From Temu to General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi: Top trends from Google’s 2025 Year in Search for South Africa
General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi was one of the major subjects of South Africa’s top searches for 2025.
Image: Henk Kruger / Independent Newspapers
Online marketplace, Temu, operated by e-commerce company PDD Holdings, topped Google’s 2025 Year in Search for South Africa.
Temu’s affordable pricing has made it a huge hit among South Africans.
General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi follows in the number two spot. He was one of the top subjects in South Africa’s 2025 search results.
His visibility grew through regular media briefings and increased scrutiny of his work, with searches for him surging in July when he accused senior political leaders and police officials of corruption.
The top-trending How to search was ‘How to vote on Big Brother,’ highlighting South Africans’ intense engagement with a fiercely competitive season that dominated social media and everyday conversation.
“Big Brother Mzansi” fans came out in full force this year, throwing their support behind their favourite contestants, Sweet Guluva and Uyanda, and flooding the show's comment sections, pushing for votes.
It’s no surprise that “Big Brother Mzansi” has been greenlit for season six in 2026.
The gambling bug continues to spread, with the second How to search being “How to log in Hollywoodbets”. At number nine on the list is How to apply for refugee status in the USA from South Africa.
United States President Donald Trump caused quite a stir with his offer to Afrikaners to apply for refugee status. Within 18 hours after Trump's order to prioritise white Afrikaner South Africans for the US refugee programme, the South African Chamber of Commerce in the USA (SACCUSA) received over 10,000 relocation inquiries.
South Africans also followed major local and international affairs, with searches for the G20 summit and the Budget speech featuring prominently in the top “When is” searches, highlighting strong public interest in political and economic developments.
Practical financial matters also drew attention, with the new two-pot retirement system appearing among the top ‘How to’ searches, showing people’s desire to understand the policy and navigate online withdrawals.
IOL