《中国：正在成为BLOG国度？》

《中国：正在成为BLOG国度？》 《中国:正在成为BLOG国度,》 (2006-08-02 11:32:00) 转贴:中国，正在成为BLOG国度 如果一个跨国公司忽视了一个人数相当于英国和加拿大总和的市场，大概高级管理人员就会丢掉饭碗。但是，跨国公司确实忽视了中国博客和BBS的影响，而这一新的表达方式已经能够影响企业业绩，博客上经常会有关于新产品发布、促销、传言等内容，而这对于企业经常是灾难性的。 生活在中国城市中的18到25岁年轻人有大约5000万人，其中80%活跃于博客和BBS上，再加上25到35岁人群中的2500万博客，这两部分就占到了中国1.1亿网民中的相当一部分。 中国消费者平均每周在网上逗留17.9小时，韩国是12.7小时，美国是11.4小时。中国网民在网上浏览社区网站，光是《魔兽世界》(World of Warcraft) 就有近150万玩家。中国政府对年轻人在网吧消费的时间进行了限制，因为他们花的时间太多了。 跨国公司需要关注博客和BBS以便更好地了解目标市场的在线行为。中国青年正在使中国由投资驱动的增长转向消费驱动的增长，是耐克、摩托罗拉等跨国公司的目标。 尽管中国的储蓄率很高，但是18岁到35岁年龄段的消费率并不亚于美国青年，他们依靠父母、祖父祖母、老板支付住房、食物等基本需求开支，将钱用于休闲采购。即使是月收入只有一千元的工人或服务员也在购买300美元的三星、诺基亚手机。 徐静蕾的博客一年多以来已经吸引了4400万点击，她的博客在中国比她的电影出名。中国的博客总数将从2005年的3700万增长到1.2亿，随着中国内陆推出更多宽带服务，这一数字将继续增长。 中国主要门户网站认识到了用户对博客的需求，但是除了放广告以外还没有找到获取收入的方法。搜狐和新浪去年年底在博客领域进行了有力的推动，以便赶上Blogcn等先行者。中国受欢迎的博客网站还包括MSN、QQ、Bokee、天涯、网易等。 中国青年喜欢博客和BBS，因为这使他们有机会自由地向几千万人发表自己的观点。与传统媒体重视版权不同，博客们鼓励他人转帖，以便让更多的人阅读。依靠RSS技术，其他博客能自动、即时地转帖。中国青年喜欢阅读博客，因为这与中国主流媒体有些不同。 中国网民发布、阅读的博客内容广泛，有服装、音乐、电影等时尚选择问题，也有评论、比较产品的博客。与面对面方式相比，人们能够更加坦率地讲述自己的好恶。 企业不能再忽视博客和BBS了。中国政府雇用了3万人检查色情等有害内容，这超过了美国五角大楼的员工人数。如果政府如此重视博客和BBS的影响，企业也应该重视它们对业绩的影响。 企业可以利用博客和BBS收集正反两面的消费者反馈，其速度远远超过以往。博客可以成为企业了解目标市场准确需求的独一无二的方法。用户创建的内容(UCC)可以成为宣传活动，博客可以与企业互动，吸引的博客评论对公司可能是有益的。但是不幸的是，不是所有企业都能认识到新媒体的力量。大量消费者使用博客能让企业获得有关全国消费者需求的实时信息，不仅有利于快速分析，而且网上调查、博客分析要比传统方法成本更低。 尽管博客文化是非传统、时尚的，但是它们已经足够主流化，企业需要认识并利用它们对业绩的影响力。(编译:搜狐IT Unifytruth) 原文: China's New Obsession with Blogs and How Companies Can Benefit Posted on Jul 11th with stocks: MSFT, NTES, SINA, SOHU Shaun Rein of the China Market Research Group submits: What multi national corporation would ignore a market with a population the size of the UK and Canada combined? Not many if the companies’ senior executives want to keep their jobs. However, this is exactly what many companies are doing when they ignore the rising influence of blogs and BBS (online bulletin boards) in China and how these new forms of expression can impact the bottom-line of companies. Marketers that ignore blogs and BBS do so at their own peril as bloggers frequently post their opinions on new product launches, rumors, and marketing campaigns ― often with disastrous results for companies. China: a Blog Nation 80% of Chinese youth in urban areas, approximately 50 million people between the ages of 18 and 25, actively use blogs and BBS to share their opinions on a variety of topics. Combined with the 25 million bloggers in the 25-35 age group, these two segments make up a considerable portion of the 110 million total internet users in China. And Chinese consumers do spend time online ― an average of 17.9 hours per week versus 12.7 hours in Korea and 11.4 hours in America. They surf online communities. Nearly 1.5 million play Blizzard’s World of Warcraft online game alone. The Chinese Government has placed limits on the amount of time Chinese youth can spend in internet cafes because they spend so much time online. Source: Saidi 2006 MNCs need to focus on blogs and BBS to get a better grasp of their target markets’ online behavior. Chinese youth are driving China’s shift from investment-led growth to consumer-led growth and are the plum target market for many MNCs like Nike and Motorola. Although China has a high savings rate, the 18-35 age group is spending at rates comparable to youth in the US. They rely on their parents, grandparents, and employers to pay for their housing, food, and other basic necessities and allocate their money for leisure purchases. Even those who earn $120 USD a month as factory workers or waitresses are buying $300 USD Samsung and Nokia phones and are one of the great untapped consumer groups by foreign marketers. One popular blog in China, the blog of actress Xu Jinglei on internet portal Sina (SINA), has registered 44 million hits since she started it less than a year ago. She has become more famous in China for her blog than for her movies. The total number of blogs in China will grow over 200% from 37 million in 2005 to nearly 120 million by the end of 2006. This number will continue to grow as more broadband services are rolled out to China’s inner regions. Source: CMR