Social Media Provides Valuable Customer Insight

Social Media Provides Valuable Customer Insight

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China Journal : Let 600 Million Web Users Bloom, Says Netease

China Journal : Let 600 Million Web Users Bloom, Says Netease

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China Internet Stat Updates

* As of December 31, 2008, the number of netizens in China reached 298 million. That is a 22.6% penetration rate, which is higher than the world average. This is an increase of 88 million (41.9%) over the year 2007. The number of Chinese netizens is still rapidly increasing.
* The number of broadband-using netizens reached 270 million, which is 90.6% of the total.
* The number of netizens that access the internet via mobile phones reached 117.6 million, which is a 133% increase over 2007.
* The number of rural netizens has increased rapidly to a total of 84.6 million people. That is an increase of 60.8% over 2007 and a much faster rate of increase than for urban netizens (35.6%).
* Of the Eastern, Central and Western districts of my country, the number of netizens of provinces in the Western district increased the fastest with a rate of 52%. This is much greater than the Central district (40.6%) and Eastern district (39.3%).
* The fundamental internet resources of China have increased rapidly, but have not increased evenly. The growth of IPv4 addresses has not kept up with the increase in netizens for the past 2 years. If the growth of IPv4 addresses continues to trail the increase in netizens it will become a bottleneck for China’s internet development.
* The growth rate of the number of .cn domains and websites under .cn domains passed the overall growth rate of websites and domains, becoming an important force in stimulating the growth of China’s internet resources.
* Online news rapidly developed in 2008. The usage rate of online news increased 5% in comparison to last year and the number of total readers of online news reached 234 million. The internet has already become a non-ignorable outlet for influencing public opinion.
* As an important application for user-created content, blogs have maintained a rapid growth rate since they first appeared. As of 2008, the number of Chinese bloggers has already reached 162 million.
* Of all the internet applications, online gaming ranks number six. For primary and secondary school students (grade 1-12), online gaming ranks number three. Online gaming is an important application for them.
* The three largest applications for university students are: online music, instant messaging, and online news. For university students, online news fell down one rank and online video rose one to take up the fourth spot.
* The following 3 user classes and seven groups can be made by combining the number of internet applications used and the amount of time spent online.
1) Heavy users: they use the internet far more both in regards to the time spent online and the amount of applications they use.
– Internet-dependent group: this group accounts for almost 11% of the total number of netizens. The most loyal users of the internet, they use more internet applications and spend the most time online each week.
– Internet business group: with 6.7% of the total number of netizens, it is the smallest group. They are fairly similar to the internet-dependent group but spend much less time online and use far fewer applications. One of the biggest differences is that they almost never use forums. Their use of e-commerce, online trading and travel booking applications clearly outstrips their use of search engines, instant messaging, email and other fundamental applications.
– Online social group: this group accounts for 12.3% of total netizens. Their use of social applications is clearly higher than the other groups. Their usage of instant messaging, blogs, forums, friend-finding websitest1 and other social-type internet applications is clearly on the high side.
* Intermediate users: intermediate users are about average with respect to the number of internet applications they use and the time they spend online. Judged by the number of internet applications used, some users of this group are in a transition phase between moving from the light usage group to the heavy usage group.
– Fundamental usage group: this group has grown to be the largest group and accounts for 21.5% of the total users. Their usage of search engines, email, instant messaging and other fundamental internet applications is far greater than average. However, their usage of other internet applications is clearly on the low side.
* Light users: they are far below the average both in regards to the number of applications used and the amount of time spent online. They have also been using the internet for the shortest time.
– Self-display group: this group accounts for 12.6%. 100% of them use blogs, but their usage of other applications is clearly below average. This group uses an average of 5.3 applications and spends an average of 12.27 hours online per week.
– Alternative online gaming group: 100% of users in this group play online games. They account for almost 18% of the total number of netizens. Besides video games, this group’s usage of other online applications is far below average.
– Beginning users: this group accounts for 18.2%, which is almost as large as the fundamental user group. This group does not have any outstanding characteristics with regards to usage of internet applications. They spend the least time online and use the fewest internet applications. They have also been using the internet for the shortest amount of time. They are the oldest with an average age of 33. This group shows how the number of older netizens is expanding.

* Research on netizen lifestyle shows: the more heavy users there are, the higher the approval rate of the value of the internet as a life assistant and the higher the rate of trust and safety; another non-ignorable point is that the more heavy users there are, the higher the recognition that the internet may cause social isolation.

