Demographics

Over the 25th and 26th of January 2010 1,102 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 20.9% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties and 12.6% aged sixty or older.

I’m on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and even have uploaded a couple of videos to YouTube.

Research results

Q1: Which of the following SNS are you a member of? (Sample size=1,102, multiple answer)

mixi	33.3%
GREE	15.7%
Mobage Town	14.5%
Facebook	8.3%
MySpace	3.0%
LinkedIn	0.9%
Other	2.0%
None of them	46.1%
Don’t know what an SNS is	8.1%

Q2: Which of the following blogging services do you blog on? (Sample size=1,102, multiple answer)

Twitter	16.3%
Ameba Blog	13.2%
goo blog	3.6%
Kokolog	1.5%
Blogger	1.3%
Hatena Diary	1.2%
excite blog	0.8%
Other	11.0%
None of the above	63.2%
Don’t know what a blog is	1.7%

Q3: How do you use video sharing services? (Sample size=1,102)

Watch content only	71.5%
Upload only	0.4%
Both upload and watch other content	8.6%
Never watched	14.9%
Don’t know what a video sharing service is	4.6%

Demographics

Between the 13th and 17th of September 2010 1,079 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 21.0% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

However, there are other microblogs that are more like real blogs but with a text limit and without the social features of Twitter, but I cannot name any offhand! I’m sure there’s a WordPress plugin, though, to turn your blog into a Twitter for one. A quick Google finds these two for starters.

Regarding Q2SQ, I’ve updated my status line on Facebook exactly once.

Research results

Q1: Have you seen or heard about Microblogging (or Miniblogging) services? (Sample size=1,079)

Yes, have written one	3.7%
Yes, have read one	3.9%
Yes, heard of them	12.8%
No, not heard of them	79.6%

Q2: Which of the following SNS (Social Networking Services) have you used? (Sample size=1,079, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
mixi (to SQ)	426	39.5%
Twitter (to SQ)	224	20.6%
GREE (to SQ)	191	17.7%
Mobage Town (to SQ)	163	15.1%
Facebook (to SQ)	57	5.3%
MySpace (to SQ)	34	3.2%
LinkedIn (to SQ)	7	0.6%
Other SNS (to SQ)	63	5.8%
None of them	349	32.3%
Don’t know what an SNS is	117	10.8%

Q2SQ: Have you ever mumbled (ie Tweeted, updated Facebook status, etc) on an SNS? (Sample size=613)

Yes	45.0%
No	50.9%
Don’t remember	2.1%
Don’t know what mumbling is	2.0%

Demographics

Between the 1st and 3rd of February 2010 983 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private interent-based questionnaire. 59.2% of the sample were male, 31.6% in their twenties, 32.6% in their thirties, and 35.8% in their forties.

My wife’s a bit of a free sample addict; every other week or so she’s getting a trial sample of some cosmetic or other. It always does seem rather odd that the companies usually seem to have lotteries to choose who gets a free sample rather than giving it to the first few hundred applicants, but I’m sure there must be a good reason.

I also guess given the cooperation with an affiliate company that there must be some monetary incentive for getting sign-ups. Q1SQ2 seems to suggest they also do pay-per-post campaigns – indeed, examining their site they seem to be a link broker.

Research results

Q1: Do you have a blog? (Sample size=983)

	All	Male N=582	Female N=401
Yes ( to SQs)	14.1%	7.9%	23.2%
No, but used to ( to SQs)	6.0%	4.3%	8.5%
No, but want to	5.4%	5.3%	5.5%
No, and don’t plan to	74.5%	82.5%	62.8%

Q1SQ1: Do, did you do affiliate marketing on your blog? (Sample size=198)

	All	Male N=71	Female N=127
Yes, currently do	17.2%	15.5%	18.1%
Yes, used to	11.6%	15.5%	9.4%
No, never	71.2%	69.0%	72.4%

Q1SQ2: Have you ever blogged about a free sample you got from a company on the precondition that you blog about it (ie, as a sample monitor)? (Sample size=198)

