Edelman Study: Blog Readership in Asia Far Outpaces US
Walk the halls at Edelman and what you’ll often hear discussed is that the vertical, top-down, one-way model of communications – as the sole blueprint for PR – is no longer. It has been augmented by a new horizontal, peer-to-peer approach.
This new paradigm, of course, requires a different set of skills than what we’ve relied on for the last 50+ years. Further, in the Information Age communicators need to think both globally and locally. (This was one of the big things I personally learned since joining Edelman almost a year ago.)
This week Edelman published its fourth white paper on blogging. This one is focused on the impact of the conversation both globally and locally. It offers corporations a guide on how to navigate the global blogosphere.
Our StrategyOne research arm conducted an ambitious survey in Japan, China, South Korea, Italy, the UK, US, Germany, Belgium, Poland and France. We analyzed how often people are reading blogs as well as how many of these individuals are influencers. Finally, we looked at the press to see just how often they cite blogs. The white paper includes lots of data, country by country analysis and an essay on where we see blogging going from here.
One of the biggest takeaways is that blog readership is far higher in Asia than it is in the US. Some 74% of Japanese read blogs, followed by 43% in South Korea and 39% in China. In the US, it’s about 27% and its even less in Europe. Blog readership is significantly higher among influencers - people who for instance, contact a political, attend a public meeting etc.
You can download the entire report here (PDF) or browse it interactively. As always, we’re eager to hear your thoughts and feedback.
Tags: Edelman
Interesting comparative study, will have to drill down and read it in more detail when I have more time. As an Asian American, I get the sense that Asians in America do not blog (or read blogs) at a higher rate than non-Asian Americans. So while I'm glad there's a higher blog readership rate in Asia, I'd be more curious to learn about the percentage and number of active blogs/ bloggers that exist in various parts of the world.
Posted by:djchuang | Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 02:56 PM
Meanwhile, Filipinos are taking over the blogosphere.
Posted by:Mike Abundo | Friday, January 12, 2007 at 07:01 AM
It's really interesting to see how these trends vary across the world. I'd really like to find out more about the asian blogging culture but wouldn't know where to start.
Posted by:kelvin newman | Friday, January 12, 2007 at 07:39 AM
Hey Steve,
The raport is indeed very interesting. But it has some mistakes.
In table 1 on page 5. Poland 16% + 85% gives 101%? And other countries usually do not add up to 100%. Probably there were answers "i don't know" but it's not mentioned in the raport.
Also the caption under Table 1 is irrelevant.
Regards. Piotr Zalewski, IDG Poland.
Posted by:Piotr Zalewski | Friday, January 12, 2007 at 09:57 AM
Hey Steve, What about extend this research to include Brazil?
Posted by:Fabio Cipriani | Monday, January 15, 2007 at 03:10 PM
Piotr, thanks for your feedback. Fabio, I am not sure. LatAm is important. We couldn't address every country with this report, however.
Posted by:Steve Rubel | Monday, January 15, 2007 at 07:24 PM