Cell Phone Outreach

My 2nd three week trip to China and Taiwan continued to reinforce my interest in how the cell phone can be used for communication of various messages or as a follow up tool to another media campaign. Just looking at Taiwan with cell phone penatration at 120% of the total population and 3G in full use and China’s cell phone ownership at over 500 million  one wonders how we could use this pervasive medium more effectively. When I am in China I get at least 10 text messages a day on news items and advertising offers. Could we send out similar types of messages with prosocial or gospel messages.

So, from a strategy perspective, one should integrate the cell phone as part of an internet strategy. On every media message stent out, whether radio, video or literature use a sms phone # for people to respond. The goal is to have a low commitment approach to encourage people to respond. Systems like FrontlineSMS allow the cell phone to be connected to a browser on the Mac or PC. The SMS message is ported to the computer and a person can answer from the computer keyboard. It also means that followup must be done from one computer. This week I am investigating a system that will port directly to the internet with SMS and email capability built in. The advantage is that (for example) an outreach in a specific country could generate SMS responses which will migrate to the web. A person with the same language skills in, say, California, could build relationships with SMS, leading that person towards the truth!

China News Briefs

Information official: China-based blogs exceed 100 million (November 7, 2008, Xinhua)
China-based blogs total 107 million, with more than 42 percent of netizens running a blog, a senior information official said here on Friday. Cai Mingzhao, deputy director of the State Council Information Office, made the comment at the 2nd U.S.-China Internet Industry Forum. The number of blogs was about 40 million just a year ago. Cai noted Web 2.0 service, which makes writing and other sorts of participation of Internet users possible, has inspired many people to create content online. There were 253 million people online in China as of June, up 56.2 percent year-on-year. E-commerce transactions amounted to 2 trillion yuan (about 300 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007, and 25 percent of netizens had bought something online as of June this year.

China’s post-90s generation open-minded, frustration-prone (November 12, 2008, Xinhua)
China’s new generation of freshmen, born in the 1990s, were more open-minded than their predecessors but less able to cope with frustration, a survey has found. The survey covered 800 students at Wuhan University in central China’s Hubei Province, who entered in September from all over the country. They answered questions on consumption, psychology and social issues. They were found to be neither as selfish nor as difficult to get along with as people generally believed to be, according to the survey, released on Wednesday by the China Youth Daily. In the survey, 77 percent said they were self-confident and 64.8 percent considered themselves open-minded and ready to try new things. However, 72.3 percent said frustrations would have a negative impact on them.

Security sources say Chinese hacked into campaign e-mails (November 10, 2008, Irish Times)
US government cyber experts suspect that Chinese hackers have penetrated the White House security network and that a sophisticated attack on Barack Obama and John McCain’s campaign computer networks during this summer probably originated from China. E-mails and other confidential, although unclassified, material from the campaign was reportedly downloaded illegally, the Financial Times has reported. Chinese hackers have also penetrated the White House computer network on numerous occasions, and obtained e-mails between government officials, the paper said, citing an unnamed senior US official.

Hanggai: Chinese Punk Looks To The Past (November 11. 2008, NPR, by Louisa Lim)
Modern Chinese music is most famous for sappy Canto-pop love songs. But on the mainland, young Chinese musicians are innovating – and taking risks – with ancient music forms….Ilchi started the band Hanggai when he realized that the ancient music of Inner Mongolia was in danger being lost forever.

Self-censorship: the 2,000 pound rhinoceros on the dining table (April 25, 2005, Danwei.org)
In sum, the Chinese government’s censorial authority in recent times has resembled not so much a man-eating tiger or fire-snorting dragon as a giant anaconda coiled in an overhead chandelier. Normally the great snake doesn’t move. It doesn’t have to. It feels no need to be clear about its prohibitions. Its constant silent message is “You yourself decide.” Perry Link, “The Anaconda in the Chandelier”

The erroneous mindset of “Chinese characteristics vs. westernization” (October 23, 2008, World China Forum, Author: Li Kaisheng , Translator: Michael Huang)
If “wholesale westernization” is regarded as at one end of a spectrum, the other end seems to be “Chinese characteristics.” Unlike the always-low status of the word “

China & Christianity Cross Posts

Christianity Fever (October 8, 2008, Global China Center, by Carol Hamrin)
Through a century of political turmoil and disillusionment, waves of Chinese intellectuals have come to Christ. For more than 100 years, China’s tiny cultural elite has wrestled with the role of Christianity in society. Traditional scholars educated a century ago in state-sponsored Confucianism tended to reject Christianity as a foreign teaching. But the new professionals of the 1910s and ’20s, as well as the growing middle class in the last 20 years, have been attracted to Christianity as a way to build a strong modern China. Their initial question is often “What can Christianity do for China?” For some, this utilitarian approach becomes a personal spiritual journey. The pattern has been a tidal wave of interest in times of political upheaval, followed by a low tide, often due to anti-Western nationalism. The third of these high tides is surging in Chinese society today.