	All	Male N=71	Female N=127
Yes (to SQ3)	6.1%	5.6%	6.3%
No	59.1%	57.7%	59.8%
Don’t know what a sample monitor is	34.8%	36.6%	33.9%

Q1SQ3: What is the biggest attraction of being a sample monitor? (Sample size=12)

	All	Male N=4	Female N=8
Can get samples of products I’m interested in	58.3%	50.0%	62.5%
Can get samples of products I wouldn’t go and buy myself	25.0%	25.0%	25.0%
Easy to do	8.3%	25.0%	0.0%
Can get information I wouldn’t normally get	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
I get more blog visitors	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
I get story ideas for my blog	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
I like writing my opinions about products	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
Other	8.3%	0.0%	12.5%

Q2: If a company was offering free samples would you take them up? (Sample size=983)

	All	Male N=582	Female N=401
As long as it wasn’t something I dislike (to SQ)	32.9%	29.6%	37.7%
Only if it was something I was interested in (to SQ)	48.5%	44.7%	54.1%
No	18.6%	25.8%	8.2%

Q2SQ: Have you ever bought a product after getting such a free sample? (Sample size=800)

	All	Male N=432	Female N=368
Yes	49.8%	41.0%	60.1%
No	50.3%	59.0%	39.9%

Demographics

Between the 28th and 30th of October 2009 300 members of the Marsh online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, 2.0% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

I don’t think I’ve added a new blog to my regular reading list for a while, but the last Japan-related one I added was either through JapanSoc or Japan Probe‘s headline list.

Another blog I’ve recently started reading regularly was found through a Google news RSS feed for one of my other blogs.

Research results

Q1: Are you updating a blog? (Sample size=300)

Currently am (to SQ1)	26.7%
Used to, but not now (to SQ1)	13.7%
Never have (to SQ1)	57.3%
Don’t know what a blog is	2.3%

Q1SQ1: Do you have blogs you regularly check? (Sample size=293)

Yes (to SQ2)	41.6%
No	58.4%

Q1SQ2: How did you first learn of these blogs you regularly check? (Sample size=122, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Found through search	67	54.9%
Family, friend’s blog	33	27.0%
Family, friend’s introduced me to it	17	13.9%
Ordinary site introduced it	14	11.5%
News site introduced it	10	8.2%
Found through blog service’s new updates list	9	7.4%
Magazine, newspaper introduction	6	4.9%
Email newsletter	6	4.9%
Other	3	2.5%
Don’t know, don’t remember	8	6.6%

Demographics

On the 17th of August 2009 300 members of the iBridge Research Plus monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% of the sample were male, 17.7% in their twenties, 31.7% in their thirties, 30.7% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 4.3% in their sixties.

I’d be lost without my reader, Google Reader. I actually get just about the same number of feed readers as web site visitors per day, and if I exclude feed readers who click through, my RSS feed is most probably the more popular way of reading What Japan Thinks. If you’re not already subscribed, check out the links on the top left to see what I’m on about!

For the benefit of my Mum, using an RSS reader means you don’t need to set mine or my brother’s site as your home page!

Research results

Q1: Do you know about RSS Readers? (Sample size=300)

Yes (to SQ1)	32.0%
No	68.0%

Q1SQ1: Have you ever used an RSS Reader? (Sample size=96)

Used to use, but not now	26.0%
Currently using (to SQ2)	21.9%
Never used	52.1%

Combining these two we get:

Q1+SQ1: Have you ever used an RSS Reader? (Sample size=300)

Used to use, but not now	8.3%
Currently using	7.0%
Never used	16.7%
Don’t know what it is	68.0%

Q1SQ2: What kind of RSS Reader do you currently use the most? (Sample size=21)

Web service-based reader	47.6%
Browser built-in reader	28.6%
Stand-alone software reader	23.8%
Other	0.0%
Don’t know	0.0%

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 27th of July 2009 562 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.0% of the sample were male, 34.5% in their twenties, 32.9% in their thirties, and 32.6% in their forties.

