Motoko’s weblog

When you see everyone around you on Twitter and Facebook, you think, “Wow! Twitter and Facebook are taking over the world!” But almost every time I talk to people who are not in this industry, I find that they have no idea of what I’m talking about. Some may be just starting to use Twitter, but not aware of any use of Twitter other than to chat with their friends and family, and have never even considered using it for business. Others may have been on Facebook a few years back, but haven’t been using it for a while since they graduated from University. Twitter currently has less than 10% reach in US market. This is probably much smaller than most of Online Marketers think. Perhaps, it’s good to step Continue Reading »

I just posted my presentation about the Search in Japan from International Search Summit in London last month.

As you can see, my presentation shows bunch of numbers, which don’t mean much to you unless you were in the audience. Here’s what I talked about.

Market:
94 million Internet users
75.3% Penetration rate
4% access Internet from TV and gaming devices
73.4% on Broad Band
90% of Continue Reading »

Many businesses have been enjoying the business relationship with Japan for years both online and offline. Despite the current financial and market crisis, the buying power of consumers in Japan seems to stay strong. The biggest e-commerce sites in Japan, Rakuten had the record sales during the holiday seasons in 2008-2009.

For those who have been considering to tap into Japanese market, but haven’t found data to help make the decision, here are some of the fact about Japanese market: Continue Reading »

According to Seedplanning’s 2008 online advertising report, Japan’s Online Advertising Market had a small growth in 2008 from 2007. (See below.) The report shows that about 60% of 458 companies who participated in the survey answered that they used online advertising services in 2008.

Q: Did you use Online Advertising services?

2008: Yes – 64.3%, No – 35.7%

2007: Yes – 63.0%, No – 37.0%

The report also shows that 11% of online advertisers in 2007 did not advertise online in 2008, while 12.3% started to use online advertising services in 2008. Continue Reading »