Demographics

Between the 20th and 22nd of January 2010 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were female, 19.9% in their teens, 29.5% in their twenties, 30.5% in their thirties, and 20.1% in their forties. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

My attempts to look cool are limited to pulling a subtle wistful smile and appearing to be lost in thought trying to figure out the mysteries of the universe while all I’m actually doing is translating this silly survey. However, I’m probably giving more of an impression of being the train loony…

The 12= for men, paying by credit card all in one installment, refers to the standard credit card settlement method in Japan - for most cards you have to pay everything off at the end of the month, so if you want to spread the load you can ask to pay in multiple installments, so the store bills you once a month for the next few months. 11 for men, giving a coat to a crying girl, is a mystery to me, as is 24=, skiving off swimming lessons!

Ranking result

Q: What sort of things do you do that you think others find cute? (Sample size=547, women)

Rank		Score
1	Pretend not to understand a dirty joke	100
2	Look through my lids with upturned eyes	93.2
3	Use animated deco mail for emoji	89.2
4	Talk in an octave higher tone	86.5
5	Blow off a trivial worry by silently smiling	83.8
6	Coordinate light pink and white fashion	81.1
7	Have a bigger fringe (bangs)	62.2
8	Speak slowly and deliberately	56.8
9	Tilt my head when asking questions	47.3
10=	Cover my mouth when laughing	45.9
10=	Puff my cheeks when angry	45.9
12	Be a little pigeon-toed when standing in the train, at traffic lights, etc	39.2
13	When hot, embarrassed, fan my face with both hands	37.8
14	Have a cute animal cellphone strap	31.1
15	Make a duck mouth (pouty lips) when I feel people are looking at me	29.7
16	“Puff-puff” on hot food	28.4
17	Form a little bit of hair into a small pigtail	28.4
18	Stick my tongue out when I fail	27.0
19	Quietly say “Upsadaisy” when lifting things	25.7
20=	Select ballads at karaoke	24.3
20=	Blink a lot	24.3
22	Always have some sweeties ready	21.6
23=	Always leave a little bit on the plate when eating	17.6
23=	Don’t cross my legs when sitting in a chair	17.6
23=	Shake pinkies when making a promise	17.6
26=	Sigh as I look out a window	16.2
26=	Choose tea rather than coffee	16.2
26=	Put a handkerchief on my lap when eating	16.2
26=	Refer to people with a cute lisp (instead of -san use -shan, -tan, etc)	16.2
30	Rush over to animals, kids that I see	14.9

Q: What sort of things do you do that you think others find cool? (Sample size=524, men)

Rank		Score
1	Basically always pay for women	100
2	Help women carrying heavy items	96.1
3	Show off my skills when girls are watching me play sports	84.2
4	Basically always pay for subordinates/juniors	71.1
5	Sing ballads at karaoke	38.2
6	Stare into the distance	28.9
7=	Stock up on trivia from everyday things then show off my knowledge	27.6
7=	Undo the top two buttons of shirts	27.6
9	Comb my fringe diagonally	26.3
10	Idly loosen a tight tie	23.7
11	Give my coat to a crying girl	21.1
12=	Pay by credit card all in one installment	19.7
12=	Put my arm on the passenger seat when reversing	19.7
14=	Boast about having been a bad boy in the past	18.4
14=	Walk with a click-clack sound from my shoe	18.4
16	Push my glasses in place with my middle finger	17.1
17	Take my glasses off quickly with one hand	15.8
18=	Sing love songs at full power	14.5
18=	Boast about having been up all night	14.5
18=	After an exam announce I didn’t do any studying at all	14.5
21	Walk in the wind with my coat open	13.2
22=	Look dazzlingly out the window	10.5
22=	Hit the Enter key with a flourish	10.5
24=	Flex bare arms to show off my biceps	9.2
24=	Wave my finger when saying “Indeed!”	9.2
24=	Sit with knees far apart	9.2
24=	Skive off swimming lessons	9.2
24=	Leave a restaurant with a toothpick hanging out of my mouth	9.2
29=	Try to show my crying face	7.9
29=	Blow on my fringe (bangs)	7.9