What Japan Thinks can be found on Twitter; most of the content is just automated Tweeting of my posts, but two or three times a week or so I post one-liner survey translations that don’t make it to the main blog.

Note that the Twitter usage rate of 6.2% in this survey versus 2.3% in the previously-mentioned survey can be ascribed to iShare having a more technically-minded audience; the simple fact that the survey respondent pool comes from people using an email forwarding service demonstrates this.

The two local authorities mentioned in Q4 can be read on Twitter; the links are Aomori Prefectural Office (ooh, nice background!) and Hokkaido Rikubetsucho.

Research results

Q1: Have you ever viewed a personal or commercial blog? (Sample size=562)

	All	Male N=315	Female N=247
Yes	56.2%	50.5%	63.6%
No	43.8%	49.5%	36.4%

Q2: Do you know the micro-blogging service Twitter? (Sample size=562)

	All	Male N=315	Female N=247
Yes	33.8%	36.5%	30.4%
No	66.2%	63.5%	69.9%

Q3: Have you ever used Twitter? (Sample size=562)

	All	Male N=315	Female N=247
Yes	6.2%	7.0%	5.3%
No	93.8%	93.0%	94.7%

Q4: On the 13th of July 2009 the Aomori Prefectural Office started using Twitter, and a day later Hokkaido Rikubetsucho also started broadcasting information on events and updates to their web site, etc. What do you think about this sort of use of Twitter and other internet services by governmental bodies? (Sample size=562)

	All	Male N=315	Female N=247
Very good idea	25.3%	24.4%	26.3%
Good idea	57.7%	55.6%	60.3%
Poor idea	11.7%	13.0%	10.1%
Very poor idea	5.3%	7.0%	3.2%

Q5: If you used Twitter, what kind of person would you most want to follow? If you already use Twitter, what kind of person do you follow the closest? (Sample size=562)

	All	Male N=315	Female N=247
People with similar hobbies	18.1%	15.6%	21.5%
Celebrities	8.5%	8.6%	8.5%
Politicians	8.0%	7.0%	9.3%
Real-life friends	5.9%	6.3%	5.3%
People in a similar job to mine	5.3%	3.5%	7.7%
Local authorities	3.4%	3.2%	3.6%
Media companies (newspapers, broadcasters, etc)	2.8%	2.2%	3.6%
Corporations	2.0%	2.2%	1.6%
Boyfriend/girlfriend	1.6%	1.3%	2.0%
Family	0.7%	1.3%	0.0%
Famous blogger (other than celebrity)	1.2%	1.3%	1.2%
Other	2.3%	2.5%	2.0%
Don’t think I want to follow anyone	40.0%	45.1%	33.6%

Demographics

Between the 21st and 25th of May 2009 1,082 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.4% of the sample were male, 7.3% were in their teens, 16.0% in their twenties, 28.1% in their thirties, 27.9% in their forties, 10.8% in their fifties, and 9.9% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample. In this case, obviously 100% of the Japanese online population does not blog!

It’s a bit of a short survey, but after posting a detailed look at blogging habits I did comment about politics not featuring in the list of subjects, but here politics makes an appearance.

I should have some of them ready for when I have jet-lag…

Ranking result

Q: When writing your blog, what standby source of topics do you use? (Sample size=556, male)

Rank		Score
1	What I did today, encounters I had	100
2	Impressions of a movie, television program, animation I saw	67.6
3	Favourite product, service	56.5
4	Impressions of today’s food	52.8
5	Product, service I want to recommend	46.3
6	Political news	45.4
7	Financial news	44.4
8	Sports news	39.8
9	What I bought today	36.1
10	Entertainment gossip	35.2

Q: When writing your blog, what standby source of topics do you use? (Sample size=526, female)

Rank		Score
1	What I did today, encounters I had	100
2	Impressions of today’s food	72.8
3	Favourite product, service	54.3
4	Impressions of a movie, television program, animation I saw	51.0
5	Product, service I want to recommend	50.3
6	What I bought today	46.4
7	Impressions of a comic, book I read	34.4
8	Impressions of a music I listened to	34.4
9	Entertainment gossip	28.5
10	What my boyfriend, family did today	27.8

Demographics

Over the first five days of May 2009 14,823 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 2% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 35% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 19% aged fifty or older.