Estimates, Yiguan, Baidu The major portals in China recognize user demand for blogs but have yet to figure out how to capitalize on them from a revenue standpoint aside from having ad placements. Sina and Sohu (SOHU) really just made major pushes in the blog space at the end of 2005 to catch up with early movers like Blogcn. Aside from Sina, other popular blog portals in China include MSN Spaces (MSFT), QQ, Sohu, Bokee, Tianya, Blogcn, and Netease (NTES). Source: CMR Estimates, Company Websites Why Chinese Youth Like Blogs and BBS Chinese youth are drawn to posting blogs and BBS, because they can express themselves freely to potentially millions of other people. Unlike traditional media outlets, which copyright their articles, bloggers encourage others to repost their comments in order to get the rush from having millions of people read their opinions. Because of RSS feeds, bloggers’ posts get picked up by other blogs throughout the blogosphere automatically and instantaneously. Chinese youth like to read blogs because blogging seems somewhat counterculture and different from mainstream China. Jaded by traditional advertisers and media, more and more Chinese youth are using blogs as a key source of information. What Bloggers Blog About Chinese internet users post and read blogs on a breadth of topics. They discuss lifestyle choices such as what clothing to buy, what music to listen to, and what movies to watch. They give product reviews, product comparisons, and discuss advertisements. If they like a product, they blog about it. If they do not like a product, they blog about it. Because of the setting of the forum, people express their likes and dislikes more strongly than they would face-to-face. News travels so quickly through these channels that a small group of dedicated individuals ― Malcolm Gladwell’s mavens, for example ― can effectively shape the opinions of large audiences rapidly. What Does All This Mean For the Corporate World? Companies can no longer overlook blogs and BBS as relevant forms of media. The Chinese government employs 30,000 people ― more than the number of workers in the Pentagon ― to ensure that harmful content such as pornography is not spread to the Chinese population. If the government is paying attention to the potentially polluting effect blogs and BBS can have on the country, why are companies not tracking the influence blogs can have on their bottom-lines? Companies need to examine content and the way that these opinions can affect their operations. Companies can use blogs and BBS as a means of gathering consumer feedback and responding to both positive and negative opinion with a speed that was impossible only one year ago. Companies now are presented with a unique method to be proactive and to cater to their target market’s exact needs. User Created Content [UCC] marketing campaigns where bloggers interact with a company online by directing a commercial for a company and the resulting blog comments can be beneficial for companies to generate buzz. Unfortunately, not all companies have realized the power of the new medium. On the plus side, blogs can be used to benefit companies if pro-active methods are implemented. The wide number of consumers that use blogs can allow for companies to get real-time information on what their consumers want throughout an entire country. Not only can analysis be made quickly but online focus groups, surveys, blog analysis are more cost-effective than traditional focus groups, surveys, and one-on-one interviews when market research firms need to travel to ten cities. Although blogs have a culture of being non-traditional and hip, they have become mainstream enough that companies need to realize and harness the power they have on the bottom-line. Email this article 4.6 rating from 28 votes Related Articles Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades for Tuesday, August 1, 2006 Following in Microsoft's Footsteps, eBay and Yahoo are Losing Talent to Smaller Internet Startups Jim Cramer's Real Money Radio Recap 7/31 Microsoft Shares Loaded With Potential Microsoft's R&D Far Outpaces