世論 What Japan Thinks

In the US and the UK I get the distinct impression that the netbook market is in a rush for the bottom, but here in Japan, premium-priced mini-notebooks seem to be the norm according to this recent survey from Media Interactive reported on by japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Over the 16th and 17th of February 2010 1,000 internet users completed a survey, although the means of gathering this sample was not described. 53.1% of the sample were male, 0.8% in their teens, 13.8% in their twenties, 31.3% in their thirties, 28.3% in their forties, 17.9% in their fifties, and 7.9% in their sixties.

I’ve now had my MSI Wind for about four months; I picked it up for under 300 dollars in the US, and it works great as a second PC that I can use when my wife’s busy with the main computer, or for stuffing in my rucksack whenever I have a solo train ride with 20 minutes or more to kill.
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This survey by Media Interactive, reported on by japan.internet.com, into Q&A sites found that most people find them reliable enough.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 4th of February 2010 1,000 members of the Media Interactive monitor group who had used or even just viewed Q&A sites completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.4% of the sample were male, 1.3% in their teens, 17.6% in their twenties, 32.9% in their thirties, 29.0% in their forties, 15.0% in their fifties, and 4.2% in their sixties.

I did use Yahoo! Answers in English for a bit, both asking and answering, but… The answers were mostly OK, but auite often I’d see incorrect information being promoted, making it even worse than Wikipedia for reliability.
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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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Last month I had a look at buying habits on Yahoo! Auction, so as a complement today I look at selling on Yahoo! Auction, in a survey from Media Interactive (iResearch) reported on japan.internet.com.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 7th of January 2010 1,000 people who had sold items on Yahoo! Auction completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.4% of the sample were male, 0.5% in their teens, 13.6% in their twenties, 39.3% in their thirties, 31.6% in their forties, 12.0% in their fifties, and 3.0% in their sixties.

It does seem that sellers are quite busy, with over two in five selling at least once a month. I’d love to find out more about what they are selling and if they are doing it as a real business or just selling off books they’ve read and clothes they’ve got bored with. Have any of my readers had any experiences of Japan online auctions?
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In Japan, Yahoo! Auction rules the roost, and this recent survey from Media Interactive (iResearch) into Yahoo! Auction showed that they also had the payment side of the auction well-covered too.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 9th of December 2009 1,400 people who had won auctions on Yahoo! completed a private internet-based questionnaire, although how exactly they found the 1,400 winners was not described. 52.1% of the sample were male, 0.6% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 35.6% in their thirties, 31.2% in their forties, 13.1% in their fifties, and 4.1% in their sixties.

Yahoo! Simple Checkout is not like the standard for Ebay auctions, PayPal, in that it is not a bank-like entity but instead a trusted go-between so that there is no direct exchange of banking details. Yahoo! Simple Checkout can also be used when shopping through Yahoo! services, so there is no need to give your credit card details to the shops, just your Yahoo! Simple Checkout details.
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CNET Japan recently published the results of a survey conducted by a new-to-me research company, Media Interactive, regarding the video sharing site “YouTube”. The complete survey is not available, so this report may appear to be incomplete in parts. My apologies in advance. Recently the issue of respecting copyright on YouTube in Japan has become quite a major topic.

Over the first two days of February they interviewed 2,186 members of their internet monitor group (sign up here for iResearch and perhaps win a Wii, iPod, DS, etc) over the age of 18 by means of a private internet-based questionnaire. No demographic information is available, however.
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