Demographics

Between the 24th and 26th of February 2010 300 members of the Marsh monitor panel completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was exactly 50:50 male and female, 2.3% in their teens, 17.7% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

Considering that I would presume that a prerequisite to owning a top-level domain is knowing in detail what exactly it is, 61 people know the details about domains and 73 people claim to have had one, that’s about 20% who just didn’t really know what their domain was. Thus, I have to conclude that “having a domain” includes “having a blog on a sub-domain”, not merely the stricter definition of “having purchased a top-level domain”, especially considering that .jp domains are considerably more expensive than the others.

I own a few .coms and a .net, I had a .biz, and I have a .org and a cunning plan…

Research results

Q1: Do you know what a domain is? (Sample size=300)

Know it well (to SQ1)	20.3%
Know a bit about it (to SQ1)	40.0%
Just heard of it (to SQ1)	35.3%
Never heard of it	4.3%

Q1SQ1: Do you have your own personal domain? (Sample size=287)

Yes (to SQ2)	19.9%
Used to have one	5.6%
Never had one	74.6%

Q1SQ2: What kind of top-level domains are/were they? (Sample size=73, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
.jp	55	75.3%
.com	23	31.5%
.net	4	5.5%
.org	3	4.1%
.info	3	4.1%
.biz	1	1.4%
Other	0	0.0%

Demographics

Between the 9th and 15th of February 2010 516 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.2% of the sample were male, 30.4% in their twenties, 33.7% in their thirties, and 35.9% in their forties.

Even worse, about two in five fancied Twittering with the people on the box. I’ve seen a couple of late-night programmes that feature the people in the studio checking emails for topics, and it’s incredibly boring just watching the top of someone’s head as they mutter at a monitor trying to summarise a message.

Research results

Q1: Have you ever seen a Twitterer’s Tweet? (Sample size=516)

	All	Male N=295	Female N=221
Yes, often	11.0%	11.2%	10.9%
Yes, sometimes	20.7%	21.4%	19.9%
No, never	68.2%	67.5%	69.2%

Q2: How often do you watch television? (Sample size=516)

	All	Male N=295	Female N=221
Often	31.6%	30.2%	33.5%
Occassionally	29.8%	27.8%	32.6%
Not really	24.6%	27.8%	20.4%
Not at all	14.0%	14.2%	13.6%

Q3: On the 2nd of November 2009 Hit Contents Research Labs in conjunction with a Television Tokyo business program, conducted a trial where the people on the show interacted in real time over Twitter with the viewers regarding the content of the program. Would you like to participate in such an intercourse with a television program? (Sample size=516)

	All	Male N=295	Female N=221
Want to participate regardless of the show	2.5%	2.0%	3.2%
Want to participate on a show I like	15.1%	16.6%	13.1%
Want to participate with people I like	23.1%	20.0%	27.1%
Don’t want to participate at all	59.3%	61.4%	56.6%

More frequent Twitter viewers from Q1 were more keen to participate.

Q4: Regardless of whether it is Twitter or other methods, do you think it would be fun if the number of programs where viewers could interact in real time increased? (Sample size=516)

	All	Male N=295	Female N=221
Yes, really fun	7.9%	7.5%	8.6%
Perhaps fun	39.5%	38.6%	40.7%
No, not particularly fun	52.5%	53.9%	50.7%

Again, the more frequent Twitter viewers thought it sounded more fun than others.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 19th of February 2010 300 members of the Marsh monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was 50:50 male and female, 1.7% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, 20.0% in their fifties, and 20.0% aged sixty or older.