In Q4, it’s interesting that politics isn’t a selectable theme, but given that just 5% blogged about news in general, I wonder how small that would have been.

Regarding Q5, in Japan they are called blog parts, but in the West they are usually widgets or scriptlets. Looking through the above-linked web site I came across this entertaining one:

For Q6, I’ve been to a cake-related blogger event! I’ve also sadly had to turn down two invites to Danny Choo-organised and corporately-sponsored Tokyo CGM Night, although I did see his Dad’s shoe shop right beside the free cake venue, if that counts for anything.

For Q7, I’d have to immodestly answer “somewhere to use my knowledge, information to contribute to society”, although I do have a letting off steam blog hiding in the shadows… What is blogging to you?

Research results

Q1: Have you ever created a blog? (Sample size=14,823)

Created one, currently updating	22.3%
Created one but not updating it, closed it	14.2%
Not created one	63.4%

Q2: About how often do you update your blogs? (Sample size=active bloggers)

Twice a day or more	4.0%
Once a day	13.6%
Four to six times a week	11.6%
Twice or thrice a week	17.7%
Once a week	14.1%
Twice or thrice a month	18.7%
Once a month or less	20.0%
No answer	0.2%

Q3: Which blog services do you use? (Sample size=active bloggers, multiple answer)

FC2	21.8%
Ameba	18.9%
Rakuten	15.2%
Yahoo!	10.1%
livedoor	6.9%
goo	6.3%
Cocolog	6.1%
Seesaa	5.9%
BIGLOBE	4.7%
So-net	4.0%
JUGEM	3.7%
Yaplog!	3.1%
excite	2.7%
Ninja	2.3%
Hatena diary	1.9%
OCN	1.4%
Movable Type	0.8%
Doblog	0.7%
Drecom	0.5%
Other	20.3%
Don’t remember	0.6%
No answer	0.1%

Q4: What themes do you often blog about? (Sample size=active bloggers, multiple answer)

Diary	67.8%
Hobby	29.8%
Eating out, sweets, cooking	16.5%
Entertainment	14.7%
Introducing products, services	14.6%
Leisure	12.0%
Pet	10.6%
Competitions, free gifts	9.3%
Art, articles, novels, photographs	7.8%
Beauty	7.5%
Sports	7.2%
Internet, computer	7.1%
Health, medical, mental health	6.9%
Maternity, child-rearing, education	6.3%
News	5.3%
Homes, interior	4.8%
Local information	4.7%
Investments	4.1%
Business	4.1%
Home electricals, audio-visual	3.9%
Love, marriage	3.5%
None of the above	2.5%
No answer	0.3%

Q5: Which of the following kinds of blog parts (widgets, gadgets) have you used on your blog? (Sample size=active bloggers, multiple answer)

Visitor analysis	22.1%
Counter	20.4%
Movie, photo, animation	19.2%
Avatar	14.4%
Calendar	13.6%
Blog pet, character	12.0%
Clock	9.9%
Weather forecast	9.0%
Bookmark	5.9%
Fortune-telling	5.8%
Game, quiz	5.0%
Book review	4.3%
News headlines	4.2%
Search engine tools (search, Page Rank, etc)	4.0%
Maps	3.6%
Audio	2.8%
Temperature	1.2%
Other	7.4%
Never used blog parts	30.3%
Don’t know what blog parts are	7.7%
No answer	0.2%

Q6: Have you ever participated in a corporate-sponsored blogger event? (Sample size=active bloggers)

