Blogomania grips Asia, says Microsoft

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 29 November 2006 04:27

IT Industry - Strategy

A survey of 25,000 MSN portal visitors across seven Asian markets - Hong Kong, India, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand - found that almost half of those online in Asia have a blog, and 40 percent of these bloggers are blogging for more than three hours a week.

Perhaps not surprisingly blogging is primarily a pastime of the young: only nine percent of those surveyed were over 34 and 56 percent were under 25. However, perhaps surprisingly, blogging is not predominantly a male pastime: overall 55 percent of respondent bloggers were female, but in India blogging is overwhelmingly a male domain.

According to Microsoft's MSN and Windows Live Online Services Business, which conducted the survey. "The research showed that blogging is a social phenomenon with Asians primarily blogging as a means to maintain and build their social connections and to express themselves. [However] blogging as a corporate or business tool still appears to be nascent in most markets, with little interest from consumers in blogs from business or political leaders.

"The exceptions are online powerhouse Korea where blogging has permeated all aspects of life and India where a culture of self-improvement is seeing business related blogs become very popular."

According to the report sharing a diary or photo album with loved ones was the most often cited reason for starting a blog (53 percent). "User created content and community based online services are really propelling the Internet in Asia right now," said Alex Stewart, Director of Microsoft's Online Services Business, Asia Pacific. "Today, instead of sending out mass emails or holiday letters, people are using their blogs to express themselves".

The survey found that over 40 percent of blogs have fewer than ten visitors each week. However in Korea, where blogging is more established, 11 percent have more than 50 and 12 percent more than 250 visitors per week.

Blogs written by friends and family (74 percent) were the most popular. Blogs by work colleagues were a distant second with only a quarter of respondents showing interest. In Korea and India however respondents are most interested in blogs covering a specific topic of interest.

India stood out with half of all respondents from India ranked business blogs as the most interesting in contrast to the rest of the region where just over a quarter were interested in blogs written by business leaders.

Politicians fared poorly across the region with only 14 percent interested in reading their blogs except in Malaysia where the figure was 20 percent. Sporting personalities also failed to impress in general with only eight percent expressing interest in their blogs.