世論 What Japan Thinks

iBridge Research Plus recently conducted a survey into video chat, although the portion that japan.internet.com chose to report on was just on chat in general.

Demographics

On the 15th of February 2010 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% of the sample were female, 11.7% in their twenties, 39.7% in their thirties, 33.7% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 2.3% in their sixties.

I don’t do chat at all, although I have used Skype as a telephone.

Oegaki chat was a new one to me - this is chat through a handwriting interface. I found an interesting article describing this phenomenon that gives a good background on what exactly it is.
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I’ve been hoping such a survey as this one from iBridge Research Plus, reported on by japan.internet.com, on Google services but focusing on just Google Buzz, would appear, as I’ve wanted an excuse to write about Google Buzz.

Demographics

On the 22nd of February 2010 300 people completed a survey; 52.0% of the sample were female, 14.7% in their twenties, 43.0% in their thirties, 28.0% in their forties, 10.3% in their fifties, and 4.0% in their sixties.

Just in case you don’t know, Google Buzz is Google’s attempt at a social networking service based around their core offerings including Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Chat. However, it launched into a storm of privacy complaints and for me, although I didn’t notice any privacy issues I certainly did notice it imposing itself into my Google Reader window, showing me far too much stuff from my contacts’ activities without any way to easily ignore. I soon turned it off, but I might go back in a couple of months to see if they have added any controls to only show me my friends when I want to see them.
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Only one person has actually put their hand in their pocket, but a surprisingly large number of people would not be averse to sending some money to Wikipedia, according to this survey from iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 8th of February 2010 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.7% in their twenties, 26.0% in their thirties, 29.7% in their forties, 21.3% in their fifties, and 6.3% in their sixties.

I wouldn’t give Wikipedia a penny.
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Recently iBridge Research Plus conducted a survey, reported on by japan.internet.com, into search engines.

Demographics

On the 5th of February 2010 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.0% of the sample were female, 18.7% in their twenties, 33.3% in their thirties, 26.3% in their forties, 12.7% in their fifties, and 9.0% in their sixties.

I’d never heard of 百度, Hyakudo before, but a Google (what else!) search informed me that it’s actually read Baidu, the Japanese version of China’s top search engine.
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Despite mobile phones reaching pretty much saturation point, according to recent survey into fixed line phones by iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com less than one in five see fixed lines disappearing in the future.

Demographics

On the 25th of January 2010 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.7% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their twenties, 34.3% in their thirties, 33.7% in their forties, 11.7% in their fifties, and 4.0% in their sixties.

One reason why fixed line phones are not going away, compared to what I imagine trends are in the USA, is that mobile phone deals in Japan contain very, very few free minutes. SoftBank are the most generous, offering basically free calls to all SoftBank phones, and the other two main carriers have free family and friend calls to certain numbers, but otherwise mobile calls are pretty expensive compared to fixed line phones, and calls to mobile numbers also carry a premium.
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iBridge Research Plus recently conducted a survey into family phone bills, which was reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 12th of January 2010 300 married female members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 6.0% of the sample were in their twenties, 38.3% in their thirties, 34.3% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 5.7% in their sixties.

Both our phone bills come out of the family budget. I personally run up 2,600 yen per month on just about the cheapest plan going, wifey 8,000 yen or so depending on how many voice calls she makes.

Without knowing the number of people with school-aged mobile phone owning children, it’s difficult to judge if the 41 people in Q1SQ1 who pay children’s bills is large or small.
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Despite Japan having just about the cheapest and fastest home internet connections on the planet, this recent survey from iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com into home internet connections found the vast majority felt their pipes got quite blocked.

Demographics

On the 14th of December 2009 300 members of the iBridge Research Plus monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were male, 13.0% in their twenties, 26.7% in their thirties, 35.3% in their forties, 17.0% in their fifties, and 8.0% in their sixties.

Despite 91.3% being on some form of broadband at home, nearly half reported a walking-speed connection. They may have low-end computers, but one cannot help wondering if 42% using Windows Explorer has anything to do with it? On my home PC, Opera flies, but my wife uses Internet Explorer 8 and it is ridiculously slow to create a new page (I’d vote tortoise rather than walking…), a combination of her having too many bookmarks and, I suspect, Rakuten toolbar.
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Although all electronic book readers in Japan have died a death since the very first one in 1990, with even big manufacturer-backed models like Panasonic’s Sigma Book and Sony’s Librie failing, Amazon’s Kindle and even Sony’s western models are flying off the shelves. To see if there are any signs of life in the Japan market, iBridge Research Plus looked at electronic book readers in a report published on japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 28th of December 2009 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.0% of the sample were male, 11.7% in their twenties, 31.3% in their thirties, 31.0% in their forties, 16.7% in their fifties, and 9.3% in their sixties.

For me too the current price of around 20,000 to 30,000 yen for the average reader is a bit much, especially as most companies haven’t got the interface quite right yet, judging from the reviews. As to why people are setting their price tag so low, perhaps it has something to do with the already-established user-base for mobile phone-based reading material?
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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.
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This is the first I’ve heard of such a thing as social lending, cash loans between individuals, but I consider myself educated after reading this survey on the matter conducted by iBridge Research Plus and reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

On the 30th of November 2009 300 members of the iBridge monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 9% in their twenties, 31.7% in their thirties, 38.7% in their forties, 14.7% in their fifties, and 6.0% in their sixties.

There are apparently two main types of social lending; auction style (maneo being one example) and market style with AQUSH being one of this style.

I don’t think I’d touch any of these services with a barge pole - I would fear that they would be even more scammer-riddled than the average auction site!
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