Sentiment study on the impact of Covid 19 MCO on Malaysians

Since the Malaysian Government announced the Movement Control Order (MCO) effective 18th March – 31st March 2020 due to COVID19. Netizens across the nation have increasingly chimed in to express their opinions and reactions towards the MCO.

As discussions increased with the majority of the population working from home, Wisesight launched a study to analyze the reactions of the public, and the impact of MCO on the nation.

Founder & Regional Director of Wisesight Shakthi DC, “The sudden change in lifestyle has seen a variety of implications on both individual and business levels. And that is why we decided to conduct this study, to understand the unfiltered thoughts, concerns and reactions of the People, as well as the implications on businesses and the Nation after one week into the MCO. The ultimate goal being to illustrate our true colours as a nation in times of duress, for learning as a Government and as a People on how we get through this effectively.”

The Malaysian COVID19 MCO Sentiment Study conducted by Wisesight covers the events from the Government’s announcement of the MCO, to impact on businesses and new lifestyle trends arising out of the situation. Key aspects in this study include:

Government’s announcement of MCO and netizens’ reactions and sentiment
Analysis breakdown by social media channels and location
Study on false information sharing including scams during MCO
Study on the type of topics Malaysians share online
Impact on traditional businesses and emergence of innovative businesses
Other interesting stories among Netizens during the analysed period

“A key indicator for businesses from the changes observed is that due to this situation more people turned online for information, solutions and in a sense survival itself. The uptake of social media consumption, online news, delivery apps, online banking, e-wallets and so on which may have been a slowly increasing trend just months before has tremendously scaled in just a matter of a week, what these industry players do to further leverage this and affect more positive changes in the weeks to come will be interesting to follow,” said Shakthi DC.

The study walks readers through the events that transpired each day and trends since March 15th, it gives key insights into how Malaysian Netizens were thinking and expressing, social media consumption changes in terms of preferences, these insights in turn could be leveraged by organisations to more precisely engage their audiences by understanding the right topics that are top of mind among Netizens, using the right channel to convey the message and stay connected with their communities.

“Social media data should be leveraged by the government and businesses alike to gain insights, to strategize comms that resonate and reach audiences better, uncover opportunities, identify discontentment or potential threats but ultimately ensure that decisions made by organisations are backed by people centric data,” added Shakthi DC.

If you would like to understand the impact of the lockdown thus far, do fill in this form https://bit.ly/WSCovid19StudyWk1 and the complete complimentary study will be sent to you automatically. Do stay tuned to Wisesight’s LinkedIn page for upcoming study releases.

Behind the scenes amidst all the social chatter the Wisesight team has also developed a Covid19 specific tracker for Malaysia and opened access to the public for free do login and stay updated on trend.wisesight.com/covid19/my

Wisesight has a multitude of social intel tech solutions and custom objective research services serving the APAC market and can be contacted through [email protected] for similar studies, brand or industry studies that enable people centric data based decision making.