世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s an interesting survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com looking at computer usage of mobile phone users, the fourth in the series of regular surveys.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 19th of February 2008 1,067 members of the goo Research mobile monitor group completed a mobile phone internet-based questionnaire. 57.5% of the sample were female, 3.9% in their teens, 29.2% in their twenties, 40.2% in their thirties, 21.4% in their forties, and 5.2% aged fifty or older. Note that one way that they recruit their mobile monitors is by getting them to enter their mobile phone email address when they apply to be a PC monitor, so bear that in mind while reading the results.

My mobile web use is limited to the occassional dictionary lookup and downloading of animated email icons, for reasons of it being too expensive, too slow, and too restrictive.

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Looking at my recent statistics, everyone seems pretty much ad-blind on WJT, so looking at this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into internet advertising, their third regular survey on this subject, it looks like I need to get more goo monitors visiting my site!

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 5th of February 2009 1,092 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, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, and 28.0% aged fifty or older.

I think one can infer that the 15.3% in Q1SQ1 who find advertisements useful includes most if not all of the 14.3% in Q1SQ2 who purchased items as the result of a click. Although one in seven have made a purchase through a search click, there is no information to the total number of clicks to total number of purchases. In addition, not all clicks are through to purchases; indeed I’ve just blocked one advertiser who is promoting their site that contains nothing but stolen content (in fact, twice-stolen, most likely), which I thought was against the Google AdWords rules.
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It’s now about a year since acTVila launched, a facility for using your television as a media centre, allowing download of movies (and other contents) on demand for both free and pay contents. This recent survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at this subject of acTVila.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 15th of February 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were female, 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 14.l7% in their fifties, and 5.3% aged sixty or older.

I’m very surprised to see that a quarter of all digital television watchers have plugged their television into the internet. Although my HDD player is network ready, I’ve never had the urge to plug it in as I don’t really see what the point is. It would enable me to program it remotely from a mobile phone, but I’ve never been in the situation where I thought this might be useful.

On the other hand, I have got a bunch of ideas about what features might encourage more people to plug in which I plan to talk about at work next Monday, so I’d better not say anything here as my employer will no doubt want to bury them in the patent process.

Oh, and sorry for the delay in posting, but I’m in Athens on a business trip, and I couldn’t get my internet to work in the airport lounges along the way!
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I’ve looked a number of times at YouTube and Nico Nico Douga, but this survey from MyVoice is a little different, looking at movie delivery (and streaming) services that focus more on commercial content.

Demographics

Over the first five days of January 2009 14,034 members of the MyVoice internet community completed a private online questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens, 14% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 30% in their forties, and 18% aged fifty or older.

I don’t think I’ve ever actually used a commercial movie streaming or delivery service myself, and I can’t really see myself paying for it. I get Star Channel on cable, so I suppose if they offered a similar service for download direct to my DVD recorder, I perhaps could pay a monthly fee. AcTVila offers that sort of service through one’s television and Blu-ray recorder, but as can be seen here the take-up is quite low, but then again it is a new service.

Note that although I refer to movies in the translation below, the services also cover re-runs of television shows, etc.
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As I’ve just recently had a request from work to complete some online training, this recent survey from Marsh Inc and reported on by japan.internet.com into e-learning is quite timely for me.

Demographics

Over the 7th and 8th of January 2009 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 20.0% 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.

The training I’ve been asked to complete is some stuff on copyright and intellectual property, all in Japanese of course, in some sort of Flash-based presentation that I’ve not tried yet. I once did a similar course with quite nice software that came with full text of all the script, so I could easily cut-and-paste words I didn’t understand into a dictionary. However, the course was ridiculously easy; it just seemed like a way to force you to sit through 10 or 15 hours of lectures, with the implication, of course, that you do it all on your own time, not at work.
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Well, given the sample internet population that replied to this questionnaire that headline is true, as revealed by a recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into internet auctions.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 7th of January 2009 1,027 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I’ve never participated in an internet auction, as the worry about getting ripped-off outweighs any financial benefit that I feel I would gain from using it.

