Of all the information that is available on the internet, Indonesians are most curious about the term “bucin”, search engine Google’s official 2019 archive shows.

Throughout the year, Indonesians actively typed “what is bucin” into the Google search bar and eventually found out that the word is a portmanteau of budak cinta (love slave).

“Bucin” was indeed one of the most popular terms in the Indonesian internet sphere last year. The word routinely popped up on various channels, from news portals to social media.

The origin of the term can be traced back to YouTube content creator skinnyindonesian24, the channel of actor and comedian siblings Jovial da Lopez and Andovi da Lopez.

They posted a video of a comedy skit back in 2015 based on their dating experiences, in which they would do anything to keep their relationships working, an amusing twist to the old adage: “True love is sacrifice.”

Starting as a joke between the siblings and their friends, the term became widely used in conversations on the internet and reached its peak in 2019 as it was also used to derogatorily describe an attention-seeker as butuh cinta (in need of love) — lots of them in social media.

“It was an inside joke. It is indeed the power of the internet that made the term widely used by the netizens,” said Andovi, 25, at the announcement of Year in Search 2019 by Google Indonesia in Jakarta on Dec. 11.

“Bucin” topped the “what is...” category of Google’s 2019 archive for Indonesia. In addition, there were another eight categories that included search trending, public figures, the passing of public figures, national events, songs, how-tos, recipes and films.

From mega-unicorn founder Nadiem Makarim, now the education and culture minister, to a healthy diet and lifestyle, from the events surrounding the presidential election to the conversation surrounding the film Dua Garis Biru (Two Blue Stripes) about teen pregnancy, the search engine archives showed the zeitgeist of the country, as well as the changes in how Indonesians find and consume information.

“Year in Search shows that 2019 is the year of Indonesian people starting to pay more attention to changes and aspirations. Indonesians try to understand better the information and the situation they are in,” said Veronica Utami, head of marketing for Google Indonesia, the Philippines and Southeast Asia’s Next Billion Users (NBU) team.

It was also the year for the da Lopez brothers as their parody video entitled Prabowo vs Jokowi — Epic Rap Battles of the Presidency was included in the kaleidoscopic YouTube Rewind 2019 as the first-ever Indonesian video with more than 40 million views since it was uploaded in April ahead of the legislative and presidential elections.

“That the video was trending throughout the year is crazy. What’s crazier is the fact that we uploaded the least number of videos ever this year. We only have five compared to other YouTubers who already posted up to 300 videos this year alone,” said Jovial, 29.

They had created a rap battle video of the same two candidates — Prabowo Subianto (now defense minister) and President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo — back in 2014 that conveyed a similar message about the unity of Indonesia and the people despite political differences.

“Maybe because we made the previous video in English it only got 1.5 million views and more after the latter went viral,” added Andovi. “[It going viral] must be because it’s in Indonesian and how detailed we prepared it.”

The video itself was the result of serious work that took weeks for the siblings to write the rap lyrics, film and edit, during which they looked for the presidential candidates’ iconic rides — a horse and a streetfighter bike — to be used as the main props.

There were concerns that the video might put the siblings in legal problems, including one coming from their mother, retired diplomat Hendra Henny Andries.

“It’s understandable because she’s gone through all of the government regimes when she told us that a country’s president is not subject to criticism. We get it. But our criticism was nothing blasphemous to discredit anyone. We have a concept and it is in context,” said Andovi.

They acknowledged that YouTube content creators have the freedom to be creative in order to stand out among the rest, but they also have to assume a responsibility toward the viewers.

“Humanity is our credo. We do not have the heart to deceive our viewers [...] It must mutually benefit both to the viewers and the content creators,” said Jovial. “We hope the next generation of content creators would not put money as their main purpose.”

They had decided to take some time out from YouTube in the wake of the passing of their father and to focus on their ongoing film projects, including Bucin, which was written by Jovial and directed by award-winning cinematographer and YouTube personality Chandra Liow. Produced by Rapi Films, the movie is to be released in early 2020.

“Bucin was a long-delayed project and now we’re doing our best so Joko Anwar would love to see it,” said Jovial, referring to the current prominent film director and scriptwriter.

“Unlike the video, the film would be on how not to become a ‘bucin’. That’s all we can say. More than that is a spoiler.”

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