Been invited to and attended a corporate event	2.3%
Not been invited, but have attented events	2.2%
Never attended	56.7%
Don’t know what that kind of event would be	37.9%
No answer	0.8%

Q7: What is blogging to you? If you don’t have a blog, what image does it have for you? (Sample size=14,823)

Somewhere for writing about feelings, opinions, and what’s happening around me	29.9%
Somewhere to express myself	24.0%
Somewhere to enjoy communicating	12.4%
Somewhere to record, organise my information	6.7%
Somewhere to make money through affiliates, advertising	3.8%
Somewhere to let off steam	3.2%
Somewhere to use my knowledge, information to contribute to society	2.0%
Somewhere to try out my programming skills	0.3%
Other	12.5%
No answer	5.3%

Demographics

On the 11th of May 2009 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.7% of the sample were male, 22.7% in their twenties, 26.3% in their thirties, 24.7% in their forties, 21.7% in their fifties, and 4.7% in their sixties.

Despite me having a Twitter account and far more followers than I would expect to have, I never use the thing and quite frankly find the fascination with it inexplicable. In addition, it destroys the link structure of the web as everything gets routed through abbreviated URLs, and given that a lot of people use third-party tools to access Twitter, I don’t get full tracking of my incoming traffic.

I can confidently predict that Twitter or other micro-blogs (blogging in less than 200 characters per entry, a sort of blog for SMS) will not take off in Japan until they support emoji.

Research results

Q1: Have you heard or read about Twitter? (Sample size=300)

Yes (to SQ)	12.3%
No	87.7%

Q1SQ: Have you ever used Twitter? (Sample size=47)

Yes	10.8%
Used to use it, but not now	2.7%
No, never	86.5%

Combining the two we get:

Q1+Q1SQ: Have you ever used Twitter? (Sample size=300)

Yes	1.3%
Used to use it, but not now	0.3%
No, never	10.7%
Don’t know what it is	87.7%

Q2: Have you heard or read about micro-blogs? (Sample size=300)

Yes	15.7%
No	84.3%

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of November 2008 300 members of the Marsh monitor panel completed an internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 by sex, and 20.0% were in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

In Q1 I think the amount of people reading commercial blogs is rather low, but I suspect it might be that because people are not seeing the URL as megacorp.com/blog, they assume that places are just hobby blogs, not commercial enterprises.

Most of the Japanese blogs, particularly the personal blogs, make Facebook look tasteful.

Research results

First, from the whole sample the survey reported that 263 people regularly read blogs. However, in the data following it is obvious that the figure was actualy 156, or 52.0%. How many did not even know what a blog is was not reported. These 156 were then asked the following.

Q1: What kinds of blogs do you read? (Sample size=156, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Personal blogs	127	81.4%
Famous person’s blogs	66	42.3%
Friend, family member’s blogs	46	29.5%
Corporate, organisation blogs	37	23.7%
Other	1	0.6%
Don’t know	0	0.0%

Next, 86 people, or 55.1% of the blog readers, or 28.7% of the whole sample, had their own blogs. They were asked the following.

Q2: Which blog service do you use the most? (Sample size=86)

FC2 Blog	15.1%
Yahoo! Blog	12.8%
Rakuten Blog	12.8%
Ameba blog	10.5%
goo Blog	7.0%
SeesaaBLOG	4.7%
Cocolog	3.5%
livedoor Blog	3.5%
excite Blog	3.5%
Yaplog	3.5%
Blogger (Google)	2.3%
Hatena Diary	0.0%
Other	19.8%
Don’t know, don’t remember	1.2%

Q3: Why did you select that service? (Sample size=86, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Easy to create blog, entries	51	59.3%
Easy to understand functionality	34	39.5%
Like the design	20	23.3%
Rich feature set	14	16.3%
Well-known service	12	14.0%
Can update from mobile phone	10	11.6%
Friends, family use it	9	10.5%
Broad range of editing functions	8	9.3%
Same service as blogs I view	8	9.3%
Other	13	15.1%
No particular reason	8	9.3%