世論 What Japan Thinks

I’ve never actually participated in an online auction myself, but the stories I hear about eBay’s security problems and about fraudulent auctions fair put me off wanting to try, despite stories about some people getting lucky. So, I was interested to read a column on japan.internet.com about research conducted by goo Research into the subject of internet auctions.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 13th of July 2007 1,077 members of goo Research’s online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample was male, 17.7% in their teens, 18.8% in their twenties, 16.2% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, 18.9% in their fifties, and 11.7% aged sixty or older.

There is, of course, many sites that specialise in highlighting the tat and other interesting rubbish that people try to flog on online auctions; here are a few of my favourites:

Who would buy that?
What the heck?
hexadecimal – the oddities of eBay motors
Strange Japanese auctions

Research results

Q1: Have you ever participated in an online auction? (Sample size=1,077)

Bought or sold items (to SQ2)	59.0%
Just looked at items on sale (to SQ1)	15.0%
No (to SQ1)	26.0%

Q1SQ1: Why have you not participated in online auctions? (Sample size=442, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Worry about fraud, etc	277	62.7%
Don’t want to meet trouble with other users	191	43.2%
Dealing with others is a bother	183	41.4%
Fees for listing, participation	145	32.8%
Dispatching items is bothersome	130	29.4%
Don’t know the system well	128	29.0%
Worried about leakage of private information	123	27.8%
Don’t have anything to sell	64	14.5%
Not really interested	59	13.4%
Don’t have time	54	12.2%
Cannot get the winning bid	24	5.4%
Never got a winning bid	7	1.6%
Other	11	2.5%

Q1SQ2: Have you bought, sold, or done both in an online auction? (Sample size=635)

Bought only (to SQ3 and SQ4)	52.4%
Bought and sold (to SQ3 and SQ4)	45.2%
Sold only	2.4%

Q1SQ3: About how often have you bought or sold items on online auctions? (Sample size=620)

	Buyers N=620	Sellers N=302
Once a year or less	18.5%	28.8%
Four or five times a year	23.7%	22.8%
Seven or eight times a year	11.6%	13.9%
Once a month	21.3%	12.9%
Two or three times a month	14.8%	12.9%
Once a week	6.1%	5.6%
Three times a week	3.1%	1.7%
Almost every day	0.8%	1.3%

When asked what their most expensive purchase or sale was, the most common answer for both buyers and sellers was between 10,000 yen and 50,000 yen, with around two in five reporting that figure. There was both one buyer and one seller who reported a sale of over one million yen.

Q1SQ4: Have you ever had any trouble with the goods that had been sold or purchase? (Sample size=635, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Never heard anything from the buyer	57	9.0%
Broken goods were delivered	39	6.1%
Was defrauded	38	6.0%
Items were not delivered	34	5.4%
Received poor ratings	25	3.9%
Counterfeit goods were delivered	15	2.4%
Goods different to the items I won were delivered	14	2.2%
Other	28	4.4%
Never had any problems	456	71.8%