Mobile phone-based blogging, SNSing beats PC

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.

Research results

Q1: Do you visit blogs? (Sample size=3,709)

	All	Male N=1,413	Female N=2,296
Yes (to SQ)	70.4%	69.1%	71.4%
No	29.5%	31.0%	28.7%

For males, the percentage was pretty even across all age groups, but for females, 94.6% of teenage girls were visiting blogs, dropping down to under half of all women aged fifty or older.

Q1SQ: How do you access blogs? (Sample size=2,613)

	All	Male N=975	Female N=1,638
From PC only (to Q3)	22.7%	25.6%	21.0%
From mobile phone only (to Q4)	31.5%	28.9%	33.0%
Both, but mostly from PC (to Q3 and Q4)	22.5%	24.7%	21.1%
Both, but mostly from mobile phone (to Q3 and Q4)	23.3%	20.7%	24.8%

Access patterns were very similar across the age groups, except for the teenage and over-fifty groups, but this was due perhaps more to the small sample size.

Q2: Do you visit SNSs? (Sample size=3,709)

	All	Male N=1,413	Female N=2,296
Yes (to SQ)	46.2%	45.0%	47.0%
No	53.8%	55.1%	53.0%

The trends for males was strange; only a third of teenage boys visited SNSs, but a majority of both those in their twenties and in their fifties did. For women, there was a much simpler trend, the younger the more frequently they visited.

Q2SQ: How do you access SNSs? (Sample size=1,713)

	All	Male N=635	Female N=1,078
From PC only (to Q3)	15.6%	18.6%	13.9%
From mobile phone only (to Q4)	38.7%	36.2%	40.2%
Both, but mostly from PC (to Q3 and Q4)	21.6%	23.0%	20.8%
Both, but mostly from mobile phone (to Q3 and Q4)	24.1%	22.2%	25.1%

For women, both the PC only and mobile phone only percentages increased noticably with age.

Those who did not view either blogs or SNSs next answered Q6.

Q3: How often do you access blogs or SNSs from your PC? (Sample size=1,857)

	All	Male N=711	Female N=1,146
Four times or more a day	9.1%	8.9%	9.2%
Twice or thrice a day	13.7%	14.8%	13.1%
Once a day	22.2%	24.5%	20.8%
Four or five times a week	7.2%	7.3%	7.1%
Twice or thrice a week	16.3%	17.4%	15.5%
Once a week	14.5%	13.2%	15.4%
Twice or thrice a month	8.4%	6.9%	9.3%
Once a month	5.1%	4.8%	5.2%
Less than that	3.6%	2.3%	4.4%

The frequency of visiting these kinds of sites was pretty constant across all the age groups.

Q4: How often do you access blogs or SNSs from your mobile phone? (Sample size=2,209)

	All	Male N=786	Female N=1,423
Four times or more a day	20.1%	16.8%	21.9%
Twice or thrice a day	22.4%	19.7%	23.9%
Once a day	19.1%	23.2%	16.9%
Four or five times a week	5.6%	5.9%	5.4%
Twice or thrice a week	10.5%	11.8%	9.8%
Once a week	9.1%	9.2%	9.1%
Twice or thrice a month	5.7%	4.6%	6.3%
Once a month	3.9%	4.8%	3.4%
Less than that	3.6%	4.1%	3.4%

Barring teenage girls, the frequency of visiting these kinds of sites was pretty constant across all the age groups.

Q5: What sort of content on blogs or SNSs do you view? (Sample size=2,718, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=1,002	Female N=1,716
Diary, column	69.2%	62.0%	73.4%
Film, movie, music	30.8%	27.2%	32.9%
News	23.1%	24.4%	22.4%
Food, cooking	16.6%	10.1%	20.3%
Travel, local	14.6%	13.4%	15.4%
Games	13.5%	14.5%	12.9%
Sports	12.7%	22.3%	7.2%
Animation, comics	7.8%	7.0%	8.3%
Other	14.1%	15.1%	13.5%
No particular kind	9.9%	13.1%	8.1%

Significant peaks appeared with sports for men over fifty, games for teenage boys and the older women, cartoons and comics for teenage boys and girls, news for the over-fifties of both sexes, and cooking for the older women.

Q6: Do you have a blog? (Sample size=3,709)

	All	Male N=1,413	Female N=2,296
Yes (to SQ)	25.4%	21.6%	27.7%
No, but would like to in the future	16.0%	15.6%	16.3%
Never	58.5%	62.8%	55.9%

The percentage having a blog was quite constant for all male age groups, but there was a very noticable trend for females; over half of teenage girls had one, whilst less than a tenth of over fifty women kept one.

Q6SQ: How do you update your blog? (Sample size=943)

	All	Male N=306	Female N=637
From PC only	22.0%	31.0%	17.6%
From mobile phone only	37.9%	31.0%	41.1%
Both, but mostly from PC	20.4%	19.9%	20.6%
Both, but mostly from mobile phone	19.8%	18.0%	20.7%

Q7: Do you contribute to an SNS community? (Sample size=3,709)

	All	Male N=1,413	Female N=2,296
Yes (to SQ)	46.2%	44.9%	46.8%
No, but would like to in the future	8.4%	7.3%	9.1%
No	45.4%	47.8%	44.0%

Q6SQ: How do you contribute to an SNS community? (Sample size=1,713)

	All	Male N=635	Female N=1,078
From PC only	22.1%	26.1%	19.7%
From mobile phone only	41.3%	39.4%	42.5%
Both, but mostly from PC	17.0%	17.2%	16.9%
Both, but mostly from mobile phone	19.6%	17.3%	21.0%

Q8: How do you think your use of blogs and SNSs from mobile phones will change in the future? (Sample size=3,709)

	All	Male N=1,413	Female N=2,296
Increase	35.2%	34.5%	35.6%
Perhaps increae	26.6%	26.3%	26.9%
Stay the same	31.2%	30.8%	31.5%
Perhaps decrease	2.1%	2.8%	1.7%
Decrease	4.8%	5.7%	4.3%

Since just over 40% of the sample do not currently access either blogs or SNSs from their mobile phones, these figures are perhaps distorted upwards.