If you want to take part in a Japanese auction but live overseas, one easy way is through a Japan-based representative, with Rinku being one well-known example.
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Widgets are now even finding their way onto mobile phones (now that would be an interesting survey!), but this survey from RealWorld RealResearch and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at widgets (or gadgets) on computer desktops.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of January 2009 1,020 members of the RealResearch monitor pool completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.6% of the sample were male, 7.3% in their teens, 27.4% in their twenties, 30.9% in their thirties, 25.4% in their forties, 7.5% in their fifties, and 1.6% aged sixty or older.

I looked a while ago at widgets according to MyVoice, which might be a useful cross-reference for this survey.

I don’t use widgets as they clutter up the desktop; I keep all my add-ons under control in toolbars. Perhaps if I invested in a wide-screen monitor I could afford to reserve some space, but then again I cannot think of any widgets I actually want to use! However, at work around half my colleagues run a desktop calendar widget, however as far as I can determine it doesn’t feature (or nobody uses) any schedule reminder functions.

In Q2, you’ll note it interesting that an RSS reading widget did not appear explicitly on the list. Although RSS is not that popular in Japan, I would have thought it merited its own category rather than, perhaps, being lumped into the “site or service latest information” category. I’d also have thought music players would be more popular.
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As a sort-of follow-up on my earlier post on Wikipedia’s dominance of Japanese search engines, here’s a survey from Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com into Wikipedia.

Demographics

On the 13th of January 2009 300 members of the Research Plus monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 15.7% in their twenties, 37.0% in their thirties, 32.3% in their forties, 11.7% in their fifties, and 3.3% in their sixties.

It’s interesting to see that only a third of the Wikipedia users saw the request for donations as it was a very large banner, indicating a degree of ad blindness even higher than for contextual advertising.
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

This extremely detailed survey from goo Research in conjunction with the NTT DATA Institute of Management Consulting, Inc looked at old people and computer and internet usage, and comparing these habits with that of younger people.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 16th of September 2008 1,064 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 67.5% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 7.0% in their twenties, 17.4% in their thirties, 12.5% in their forties, 6.0% in their fifties, and 56.1% aged sixty or older. Note that everyone in the sample had access to a computer and has signed up to goo Research as a monitor, so please be aware of that before extrapolating the behaviour observed here to the general population of Japan.

In Q13, I hope the tiny percentage applying security patches excludes those getting pushed Windows updates automatically, and similarly I hope there are a lot of people unaware that their Windows firewall is on. I also wonder what the overlap between those with local anti-virus and those with their service provider’s virus scanning is. Most providers offer the scanning only as a premium service, even though solutions like AVG anti-virus will do everything for free.

In Q16 it is entertaining to see that the only things old folk do on line more than their juniors is share trading, dating, and Second Life!
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[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

This extremely detailed survey from goo Research in conjunction with the NTT DATA Institute of Management Consulting, Inc looked at old people and computer and internet usage, and comparing these habits with that of younger people.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 16th of September 2008 1,064 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 67.5% of the sample were male, 0.9% in their teens, 7.0% in their twenties, 17.4% in their thirties, 12.5% in their forties, 6.0% in their fifties, and 56.1% aged sixty or older. Note that everyone in the sample had access to a computer and has signed up to goo Research as a monitor, so please be aware of that before extrapolating the behaviour observed here to the general population of Japan.

In Q10 I an very surprised to see the majority of people use a spreadsheet on their home computer, and I wish I knew what sorts of uses they put it to. However, having observed at work how we get everything from databases to memos (yes, our middle-manager meeting minutes come delivered every week as a huge text box drawn in the middle of an otherwise blank spreadsheet) get delivered in Excel I cannot begin to guess what they are doing. The other surprising thing about the figure is that that many have Office installed; I’ve not seen any surveys that suggest anything other than a Microsoft monopoly at work, so why not at home too? Open Office or other free alternatives do not have the penetration in Japan.
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