Almost nine in ten Japanese interneters use Google
Recently, japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into awareness of Google services.
Demographics
On the 7th of August 2007 335 members of JR Tokai Express Research’s online monitor panel who were mployed in public or private industry completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The male-female ratio was not reported, but 16.1% were in their twenties, 37.9% in their thirties, 36.1% in their forties, 8.4% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties.
I noted the omission of my favourite Google web application, Google Reader, their online feed reader. Indeed, it’s been quite I while since I last saw an RSS usage survey.
Also, it’s interesting they mention AdWords, the advertisers’ side of Google’s advertising empire, not the publishers’ side, AdSense, which I would have thought would have been more familiar.
CAVEAT: Thanks to Gen Kanai for highlighting the big flaw in this poll, namely that the figures suggest half of all web users always use Google. The text given in Japanese used “always” for the first answer in Q1, but perhaps “frequently” would be a closer reflection on reality. Previous surveys, and a forthcoming one too, suggests people favour Yahoo! by a considerable margin, so the presented 49.0% always using Google must be incorrect.
Research results
Q1: Do you know the search engine “Google”? (Sample size=335)
Always use it (to SQ2) 49.0% Sometimes use it (to SQ2) 39.1% Know what it is, not used it (to SQ1) 6.3% Just heard the name 3.9% Don’t know at all 1.8% Q1SQ1: Which of the following Google services do you know about but don’t use? (Sample size=21, multiple answer)
Votes Percentage Google Earth 14 66.7% Gmail 7 33.3% Blogger 2 9.5% Google Calendar 1 4.8% iGoogle (personalised home page) 0 0.0% AdWords 0 0.0% Analytics 0 0.0% Picasa 0 0.0% None of the above 5 23.8% Q1SQ2: Which of the following Google services have you used? (Sample size=295, multiple answer)
Votes Percentage Google Earth 221 74.9% Gmail 49 16.6% iGoogle (personalised home page) 23 7.8% Google Calendar 17 5.8% Picasa 17 5.8% Analytics 5 1.7% Blogger 5 1.7% AdWords 3 1.0% None of the above 56 19.0% A similar survey was conducted a year ago; since then the usage of Google Earth has jumped from 158 to 221, and Gmail from 36 to 49. Conversely, Blogger users has dropped from 12 to 5.
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links for 2007-08-29 | Samurai Soapbox said,
August 30, 2007 @ 02:23
[…] Almost nine in ten Japanese interneters use Google » 世論 What Japan Thinks (tags: japan google survey) Related PostsTrackback Tuesdaylinks for 2007-08-29Pimped out otaku ridesWhy Americans shouldn’t cosplayTrackback TuesdayPopularity: 1% [?] Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]
Gen Kanai said,
August 30, 2007 @ 02:23
This data is a bit strange. We know that Yahoo! Japan still dominates search in Japan with probably twice what Google has for search share. These numbers don’t jive with what I know about Japan. I’m a bit skeptical about JR Tokai’s methodology or sample if the survey here is so far off the well-reported search share statistics.
Ken Y-N said,
August 30, 2007 @ 21:54
Gen, you’re right, I was very suspicious when translating it as the one I translated as “Always use it” was いつも, as you can see from the headline in the linked article, whereas I know Yahoo! has the majority share in Japan. Perhaps it should have been “regularly” or “often”, but without knowing the exact source data, it is difficult to make a judgement on what exactly to use other than the direct translation. I’ll add a caveat to the story.
Indeed, I just saw another poll today that shows Yahoo! with an almost 3:1 lead for the most frequently-used engine. I’ll publish that one this weekend or so.
Three times as many Japanese choose Yahoo! over Google » 世論 What Japan Thinks said,
September 3, 2007 @ 23:26
[…] week we learnt that almost all Japanese net users used Google, and indeed almost 50% claimed to use it always, although Gen Kanai did alert me that the figures […]