The Internet has emerged as an increasingly prominent source of financial information, ranking as the second most utilized source in the United States, following personal networks such as friends and family (Pew Research Centre, 2024). It is particularly favoured by younger demographics in the United States, including Millennials, Generation Z (CFA Institute & FINRA Investor Education Foundation, 2023; Lusardi & Hasler, 2019) and university students (Vaaler et al., 2021). A notable trend among these younger consumers is the research online, purchase offline (ROPO) phenomenon (Szymanski & Stanislawski, 2018).

Referring to online sources for financial information is observable in ASEAN countries as well (UOB, 2023). In Malaysia, 97% of households have Internet access (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2024) with an increasing number of users turning to the Internet for information (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, 2023). Notably, the volume of online searches related to financial information in Malaysia more than doubled in 2020 (Google, 2020), with a growing interest in keywords such as inflation, interest rates (Google, 2022a), stimulus, loan, pay later (Google, 2022b) and Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) Loan (Google, 2020).

To cater to the rising demand for online financial information, numerous financial education digital tools and platforms have been introduced by both public and private entities (OECD, 2021; Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia, 2020). Despite the abundance of online resources, financial literacy remains low in many parts of the world including in Europe (European Commission, 2023), US (Yakoboski et al., 2024), and Malaysia (OECD, 2016, 2020, 2023). Although financial knowledge in Malaysia has improved in recent years, only 54% of Malaysians are considered financially literate (OECD, 2023). This occurs despite Malaysians actively searching for financial information (Abdul Jalil & Hamid, 2024). As a result, many individuals lack confidence in making financial decisions. Industry experts suggest that this conundrum may be linked to users’ financial information seeking behaviour (Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia, 2020).

The Internet is a valuable resource for financial information. In Malaysia, individuals who use the Internet to seek financial information tend to score higher on financial literacy tests than those who rely on other sources (Sabri & Aw, 2019). Similar findings have been reported in older adults in the United States (Bavafa et al., 2019). Moreover, young people who refer to financial Websites exhibit more positive financial behaviours (Mountain et al., 2021). In the United States, millennials who seek information from personal finance blogs and articles demonstrate greater financial literacy than those who primarily rely on social media platforms (Lusardi & Hasler, 2019). Investors who used sources, including social media, performed better in their investments than those who sought professional advice (Kadoya et al., 2025).

However, despite the availability of many financial education resources, the reasons behind persistently low financial literacy levels remain unclear. To address this gap, there is a need to better understand how individuals search for financial information online. This paper, which forms part of a larger study on online financial information seeking behaviour in Malaysia, focuses specifically on users’ online search activities, including their preferences for devices and the information sources they consult. Building on this aim, the study is guided by the following research questions:

This study investigates online financial information seeking behaviour in Malaysia by observing how individuals search for financial information, particularly regarding the ASB Loan and the sources they use. The study was approved by Universiti Malaya Research Ethics Committee (UMREC) (Ethics Approval Reference Number: UM.TNC2/UMREC_1841) and involved thirty-eight participants who had a genuine interest in a unique investment-loan product known as the ASB Loan.

ASB is a unit trust fund introduced by Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad on 2 January 1990 to assist the Bumiputera community in long-term savings and investment (Abd Rahman & Zamri, 2020). ASB Loans offer financing options for investing in the fund. With 11.1 million unitholders (Permodalan Nasional Berhad, 2024), ASB is the most popular investment product in Malaysia (RinggitPlus, 2024). Google (2020) also reported increasing searches related to ASB Loans.

Participants were recruited via social media advertisements. Data collection occurred between November 2022 and November 2023. The extended duration was due to changes in interest rates and annual ASB dividend announcements, which affected public interest and search behaviour. Despite these fluctuations, ASB remains a consistently sought-after product (RinggitPlus, 2022, 2023, 2024), and the identified sources, particularly social media, remain widely used (RinggitPlus, 2024).

Of the thirty-eight participants, twenty-five were female and thirteen were male. The average age was 32 years (SD=7, range=21–59), with a median age of 33. In terms of education, seven participants held postgraduate degrees, twenty-one had a bachelor’s degree, three held diplomas, and one had a professional qualification (ACCA). Twenty-one participants worked in the private sector, thirteen in the public sector, three were self-employed, and one was retired. All participants were employed either full-time or part-time, except for four who had recently graduated and were completing internships. Monthly income varied, with twenty-six participants earning less than RM5,000 and twelve earning RM5,001 or more. Twenty participants were single, and eighteen were married. All participants actively used their mobile phones for information seeking; thirty-five searched several times a day and three searched at least once a day. Ten participants currently held an ASB loan, four had previously held one, and twenty-four had never taken the loan.

