A sex scandal in Taiwan is riveting Singapore Internet users who constitute the biggest group worldwide searching for spicy new developments, a US-based search engine said yesterday.
A report by Lycos.com showed people from the city-state formed the largest segment of those looking for Web sites on Chu Mei-feng (
Searches originating in Singapore made up 23 percent of the total, said the Lycos findings published in The Straits Times.
Chu, the former head of the Hsinchu's Cultural Affairs Bureau, was catapulted into the news in December when the Taiwanese tabloid Scoop Weekly (獨家報導) distributed a CD-ROM allegedly showing her having sex with her married lover.
VCD copies of the scene have been big sellers in Taiwan and have made their way to Singapore, with 550 copies seized in raids there.
A breakdown of the Lycos searches showed 12 percent came from Thailand, 4 percent from Malaysia, 1 percent from China and 1 percent from Taiwan.
Searches also came from the US, Australia and Canada.
Aaron Schatz, who writes a column on the Lycos top 50 searches, said the high percentages originating from Singapore probably reflected the high extent of Internet penetration.
In the week ending Jan. 26, Lycos said the Taiwanese politician drew 450 percent more searchers than singer Britney Spears.
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