One of the highlights of New Year shopping in Japan is buying a fukubukuro, which literally translates to “lucky bag”, so goo Research conducted a survey, reported on by japan.internet.com, on this very subject.
Demographics
Between the 6th and 11th of January 2010 1,089 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.2% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.
My lucky bag purchasing this year was limited as usual to a Mr Donuts one. For 1,000 yen I got my own selection of any ten doughnuts or pies, plus a wall calendar, a Pon-De-Ring lion cellphone strap, a blanket, and a Honey Shippo squirrel stuffed toy. They used to be better with a plate or mug and a diary, however.
I also managed to sell two Strapya Fukubukuro – hurry, there’s still some left!
Oh, and in Q1SQ2 I’d love to know who spent over a million yen on a fukubukuro over the internet. Read the rest of this entry »
This recent survey from iShare into web browsers contains some fascinating and surprising data on preferences amongst a quite experienced sample of internet surfers.
Demographics
Between the 14th and 17th of December 2009 468 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.3% of the sample were male, 33.3% in their twenties, 34.6% in their thirties, and 32.1% in their forties.
As you can see from Q1, most of the sample have over 10 years of web use under their belts, yet although one associates Internet Explorer with newbies and Firefox with experts, the data shows Explorer about a third ahead of Firefox.
Sleipnir is basically a new skin for Internet Explorer, but it does seem quite popular in my office, and Lunascape is a three-in-one Internet Explorer plus Firefox plus Google Chrome/Safari.
Recently, Marsh Inc performed a survey into online map searching, the results of which were reported by japan.internet.com.
Demographics
Between the 7th and 9th of January 2010 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, 1.3% in their teens, 18.7% 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.
Thinking about it, I don’t usually do map search – for Japanese-language searches, just entering the address into Google usually turns up a direct link to a map site or an official page with an embedded map, and for English-language searches Google usually inlines a map in the main results. The last time I directly searched was when I was going on holiday to Europe and wanted to get driving directions from Google Maps. Read the rest of this entry »
Between the 5th and 7th of January 2010 1,000 people who had sold items on Yahoo! Auction completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.4% of the sample were male, 0.5% in their teens, 13.6% in their twenties, 39.3% in their thirties, 31.6% in their forties, 12.0% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.
It does seem that sellers are quite busy, with over two in five selling at least once a month. I’d love to find out more about what they are selling and if they are doing it as a real business or just selling off books they’ve read and clothes they’ve got bored with. Have any of my readers had any experiences of Japan online auctions? Read the rest of this entry »
Not being a member of the biggest SNS in Japan, mixi appli (ie applets), the subject of this survey from goo research and reported on by japan.internet.com, are a total unknown to me, but they appear to be widgets that one can decorate one’s mixi page with.
Demographics
Between the 21st and 25th of December 2009 1,085 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.
With Facebook perhaps poised to do a full-on launch in Japan, iShare decided to look at Facebook’s requirement for real names, and real names on the internet in general.
Demographics
Between the 7th and 10th of December 2009 492 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.4% of the sample were male, 30.1% in their twenties, 28.5% in their thirties, and 41.5% in their forties.
I’ve got no problem using my real name, although I know my wife is pretty paranoid about doing so for various reasons that seem rather unclear to me. “People will know who you are and…” but I never find out what comes after the “and”. This does seem to be a rather common trait on the Japanese internet, as more often than not there are no names and no unobscured faces adorning the average blog.
In Japan, Yahoo! Auction rules the roost, and this recent survey from Media Interactive (iResearch) into Yahoo! Auction showed that they also had the payment side of the auction well-covered too.
Demographics
Between the 7th and 9th of December 2009 1,400 people who had won auctions on Yahoo! completed a private internet-based questionnaire, although how exactly they found the 1,400 winners was not described. 52.1% of the sample were male, 0.6% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 35.6% in their thirties, 31.2% in their forties, 13.1% in their fifties, and 4.1% in their sixties.
Yahoo! Simple Checkout is not like the standard for Ebay auctions, PayPal, in that it is not a bank-like entity but instead a trusted go-between so that there is no direct exchange of banking details. Yahoo! Simple Checkout can also be used when shopping through Yahoo! services, so there is no need to give your credit card details to the shops, just your Yahoo! Simple Checkout details. Read the rest of this entry »
Since most Japanese mobile phones these days support HTML-styled email with embedded graphics and font selection, it is not surprising that as with computer email, mobile phone newsletter publishers are also now delivering their wares in a more flashy form. To find out the extent of this, japan.internet.com reported on the relevant part of goo Research’s 12th regular mobile phone users’ computer use survey.
Demographics
Between the 7th and 10th of December 2009 1,060 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private mobile phone-based questionnaire. 55.6% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 27.3% in their twenties, 31.7% in their thirties, 18.1% in their forties, and 6.3% aged fifty or older.
Decomail (sometimes shortened to just decome) is short for decoration mail, which means at its simplest HTML-based email, but usually implies embedded graphics.
I once got a picture-laden newsletter from the masters of spam agressive marketing, Rakuten, but I soon cancelled as I realised I was paying about 20 yen in packet charges just to look at the email! I still get about three newsletters to my mobile, but they are all just plain text. Read the rest of this entry »
iBridge Research Plus’s love affair with young Japanese women and their internet habits continues with them looking at web email forwarding functions, as reported on by japan.internet.com.
Demographcis
On the 7th of December 2009 300 members of the iBridge Research Plus monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. All 300 were female, 18.7% were in their twenties, 43.0% in their thirties, and 38.3% in their forties.
iBridge Research Plus last looked at young women just last month, where they examined their use of Gmail.
I’m quite surprised at the number who know that their web email can be forwarded! I can’t tell you about Gmail, as I usually use the POP3 interface instead. However, my iShare surveys use the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service as their base demographic and have pretty balanced gender split, so perhaps the figure is representative of the average mobile phone user. I’d also have liked to have seen a reason why people use the forwarding services. Read the rest of this entry »
The granddaddy of Japanese SNS, mixi, seems to be losing ground in the mobile phone world, faced by the challenge from casual game-centric SNSs, according to the results of this survey from Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile Social Networking Services (SNS).
Demographics
On the 9th of December 2009 800 mobile phone user completed a private mobile phone-based survey. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 25.0% in their teens, 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, and 25.0% in their forties.
This recent survey from iShare into 
Recently, Marsh Inc performed a survey into 
Last month I had a look at 
Not being a member of the biggest SNS in Japan, 
With Facebook perhaps poised to do a full-on launch in Japan, iShare decided to look at Facebook’s requirement for real names, and 
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Since most Japanese mobile phones these days support HTML-styled email with embedded graphics and font selection, it is not surprising that as with computer email, mobile phone newsletter publishers are also now delivering their wares in a more flashy form. To find out the extent of this, japan.internet.com reported on the relevant part of goo Research’s 
The granddaddy of Japanese SNS, mixi, seems to be losing ground in the mobile phone world, faced by the challenge from casual game-centric SNSs, according to the results of this survey from Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into 
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