Does ChatGPT know businesses in Sabah and Sarawak?

Mostly, yes: in our test, ChatGPT named local businesses in Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Miri and Sandakan for most everyday questions we asked, roughly as often as in our earlier KL, Penang and Johor Bahru test. What changed from city to city was where it read about them, and how often it slipped.

Sabah and Sarawak are home to nearly one in five Malaysians, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia. So a customer in Kuching asking ChatGPT for an aircon man is not a rare case. In our test, 18 of 20 answers named at least one local business.

Does ChatGPT recommend local businesses in Sabah and Sarawak cities?

ChatGPT recommended local businesses in all four Borneo cities we tested. We asked five chatty questions with no town named, such as "My son has a toothache and he's quite scared of dentists. Can you recommend a good dentist near me?", with the location set to each city.

Every search it wrote included the set city, and none of the 20 answers asked which city the customer was in. Of the 70 businesses it named, 63 were in the right city, going by the answer or the page it cited.

Miri's total is lifted by one tuition answer that listed nine centres. Each city got one answer per question, so treat each row as an example, not a city score.

Is ChatGPT's knowledge of Borneo businesses as good as KL, Penang and JB?

On three questions we can compare, ChatGPT named businesses in Borneo roughly as often as in our earlier peninsula test. We reused three questions from our KL, Penang and JB test: aircon servicing, kitchen renovation and SPM tuition. There it named a business in 26 of 27 answers. In the four Borneo cities, it was 11 of 12.

That earlier test asked each question three times and didn't require a web search, though every answer searched anyway, so treat this as a rough comparison.

The gaps were in the smaller cities. From Sandakan, the SPM tuition question got advice and no names. From Miri, the dentist question got this: "I wasn't able to reliably identify a specific local Miri dentist from the search results I found just now."

Our reading: there is less for ChatGPT to find online in some towns and trades, so a business that is easy to read about stands out more there.

Where does ChatGPT read about businesses in Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Miri and Sandakan?

ChatGPT's sources for Borneo businesses changed a lot by city and trade. About half of the 71 links ChatGPT cited went to businesses' own websites. The rest went mostly to directories, TripAdvisor and Google Maps.

• Kuching: 15 of 20 links were businesses' own sites. All five dentists it named were cited from their own pages.
• Sandakan: 2 of 15 links were own sites. Aircon firms came from directories and brand service-partner lists, and the dentist from a Google Maps address.
• Cafés: for breakfast in Miri and Sandakan, every link was TripAdvisor. In Kuching, two café sites were cited directly.

No answer cited a Facebook page directly. If you rely on one, read whether a Facebook page helps ChatGPT.

Does ChatGPT recommend businesses from the wrong city in Sabah and Sarawak?

ChatGPT sometimes offered a business from the wrong city, and tuition was where it happened. We checked a sample of cited pages by hand.

1. Kuching tuition: two of the three centres it named give addresses only in Selangor, around Klang, on their own pages.
2. Miri tuition: one pick was a page titled for Miri on a tuition platform whose centres are in the Klang Valley, with classes run online.
3. Pages that list every town: a renovation firm whose website lists almost every town in Malaysia was offered in both Sandakan and Miri. We couldn't confirm a branch in either.

A national aircon firm with a branch page for Kota Kinabalu was named there, as it was in KL, Penang and JB. Its general page was offered "near Miri" too, though it lists no Miri branch. Our reading: town pages work for ChatGPT whether or not you have premises there, so say plainly where you really are.

What can't this test tell me about ChatGPT in Sabah and Sarawak?

• The ChatGPT app. We set the location through OpenAI's API. OpenAI says the app "may use your IP address to estimate your general location", and that estimate can miss.
• Other towns, trades and days. One answer per question per city, on one day. Answers change from run to run.
• Whether every business is open. We checked locations for a sample, not opening status.

How do I get ChatGPT to recommend my business in Sabah or Sarawak?

In our test, ChatGPT recommended what it could read about online in each town. In some Borneo towns and trades that is a short list, which leaves room for a business that is easy to read about.

1. Request EasyFound's free check. See what ChatGPT says about your business when customers in your town ask, then go through it with us on a free call.
2. Put your town and address on your own website. Name the town and the areas you cover, such as Penampang or Petra Jaya. In Kuching, most of what ChatGPT cited were businesses' own pages.
3. Fix the listings it reads. In Sandakan and Miri it leaned on TripAdvisor, directories and Google Maps, so check your entry on each is current. Here's how a Google Business Profile feeds ChatGPT.
4. Don't claim towns you don't serve. Town pages can get a business named where it has no premises. That can win you a mention, then lose you the customer.

EasyFound is an AI SEO service for Malaysian businesses, from the Klang Valley to Kota Kinabalu. We check how you're named across six AI tools in English, Malay and Chinese, then work on the pages they read. Start with the free check below.