世論 What Japan Thinks

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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2ch is an enormous (the largest in the world, in fact) bulletin board system with an interface that looks as it hasn’t changed since dial-up BBSes were all the rage. This survey from RealWorld RealResearch and reported on by japan.internet.com looked at 2ch, with a particular focus on tools for reading 2ch a bit more efficiently.

Demographics

Over the 22nd and 23rd of July 2009 1,014 members of the RealWorld RealResearch monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.1% of the sample were male, 8.5% in their teens, 7.7% in their twenties, 11.4% in their thirties, 37.5% in their forties, 19.5% in their fifties, and 15.4% aged sixty or older.

Amongst the English-speaking foreigner community, it is perhaps the more seedy and rabidly right-wing corners of 2ch that are best-known, although whenever someone mentions this there’s usually someone else who pops up to tell us of the wonders of the other portions of the site. I occassionally try to find these parts, but I’m afraid the ugliness of the site defeats me every time!
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