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November 7, 2006
Observations on the Chinese and Korean Blogospheres
I have just returned from a two week trip to Asia. Among the most interesting discussions were with blogging experts, Jeremy Goldkorn in Beijing and Juny Lee in Seoul.
China's top portals are Sina.com, Sohu.com, Bokee.com and MSN Spaces. Sina was clever in reaching out early on to Chinese celebrities, encouraging them to post their blogs there. Technology is the number one subject for Chinese bloggers. There are also thousands of high school girl diaries, really personal journals. Group blogging is quite popular. One example is MindMeters.com, a group of reporters including the editor of Life Magazine. Another well known media blogger is WangXiaoFeng.net, who writes about government regulation of the Web in an outspoken way, for instance--Chinese Government trying to force bloggers to use their real names. Consumer generated content is rapidly expanding. Regular people have become stars in this manner. Sprite Fairy Sister posted photos of herself as a simple country girl dressed in traditional outfits; this led to her being retained by Sony Ericsson as spokesperson for its "simple phone."
Bulletin boards are very important in China. In fact, 110 million Chinese are regular participants on bulletin boards. According to Goldkorn, bulletin boards are more influential than blogs. Tianya.com, Qihoo.com and Xici.net are the top three bulletin boards. The People's Daily newspaper has an on-line forum which emphasizes a "strong China" policy, leading to nationalist posts throughout the day.
For companies considering how best to manage corporate reputation in the Chinese blogosphere, remember this story. A supplier to Apple, a Taiwanese company named Foxconn, was attacked for tolerating sweatshop conditions in China. The large British newspaper, the Daily Mail ran a story about these conditions and a reporter working for The China Business News (a large circulation Chinese business daily) covered the story soon after. Foxconn sued the reporter in Chinese court. Sina.com set up a blog for the journalist to defend herself and the Chinese blogosphere came to her defense, even adding further facts on the company's poor behavior in the factories.
In general, there appears to be quite an active anti-corporate, anti-multinational voice on the blogosphere in China. The average blogger is a 30 year old male, of modest means, venting resentments. Japanese companies are the #1 target, with US companies just behind.
Korea has an incredibly robust blogosphere, with an estimated 7 million active bloggers and over 20 million people participating in social networks such as Cyworld. The number one reason for blogging is commenting on technology. There are several food bloggers, including NaChoCho. Also there is a unique trend in Korea, the wife-bloggers, such as NaMuline, who share recipes, provides information on baby care, best schools and stores. PR companies engage these social arbiters on behalf of clients.
Koreas's top portals are Naver.com, Empas.com and Daum.net. Naver's strategy is reminiscent of Yahoo, aggregating stories from other media, while Naver determines the top-ranked news providing top-billing to sports and entertainment stories. Daum's strategy is to create its own content. It is becoming a media company, hiring its own technology reporters. The portals set up on-line clubs for major areas of interest, such as cars. These community sites often organize events.
Our Asian network released findings from Edelman's third annual Stakeholder Study two weeks ago and found that in Korea, on-line media is now exactly equal in trust to newspapers at 41% while in China, stories on the Web are the #2 source of credible information about a company behind television.
Overall, I am also struck by just how much Korea stands apart from the global conversation. Its most popular blog platforms do not even ping Technorati with information about posts. This makes it difficult to rate the authority of its bloggers and track conversations, which is unfortunate the given the size of the Korean blogosphere.
This trip reinforces my conviction that blogging is as much a local phenomenon as a global one. Therefore, there is a need for companies to participate in the blogosphere in a respectful manner with knowledge of cultural and language differences where appropriate.
Posted by Edelman at November 7, 2006 11:57 AM |
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Comments
Richard;
A while back I sent in a request to interview you about your recent statements on trust in business, after your talk in Hong Kong. Your pr group seems to be pretty slow on getting back to me.
Do you think we can spend some time talking on the phone?
Thanks.
Posted by: Doug Crets at November 8, 2006 5:04 AM
Some very interesting and useful observations on the Chinese and Korean blogosphere. I just got back from a trip to Beijing and Shanghai - a 'fact-finding' visit to learn about the key challenges the public relations industry was facing over there - the main one being staff recruitment and retention. I found it fascinating to talk with practitioners (who were very generous with their time) and discuss the similarities with the practice in the UK. My main reason for this interest is that we have an undergraduate degree programme that's based in Shanghai (Shanghai Institute for Foreign Trade) for two years and the final year is with us in the UK so it is crucial for us in education to keep up dated about the trends and issues in the region. I've been visiting China regularly since 2003 and see vast changes each time I'm there.
From my perspective there are some great opportunities there for our graduates but also some major challenges for employers and practitioners. Next time I'm out I'll try to arrange a meeting at your Edelman offices there as I'd be very interested in their perspective...
Posted by: Julia Jahansoozi at November 8, 2006 10:05 AM