SNS Sites in Japan
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Japanese Internet Statistics
INTERNET USAGE JAPAN IS STILL ON THE RISE -– AND WITH IT ECOMMERCE, ADVERTISING AND A SLEW OF OTHER FACTORS. THOSE BUSINESSES WILLING TO EMBRACE INNOVATIVE FORMS OF ONLINE MARKETING AND ARE AT THE SAME TIME WELL INFORMED ARE SURE TO BENEFIT FROM IT. BELOW IS A SNAPSHOT OF THE RECENT TRENDS IN THE JAPANESE ONLINE WORLD.
As in most developed countries, Internet usage in Japan covers most of its population and continues to rise with each year. Below are some Internet statistics for Japan.
- As of 2007 Japanese Internet population is estimated to be at 73,619,000. This represents an increase from the previous year off roughly 3.5 million. e-marketer, 2007
- Around 45% of all Internet users in Japan use broadband technology.
- Around 55% of all users connect to Internet only from home.
- The proportion of internet users to population (127million) is 66.8% of which 90% use search engines
- The online market is dominated by Yahoo! (64%) and Google (21%) (webcreate.ga-pro.com 1/23/08)
- SEM comprises 25% of the online advertising spending in Japan, as opposed to 35 – 40% in the U.S
- “SEO (32%) and SEM (25%) are considered the strongest drivers of traffic in Japan by Japanese marketers.”
— Impress R&D Whitepaper, 2007
Over 98.6% of Internet users in Japan in 2006 (compared to 91.4% in the previous year) are aware of what a blog and blogging is. 63.3% of those people are readers of other blogs and 25.3% maintain some kind of a blog themselves – mostly teenagers and people in their 20s.
The usage of SNS (social networking) sites has also increased. People who have used or access such sites four or more times has increased from 2.6% to 12%. One out of four people in their 20s has used SNS sites (men in their 20s: 26.5%, and the women in their 20s: 27.6%). 82.6% of all SNS users use MIXI - Japan’s largest SNS portal. According to some sources, most entries into the MIXI’s portal are made from university classrooms. The recognition of this SNS leader has roles from 43.1% to 64.8% in 2007. Hobby, friendship, and news and seem to be the predominant interest of MIXI users.
Read more about SNS in Japan here...
As the number of people who are connected to Internet in Japan increases (along with the level of quantity and the quantity of the information provided to them as well as the means by which they can access it improves), the other forms of media such as magazines, newspapers, journals and even television decrease in popularity and statistical numbers. The years to come will surely intensify this phenomenon. Although people still prefer to read other peoples blogs on trips to Hawaii or write about their pet Kiki, rather than shop on the Internet malls, the influence of the Internet – simply by its sheer numbers – is not to be understated. People form opinions, judgments and convictions by what they read, see or hear online.
