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South Korean television personalities, corporate earnings and technology developments dominated Google’s real-time trending searches in the country on Oct. 22, 2026. The list reflects the order of rapidly rising searches, not a ranking by total search volume, and Google’s volume figures are approximate.
Entertainment Stories Drive Searches
Do Kyung-wan, a former KBS announcer who became a television personality, topped the list with more than 2,000 searches. Interest followed remarks on the cooking-variety show “Fun-Staurant” about when his wife, popular trot singer Jang Yun-jeong, might retire. His comments about struggling with the maintenance costs for the couple’s 12 billion won penthouse, losing money on leveraged stock investments and asking Jang for financial help also drew attention.
Singer Shinji ranked third with more than 2,000 searches. A member of Koyote, a long-running Korean pop group that debuted in 1998, Shinji appeared in marriage counseling with her husband, Moon Won, five months after their wedding. The couple discussed disagreements involving Koyote and her career, with Shinji saying she did not want her husband involved in her music activities.
Actor Lee Gye-in placed ninth with more than 500 searches after discussing a troubled former marriage and his decision to sell a home in Seoul’s Yongsan district. His account of repeatedly selling properties before prices rose, then encountering difficulties after moving, also attracted interest.
Samsung E&A Surges on Earnings
Samsung E&A, an energy solutions company, ranked second with more than 100 searches after reporting sharply higher third-quarter results and announcing a major share buyback. Operating profit reached 500.6 billion won, up 183.6% from a year earlier, while revenue rose 45.8% to 2.91 trillion won.
New orders totaled 17.1 trillion won through the third quarter. The company raised its full-year forecast for new orders from 12 trillion won to 19 trillion won and increased its operating profit outlook from 800 billion won to 1.4 trillion won. It also announced plans to buy back 780 billion won in shares, helping send the stock up more than 16%.
Optical fiber maker Taihan Fiberoptics ranked fourth with more than 1,000 searches. The company registered a patent for LTEM-based glass substrate manufacturing and said it had secured technology to produce glass substrates for extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, applications. The developments were presented as a step toward domestic production of critical semiconductor materials, although the company’s shares were also cited among the day’s steep decliners.
Cricket, Farm Costs and Consumer Spending
“New Zealand vs India” ranked fifth with more than 1,000 searches as the two national teams played their first Twenty20 cricket international. India won the toss and chose to bowl, prompting searches for live match updates.
The Korean word for fertilizer ranked sixth with more than 200 searches after the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, commonly known as NongHyup, cut urea fertilizer prices by 13.9% and reduced mineral fertilizer prices by an average of 5.1%. Farm subsidies were maintained, with projected savings of 8.5 billion won in agricultural operating costs.
“Student” placed seventh with more than 200 searches. Stories grouped under the term included the first move-ins at one of South Korea’s third-generation planned new towns, the closing of the National Sports Festival on Jeju Island and interest in watching prominent athletes compete.
“Performance bonus” drew the largest approximate volume in the top 10, at more than 5,000 searches, but ranked eighth because Google’s list measures the pace of rising interest rather than raw search totals. The Bank of Korea estimated that each additional 1 million won in bonus income leads to an increase of about 110,000 won in consumer spending. The central bank also pointed to the semiconductor boom and improvements in income, fiscal conditions and exchange rates as factors that could support a gradual recovery in consumption.
Finally, horse racing ranked 10th with more than 200 searches after the city of Icheon appointed a 16-member advisory group to pursue a horse racing park. The city said it was developing a bid strategy through cooperation between government officials and private-sector participants.
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