Sunday, April 26, 2009

091908: Filipino Netizens among most sociable


By Riza T. Olchondra
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:29:00 09/19/2008

MANILA, Philippines -- You think that collectively sending about one billion text messages daily is enough for Filipinos to stay in touch? Apparently not.

In the third edition of Universal McCann's study on social media, the Philippines had the social networking highest penetration among Internet users (83.1 percent) compared with the global average of 57.5 percent.

The Philippines also had the second-highest incidence of blog-reading among Internet users at 90.3 percent. South Korea topped the blog readership list at 92.1 percent. The global average was 72.8 percent.

And all over the world, including the Philippines and South Korea, personal blogs or diary blogs were the favorite reading fare. That's a lot of chismis (rumors).

What about writing blogs? About 65.8 percent of Filipino Internet users write blogs, compared with 70.3 percent in China, 70.9 percent in Taiwan and 71.7 percent in South Korea. Globally, 44.8 percent of Internet users blog, mostly about themselves.

That means that Filipinos like to read about other people more than they like to write about themselves -- but so did the rest of the world.

It must be noted, though, that Internet penetration in the Philippines is relatively low at around 15 percent. Compared to cell phone penetration of more than 60 percent, that is a lot more room for growth.

Still, Universal McCann said its study indicates that blogs and social networks are becoming "mainstream" media and are a valid platform for spreading information.

The study also indicates that there is a wealth of opportunities for traditional media publishers and advertisers alike to explore.

But most importantly, it shows that consumers are no longer passive -- they have more control of how they consume content. They also have more ways of telling other people about their views on products, services, people and events.

Universal McCann's study involved 17,000 respondents in 29 countries. Those included in the study were Internet users 16 to 54 years old who accessed the world wide web every day or every other day.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20080919-161723/Filipino-Netizens-among-most-sociable

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