世論 What Japan Thinks

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!
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This week Macromill Research conducted an urgent survey into immediate lifeline support for those that experienced the Great Tohoku Earthquake.

Demographics

Over the 16th and 17th of March 2011 (the Wednesday and Thursday after the earthquake on Friday the 11th) 148,222 members of the Macromill monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. No demographic breakdown was presented, however. 3,140 respondents were affected by the earthquake.

It’s interesting that 31.1% of those unaffected said that they wanted to or had given blood; at work this week we had our regular visit from the blood donation van, yet when it was announced on the PA there was no mention of encouraging people to give this time round to help out, which did seem odd. Being from a mad cow country, however, I cannot donate here in Japan.

This coming financial year I think I reach my once every ten years one month holiday; I am seriously thinking about volunteering to help out up north. I think I’ll also suggest to those further up the chain that this year’s work experience, where a few people select/get selected to work in a retail establishment to experience the front line, also offer the opportunity for people to volunteer to help the recovery of the affected areas.
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[part 1][part 2][part 3][part 4]

Macromill Research recently published the results of a massive yet fascinating study into smartphones, looking at both smartphone users and those wanting to buy. This will be published in four parts.

Demographics

Over the 17th and 18th of February 2011 412 smartphone owning and 206 non-smartphone owning but thinking of buying members of the Macromill monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The 412 smartphone users were split into 290 male and 122 female, 73 in their twenties, 169 in their thirties, 111 in their forties, and 59 aged fifty or older. Furthermore, 209 owned an iPhone, 159 Android-based phones, and the remaining 44 had other OSes or didn’t know. Of the 206 non-smartphone users, 113 were male and 93 female, but their ages were not listed.

Q21 is interesting; the difference between the number of free apps for iPhone versus Android can perhaps partially be explained by the iPhone having been on the market longer, but the paid-for difference is due to people already having their credit card details in iTunes, so the barrier to paying is much lower than that for Android. Furthermore, Apple do not go out of their way to promote free applications, whereas Android users can find plenty of free applications from alternative stores, some of which might even be virus-free.
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[part 1][part 2][part 3][part 4]

Macromill Research recently published the results of a massive yet fascinating study into smartphones, looking at both smartphone users and those wanting to buy. This will be published in four parts.

Demographics

Over the 17th and 18th of February 2011 412 smartphone owning and 206 non-smartphone owning but thinking of buying members of the Macromill monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The 412 smartphone users were split into 290 male and 122 female, 73 in their twenties, 169 in their thirties, 111 in their forties, and 59 aged fifty or older. Furthermore, 209 owned an iPhone, 159 Android-based phones, and the remaining 44 had other OSes or didn’t know. Of the 206 non-smartphone users, 113 were male and 93 female, but their ages were not listed.

In Q14, it’s interesting that over a quarter are tweeting more since getting their smartphone, although it might be a side-effect of the general expansion of Twitter in Japan rather than specifically smartphone-related, as there is a very usable interface for Twitter available for use by most feature phones too.

In Q17, naturally the iPhone comes tops, but the Toshiba Regza being second and fourth (different versions for different carriers) is a bit of a surprise as there is very little advertising that I have seen for it. What is even more interesting is that if you add together Toshiba’s and Samsung’s Galaxy family they beat out the iPhone4, although if you add in the iPhone 3GS Apple is probably second. Also note that Sharp’s Galapagos series are actually Android phones, but as they have customised the OS for their ebook readers, according to Google’s guidelines, they cannot call their phones Android phones.

You’ll also note that Panasonic is conspicuous by its absence, due to them not being due to release a smartphone until Autumn.
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[part 1][part 2][part 3][part 4]

Macromill Research recently published the results of a massive yet fascinating study into smartphones, looking at both smartphone users and those wanting to buy. This will be published in four parts.

Demographics

Over the 17th and 18th of February 2011 412 smartphone owning and 206 non-smartphone owning but thinking of buying members of the Macromill monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The 412 smartphone users were split into 290 male and 122 female, 73 in their twenties, 169 in their thirties, 111 in their forties, and 59 aged fifty or older. Furthermore, 209 owned an iPhone, 159 Android-based phones, and the remaining 44 had other OSes or didn’t know. Of the 206 non-smartphone users, 113 were male and 93 female, but their ages were not listed.