I’ve only had a fleeting experience with the default search engine built into docomo’s iMode, but it was pretty terrible. Now I directly use Google and its iMode front-end, although it’s barely once a month that I use it, and then it is always for “<restaurant name> coupon”, which usually gives me a hit in one of the top three entries.

Research results

Q1: How often do you do word search on your mobile phone? (Sample size=300)

Often search (to SQs)	10.3%
Sometimes search (to SQs)	18.3%
Have searched (to SQs)	25.3%
Never searched	33.7%
Don’t know about word search	6.0%
Don’t have a mobile phone	6.3%

Q1SQ1: What kinds of word searches do you do on your mobile phone? (Sample size=162, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Words I’m curious about	94	58.0%
Information regarding my destintion	81	50.0%
Product names	62	38.3%
Coupon, other discount information	36	22.2%
Famous people’s names	32	19.8%
Title of song, book, etc	23	14.2%
Movie, ring tones, other mobile phone contents	15	9.3%
Word from “Search for …” advertisements	11	6.8%
Other	5	3.1%
Don’t remember	11	6.8%

Q1SQ2: How often do you get the information you want from word search on your mobile phone? (Sample size=162)

Always get it	6.2%
Nearly always get it	30.9%
Often get it	40.7%
Don’t really get it	21.0%
Never get it	1.2%

Demographics

On the 22nd of February 2010 300 people completed a survey; 52.0% of the sample were female, 14.7% in their twenties, 43.0% in their thirties, 28.0% in their forties, 10.3% in their fifties, and 4.0% in their sixties.

Just in case you don’t know, Google Buzz is Google’s attempt at a social networking service based around their core offerings including Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Chat. However, it launched into a storm of privacy complaints and for me, although I didn’t notice any privacy issues I certainly did notice it imposing itself into my Google Reader window, showing me far too much stuff from my contacts’ activities without any way to easily ignore. I soon turned it off, but I might go back in a couple of months to see if they have added any controls to only show me my friends when I want to see them.

Research results

Q1: Do you know about Google Buzz, Gmail’s social networking functionality? (Sample size=300)

Yes (to SQ)	9.7%
No	90.3%

Q1SQ: Have you used Google Buzz? (Sample size=29)

Yes, have used it	6.9%
No, but want to use	44.8%
No, and don’t want to use	48.3%

If we combine the two above we get:

Q1+Q1SQ: Have you used Google Buzz? (Sample size=300)

Yes, have used it	0.7%
No, but want to use	4.3%
No, and don’t want to use	4.7%
Not heard of it	90.3%

Q1: Do you know about Google Wave, Google’s communication service? (Sample size=300)

Yes	8.3%
No	91.7%

Demographics

Between the 3rd and 8th of February 2010 497 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.1% of the sample were male, 31.6% in their twenties, 29.4% in their thirties, and 39.0% in their forties.

I don’t have any complexes, I don’t think, although I used to have a thing about my teeth, but that was a justified complex as they were in a terrible state, so a good few visits to the dentist fixed all that.

I’d love to have seen hair as a separate category, as I think many Japanese men are conditioned by the media to expect to have a full head of black hair well into their middle age. I’m going a bit thin on top and silver in the stubble myself, but it seems to bother my wife more than me!

Research results

Q1: Do you feel reluctant to do something different to most other people? (Sample size=497)

	All	Male N=279	Female N=218
Very reluctant	3.0%	2.9%	3.2%
A little reluctant	49.9%	48.0%	52.3%
Not at all reluctant	47.1%	49.1%	44.5%

Q2: Do you have a complex about one of the following body parts: face/head, back, arms, hands, chest, stomach, bottom, legs, feet? (Sample size=497)

	All	Male N=279	Female N=218
Yes (to SQ1, SQ2)	59.4%	49.8%	72.0%
No (to SQ4)	40.4%	50.2%	28.0%

Q2SQ1: Which of these body parts do have the biggest complex about? (Sample size=296)