Sons of heaven (October 2. 2008, The Economist)
Zhao Xiao, a former Communist Party official and convert to Christianity, smiles over a cup of tea and says he thinks there are up to 130m Christians in China. This is far larger than previous estimates. The government says there are 21m (16m Protestants, 5m Catholics). Unofficial figures, such as one given by the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity in Massachusetts, put the number at about 70m. But Mr Zhao is not alone in his reckoning.

MOBILE PHONE TRENDS

Mobile phone, not PC…

..There is a powerful device already blossoming in emerging markets, connecting rural people to each other and the rest of the world, and facilitating commerce. That device is the increasingly ubiquitous mobile phone.

While it is true that the mobile phone cannot do everything a PC can, it is a more reasonable first step into the digital age for developing countries. For one thing, it is cheaper: Even the least expensive laptop on the market cannot compete with a device that retails for $40 or less. Mobile phones are more portable, and their extended battery life is suited to regions where access to electricity is lacking or non-existent. And the infrastructure needed to connect wireless devices to the Internet is easier and less expensive to build.

But most of all, mobile phones have already been chosen by the people. The growth in mobile phone subscriptions in developing countries has been organic and explosive – The number of cell phones in India, for example, has already crossed 200 million, and growing at 7.5 million a month. Or, for instance, Africa alone has grown from 10 million to more than 200 million subscribers in the last four years, and is expected to triple by 2011; This is in a market which analysts feared would never be able to afford wireless services.

For the first time ever, more people will have a mobile phone than a regular telephone. In emerging markets, the mobile phone is much more than just a means of communication. Often, the mobile phone is an identity, and the only way to reach across geographical boundaries. That’s why it’s important not to impose a bias when comparing the relative merits of mobile phones and PCs. For example, oral communication gets an edge over the written word for the semi-literate people. Mobile devices are much more than phones in emerging nations.

Read the full article at http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=330661

Mobile candy for the next generation

If you think that “mobiles for the youth” isn’t a significant segment, think again. By 2012 (only four years away), 500 million Indian youth will own a mobile phone. So if you see phone manufacturers and mobile operators making a beeline for younger people, you know why.

The industry is bolstered by estimates that suggest 10 per cent of a young person’s disposable income is spent on mobile products and services. Meanwhile, here are a few (affordable) phones targeted at the youth:

(Read the full article listing specific popular youth-oriented mobiles at http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=330869

Word of Mouth Stats and challenges

Get Your Word of Mouth Marketing Stats
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The Fresh Chat blog has compiled a list of great word of mouth marketing stats, and was even kind enough to include the research sources. This is a fantastic post to bookmark and remember the next time you need to prepare either an internal or external WOM presentation, preach the power of word of mouth to clients, or just to keep in your back pocket to show off your word of mouth marketing smarts.

More from Fresh Chat:
http://freshchat.com.au/the-power-of-word-of-mouth

Don’t Dabble in Social Media, Master It
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This article from On Media is a good reminder for marketers why social media mastery is important. According to a recent Forrester report which detailed the “Best and Worst of Social Network Marketing 2008,” social media best practices include a defined call to action, valuable content, and real interaction. The majority of company efforts fell short of Forrester’s measure of social media finesse, which, according to the article’s author, points to a general lack of mastery that needs to be in place for companies to succeed in social media.

More from On Media:
http://www.mediapost.com/blogs/on_media/index.php?p=224

Boomers Use WOM, But Not Via Blogs, Social Netowrks
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According to a recent study from ThirdAge/JWT, Boomers over 40 are heavy users of word of mouth and value personal recommendations, but they aren’t likely to spread the word via online means and are less likely to be active participants in both social networking and the blogosphere. The study found that, while 92% of Boomers are interested in using the web to stay in touch with family and friends, 67% show little to no interest in writing blogs and 63% show little to no interest in participating in social networking sites.