I think the most interesting results are from the dissatisfied iPhone users in Q9B. Battery life is of course the top complaint of all smartphone users, but next is the reception. This is not the infamous Grip of Death (well, that might be an aspect), but rather that SoftBank have the worst reception area of the top three providers. No Flash support comes next, not surprisingly, then the two Japan-specific complaints of a lack of infrared and electronic cash support. I can understand the electronic cash issue, but what are people wanting to do with infrared, or is it just that it is missing from the tick list of standard features?
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[part 1][part 2][part 3][part 4]

Macromill Research recently published the results of a massive yet fascinating study into smartphones, looking at both smartphone users and those wanting to buy. This will be published in four parts.

Demographics

Over the 17th and 18th of February 2011 412 smartphone owning and 206 non-smartphone owning but thinking of buying members of the Macromill monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The 412 smartphone users were split into 290 male and 122 female, 73 in their twenties, 169 in their thirties, 111 in their forties, and 59 aged fifty or older. Furthermore, 209 owned an iPhone, 159 Android-based phones, and the remaining 44 had other OSes or didn’t know. Of the 206 non-smartphone users, 113 were male and 93 female, but their ages were not listed.

I am in the second demographic, but the unlimited data packet plan price puts me off. If I were to buy right now, I’d probably go for the cheapest smartphone at the moment, the LG Optimus Chat with the slide-out keyboard, although I suspect the low-spec screen would annoy me! Secondly, a slightly higher-resolution Samsung Galaxy Tab might do the business, if it meant I could ditch the notebook.
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To follow up on my previous survey from O-Net and Rakuten, here is a pretty massive survey from Macromill Research looking at coming of age in 2011 – it was released on the 7th of January but didn’t appear in their feed until the 28th. This will be presented in three parts.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of December 2010 500 members of the Macromill monitor group born in 1990 or 1991 who would be coming of age in 2011 completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female.

In Q15 I must say I am most happy to see that beer takes its rightful place at the top of the list of things to be glad about when turning twenty! Furthermore, voting coming second is another heartening sign.
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To follow up on my previous survey from O-Net and Rakuten, here is a pretty massive survey from Macromill Research looking at coming of age in 2011 – it was released on the 7th of January but didn’t appear in their feed until the 28th. This will be presented in three parts.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of December 2010 500 members of the Macromill monitor group born in 1990 or 1991 who would be coming of age in 2011 completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female.

In Q7, Q8 and Q9 it’s good to see that the new adults are interested in how the country is being run (into the ground). Let’s hope that they take some action on that, although I wouldn’t want to see activities like are happening in the Middle East as we do have an open and reasonably fair political system here. However, I did actually hear some talking heads on the TV last night looking briefly at whether such events might occur in Japan too.
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To follow up on my previous survey from O-Net and Rakuten, here is a pretty massive survey from Macromill Research looking at coming of age in 2011 – it was released on the 7th of January but didn’t appear in their feed until the 28th. This will be presented in three parts.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of December 2010 500 members of the Macromill monitor group born in 1990 or 1991 who would be coming of age in 2011 completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female.

Not surprising in Q5 top of the desired jobs is working for the government – salaries are pretty good even at the local level, little overtime, and very little chance of being made redundant.
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This survey from Macromill Research takes a look at the latest internet service that is tipped by some to take off in Japan, Facebook, from the perspective of those using it, but these early adoptors seem to be quite different from the typical Japanese.

Demographics

Over the 26th and 27th of January 2011 500 members of the Macromill monitor group who were also Facebook members completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 69.6% of the sample were male, 1.6% in their teens, 20.8% in their twenties, 35.2% in their thirties, 30.2% in their forties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.

Note Q1, 31% having lived overseas. This is very high, and although the survey didn’t define how long to count, the Japanese used indicated that more than a foreign holiday or a business trip would count, and even a short-term homestay might be out of scope. This is backed up by the 30% searching for foreign friends, indicating that it is a more internationalised crowd that sign up for the service.
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