世論 What Japan Thinks

Unfortunately what this survey by Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile search omits is what search provider people are using, but still it is quite interesting to see what people are searching for.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 19th of February 2010 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, 1.7% in their teens, 18.3% 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’ve only had a fleeting experience with the default search engine built into docomo’s iMode, but it was pretty terrible. Now I directly use Google and its iMode front-end, although it’s barely once a month that I use it, and then it is always for “<restaurant name> coupon”, which usually gives me a hit in one of the top three entries.
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I’ve been hoping such a survey as this one from iBridge Research Plus, reported on by japan.internet.com, on Google services but focusing on just Google Buzz, would appear, as I’ve wanted an excuse to write about Google Buzz.

Demographics

On the 22nd of February 2010 300 people completed a survey; 52.0% of the sample were female, 14.7% in their twenties, 43.0% in their thirties, 28.0% in their forties, 10.3% in their fifties, and 4.0% in their sixties.

Just in case you don’t know, Google Buzz is Google’s attempt at a social networking service based around their core offerings including Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Chat. However, it launched into a storm of privacy complaints and for me, although I didn’t notice any privacy issues I certainly did notice it imposing itself into my Google Reader window, showing me far too much stuff from my contacts’ activities without any way to easily ignore. I soon turned it off, but I might go back in a couple of months to see if they have added any controls to only show me my friends when I want to see them.
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Despite having lots of followers, I still don’t know the answer to the question goo Ranking posed, namely what’s so great about Twitter?

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of December 2009 1,077 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.0% of the sample were female, 8.7% in their teens, 15.3% in their twenties, 27.0% in their thirties, 27.8% in their forties, 11.9% in their fifties, and 9.3% 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.

Whenever I see programs or read about Twitter users, especially Japanese users, I am overcome with a great feeling of sadness. Mobile users, especially, seem to have devolved from rich email to basically text SMS.
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Only one person has actually put their hand in their pocket, but a surprisingly large number of people would not be averse to sending some money to Wikipedia, according to this survey from iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 8th of February 2010 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their twenties, 26.0% in their thirties, 29.7% in their forties, 21.3% in their fifties, and 6.3% in their sixties.

I wouldn’t give Wikipedia a penny.
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This survey by Media Interactive, reported on by japan.internet.com, into Q&A sites found that most people find them reliable enough.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 4th of February 2010 1,000 members of the Media Interactive monitor group who had used or even just viewed Q&A sites completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.4% of the sample were male, 1.3% in their teens, 17.6% in their twenties, 32.9% in their thirties, 29.0% in their forties, 15.0% in their fifties, and 4.2% in their sixties.

I did use Yahoo! Answers in English for a bit, both asking and answering, but… The answers were mostly OK, but auite often I’d see incorrect information being promoted, making it even worse than Wikipedia for reliability.
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Recently iBridge Research Plus conducted a survey, reported on by japan.internet.com, into search engines.

Demographics

On the 5th of February 2010 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.0% of the sample were female, 18.7% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, 26.3% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 9.0% in their sixties.

I’d never heard of 百度, Hyakudo before, but a Google (what else!) search informed me that it’s actually read Baidu, the Japanese version of China’s top search engine.
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Media Interactive recently conducted a survey amongst 2ch (2 channel) users to find out more about their usage patterns. The highlights of the survey were reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 22nd of January 2010 exactly 1,000 people who had used 2ch were selected by some unspecified methodology. 53.4% of the sample were male, 0.8% in their teens, 19.4% in their twenties, 36.7% in their forties, 11.6% in their fifties, and 3.9% in their sixties.

The sample demographics seems like a very typical demographic for online survey companies, so it’s difficult to say if the demographic reflects 2ch users or reflects Media Interactive’s monitor panel.

The stand-out figure for me is how few use 2ch on the move; the notebook figure perhaps reflects the lack of public WiFi and the lack of penetration of wireless dongles, and the mobile phone figure is perhaps due to the fact that most mobile browsers are pretty terrible, and to use a “full browser” (mobile Opera and the like) requires a separate more expensive plan.

I wonder if there’s a business opportunity for someone to write a 2ch reader for Android or the iPhone?
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Despite Japan having just about the cheapest and fastest home internet connections on the planet, this recent survey from iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com into home internet connections found the vast majority felt their pipes got quite blocked.

Demographics

On the 14th of December 2009 300 members of the iBridge Research Plus monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were male, 13.0% in their twenties, 26.7% in their thirties, 35.3% in their forties, 17.0% in their fifties, and 8.0% in their sixties.

Despite 91.3% being on some form of broadband at home, nearly half reported a walking-speed connection. They may have low-end computers, but one cannot help wondering if 42% using Windows Explorer has anything to do with it? On my home PC, Opera flies, but my wife uses Internet Explorer 8 and it is ridiculously slow to create a new page (I’d vote tortoise rather than walking…), a combination of her having too many bookmarks and, I suspect, Rakuten toolbar.
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For a change, this recent survey from iShare into music downloading laws found a significant number willing to admit their thievery.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 8th of January 2010 443 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.7% of the sample were male, 30.7% were in their twenties, 30.7% in their thirties, and 38.6% in their forties.

As I’m not the sort of person who downloads music willy-nilly just for the sake of filling up their iPod, I’ve never downloaded more than just a dodgy track or two. I’m probably also being a fuddy-duddy by saying that the iPod and said illegal downloading just because one can is a behaviour I cannot condone in the slightest, and I’m sure in some way contributes towards the youth of today having the attention span of a goldfish. I used to play just the one CD or tape for about a week or more, but when I last had my hands on a SonyPod, I found myself filling it up with all my CDs then spending more time skipping than listening. Oh, and the software was useless and at least twice wiped its own database.

Anyway, back to the survey. This month the law has changed such that downloading illegally uploaded contents is now illegal.
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With more and more web sites supporting the use of icons to represent users (including this site and the Gravaters) in the comments, there is perhaps more opportunities to display an avatar, the subject of this survey from iShare.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 25th of December 2009 505 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.2% of the sample were male, 38.8% in their twenties, 27.9% in their thirties, and 33.3% in their forties.

I’d have liked to have seen a question on whether people prefer to use an avatar that looks like them or just an actual photo. Looking at my Google Friend Connect (see the bottom of the right sidebar) set of icons, I see the vast majority are actual photos and there might be just one that is a look-alike image (), but since Japanese on the whole feel resistance to revealing names, one cannot make assumptions about Japanese avatar usage based on my primarily western set.

I’ve seen adverts somewhere for generating an avatar based on a photograph you send them, but I’ve not looked into the price.
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