More from Research Brief:
http://www.mediapost.com/blogs/research_brief/?p=1758

Google’s Knol Emphasizes Authorship, Transparency
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Google’s newly launched social-informational site, Knol, is described as being very similar to Wikipedia’s community intelligence model, but with one major twist: Knol articles are given bylines. The articles, are single-topic, stand alone entries and are not updated chronologically — as in the Wikipedia model. Google plans to implement a ranking system for articles written on similar topics, which will push relevant articles to the top and encourage competition.

More from Reuters:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKN2325911820080724

Online communities and Social Networking

12 Tips for Managing Online Consumer Communities
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This article from ZDNet, which follows on the heels of a recent Deloitte, Beeline Labs, and Society for Communications Research study about the word of mouth value in online consumer communities, offers up twelve best-practices for managing these kinds of communities. Some of the tips include: putting the community members first, understanding the differences between online consumer communities and other social media animals, the importance of having community management systems activated, and the importance of finding the right metrics.

More from ZDNet:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=190%2090

Avoiding the Social Media Ego Trap
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This blog post from Peter Kim makes an interesting point about how easy it is to let your social networks — especially online social networks — grow to the point where they are unwieldy instead of useful. Online social networks are extremely valuable for building, strengthening, and maintaining important connections, but allowing them to swell beyond the point of manageability transforms something valuable into a nuisance. To be useful, according to Peter, networks need to have a high “signal-to-noise ration,” and recommends pruning them back when they become cumbersome.

More from Being Peter Kim:
http://www.beingpeterkim.com/2008/07/social-networki.html

TOMS Shoes: An Inspiring Story Inspires Word of Mouth
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This post from the Church of the Customer blog takes a look at how TOMS Shoes has created a great product bursting with WOM-potential. According to the post, the shoes themselves, which were created by former “The Amazing Race” contestant Blake Mycoskie, were inspired by a simple, low-cost shoe he came across in Argentina. Blake linked the shoes to a cause — for every pair sold, a pair is given to shoeless children in third-world countries — and is a natural evangelist for the product, willing to tell the simple, easily spread story about how TOMS came to be to anyone who will listen. According to the post, it’s a perfect recipe for WOM.

More from Church of the Customer:
http://www.churchofthecustomer.com/blog/2008/07/customer-evange.html

A Who’s-Who of Who’s on Twitter
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The Fluent Simplicity blog has a great running log of organizations who currently have active Twitter feeds, including links so you can start following right away. It’s a good snapshot of the scope of companies involved in using microblogging as a way to communicate with consumers.

More from Fluent Simplicity:
http://blog.fluentsimplicity.com/twitter-brand-index/

Study Uncovers Gender, Age Demographics of Social Net Users
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Rapleaf released a multitude of gender and age demographic data for social network users as a follow-up to its “Study of Social Network Users Vs. Age,” which was released back in June. The data, which comes from a study of more than 49.3 million social network users, provides a snapshot of social network users across a variety of platforms and broken into categories based on age, gender, and number of “friends.”

More from Rapleaf:
http://business.rapleaf.com/company_press_2008_07_29.html

Korean TV station launches Vietnamese channel

On 14 July South Korea’s KBS Television Station launched a Vietnamese channel with Korean subtitles. The channel is a joint-product of KBS, KT Telecom and the Vietnam Television Station (VTV). This is the first TV channel in Vietnamese with Korean subtitles.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, representatives of KBS and KT group expressed their hope that the new channel would help the community of Vietnamese in South Korea, especially Vietnamese brides, to get access to information in their home country. The Korean subtitles can also help them to learn the Korean language. Meanwhile, the channel can help Koreans get an understanding of Vietnamese culture and society.

Vietnamese Ambassador to South Korea, Pham Tien Van, emphasised that the Vietnamese channel will help strengthen cooperation between the two countries. The channel is part of a project funded by the Korean government, named “For a multicultural society”. Under this project, Vietnam’s VTV will provide KBS TV programmes broadcast on VTV4 channel and KBS will make the Korean subtitles.

Besides programmes provided by VTV, KBS also airs a Korean language teaching programme. In the future, KBS will produce its own shows in Vietnamese. The Korean government will subsidise one year of free subscription for Vietnamese families and the majority of the fees in the subsequent years.

More than 70,000 Vietnamese are living in South Korea, including over 20,000 Vietnamese brides.