Google and Apple: Is That a Good Thing? Read more articles by Shaun Rein Read more on the symbols MSFT, NTES, SINA, SOHU Subscribe to the symbols MSFT, NTES, SINA, SOHU Comments | Linking Blogs | Terms of Use 5 Comments» China Market Research Group wrote on Sat Jul 15th @ 4:22 am The China Market Research Group (CMR) published a full report entitled THE BLOGGING POINT on blogs and BBS in China and the impact they can have on MNCs doing business in China. The report includes 3 case studies on MNCs -- Volkswagen, Colgate-Palmolive, and Haagen-Daaz -- that have run into trouble in China because of blogs. The article version you see on China Seeking Alpha is an abridged version. For a free copy of the full report, feel free to email us directly at info@researchcmr.com or email Shaun Rein, Managing Director of CMR at shaunrein@researchcmr.com. www.researchcmr.com Log in to Reply Sam Flemming wrote on Mon Jul 17th @ 8:30 pm Great stuff. Some of these stats are truly impressive. Although they resonate with our experience monitoring BBS and blog conversastions in China as well as other statistics we often see quoted, I would be interested in learning more about how CMR came up some of these. Would be useful to promote the blog and BBS inteligence/research industry. I think it is also important to understand that the real story is that these stats give basis for the existence of a Chinese net culture. As Shaun suggests, companies need to begin listening, learning and engaging consumers within this new world. Log in to Reply Paul Denlinger wrote on Wed Jul 19th @ 10:03 pm The simple truth is that although blogs are an excellent media for communications, there is virtually no way for anyone, except for a few astute individuals, to monetize them. That has been the case in the US, and it is likely to repeat in China. Since the commercialization of media is not as pervasive in China as in the US, there have been many disputes about who owns the revenue from advertising for the few popular blogs. This was why Xu Jinglei took her blog off the Sina network. For the service providers who provide blogging tools, blogs provide valuable real estate which ads can be run on. The most outstanding success in this area has been Google's twin massive revenue-generating services, Ad word word文档格式规范word作业纸小票打印word模板word简历模板免费word简历 s and Adsense. The winners are Sina, Sohu, Netease and Tencent. These companies are able to digest the huge ad budgets being thrown their way by ad agencies. But ad agencies themselves are an old-world business whose revenue structure is under assault, as is attested to by WPP's Martin Sorrel in this quote: is bound to change the rules, and that Google is the one company which is best positioned to lead: Because Baidu is perceived as a Chinese company and is protected by the Chinese government, in much the same way as Sina is, it will be a leader instead of Google. Then, any ad buyer will have a full set of advertising and information tools at his fingertips, enabling him to make all of his ad buying decisions. There will no longer be any intermediaries. Read here: Paul Denlinger wrote on Thu Jul 20th @ 11:41 am This report on the BBC website says that most bloggers write about personal experiences and technology. This also applies to Chinese bloggers, and explains why it is so difficult to monetize blogging from the advertisers' point of view. To read the article, visit: Sam Flemming wrote on Thu Jul 20th @ 12:17 pm But the real story here is not just blogs...it is ALL consumer generated media, including blogs, BBS, audio and video. If you include all of these, esp. BBS, then you will see there is a lot of talk about companies. For example, based on our data collection, we estimate that there are 4 million BBS messages a month about the automobile industry alone. The issue is not if these sites are monetizing traffic or not--its that consumers are in control of a media that can have positive and negative effects on brands....and brands can't control it. They better be listening.... Log in to Reply (原文链接地址:) --------------------------------------