Data collection took place over two separate days, spaced one to two weeks apart. Each participant engaged in a 10-minute search session per day. Prior studies have noted that financial information seeking often occurs in short, intense bursts (Kantar TNS & Google, 2017; Vaaler et al., 2021). Participants were allowed to explore financial topics beyond ASB Loans to simulate real-life searches, where queries often evolve. Before the observation session, participants were asked which devices they typically use to search for financial information (e.g., mobile phone, computer, or both). This information was used to contextualise their search behaviour during the study.

Sessions were conducted one-on-one to minimize distraction (Macias et al., 2018). All participants used their own mobile phones, aligning with the study’s focus on mobile financial information seeking and addressing the limitations of using impersonal devices (Albassam & Ruthven, 2020) which do not reflect personal search histories or logged-in states. Participants were also instructed to conduct the sessions in locations where they felt most comfortable, usually their homes, though some chose cars or offices. This approach reflects real world settings (Albassam & Ruthven, 2020), as more than half of financial pre-purchase research in Malaysia occurs at home using mobile phones (Kantar TNS & Google, 2017).

Sessions were conducted via Microsoft Teams. Recordings were stored securely on the university’s server. Prior to the retrospective think-aloud interview, the screen recording was downloaded and played back for participants, with screen orientation adjusted to match their mobile view. All communications and instructions were delivered through WhatsApp to ensure accessibility and continuity across mobile platforms. Figure 3 summarises the research process for this study.

Following each search session, participants participated in retrospective think-aloud interviews. During these sessions, they were asked to verbalise their thought processes while viewing screen recordings of their searches. To ensure validity, interviews were conducted immediately after each search session (Nguyen et al., 2013). While the full thematic analysis of the retrospective think-aloud data is reported in a separate paper focusing on search strategies, this study presents a summary of the key themes from those interviews, together with analyses of the screen recordings and observational logs, to examine participants’ search paths and the types of information sources they visited.

Both the observational and think-aloud data were manually transcribed and documented in a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet recorded the following for each activity:

Comments or content from social media (e.g., posts, tweets) without a retrievable link were screenshot and stored in an appendix. Table 1 presents a sample transcription from the observation and retrospective think-aloud data.

This study identified several key online information sources for financial information seeking, including Websites, video platforms, and social media. These findings are consistent with research indicating a growing trend of referencing social media for financial information in Malaysia and other countries. The preference for mobile phones over computers, along with the use of applications such as YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok for financial information searches, aligns with national survey findings. Participants frequently referred to official Websites, such as ASB and bank portals, for authoritative information. However, observational logs revealed that they also accessed informational Websites, digital-native media, news portals, and blogs, suggesting that users integrate information from multiple sources rather than relying solely on official channels. Unlike prior studies that primarily enumerate information sources, this study examines how users navigate between and interact with these sources, while also providing a detailed breakdown of the types of Websites visited. These sources were sometimes interconnected, enabling cross-navigation within a single search session. Importantly, this study observed information scent in action, demonstrating how users followed, evaluated, and abandoned information patches, rather than simply reporting what they claimed to search for.

Interestingly, participants selected digital-native media and blogs despite their limited editorial oversight, raising concerns about the credibility of information consumed. This behaviour highlights the dominance of information scent over source authority, contrasting with Vaaler et al. (2021), who reported that students prioritise trustworthiness when selecting information sources. Participants were willing to exploit a patch regardless of credibility when its title or description contained intriguing or relevant keywords. As shown in Figure 7, participants often clicked on patches with attractive titles but abandoned them quickly if the content did not deliver. The same figure also illustrates information foraging theory’s cost–benefit mechanism: patches with weak information scent were abandoned rapidly, while patches that displayed strong visual cues, structured formatting, and clear explanations retained attention for longer periods. This aligns with findings from the CFA Institute & FINRA Investor Education Foundation (2023), who reported that users prioritise clarity of explanation and relevance. Figure 8 demonstrates credibility filtering, with participants skipping overly promotional TikTok videos and focusing on those perceived as objective. This provides empirical evidence supporting CFA Institute & FINRA Investor Education Foundation (2023), showing how objectivity and perceived neutrality influence whether users stay in a patch during real search sessions.