	All	Male N=139	Female N=157
Stomach	38.5%	42.4%	35.0%
Face/head	20.9%	22.3%	19.7%
Legs	12.2%	5.0%	18.5%
Back	9.1%	13.7%	5.1%
Feet	7.4%	5.8%	8.9%
Bottom	5.4%	2.2%	8.3%
Chest	4.1%	5.8%	2.5%
Arms	1.4%	0.7%	1.9%
Hands	1.0%	2.2%	0.0%

Q2SQ2: Have you tried to do something to lessen the biggest complex you have? (Sample size=296)

	All	Male N=139	Female N=157
Currently doing so (to SQ3)	17.6%	18.7%	16.6%
Have done so (to SQ3)	43.9%	35.3%	51.6%
Not done so	38.5%	46.0%	31.8%

Q2SQ3: Where did you get your information about lessening your biggest complex? (Sample size=182, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=75	Female N=107
Internet	51.1%	48.0%	53.3%
Television	40.7%	37.3%	43.0%
Magazines	30.2%	20.0%	37.4%
Thought it out myself	24.7%	33.3%	18.7%
From friends	21.4%	16.0%	25.2%
Books	17.0%	9.3%	22.4%
Newspapers	4.4%	2.7%	5.6%
Radio	2.7%	0.0%	4.7%
Other	3.8%	5.3%	2.8%

Q2SQ4: Have you ever had a complex about any of those body parts? (Sample size=201)

	All	Male N=140	Female N=61
Yes	10.9%	8.6%	16.4%
No	89.1%	91.4%	83.6%

Demographics

On the 9th of February 2010 1,080 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 17.0% in their teens, 18.7% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.5% in their forties, and 26.6% aged fifty or older.

It is useful to compare the outcome of this survey and the other survey I published yesterday on mini notebook computers.

Research results

Q1: Other than an ordinary mobile phone, which of the following mobile devices do you have? (Sample size=1,080, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Nintendo DS	491	45.5%
Ordinary notebook computer	291	26.9%
PlayStation Portable	203	18.8%
Netbook (to SQ1)	78	7.2%
Smartphone (to SQ2)	68	6.3%
PDA	68	6.3%
PND	14	1.3%
Tablet PC	11	1.0%
MID,UMPC	5	0.5%
Other	6	0.6%
None of the above	360	33.3%

Q1SQ1: What makers’ netbooks do you have? (Sample size=78, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
ASUSTek Eee PC	20	25.6%
Acer Aspire One	12	15.4%
Toshiba dynabook UX	9	11.5%
Hewlett-Packard mini	8	10.3%
Fujitsu FMV Biblo Loox M	8	10.3%
Sony Vaio W	8	10.3%
Lenovo IdeaPad	6	7.7%
NEC LaVie Light	5	6.4%
Dell Inspirion mini	5	6.4%
Onkyo SOTEC CI	4	5.1%
MSI Wind Netbook	3	3.8%
Espon Direct Endeavour Na01 mini	2	2.6%
Mouse Computers LuvBook U, G	1	1.3%
Other	6	7.7%
Don’t know	4	5.1%

Q1SQ2: What kind of smartphone do you have? (Sample size=78, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
iPhone	51	75.0%
W-Zero3 series	12	17.6%
Windows Mobile (excluding W-Zero3)	8	11.8%
Google phone (Android)	4	5.9%
BlackBerry	4	5.9%
Other	0	0.0%

Demographics

Over the 16th and 17th of February 2010 1,000 internet users completed a survey, although the means of gathering this sample was not described. 53.1% of the sample were male, 0.8% in their teens, 13.8% in their twenties, 31.3% in their thirties, 28.3% in their forties, 17.9% in their fifties, and 7.9% in their sixties.

I’ve now had my MSI Wind for about four months; I picked it up for under 300 dollars in the US, and it works great as a second PC that I can use when my wife’s busy with the main computer, or for stuffing in my rucksack whenever I have a solo train ride with 20 minutes or more to kill.

