世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by goo Research into video sharing services, and found, not much to anyone’s surprise I would guess, that very few had actually paid for video content online.

Demographics

Between the 10th and 13th of April 2012 1,095 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the samples were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

I use video sites sometimes, myself. I keep wondering if I should get into the video blogging business – just straightforward talking head nonsense, but I’ve got a good face for radio, and a good voice for newspapers. I’d probably also need some shtick – I remember being quite impressed a few years ago by someone who did a podcast whilst walking through Tokyo, but it all boils down to that I’m just too shy to do my thing in public!
Read the rest of this entry »

According to a survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into online dictionaries, the satisfied, dissatisfied and on the fence online translation tool users each make up significant groups.

Demographics

Between the 16th and 19th of April 2012 1,099 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 18.5% in their twenties, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

I recently came across a case where the Japanese user appears to have been satisfied, but the native English speaker on the other end was quite dissatsified with the output. Scroll down a page or two, and you’ll see comments like:

Oh, sorry, I should give up for now. Ha ha. Without looking at the Japanese, I can’t really figure out exactly what is being said! Maybe Kaneishi will have things ready soon. I’m happy to use my Kanji reader to do the short things like this. No problem, as long as I have the Japanese script to copy onto the Kanji reader website.

Read the rest of this entry »

japan.internet.com reported on the results of the third regular survey by goo Research into electronic books and uncovered some surprising usage patterns.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 5h of April 2012 1,090 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.6% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.2% in their forties, and 27.7% aged fifty or older.

I’ve read bits and pieces of electronic books online from a PC, and downloaded to a PC and a PDA. I’d like to get a Kindle, although having said that I’ve still got a few paper books lying around that I haven’t got round to reading yet!
Read the rest of this entry »

This is the rather disappointing (from my point of view) results from a recent survey by goo Research, their third regular survey into internet advertising, reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 27th of March 2012 1,078 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 17.8% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, and 27.8% aged fifty or older. As a short aside, I never understand why half the goo Research demographics report the over fifties and over sixties separately, while the other half, such as this survey, report them together. The other demographic figures are very similar in every non-mobile-targeted survey, so I think one can safely assume that there about 15% in their fifties and 12% aged sixty or over in today’s sample.

Recently my advertising return has been remarkably low for AdSense – all of number of clicks, revenue per click, and CPM rates have some days been so low that it feels like I must be running some utterly inappropriate advertising. Have any of my readers noticed strange or even no adverts appearing?
Read the rest of this entry »

goo Research recently took a look at keeping in touch with close friends, with the surprising result in the headline reported in japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 24th of March 2012 1,082 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 17.8% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

Knowing what I know about Japan, email and telephone being top are not surprising to me, but I was most taken aback by ordinary post coming in third! Thinking more closely, the mixi, Twitter and Facebook figures correlate to the penetration of these SNS within Japan, but I suspect that the old-fashioned post includes New Year postcards, where even I often exchange annual greetings with ex-colleagues who have moved to other divisions within my employer.
Read the rest of this entry »

Mobile and computer-based web site viewing, one of goo Ranking’s regular surveys, took an interesting turn in this report on japan.internet.com, where they described the result of specific questions to tablet owners. However, the sample size was tiny so the data cannot really be trusted.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 14th of March 2012 1,093 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private mobile internet-based questionnaire. 59.3% of the sample were female, 3.5% in their teens, 26.4% in their twenties, 33.2% in their thirties, 25.8% in their forties, and 11.1% aged fifty or older. Note that the survey includes smartphone users, and would also include tablet users who had a mobile phone contract attached to theirs.

I’ve considered getting a tablet myself, and if I were to I’d probably choose the four top reasons as listed below!
Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, Macromill Research took a close look at the usage patterns of 500 Facebook users, a survey that revealed a number of interesting trends. As it’s quite a large survey, I’ll split it into two parts.

Demographics

Over the 16th and 17th of February 2012 500 members of the Macromill monitor group who were current users of Facebook completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.8% of the sample were male, 2.2% in their teens, 21.2% in their twenties, 30.6% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 21.0% aged fifty or older.

One trend that can be seen comparing with last year is that the Japanese users are less concerned about the international nature. I don’t believe one can really ascribe that shift to some change in Japanese society’s view of foreigners, but instead I think it is just a natural shift given that according to Q2, over 60% of the users joined since the start of last year, so now there are more real-life Japanese friends to find.
Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, Macromill Research took a close look at the usage patterns of 500 Facebook users, a survey that revealed a number of interesting trends. As it’s quite a large survey, I’ll split it into two parts.

Demographics

Over the 16th and 17th of February 2012 500 members of the Macromill monitor group who were current users of Facebook completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 61.8% of the sample were male, 2.2% in their teens, 21.2% in their twenties, 30.6% in their thirties, 25.0% in their forties, and 21.0% aged fifty or older.

It’s funny, but true overall, I think, that food is the top subject for posts and likes! I recently witnessed on Google+ (I’m not active at all on Facebook) a naturalised Japanese friend of mine post what I thought looked like quite an ordinary meal, but it managed about 12 +1s (likes), and every single one of these was from a Japanese name!
Read the rest of this entry »

This survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into vending machines and public wifi found that not just awareness, but also use was a bit higher than I might have expected.

Demographics

Between the 31st of January and the 2nd of February 2012 1,074 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.4% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.1% int heir twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

There really is a dearth of public wifi in this country, so even if the service is like the one in San Francisco airport which requires you to watch a 30 second video (that can be fast-forwarded through) I’ll be really keen to use it, as I’m a stingy git who tries not to use his normal 3G data.

Here seems to be the home page of the provider of free wifi for Asahi vending machines, FREEMOBILE. They are a bit thin on the ground in Tokyo, non-existant in Osaka, but all over the Nagoya area.

Have any of my readers tried them out? How are they?
Read the rest of this entry »

A recent survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into internet foodstuff delivery services, implying in Japanese ingredients more than finished product, I think, or in other words, general groceries as in the headline.

Demographics

Between the 6th and 8th of February 2012 1,108 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.1% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.6% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

It must be because I live in a posh block of flats as there’s definitely more than just 4.5% of the residents who regularly get home delivery from the Co-op. The wife occasionally shops for food online, but I don’t think a bag of rice once a month really counts as home delivery groceries.
Read the rest of this entry »