U.S. Videos came out following the spike in coronavirus disease cases informing people of the ways to prevent themselves from getting sick. Everyone was scared of COVID-19, who it would affect and how many would be at risk.
The spike of COVID searches dwindled down after May 2nd and was met by an equal number of searches of stimulus packages and COVID-19 relief. COVID searches picked back up around June when the number of cases picked back up. People were suffering, again, and there had been no relief since April. Stimulus saw a lack of searches between May and November as no stimulus discussion was in sight. That is 7 months of minimal unemployment benefits and no relief to the millions of Americans without work.
The latest spike in stimulus searches came in December, when the 2nd stimulus package was rolled out. Altogether there has been a $1200 dollar and $600 dollar relief bill for Americans who have been jobless for more than a year. $1800 dollars for a whole year of no work.