Research results

First of all 200 people had a “mini note PC”, but the term was not defined. I would reckon it would definitely cover anything under A4 size, however. These 200 people were asked the following.

Q1: Did you buy your mini notebook as a second computer or as a main computer? (Sample size=200)

As a second computer	79.0%
As a main computer	19.0%
Other	2.0%

Q2: What make is your mini notebook? If more than one, answer for the one you use the most. (Sample size=200)

Sony	18.5%
Toshiba	15.0%
ASUS Eee PC	10.0%
Dell	10.0%
Fujitsu	7.5%
Lenovo	6.5%
NEC	6.5%
Ace	5.5%
Kojinsha	3.0%
HP	2.0%
MSI	1.5%
Mouse Computers	0.5%
Onkyo	0.5%
Epson	0.0%
Other	10.0%
Don’t know	3.0%

Q3: When did you buy your mini notebook? If more than one, answer for the one you use the most. (Sample size=200)

Before 2009	38.5%
January to March 2009	13.5%
April to June 2009	11.5%
July to September 2009	9.5%
October to December 2009	19.0%
January to February 2010	8.0%

Finally, the 800 people without a mini notebook were asked if they might buy one in the future. 6.4% said they plans to buy, 25.1% might buy if the price is right, and 19.9% might buy if the spec or functions are right, making a total of 51.4% interested.

Demographics

Between the 20th and 22nd of January 2010 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were female, 19.9% in their teens, 29.5% in their twenties, 30.5% in their thirties, and 20.1% in their forties. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

My worst experience was with a local guide in Prague who must have been a closet communist as he spent a lot of time complaining when taking us round one site how the British and Americans had shot up the place during the Second World War, but I thought that was the Eastern Front so would have been the Soviets, and indeed we walked past a photo display captioned to indicate that it was as I suspected the Soviets. Later he spent some time moaning how the Austrian tour guides get double his pay…

Ranking results

Q: What makes you think your foreign tour guide is terrible? (Sample size=1,071)

Rank		Score
1	Not good at dealing with trouble	100
2	Difficult to understand explanations	90.0
3	Short-tempered	89.2
4	Is always vague	84.4
5	Gets lost	81.0
6	Not good keeping track of things	80.6
7	Doesn’t look clean	79.2
8	Talks far too much	75.6
9	Small voice, doesn’t project	74.1
10	Doesn’t make time for toilet, shopping	73.3
11	Takes us round all the souvenir shops	67.6
12	Doesn’t know much about local history, geography	62.8
13	Inexperienced as a guide	62.2
14	Dislikes people doing their own things or organising their own options	61.4
15	Without exception doesn’t talk to any of the participants	55.9
16	Boring	41.7
17	Too friendly	39.2
18	Won’t take photos of us	33.3
19	First time on the particular tour	32.1
20	Pretends not to see us struggling with luggage	27.5

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of December 2009 1,077 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 51.0% of the sample were female, 8.7% in their teens, 15.3% in their twenties, 27.0% in their thirties, 27.8% in their forties, 11.9% in their fifties, and 9.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Whenever I see programs or read about Twitter users, especially Japanese users, I am overcome with a great feeling of sadness. Mobile users, especially, seem to have devolved from rich email to basically text SMS.

Ranking result

Q: What’s so great about Twitter? (Sample size=1,077)

Rank		Score
1	Even though it’s a public blog, you can see the true face that celebrities usually don’t show	100
2	There’s lots of information exclusive to Twitter	97.3
3	There’s a surpisingly large number of people close to me twittering	87.7
4	You can write whatever you feel like	86.3
5	Replies have come from celebrities	80.8
6	Unknown people reply to your tweets about worries	75.3
7	Can get tweets from followers with different ways of thinking	64.4
8	My random tweet can get lots of people wrapped up in a discussion	60.3
9	Following and being followed is fun, greatly changes the way of using it	54.8
10	Information comes faster than from news sites, etc	52.1