What was on peoples’ minds as we moved into the new year? What were the most popular resolutions for 2014?
We examined the content that people around the world engaged with on New Year’s Day, and as you might expect, health-related topics got more attention than normal on January 1st. In fact, health-related content made up 27% more of total page views across Outbrain’s network on Wednesday, January 1st, compared to Wednesday, December 18th.
The health topics that saw the greatest global uptake in consumption were addiction, fitness and weight-loss:
Next, we wondered: Were some topics and their potential corresponding resolutions much more popular in some countries than others?
For example, who knew the Americans and the Italians would be the most likely to shift their attention toward addictions on New Years Day (132% and 136% increases in addiction content consumption relative to Dec. 18th, respectively)?
Aging, on the other hand, was not a top health concern for 2014 in any of the countries in our analysis, but appeared to be more important to those bringing in the new year in the Philippines or Italy (+62% and +64%, respectively) than to anyone else.
The French showed by far the greatest uptake in consumption of dental care content, which accounted for 4x as many page views in France on the 1st than it had 2 weeks prior. Israel was the only country to dramatically increase their consumption of cold/flu and heart disease content on January 1st (+101% and +158%, respectively).
Fitness-related resolutions appear to be most popular in Australia, the U.S. and France, where this topic received at least twice as much attention as usual on New Years Day. Weight-loss content saw the greatest uptake in the U.K. (+105%), the U.S. (+112%) and France (+135%). Only the Italians were much more focused on nutrition than usual on January 1st (+156%).
What about all of the resolutions that fall outside of the health domain?
India was the only country to demonstrate an unusually strong interest in career content on the 1st (+98%). People in India, the U.S. and (most of all) the U.K. consumed more insurance content than usual on the 1st. There was a heightened interest in investing in Spain (+49%) , India (+72%) and the Philippines (+120%). Loan content also received more attention than usual in France (+93%) and the Philippines (+166%).
The French consumed over 3x more home improvement content on New Years day than usual, the Spanish and Brits consumed more than twice as much relationship content as usual, and Indians and Singaporeans consumed twice as much religion/spirituality content as usual.