Earlier this week, we mentioned that we judge how good an influencer by the amount of people they influence:


We guess we would have to add former Prasarana Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman into the list.

Unlikely influencer

A recent survey revealed that the interest in face shields rose significantly after the LRT train crash, which happened on 24 May.

E-commerce aggregator iPrice Malaysia recently revealed that the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) and facemask saw an increase in recent times, which is not surprising considering that the number of daily COVID-19 cases in the country is still breaching the 5,000 mark.

Searches for cloth masks on Google saw a 677 per cent increase this year, compared to the same period last year.

But more interestingly, searches for face shields increased a whopping 1,730 per cent this year, and there's a reason for that massive spike: Tajuddin Abdul Rahman.

We admit; we Googled that face mask too.
Of course, we can't say that Tajuddin influenced all the searches for face shield, but the timing of it all wasn't merely a coincidence.

For instance, iPrice revealed that Google searches for face shields increased 50 per cent a day after Tajuddin appeared in his now infamous press conference on 25 May.

Photos of Tajuddin wearing only a transparent face shield (which he subsequently got into trouble for) dominated social media for almost two weeks, and iPrice believed that contributed to the increase in searches for the item.

Now that Tajuddin is out of a job, maybe he can consider becoming an influencer? His methods might be questionable, but Tajuddin sells, right?

Oh in case you're wondering or if you're interested, you can purchase the face shield that Tajuddin was wearing here.

Searches for other items saw an increase too

What Malaysians have been buying.
The study also found that in Malaysia, Google searches for outdoor PPE such as gloves, surgical and cloth masks, face shield, KN95 and N95 masks increased by 223 per cent overall in the first half of 2021.

Indoor PPE items such as Panadol, thermometer, condoms and birth control pills also saw a 320 per cent increase during the same period, likely because Malaysians are forced to stay at home so much.

KN95 masks got the most Google searches, while birth control pills had the highest search volume increase (563 per cent) during that period.

It is interesting to see what our fellow Malaysians have been searching for when they're bored at home, kan?