世論 What Japan Thinks

This recent survey from Media Interactive looked at upgrading to a smartphone, specifically from current Japanese feature phones, often called Galapagos mobiles in both English and Japanese due to their unique evolution to fit the needs of the Japanese market.

Demographics

Between the 9th and 11th of December 2011 300 feature phone-using members of the iResearch monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. No further demographic information was provided.

There definitely is a problem regarding viruses, worms and other malware on Android in particular, but it is debatable how likely the average user is to encounter them; I would guess that not often enough to make buying a virus scanner a good investment. Do any of my readers use smartphone virus scanners, and if so, why and how?

Looking at the list of negative reasons from Q1, if one thinks about the iPhone on SoftBank, lack of electronic cash, infrared and One Seg (terrestrial digital television), a need to change email addresses (I believe), poor reception, lack of design choice and no waterproofing all count against it. For Android phones from Japanese manufacturers on Docomo, virus worries and perhaps a lack of apps (or at least a perception of a lack) count against it. That gives a total of 62.3 points against the iPhone, versus 29.7 against Android, about twice as few negative votes for Android. Curiously enough, just about twice as many people want an Android versus an iPhone4S according to Q3 and Q4.
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A recent survey from Media Interactive (iResearch) and reported on by japan.internet.com took a look at the matter of servers, with this particular article focusing on the virtualisation aspect. I’ll apologise in advance for the technical nature of this, but it’s something I’m interested in, and it’s one aspect of Cloud Computing, another buzzword that does the rounds a lot without many people particularly knowing what it actually means.

Demographics

On the 27th of August 2010 300 members of the Media Interactive monitor group who worked in organisations and has the power of approval for server purchases completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The respondents were between 20 and 79 years old, but no further demographic information was given.

Cloud Computing is one of these terms with different meaning for different people. My definition is using resources from a pool of resources, with the usage expanding and contracting on demand, and charging being based on the usage. On which device, or how many devices, or who else is sharing the device is unimportant, just that the resources are available somewhere.
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This isn’t the first survey to indicate this, but this recent survey from Media Interactive, reported on by japan.internet.com, into Apple’s iPhone backed up statistics on the iPhone being almost as much a second phone as an only phone.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 23rd of June 2010 exactly 1,000 internet users completed an online survey. 51.5% of the sample were male, 0.8% in their teens, 15.2% in their twenties, 30.2% in their thirties, 29.1% in their forties, 17.1% in their fifties, and 7.6% in their sixties.

You may want to check out yesterday’s look at the iPad.

I must admit to feeling a bit jealous of iPhone and other smartphone users these days, and sadly my summer bonus isn’t enough to cover an upgrade. However, I won’t touch SoftBank, and docomo’s recent annoucement of their removal of SIM Lock from next year will probably delay my upgrade even longer.

Note that the survey was conducted between the 21st and 23rd of June, but the iPhone 4 didn’t go on sale until the day after, 24th June 2010, and that the 2G original iPhone was never released in Japan.
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This recent look by Media Interactive (iResearch), reported on by japan.internet.com, into translation web sites found, surprisingly to me, that Google Translate was nowhere to be seen.

Demographics

Over the 7th and 8th of June 2010 1,000 internet users who had used translation web sites completed a survey. 57.1% of the sample were male, 1.1% were in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 29.6% in their thirties, 28.5% in their forties, 14.8% in their fifties, and 7.6% in their sixties.

Just to test out the sites, in Q1 I’ve fed in the first sentence the article, “ポータルサイトを中心に各社が翻訳サービスを提供しているが、ユーザーの利用状況はどうだろうか。”, which I would manually translate as “Focused around portal sites, various companies offer translation services, but how do users use them?” For the Other category, I’ll use Google Translate, since I mentioned its omission above. Also note that Yahoo! use Babelfish on their English site, which gives this translation “Focusing on the portal sight each company offers translation service, but will utilization circumstance of the user how probably be?”, which is probably the worst of the lot, especially as it doesn’t seem to be aware of the common phrase “portal site”!
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This recent survey from Media Interative (iResearch), reported on by japan.internet.com, into pirates uncovered quite surprising data on purchased pirate plunder.

Demographics

Over the 13th and 14th of April 2010 1,000 internet users (there was no information on how the sample was chosen) who knew what piracy was completed a survey. 55.3% of the sample were male, 1.0% in their teens, 16.1% in their twetnies, 27.1% in their thirties, 30.9% in their forties, 17.1% in their fifties, and 7.8% in their sixties.

In a previous survey on a similar topic, pirate laser disk featured prominently in the survey, so I wonder if that falls under the definition of “record”, not just implying vinyl. I’ve personally never heard of pirate vinyl!

With the internet these days, actually buying stuff seems such a quaint idea, although I am surprised to see that game software is relatively low, as the barrier to dowmloading and burning a CD or using a hacked ROM card seems rather high.

I presume that fake brand items fall outside the pirate category for this survey, which seems to be concentrating on media.
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As I read mostly English-language web sites and having heard stories such as 40% of US purchases being bigital, when I came across this survey from Media Interactive, reported on by japan.internet.com, into music, I was quite surprised to see the data for Japan, especially since this is an internet-based sample that would be expected to have a bias towards online shopping.

Demographics

Over the 1st and 2nd of March 2010 exactly 1,000 regular music listeners completed an internet-based questionnaire. 50.6% of the sample were male, 0.3% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 30.7% in their thirties, 28.9% in their forties, 16.2% in their fifties, and 8.1% in their sixties.

In Q3 I’m quite surprised that radio is grouped into the “other” category, and although streaming sites seem to be popular in the UK and the USA, they don’t get a mention here – do they in fact exist in Japan? Additionally, the number of freetards seems comparatively rather low.
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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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