世論 What Japan Thinks

The granddaddy of Japanese SNS, mixi, seems to be losing ground in the mobile phone world, faced by the challenge from casual game-centric SNSs, according to the results of this survey from Point On Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into mobile Social Networking Services (SNS).

Demographics

On the 9th of December 2009 800 mobile phone user completed a private mobile phone-based survey. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 25.0% in their teens, 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, and 25.0% in their forties.

The two challengers to mixi are currently involved in a battle over an incredibly tedious-looking fishing game that GREE make the centre-piece of many of the television spots, as can be seen below:

I haven’t seen anything on SNS for a while, so I was pleased to see japan.internet.com report on a survey conducted by Point On Research into mobile Social Networking Services.

Demographics

On the 8th of June 2009 exactly 800 people successfully completed a private mobile phone internet-based questionnaire. 50.0% of the sample were male, 25.0% in their teens, 25.0% in their twenties, 25.0% in their thirties, and 25.0% in their forties. Note that because this is a mobile phone-based sample, which judging by previous surveys means there will be an over-representation of heavy mobile users, so the absolute percentages of mobile SNS users should be viewed in that light; the original text does indeed describe the sample as being “heavy users”.

GREE especially is heavily-advertised on television, and it is the game aspect that they push, not the social aspect. However, the games they show (mostly a fishing one and some ugly virtual pet) are particularly off-putting to me and make me want to avoid the place! I’d normally add in a link to the adverts on YouTube, but for some reason I cannot find them!
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I haven’t looked at Social Networking Services (SNS) for a while, so I was pleased to find this one to report, published on japan.internet.com and conducted by another newcomer to me, Point On Research, on mobile SNS.

Demographics

On the 16th of November 2008 exactly 1,000 mobile phone users completed a survey. It does not say whether or not the survey was conducted via mobile phone or computer-based internet, as a mobile phone base would imply a higher percentage of people on all-you-can-eat data plans, so these sort of people tend to be more active online. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, and 20:20:20:20:20 of people in their teens, twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties.

Note that although most people use a cut-down browser on their mobile phones, all the major PC-sites have tailored their interfaces to fit these restrictions. Having said that, most of the top sites in Q1 are mobile-only free game-centred SNSes.
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This recent survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc looks at the giant of the Japanese Social Networking Service market, mixi.

Demographics

On the 30th of April 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group employed in the private sector completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 70.6% of the sample was male, 13.0% in their twenties, 43.3% in their thirties, 33.0% in their forties, 8.8% in their fifties, and 1.5% in their sixties. Why exactly they limited the sample to only the private sector is a bit of a mystery to me, however.

Before you ask, sorry, I don’t have any invites to mixi to give to anyone. To sign up you need a Japanese mobile phone email address, but I don’t know of anyone offering a proxy service for sign-ups, whether for free or for a small fee. Indeed, there might be a minor business opportunity there, selling sign-ups. If anyone does know of such a service, or is offering to do sign-ups for free, etc, please drop me a line and I’ll link to you.
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Although mixi still rules the Japan Social Networking Service market in Japan, this 12th regular SNS survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com showed some changes lower down in the rankings.

Demographics

Between the 7th and 9th of April 2008 1,091 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.9% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.7% in their fifties, and 11.8% aged sixty or older.

As lots of people seem to be looking for invites to mixi, both xorsyst and Tofugu are offering them. Note that you seem to need a Japanese mobile phone in order to sign up.

My SNS participation is limited to my rather static personal and web site Facebook pages. I’ll respond to any friend requests, but don’t expect anything more out of me!
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I’ve always meant to get into Social Network Services (or Sites), but just never had the time, or quite frankly the inclination! To see what the Japanese are thinking about them these days, japan.internet.com reported on the 11th regular SNS survey conducted by goo Research.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 13th February 2008 1,097 members of the goo Research monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample was male, 16.4% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.5% in their fifties, and 12.3% aged sixty or older.

There really ought to be a specialised Japan blogger SNS or other forum for exchange of ideas and the like; I know that I have far more ideas than I have time to realise them, so some way to allow us all to keep in touch would be most useful. There has been moves by the Daily J, but it really needs someone to grab the bull by the horns and give it a good kick up the backside. I’d love to do it myself, but time is the one thing I do not have.
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That is commenting on blogs, of course, although the same is also true for what I think you were thinking of! This was one of the results published on japan.internet.com in a summary of a survey by Cross Marketing Inc into writing stuff on the internet.

Demographics

Over the 26th and 27th of December 2007 300 members of the Cross Marketing monitor pool successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. the sample was 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

One of my resolutions for the year is to network more, and although currently I write on bulletin boards just about every day, my rate of commenting on blogs is about once every two or three days. I suppose I should really set myself numeric targets such as 30 comments a month and keep track of how I’m doing.
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I haven’t been to karaoke for a number of years, not least due to being so tone deaf that not even the fanciest of karaoke electronic trickery can fix my singing voice. Perhaps some of my readers have, so if so you might recognise the topic of this survey reported by japan.internet.com and performed by Cross Marketing Inc into communication on the internet, with this article focusing in particular on karaoke.

Demographics

Over the 14th and 15th of November 2007 300 members of Cross Marketing’s monitor group successfully completed an internet-based private questionnaire. Each age group was split 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

Apparently the end of the year is one of the busy times for karaoke boxes, because when work end-of-year parties finish and talk starts on the subject of the “second party”, the karaoke box is often a popular place to continue drinking. The article also notes a recently-coined word, ヒトカラ, hitokara, or going to karaoke by oneself.

I find it interesting that in Q1 only 2 out of 300 have never ever been to karaoke.
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I’m still actually to sign up to any SNS so please don’t ask me for mixi invites, although recently I nearly joined MySpace due to hearing about some punk from my school days. To find out how the average Japanese ends up on mixi or other SNSs (Social Networking Services), japan.internet.com reported on a survey conducted by goo Research, their 9th regular survey on SNS.

Demographics

Between the 1st and 4th of October 2007 1,086 members of goo Research’s internet monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample was male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.4% in their twenties, 21.1% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 12.1% aged sixty or older.

I’ve been skipping recent editions of this survey as the reported statistics have not been terribly interesting. However, this time I think the data is worth reporting. I find it interesting that nearly two-thirds of the current users have not actually invited anyone else to join, although given the fact that mixi is so well-established as the market leader, like a pyramid scheme once the market is saturated those at the bottom run out of people to invite as most people who are interested in joining have already joined, perhaps.
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Having heard a little about people accessing blogs and Social Networking Services (SNSs) from mobile phones, I obtained a lot of useful information from a recently-published report from infoPLANT on a survey they conducted into the use of blogs and SNSs from mobile phones and personal computers.

Demographics

Between the 15th and 22nd of May 2007 3,709 people self-selected themselves to complete a public survey offered through the NTT DoCoMo iMode menuing system. 61.9% of the sample was female.

This is one of those surveys that made me quite literally gasp! Although I know that the self-selecting nature of infoPLANT polls does bias towards heavy mobile phone users on unlimited plans, with the percentage of people on these kinds of plans increasing all the time, perhaps these figures suggest a general trend away from the computer and towards the mobile phone as the main portal for accessing the internet.
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