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Taiwan: Blogosphere
Overview of Taiwan's Blogosphere
As a collective, the blogosphere in Taiwan rivals another forms of mass media in terms of reach, time spent by users as well as political, social and cultural impact. Blogs illustrate the fundamental shift in how users utilize the internet today by invoking participation from them. Across its active internet base, blogging in Taiwan has become a popular channel for the propagation of individual opinions and ideas with 86.6 % of Taiwanese having read a blog, and 70.9% having started a blog themselves. This figure translates to about 1.5 million people read blogs daily in Taiwan (roughly 5 percent of the population) and approximately 800,000 blogs in Taiwan which are updated regularly (once per week).
Demographics in Taiwan's Blogosphere
Wan Wan. Amaryliss. Amykaku. Ya-Ya Ching. Taiwan is a country filled with star bloggers which exude star appeal. Bloggers who display quirkness, creativity, whimsy or imagination in blog posts about their personal daily life dominate the blogosphere in Taiwan. Blogging as become such a phenomenon in Taiwan to the extent that local enthusiastic bloggers have launched a self-organized yearly blooger conference known as TW Bloggers BoF, where a large number of Taiwanese bloggers congregate to share their views and insights about each other's blogs.
There is also a growing trend in Taiwan which has seen the profileration of more business and/or consumer affairs blogs. Two industries in particular are leading the charge: Consumer electronics and travel and tourism. Companies in Taiwan understand the importance of tapping into the social media market for business value, and have started closely following online conversations. This has resulted in the cultivating of relationships with bloggers and led Taiwanese businesses to invest in corporate innovation within the blogosphere.
English vs Chinese Blogs
Taiwan’s blogosphere can be broadly categorized into two groups: English and Chinese blogs. The former comprises expatriates from Western countries who blog in English and the latter of local bloggers who use traditional Mandarin.
According to Scott Sommers, an influential figure within Taiwan’s expatriate blogging community, most English blogs are dominated by cross-strait relations and the domestic politics resulting from it. Within this community is another subset known as the Western Christian missionary bloggers, who are not interested in communicating with other expatriate bloggers.
Despite the fact that most Taiwanese bloggers are fluent in English, current efforts to bridge the English and Chinese blogging communities have met with little success. One of the reasons cited is that local bloggers are uncertain about how they will be perceived through the usage of English. Moreover, there is a trend where most Taiwanese blogs in English are written under platforms such as blogspot and typepad, which have limited personalization features and subdomains which the bloggers have little control over. In additon, English Taiwan blogs and websites do very little website optimization and link promotion, which results in little exposure.
Sources:
1. English Taiwan: The websphere, the blogosphere, traffic, SEO and the need for profound change, http://www.filination.com/blog/2007/03/19/taiwan-the-websphere-the-blogosphere-traffic-seo-and-the-need-for-a-profound-change/
2. Taiwan blogosphere: Gaining steam, http://www.edelmanapac.com/edelman/blog/2006/08/16/Taiwan-Blogosphere-Gaining-Steam-1.html
3. Ogilvy insight, Can brands have a social life?
The appeal of “cute cartoon” blogs are vastly popular amongst the teenagers in Taiwan, as exemplified by the success of Wanwan’s blog.
In October 2004, a young blogger Hu Jia-wei began blogging about her life and home with the intention of sharing her daily reflections with friends and family members. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that her blog, titled Wanwan’s Comic blog at http://www.wretch.cc/blog/cwwany, would become the most popular personality blog in Taiwan and making her one of the top Taiwanese bloggers. Till date and counting, her blog has a total visit of 116,137,872 visitors!
‘Cute’ is the theme of the whole blog and the blog became famous because of the cute cartoon character “Wanwan”, which happens to be the nick name of the blogger. The cartoon character and comic series designed solely by the blogger are humorous animated depictions of the various moods of office life, such as busy, tired, depressed, annoyed and bored. They have spread all over the internet and many people use them every day to express themselves online.
With the significant growth of viewers and fans, the blog is currently a business rather than a personal journal blog. In 2005, Wanwan published her first book titled “I hate to work, but enjoy my life” which went on to sell more than 100,000 copies despite the fact that much of the material in the book had previously appeared on her blog for free. The book surged to the top of the bestseller lists at major Taiwanese bookstores such as Kingstone and Eslite, and at online retailer books.com.tw. With that, Kingstone Books named her one of its Outstanding People in Publishing and Author of the Year 2005. Two sequels were published over the next two years and they too became bestsellers. She has since sold the publishing rights of publications to China, South Korea, and Thailand.
However in recent times, critiques of the blog have said that the blog has lost its feelings as the blogger seems to have moved away from drawing for herself to drawing for her audience. Also, critiques have said that before the blog became famous, audiences could read some articles which were written by Wanwan, but nowadays all entries are in image form, giving audiences the lack of opportunity to know more about the blogger.