Social media played a dual role as both an active search channel and an incidental discovery space. Participants frequently encountered financial content serendipitously during casual scrolling and later returned to explore it more deeply, showing how incidental exposure can restart the foraging loop. This finding is consistent with Cwynar et al. (2020), who highlighted the role of informal social networks in shaping financial advice-seeking behaviour. Social proof through influencer recommendations, peer comments, and testimonials, acted as scent amplifiers, directing users toward relevant patches and reducing search effort. This echoes Rennie et al. (2020) finding that social validation strongly shapes financial product decisions, suggesting that similar mechanisms may also guide information seeking behaviour.

Despite the emergence of AI-assisted tools, the information sources identified in this study remain important, as they are frequently used as reference material by large language models. More importantly, AI cannot replicate the organic, human-generated content and peer-to-peer discussions that occur on social media. Social media is particularly valuable for individuals seeking personal experiences, as it provides authentic, context-rich accounts of financial decision-making that are often absent from official or AI-generated sources. Future research should investigate how AI tools might complement these organic information sources and whether their use alters users’ foraging strategies.

Participants also visited multiple banks’ Websites, often disregarding brand loyalty. This pattern is similar to Brennan and Kelly (2018), who found that participants initially avoided bank Websites but later consulted them for product-specific details, showing a shift toward authoritative sources at later stages of the search. This aligns with Protheroe et al. (2023), who found that consumers are more likely to switch financial products such as credit cards, individual savings accounts, and car insurance than other product categories such as cereal or flights.

These findings have practical implications for financial educators and institutions. Given that participants continued to rely on official Websites, organisations such as ASB and banks should ensure that their sites are mobile-optimised, clearly structured, and easy to navigate, thereby lowering search costs and encouraging patch persistence. Collaboration with trusted influencers could help guide users toward credible sources, leveraging the influential role they already play. Additionally, the strong preference for video-based learning suggests that producing well-captioned, step-by-step video content could improve user engagement, particularly for mobile users who often view content without sound.

Finally, this study extends information foraging theory by demonstrating that foraging behaviour spans not just multiple Websites but multiple platform categories. Figure 6, which abstracts participants’ search behaviour, illustrates cross-platform transitions in which participants moved from search engines to video platforms and social media before returning to previously explored patches. This dynamic, iterative behaviour reflects the messy middle described by Protheroe et al. (2023), in which users alternate between exploration and evaluation before making decisions. These insights contribute to a more nuanced understanding of financial information seeking in mobile-first contexts and offer a domain-specific extension of information foraging theory.

This study involved thirty-eight participants from a single country, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to other populations and contexts. Participation was voluntary, introducing the possibility of self-selection bias, as individuals with a stronger interest in the topic or in financial planning may have been more likely to participate. The focus on an investment-financing product further narrows the applicability of the findings to other areas of financial planning.

Participants’ information seeking behaviour was observed at two points within a short period, providing a cross-sectional rather than a longitudinal perspective. Consequently, it was not possible to capture how information seeking behaviour might evolve over time. Observation bias (reactivity) may also have influenced participants’ behaviour, as they were aware their searches were being recorded, potentially limiting natural exploration and discovery beyond the ASB loan topic. Finally, the study did not include offline interactions, which form an important component of the broader financial information seeking ecosystem.

Future research could address these limitations by including more diverse samples, exploring multiple financial topics, and employing longitudinal and mixed method approaches to capture online and offline behaviours over time. The analysis of actual search log data may also help to mitigate observation bias and provide a more naturalistic view of financial information seeking behaviour. Additionally, future work could explore AI-based financial chatbots and Large Language Models as emerging information sources, given their increasing popularity.

This study shows that financial information seeking on mobile phones is a dynamic, cross-platform process shaped by information scent, cognitive effort, and social cues. By mapping participants navigation across Websites, video platforms, and social media, the study extends information foraging theory by showing how people switch between different platform types and sometimes return to earlier patches when needed. These findings provide a more detailed view of mobile financial information seeking and stress the need to optimise financial content for mobile use.

In practice, the results suggest that financial institutions and educators should make their resources concise, well-structured, and mobile-friendly, while also using influencers and multimedia formats to reach users. Social media continues to play an important role by providing personal experiences and peer-based cues, working as a complement rather than a replacement for official information sources. Future research could expand this further by looking at other financial topics, using longitudinal designs to track changing search patterns, and examining how new tools such as AI chatbots interact with human-generated content.