Techreport,
CNNIC Releases 2007 Survey Report on China Weblog Market Number of Blog Writers Reaches 47 million Equaling One Fourth of Total Netizens
Website, 21. China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), (2007/12/27 2007)
Abstract
On Dec. 26th, 2007, CNNIC published “the Survey Report on Blogs in
China 2007”. According to the report, by the end of Nov. 2007, the
number of blog spaces has reached 72.82 million in China, and with
47 million blog writers, it is reaching one fourth of the total netizens.
This indicates the rapid growth of the blog market in China.
The survey statistics show that by the end of Nov. 2007, the number
of blog spaces has reached 72.82 million in China, while that of
blog writers has totaled 47 million, which means that one out of
every 30 Chinese, or one out of four netizens writes blogs. Also,
the active blog writers have taken up 36% of the total blog writers,
approximately 17 million, and the number of valid blog spaces of
the active blog users is 28.75 million.
By the end of 2006, the number of blog writers was 17.5 million, and
within one year the increasement reached nearly 30 million, indicating
the large-scale growth in number of the blog writer group. However,
as indicated by the survey, the future growth of the blogs will slow
down: 65% of the investigated said they only registered one blog,
and showed little tendency to register another in half a year; only
11% of the investigated said they would definitely register a blog
in the future half a year.
The survey also indicates that the blog covers almost all the areas
of people’s daily life, including the cultural, military, economic,
tourist, living areas, etc. therefore the blog has also become the
important channel for people to obtain information. Among the blog
writers surveyed in this report, the male gender take up 43% while
the female is 57%, which is contrary to the traditional gender ratio
of 55:45 (male: female) among netizens, and shows a higher popularity
of blogs among female users.
In terms of major content the blogs covered, 47% of the blogs are
written about the inner monologues or record of emotions of the writers.
Next are the narration of daily life, personal interests and hobbies.
Most of the blogs are for the writers to record their own life status
and conduct self demonstration, with the blogs having a more and
more obvious tendency of self-media attributes.
The survey also finds that among the motives for reading blogs, entertainment
comes first, which is reported to occupy 43% of the surveyed. It
will become one of the directions for further probing of the profitable
blog model to make full use of the participative, interactive, and
circulative characteristics of the blog and dig out the entertainment
value of blogs.
In addition, although blogs have become an important information channel,
the readers obviously have more confident in online news than in
blog content. 63% of the surveyed said they trust more in the online
news while only 20% have more trust in the blog content. This shows
that compared to online news, the blog content at present calls for
improvement in its credibility. And as a kind of transmission media,
the blogs need the self discipline of the blog writers in order to
raise the credibility.
The survey shows, in terms of the methods that blog writers choose
to access most frequently visited blogs, the primary choice is through
the links on the blogs and through the browser bookmarks. 12% of
the blog writers directly key in the blog addresses in the address
bar, which means 5.64 million blog writers browse their blogs directly
by keying in the addresses of the blogs. Judging from the accessing
habits, the market of individual domain names looks optimistic in
the blog area.
Meanwhile, 66% of the surveyed expressed interests in using the individual
domain names. And as many as 31% of the surveyed said that if a blog
website offers the simple or customized blog domain names at 10 yuan/name,
they would consider changing the blog platforms. So for the 1 yuan
registration price of .CN domain names, the individual .CN domain
names would have a lot to commit itself to in the blog area.
The function that blog writers use most frequently is the upload/display
function of pictures, also with a high frequency in using music and
videos on the blog. Among the new functions or tools the writers
mostly long for, the blog writers wish the most is to expand the
storage of the blogs space, and being provided with the customized
design models of the blog. Meanwhile，10% of the writers responded
that they are willing to buy the blog space service. This indicates
that the functions of blogs have set apart from the monotone written
record, and headed for multi-functions.
With the continuous progress in Internet technology, the continuous
expansion of Internet cyberspace, and the continuous raise in networking
speed, the future blogs will include various technologies such as
character, images, audio, video, flash, etc., combing the instant
messaging, social network, online shopping and etc., demonstrating
having the tendency of becoming the all-around personal space which
cover all aspects of information of the blog writer.
China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the state network
information center of China, was founded as a non-profit organization
on Jun. 3rd 1997.
CNNIC takes orders from the Ministry of Information Industry (MII)
to conduct daily business, while it was administratively operated
by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Computer Network Information
Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences takes the responsibility of
running and administrating CNNIC. CNNIC Steering Committee..