Nevertheless, Wanwan’s blog is a great example of how businesses can thrive on Taiwan’s blogging scene. Wanwan is now famous and appears in some television advertisements. Wanwan has also been sought out for endorsement deals by various companies and talks have been going around that her comic mascot may soon be marketed, much like the “Hello Kitty” mascots. With all her engagements, Wanwan has quit her old day job and is learning to make a living as a professional cartoonist. This is an amazing account of how a blogger in Taiwan may gain fame and fortune, and how blogs provide business opportunities.
As a collective, the blogosphere in Taiwan rivals another forms of mass media in terms of reach, time spent by users as well as political, social and cultural impact. Blogs illustrate the fundamental shift in how users utilize the internet today by invoking participation from them. Across its active internet base, blogging in Taiwan has become a popular channel for the propagation of individual opinions and ideas with 86.6 % of Taiwanese having read a blog, and 70.9% having started a blog themselves. This figure translates to about 1.5 million people read blogs daily in Taiwan (roughly 5 percent of the population) and approximately 800,000 blogs in Taiwan which are updated regularly (once per week).
Demographics in Taiwan's Blogosphere
Wan Wan. Amaryliss. Amykaku. Ya-Ya Ching. Taiwan is a country filled with star bloggers which exude star appeal. Bloggers who display quirkness, creativity, whimsy or imagination in blog posts about their personal daily life dominate the blogosphere in Taiwan. Blogging as become such a phenomenon in Taiwan to the extent that local enthusiastic bloggers have launched a self-organized yearly blooger conference known as TW Bloggers BoF, where a large number of Taiwanese bloggers congregate to share their views and insights about each other's blogs.
There is also a growing trend in Taiwan which has seen the profileration of more business and/or consumer affairs blogs. Two industries in particular are leading the charge: Consumer electronics and travel and tourism. Companies in Taiwan understand the importance of tapping into the social media market for business value, and have started closely following online conversations. This has resulted in the cultivating of relationships with bloggers and led Taiwanese businesses to invest in corporate innovation within the blogosphere.
English vs Chinese Blogs
Taiwan’s blogosphere can be broadly categorized into two groups: English and Chinese blogs. The former comprises expatriates from Western countries who blog in English and the latter of local bloggers who use traditional Mandarin.
According to Scott Sommers, an influential figure within Taiwan’s expatriate blogging community, most English blogs are dominated by cross-strait relations and the domestic politics resulting from it. Within this community is another subset known as the Western Christian missionary bloggers, who are not interested in communicating with other expatriate bloggers.
Despite the fact that most Taiwanese bloggers are fluent in English, current efforts to bridge the English and Chinese blogging communities have met with little success. One of the reasons cited is that local bloggers are uncertain about how they will be perceived through the usage of English. Moreover, there is a trend where most Taiwanese blogs in English are written under platforms such as blogspot and typepad, which have limited personalization features and subdomains which the bloggers have little control over. In additon, English Taiwan blogs and websites do very little website optimization and link promotion, which results in little exposure.
Sources:
1. English Taiwan: The websphere, the blogosphere, traffic, SEO and the need for profound change, http://www.filination.com/blog/2007/03/19/taiwan-the-websphere-the-blogosphere-traffic-seo-and-the-need-for-a-profound-change/
2. Taiwan blogosphere: Gaining steam, http://www.edelmanapac.com/edelman/blog/2006/08/16/Taiwan-Blogosphere-Gaining-Steam-1.html
3. Ogilvy insight, Can brands have a social life?
| Corporate Blogs |
| A Billionaire’s Blog |
| Taiwan’s wealthiest man, Terry Guo Taiming (郭台銘), a billionaire and the CEO of a Forbes Top 500 company – electronics manufacturer Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, has a blog at http://terrygoufoxconn.blog.china.alibaba.com/. (Note: Foxconn Technology Group is the subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.) Terry Guo’s blog is hosted at Alibaba China, which is China’s largest e-commerce company and online marketplace for domestic trade. After conquering much of the global electronics manufacturing territory, Chinese-language reports have speculated that Terry is now setting his sights on something less tangible: the virtual world. An influential Taiwanese newspaper, the Commercial Times, has predicted that Mr. Guo is planning to make a $100 million investment in Alibaba. While his reasons for maintaining a blog are unclear, Mr. Guo made remarks in his blog predicting that Asia’s e-commerce development will catch up with the West. He likened the importance of the internet economy to “a pair of wings that would allow a tiger to fly”, and pointed out that information technology will lead to new global patterns of production. In his blog entries, Guo often writes on topics relating to business – how businesses can remain competitive and what he feels is the formula for success in the business world. In one blog entry, he also expressed his views about how he is able to use the blog to respond to situations, media reports that involve him, or things that interest him. However, there are only five blog entries to date, and he was only active from September 2007 to October 2007. Source: Taiwanese Billionaire Mulls Taking Part in Alibaba IPO - Forbes.com |
| Dell's Solution | ||||
| Dell Inc. maintains a Chinese blog at www.direct2dell.com/chinese, making it the first Chinese-language blog ever started by a computer systems company. Taiwan is home to some of the most important technology companies in the world, and Dell is one of the major trading partners of these Taiwanese companies. Blog master Jacqui Zhou explained that the blog had become a necessity to make sure its communications keep pace with its growth, and enable it to better serve and directly communicate with its customers. Dell allows workers to post entries on new products and services, personal and work experiences, and more. Customers are also able to post entries on the blog, including leaving topics and notes for Dell workers to comment on through the blog. Please refer to the “Dell Interview Transcript” for further information.
