Over 90% of Japanese bloggers are anonymous

By Ken Y-N ( May 28, 2006 at 23:25) · Filed under Blogging, Internet, Polls

Have you ever made your own blog? graph of japanese opinion japan.internet.com published the results of goo Research’s 25th regular survey into blogging. Every month since April 2004 they have looked into the blogging market, and the highlights from this April’s results are presented below. They interviewed 1,068 people from their monitor group by means of a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.1% of the sample was female, and 2.4% were in their teens, 26.6% in their twenties, 40.1% in their thirties, 20.7% in their forties, 7.7% in their fifties, and 2.5% sixty years old or older.

The huge number choosing to remain anonymous is rather surprising to me, and I’d like to find out about what sort of blogs people are hiding behind. Perhaps a further study on this matter is in order.

Q1: In the last month have you viewed a blog written by someone else? (Sample size=1,068)

Yes (to SQ) 77.3%

No 19.6%

Don’t know what a blog is 3.1%

The percentage of people not knowing what a blog is is unchanged from last month, although the change in the percentage of viewers is not noted.

Q1SQ: Did you get useful information from someone else’s blog? (Sample size=826)

Yes 67.3%

No 5.8%

Cannot say either way 27.1%

Q2: Have you ever made your own blog? (Sample size=1,068)

Yes 36.8%

No, but I want to 25.9%

No, and don’t want to 32.9%

Don’t know what a blog is 4.4%

When those 393 people who had made their own blog were asked the reason why, the most popular answer, from 255 people, was that they wanted to leave behind their own personal notebook. The next most popular reason, given by 119 people, was that they wanted to share useful information with others, then 103 said they wanted to let others understand their own options.

Q3: Do you use your real name or a pseudonym on your blog? (Sample size=393)

I use my real name 6.6%

I use a pseudonym 93.4%

When asked why they used a fake name, the most popular reason was that it would be scary to publicise their real name, followed by that they didn’t want people close to them to know who they were.

When asked if they used plug-in modules or other extras on their blog, 32.0%, or 126 people, said they were using them. The two main extras were picture or movie plug-ins, with 57 users, then 55 people had animated characters or animals.