Although Web 2.0 technologies have been highly publicized and praised for some time now, much of the new Web's potential has yet to be quantified through substantial research. How many consumers in Asia are really generating content? How many are blogging? Posting to social networking sites? Using instant messaging?
To provide some of the answers we’ve all been waiting for, Microsoft Advertising commissioned Synovate to conduct a survey via its AsiaBUS Service. It aimed to gauge the size of the blogging/social networking market as well as to examine usage habits in Asia Pacific.
The study covered the following 10 markets: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand*. A total of 11,306 people aged 15-64 were interviewed during December 2006, projected to a universe of 187 million.
Out of the total universe, the study found blogging and social networking to be most popular in Taiwan, South Korea, China and Hong Kong (Chart 1), while the trend has taken off less rapidly in markets such as India.
When the study narrowed in on just those respondents who have visited blogs and social networking sites (Chart 2), it found the most active Web 2.0 users in countries like India, Korea and Thailand, where site visitors were more likely to be ‘authors’ or ‘contributors’ to blogs.
This trend is particularly interesting – and perhaps reveals some growing opportunities –in India. Although overall usage is low for the market, those who do blog do so actively.
Meanwhile, respondents in Australia and Singapore were among the least active, preferring to stay on the sidelines as 'viewers’ rather than actively writing their own blogs or contributing to other peoples’ blogs. In Australia, where both incidence and frequency of usage are relatively low, it appears the blogging bug has yet to bite audiences in a big way.
The survey also took a look at instant messaging (IM) and found that IM usage remains higher overall than blogging/social networking usage (Chart 3). Taiwan, for example, ranked top in both spots. But the results were significantly higher for IM (58%) than blogging/social networking (39%).
Mirroring the results for blogging and social networking, the top markets for IM usage included Taiwan, China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea. Again, India found itself bringing up the bottom.
Overall, country rankings were similar for using IM and blogging, meaning countries that ranked high on IM were also high on blogging, and vice versa. However, Singapore bucked the trend; relatively low in blogging, the city state commanded the No. 3 spot for IM.
Like many online audiences, users of blogging/social networking websites and instant messaging make up a desirable target demographic. Two-thirds or more of users across the 10 markets fell within the coveted 15-34 age bracket. They also tended to be well-educated, with half of users having earned university educations or higher.
In contrast to common perceptions, respondents were quite likely to hold top/middle management or white collar careers.
According to the same study, Windows Live Messenger is the most used IM service across the Asia Pacific. For its part, Windows Live Spaces is among the top three social networking sites used in most countries across the region.
Thus, Web 2.0 applications offer many exciting new opportunities for marketers and advertisers to connect with their target consumers. To learn more about how to reach 36 million Windows Live Messenger and 40 million Windows Live Spaces users in the Asia Pacific, please contact your Microsoft Advertising
Sales Representative
