Blogging Phenomenon
Surveys done by Technorati (2008) implies that comScore MediaMetrix (August, 2008) allocated 77.7 million blog users in the U.S itself. Apart from that, eMarketer (May, 2008) has done research that 94.1 million U.S blog readers in 2007 and 22.6 million U.S bloggers. Lastly, Universal McCann (March, 2008) states that there are 184 million Worldwide users who started a blog, 346 million Worldwide users who read blogs and 77% of active internet users who read blogs. These researches have determined that there are more blog readers as compared to bloggers.
Blogging Trends in Europe, Asia and Malaysia
(source: Technorati, 2008)
Graph above showed that the North America region conquered the biggest blogging phenomenon globally with 48%, followed by Europe with 27%, Asia 13%, South America 7% and America 3%.
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(source: Technorati, 2008)
The first table above showed that most bloggers in Asia are Male with 73%. Asian bloggers are more to younger generation where 1/5 are students aged 18-34. Research also showed that Asian blogger are most likely to blog about music and less about politics. Asian bloggers are also more concerned about their identity and they most prefer to blog to earn profits.
Hence, the 2nd table discussed about the European bloggers in which it concludes that there are more male bloggers than female bloggers. European bloggers blogged a lot about music and computer while they blogged lesser about personal musings and religion topics. 60% of European bloggers blog for fun and they focus less on monetization.
In Malaysia, the blogging trends are wide, such as personal, political, fashion, humor blogs and etc. Thus, according to sabahan.com, 28% of Malaysian bloggers write about personal stuff, 16% about political views and another 16% about the latest technology.
Benefits to the Community
In the economical factor, blogging is the latest form of money making platform. Many bloggers have started investing in blogshops selling apparels to electronic appliances. Besides that, blog advertising community such as Nuffnang, allows bloggers to register under them and earn profits through every clicks on the ads featured on their blogs. Influential blogger in Malaysia such as Kenny Sia earned thousands of dollars through blog adverts as compared to less influential bloggers who might earn 10 times lesser. Allen (2005) states that whilst most blogs earn in tens of dollar per month range, some of the more popular blogs reportedly earn thousands of dollars a month.
While in the political factor, politicians such as Lim Kit Siang and Jeff Ooi shared their political views with their readers. Hence, the community does not only reads the papers to know about the current politics situation but they are able to read it from blogs directly from the politicians.
Blogging helps interaction. Through blogging, bloggers and readers interact with each other by just posting comments and feedbacks. According to Perera (2008), blogging has contributed by creating a powerful online community.
References:
- Gumbrecht, M 2004, Blogs as "Protected Space", WWW2004 Workshop on the Weblogging Ecosystem: Aggregration, Analysis and Dynamics, viewed June 12 2009
- State of the Blogosphere, 2007, 2008, viewed June 12 2009 <http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere
- Day 1: Who are the bloggers, Technorati 2008, viewed 12 June 2009 <http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/who-are-the-bloggers/
- 50 most influential blogs in Malaysia, Sabahan 2007, viewed 12 June 2009 <http://sabahan.com/2007/02/06/50-most-influential-blogs-in-malaysia/
- Allen, R 2005, The Impact of Blogging, viewed 12 June 2009 <http://rallenhome.com/essays/essay5.html
- Perera, G 2008, The Personal Benefits of Blogging, Article Alley, viewed 12 June 2009 <http://articlealley.com/article_669123_15.html
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