4-Year Toner Pad Search Trends: Overall Down 42%, Daiso Up 85%

One-line answer

Searches for the general category 'toner pad' have declined for four consecutive years, but searches aimed at buying them from Daiso have increased. In October 2022, for every 13 searches for 'toner pad', there was 1 search for 'Daiso toner pad'. Over the past year, that ratio reached roughly 2 out of every 5 searches.

4-year figures

The 48 months from October 2022 to September 2026 were divided into four 12-month periods and summed. These figures represent the combined search volume from Naver and Google in South Korea.

Searches typically used by first-time buyers, such as the product category name, 'recommendation', and 'how to use', all decreased. The search queries that increased were situational queries used by existing users, such as Daiso, decanting, carry-on baggage, and dehydrated oily skin.

How Daiso grew its share

Searches for 'Daiso toner pad' peaked in Year 3 at 76,740, and dropped 9.8% to 69,250 in Year 4. Even so, its proportion relative to 'toner pad' rose from 35.7% in Year 3 to 39.3% in Year 4. This occurred because total category searches dropped faster.

On a monthly basis, July 2026 reached the highest share at 59.3%.

The decline occurred mostly on Naver

When breaking down 'toner pad' searches between Naver and Google, the drop occurred mostly on Naver.

As a result, Google's share of 'toner pad' searches grew from 28.5% in Year 1 to 43.0% in Year 4. Whether the drop in Naver searches stems from lower overall interest or from searches moving into dedicated shopping apps cannot be determined from this data alone. It needs to be examined alongside sales data or in-app search data.

Usage contexts shown by niche search terms

The smaller search terms show clear seasonal patterns. The table below displays the 3-year average of each month's search volume divided by the 12-month moving average centered on that month. A score of 100 represents the average for that year, with overall trend effects removed.

'Carry-on' climbs to 1.6 times the average in July, and 'decanting' reaches 1.3 times the average in August. Both search terms also exceed the average in January. These correspond to summer vacation and winter travel periods. This indicates that toner pads are searched not only as home items but also as products packed for travel. The fact that carry-on searches multiplied 3.5 times over four years reflects the same pattern.

Across the overall product category, search volume peaks in August (117) and drops to its lowest in November and December (85).

Key takeaways from this data

• Merchandising and Product Planning: General exploratory searches have declined while situational searches from existing users have increased. Preparing travel-sized formats or decanting containers is best timed for May and December, before demand rises.
• Marketing: August has the highest search volume during the year. November and December are 15% below average.
• Search Advertising: 43% of 'toner pad' searches now come from Google, up from 29% four years ago. If search ad budgets have focused heavily on Naver, re-evaluating the allocation is warranted.
• Brand Management: In categories where Daiso holds roughly 40% of search volume, comparisons with Daiso products represent a large part of pre-purchase searches. Brand trends are covered in 4 Years of Toner Pad Brand Searches.

Methods for applying these search signals to understand customers are covered in Intent Intelligence.

Methodology

• Tool: ListeningMind keyword_info, South Korea market, retrieved October 21, 2026
• Search volume: Combined monthly search volume from Naver and Google. Spacing variations in Korean ('토너패드' and '토너 패드') are aggregated under 'toner pad'.
• Period: October 2022 to September 2026 (48 months)
• Seasonality index: Monthly search volume divided by the 12-month centered moving average. 3-year average from April 2023 to March 2026.
• Search volume reflects search counts, not sales numbers.