世論 What Japan Thinks

japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey by goo Research into mobile video use, the fifth time this regular survey has been conducted.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 6th of September 2012 1,015 mobile phone-using or smartphone-using members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private mobile internet-based questionnaire. 60.3% of the sample were female, 3.4% in their teens, 22.5% in their twenties, 36.3% in their thirties, 26.1% in their forties, and 11.7% aged fifty or older.

Being on a non-unlimited plan, I don’t watch any video on my mobile phone, and anyway I have a portable audio and video device on which I watch video. I’m currently making my way through The Goodies at a one episode per day pace, downloaded to my PC then converted to MPEG4 for consumption on the mobile device.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by goo Research on a topic close to the heart of many of my readers, I suspect, that of English study.

Demographics

Between the 28th of August and 3rd of September 2012 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

It does seem surprising to me that people seemed most keen on using their smartphone to improve their speaking skill, but it does suggest that the various Skype-based English lessons should ensure they support smartphone clients, and given the popularity that LINE has in Japan, supporting its new voice call feature too would seem like an easy way to expand one’s business.
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japan.internet.com recently published the results of a survey by goo Research into smartphone apps, with the focus of the report being on the number and types of downloads.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 9th of August 2012 1,076 members of the goo Research online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53,2% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 16.0% in their forties, 15.4% in their fifties, and 12.0% aged sixty or older.

The introduction to the survey mentions a notion I have too, that when there is a choice of a free and a paid version of the same app, it is better to pay just to avoid the in-app advertisements. For my part, I am still to play Angry Birds, and one of the reasons I won’t touch the Android version is that I have heard that the advertisements actually block the gameplay. It’s also worth mentioning that the carrier au by KDDI offers for a reasonable monthly fee all the apps you can download from their own store.

I’ve paid for exactly one app, Paper Camera, when it was on sale for 40 yen last year. All my five or six other downloaded apps are specially chosen not to have any in-game advertisements; if you’re a Sudoku fan, I can most heartily recommend Andoku for all your numerical fun, and QuickPic to replace the pretty useless stock Android gallery app.
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japan.internet.com recently reported on the 5th regular survey by goo Research into mobile phone, smartphone upgrades.

Demographics

Between the 27th and 31st of July 2012 exactly 1,000 mobile phone-using members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.2% of the sample were female, 1.0% in their teens, 12.7% in their twenties, 25.4% in their thirties, 31.6% in their forties, and 29.3% aged fifty or older.

I’m biased because I work there, but I hope in the next survey Panasonic will do better, not just because their new flagship ELUGA model is due to be released in Japan, but also this week there has been two interesting smartphone-related announcements, both of which I have an indirect relationship with. First is NFC-enabled fridges, etc, then there is the Japan release of a MirrorLink-ready phone (said ELUGA) and car navigation system.
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With what seems like most television commercials in Japan featuring a search keyword, and a few more specifically pointing to a continuation of the advert story on their web site, goo Research decided to take a look at television commercials with web search prompts, with the results of the survey being reported on japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 23th and 25th of July 2012 1,100 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.4% in their teens, 17.8% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.4% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

What might have been a nice question to ask regarding these people who searched for a keyword but couldn’t find the page would have been what search engine they used, and if they used any sort of advertisement blocker.

I don’t think I’ve ever searched for a keyword from a television advertisement, so I’ll cheat by searching for the Japanese for “Continued on the web”, and present the first related video that I can embed in my post, so apologies in advance if the following is incredibly boring!

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I occasionally search various variants of my name just to make sure my Google profile remains relatively clean, so I’m quite used to seeing it appear, but this survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into web search focused on how the Japanese search for themselves and people they know.

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 5th of July 2012 1,092 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.4% of the sample were male, 16.1% in their teens, 17.9% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, 16.7% in their fifties, and 12.4% aged sixty or older.

Actually, recently I get annoyed when I search for my name as my Google+ posting history is crowding out the long tail just a bit too much these days.

I’ve searched for my wife, but there’s nothing in Japanese and just one wrong hit about a UK-based ballroom dancer with the same name. However, she has another name that can be searched to produce her graduation photos, although I’m not going to tell you what that is.
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japan.internet.com recently reported the results of the fourth regular survey by goo Research into electronic books.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 5th of July 2012 1,078 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their teens, 17.4% in their twenties, 21.6% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, and 28.1% aged fifty or older.

I meant to publish this much earlier, but thanks to my delay an interesting story has blown up regarding Rakuten’s kobo reader. My wife had been asking me if she should buy it, as she was being offered a good members-only price, and I was making positive sounds, but then Rakuten started deleting negative comments, and have now made a press release stating that it’s all fine, just people jumped the gun with the reviews, although to be honest I find that line difficult to believe.
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A recent kerfuffle in the Japanese web community involved 2 channel, the world’s largest bulletin board service, banning certain summary sites from not just copying thread highlights, but also editing the occasional comment to add affiliate links, so this survey from goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at what people thought about it.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 15th of June 2012 1,092 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 15.8% in their forties, 16.0% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

I’d like to link to some of the sites that were banned – note that the ban was not a legal ban, just a public warning – but they really are heavily-wrapped in dodgy adverts for dodgy comics and figurines. Instead, here’s a link to a more detailed write-up of the story.
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A recent survey by goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, looked at mobile devices, the fourth regular survey in the series. This report focused on tablet computer use.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 15th of May 2012 1,073 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.2% in the thirties, 16.0% in their forties, and 28.0% aged fifty or older.

The big news recently in tablets is the official announcement of Microsoft Surface, so in lieu of a graph, here’s a video:

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goo Research recently conducted a survey on, for a change, not mobile phone upgrades, but computer upgrades.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 18th of May 2012 1,093 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.6% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

I am thinking of buying a new desktop – my primary computer is my wee netbook, but our desktop is getting filled up with photos and also running short of memory due to the newer browsers being a bit more hungry. If I were to get a new portable, I’d be in the market for something netbook-sized, but that niche seems to have been squeezed out of the game by a combination of tablets, ultra-portables and over-speccing pricing themselves out of their niche.

Ultrabooks are getting heavy advertising in Japan – the “tra” of “ultra” sounds like “tiger” in Japanese, but don’t ask me why they are dancing in front of a Planet Moon of the Apes backdrop…

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