Blogging

Bloggers number a quarter of the Japanese online population

Do you update a blog? graph of japanese statisticsI haven’t done such a straightforward topic for quite a while, so it’s nice to get back to basics with this short and to the point survey reported on by japan.internet.com and conducted by JR Tokai Express Research Inc into blogs.

Demographics

On the first of July 2008 330 members of the JR Tokai Express Research monitor group successfully completed an internet-based questionnaire. 52.7% of the sample were female, 3.3% in their teens, 13.9% in their twenties, 27.0% in their thirties, 30.0% in their forties, 12.1% in their fifties, 8.8% in their sixties, and 4.8% aged seventy or older.

There’s a couple of new-to-me sites in the list of hosts in Q2SQ. Lolipop Blog sounds downright suspicious but it seems quite innocent, a paid-for hosted blogging service. My Profile seems to be a mobile phone-targeted blogging service that will make your eyes bleed and your brain melt, and Laff Blog is from Yoshimoto Kogyo, the home of many of Japan’s comedians.

I’m not sure if writing diaries in mixi or other Social Networking Services was counted as blogging in Q2.
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Ex-podcast listeners outnumber current audience

Do you know the term 'podcasting'? graph of japanese statisticsA bit like when we looked at RSS readers two weeks ago, today we see in this survey from Marsh and reported on by japan.internet.com that podcasting also seems to be falling by the wayside.

Demographics

Over the 14th and 15th of May 2008 300 members of the Marsh online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, and by age 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 14.7% in their fifties, and 5.3% aged sixty or older.

Q1 gives a jaw-droppingly high score for iPod ownership!

I’ve always wanted to do a podcast, but I don’t really like listening to recordings of my voice.
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Japanese only manage it once a month, if they manage it at all

How often do you comment on other people's blogs? graph of japanese statisticsThat 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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By Ken Y-N, ago

Vast majority of Japanese bloggers get under 50 hits per day

With all the hype and surveys recently about Second Life and Wikipedia, poor old blogging seems to have been forgotton about! I can only recall publishing a single translation on this topic this year, so it was nice to find a report on japan.internet.com of a recent survey by Cross Marketing Inc on running a blog.

Demographics

Between the 19th and 20th of September 2007 300 blogging members of Cross Marketing Inc’s online monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 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.

I’m not sure how accurate the answers in Q3 are as some blogging software makes trackbacks (or pingbacks) automatic, but others require manual intervention, and sometimes a different target URL needs to be specified. I’ve personally only once or twice tried manual trackbacks to blogs that need them, and when I’ve tried they’ve actually failed!
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Mobile phone-based blogging, SNSing beats PC

How do you access blogs? graph of japanese opinionHaving 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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By Ken Y-N, ago

Numerology, Spiderman and facial recognition Japan’s top three blog stories for May

What caught Japanese bloggers’ eyes last month? goo Ranking posted the top twenty outgoing links from their blogging site for the month of May 2007. I have a suspicion that perhaps one of the biggest stories in Japan, the dodgy Beijing not Disneyland at all, oh no, theme park has been removed from the list.

Here’s number 15, fresh from YouTube for your enjoyment.


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By Ken Y-N, ago

Japanese corporate blogs

Does your place of work run a corporate blog? graph of japanese opinionjapan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted by JR Tokai Express Research into the matter of corporate blogs. This can be considered as a follow-up to the survey published yesterday on company-internal blogs and SNS.

Demographics

On the 17th of May 2007 JR Tokai Express Research gathered responses from 330 members of its online monitor group employed in private industry. 76.4% of the sample was male, 10.3% in their twenties, 40.6% in their thirties, 37.6% in their forties, 9.1% in their fifties, and 2.4% in their sixties.

My employer has neither a corporate blog nor a president’s blog. We get once a month press release-like messages from the prez, and at one time our division manager tried starting an internal blog, but the plan died horribly. I think people expressing opinions was the main issue that stifled any progress.
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Japanese Twitter users almost zero, but one quarter might want to try it

Have you heard of 'Twitter'? graph of japanese opinionjapan.internet.com recently published the results of a survey conducted by Cross Marketing Inc on one of the latest tools that has been causing something of a buzz around the English-language blogging world, namely Twitter. Twitter is an application that allows short messages to be posted to mini-blog and a group of listeners, perhaps a bit like a Web2.0 blog and RSS and instant messenger combined, with a bit of SMS thrown in for good measure.

Demographics

Over the 9th and 10th of May 2007 Cross Marketing interviewed 300 members of its internet monitor panel. The sample was split into regular sized groups: 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. Each age group was also split evenly into 30 male and 30 female respondents.

I’ve not used Twitter and have no plans to myself, as my impression is that most of the users are people wedded to their internet connection posting about the trivial things in their daily lives with worryingly high frequency, perhaps like a grown-up version of MySpace.
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Commercial blogs seen as most reliable in Japanese blogosphere

Have you ever obtained incorrect information from the internet? graph of japanese opinionjapan.internet.com recently reported on a survey conducted between the 26th and 28th of April by goo Research into the trustworthiness of internet information.

Demographics

1,041 members of goo Research’s online monitor group successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.8% of the sample was male, 18.9% in their teens, 22.8% in their twenties. 19.9% in their thirties, 19.4% in their forties, and 19.0% in their fifties.

The results here really took me aback! Commercial blogs, which by definition are trying to sell you stuff, top the charts, whereas CEO blogs are the least trusted, even though the CEO has a legal obligation (I hope, at least) to tell the truth (or at least not lie) or face prison whereas commercial blogs are trying to sell you stuff and will always tell you how they are better than brand X.

Note that Q1 should really be phrased as “Have you ever obtained information that you determined was incorrect?”

Sadly, this time the presented results fail to directly mention anything about trust in Wikipedia.
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By Ken Y-N, ago

Forty-somethings find blogs most useful

Have you created your own blog? graph of japanese opinion

japan.internet.com recently published the results of goo Research’s 30th regular blog research. This has been carried out every month for the last two and a half years, but this is the very last time they will perform it.

Demographics

Between the 12th and 14th of March 1,073 members of goo Research’s monitor panel successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.2% of the sample was male, 17.8% in their teens, 19.3% in their twenties, 18.0% in their thirties, 17.2% in their forties, 17.0% in their fifties, and 10.7% aged sixty or more.

Perhaps because this is the last time, there’s a bit more demographic information presented in the results than usual. The reason for stopping this research seems to be that because blogging is now firmly planted in the awareness of internet users, there is little extra to be gained from continuing the research.
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By Ken Y-N, ago