Blogging @ 7-Eleven 7-Eleven, which operates the largest chain of convenience stores in Taiwan (commonly known to Taiwanese as the equivalent of the US Wal-Mart), has a Taiwanese blog at http://www.7-11.com.tw/open-chan/blog/blog.asp. To date, the blog has had a staggering 1,097,829 hits and counting. It is a cartoon-themed blog with adorable and interactive cartoon characters. The blog is centered on Taiwan 7-Eleven’s mascot “Open-Chan!” (OPEN小將!), a cartoon character which appeals to their main target market which is the younger crowd. It is especially popular amongst teenage girls. The main purpose of the blog is to appeal to and connect with its younger customers, whilst at the same time building long-term relationships with them. The blog is also linked to a website with free downloads for computer-desktop wallpapers and MSN Messenger “emoticons”. “Open-Chan!” the mascot, regularly posts updates of events (sponsored by 7-Eleven) and pictures on the blog. Additionally, merchandise of its mascot are sold on the blog. Books.com.tw Books.com.tw, the largest online bookstore in Taiwan recently adopted a creative approach to boost sales – by offering revenue-sharing with bloggers. The online bookstore is cooperating with So-net, an internet service provider in Taiwan, to offer a product recommendation service that will allow sharing of revenues with bloggers who participate. Essentially Books.com.tw is looking to provide a variety of application program interfaces to help blog owners set up advertising links between their blogs and the company’s website, and blog owners can comment on and recommend books, magazines or any other goods. For any goods sold through the links, the respective blog owners will be entitled to share up to 4% of the sales revenue. Apart from books.com.tw, Yahoo! Kimo Mall (the online shopping store of Taiwan’s largest internet portal), have also adopted such sales promotions through cooperation with blog owners. |
| Star Bloggers |
The appeal of “cute cartoon” blogs are vastly popular amongst the teenagers in Taiwan, as exemplified by the success of Wanwan’s blog.
In October 2004, a young blogger Hu Jia-wei began blogging about her life and home with the intention of sharing her daily reflections with friends and family members. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that her blog, titled Wanwan’s Comic blog at http://www.wretch.cc/blog/cwwany, would become the most popular personality blog in Taiwan and making her one of the top Taiwanese bloggers. Till date and counting, her blog has a total visit of 116,137,872 visitors!
‘Cute’ is the theme of the whole blog and the blog became famous because of the cute cartoon character “Wanwan”, which happens to be the nick name of the blogger. The cartoon character and comic series designed solely by the blogger are humorous animated depictions of the various moods of office life, such as busy, tired, depressed, annoyed and bored. They have spread all over the internet and many people use them every day to express themselves online.
With the significant growth of viewers and fans, the blog is currently a business rather than a personal journal blog. In 2005, Wanwan published her first book titled “I hate to work, but enjoy my life” which went on to sell more than 100,000 copies despite the fact that much of the material in the book had previously appeared on her blog for free. The book surged to the top of the bestseller lists at major Taiwanese bookstores such as Kingstone and Eslite, and at online retailer books.com.tw. With that, Kingstone Books named her one of its Outstanding People in Publishing and Author of the Year 2005. Two sequels were published over the next two years and they too became bestsellers. She has since sold the publishing rights of publications to China, South Korea, and Thailand.
However in recent times, critiques of the blog have said that the blog has lost its feelings as the blogger seems to have moved away from drawing for herself to drawing for her audience. Also, critiques have said that before the blog became famous, audiences could read some articles which were written by Wanwan, but nowadays all entries are in image form, giving audiences the lack of opportunity to know more about the blogger.
Nevertheless, Wanwan’s blog is a great example of how businesses can thrive on Taiwan’s blogging scene. Wanwan is now famous and appears in some television advertisements. Wanwan has also been sought out for endorsement deals by various companies and talks have been going around that her comic mascot may soon be marketed, much like the “Hello Kitty” mascots. With all her engagements, Wanwan has quit her old day job and is learning to make a living as a professional cartoonist. This is an amazing account of how a blogger in Taiwan may gain fame and fortune, and how blogs provide business opportunities.
adamr.2007 |
Latest page update: made by adamr.2007
, Nov 3 2009, 3:48 PM EST
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