Ypulse Research: Leveraging the Popularity of Gaming and Blogging with China’s Youth
Posted by anastasia on 06-03-2008
Allison Luong and Jeff Yip, from one of our new Ypulse Research partners, Pearl Research, have written a guest post summarizing some of the highlights from their report. Remember, you can now purchase this report on our new Research channel. If your company produces research and you’re interested in selling it on our channel, please get in touch with Charles Pelton.
Leveraging the Popularity of Gaming and Blogging with China’s 107 Million Young Internet Users
China has 107 million Internet users under the age of 25, making it one of the largest youth-oriented digital media markets in the world. These young Internet users account for 51% of the 200 million overall Internet users in China, according to figures by CNNIC, a Chinese government agency.
Pearl Research believes companies need to develop a deep understanding of Chinese youth if they hope to tap into China’s burgeoning domestic markets.
As a part of our ongoing analysis of Chinese youth, Pearl Research explores the social and consumer behaviors of this large market demographic.
Online Gaming
Approximately 74% of Chinese Internet users under the age of 18 played online games within the past six months, making gaming one of the top leisure activities. The year 2007 was a banner year for China’s online games industry and 2008 is expected to be just as robust. China’s online games market raked in an impressive $1.66 billion in 2007, up 60% according to Pearl Research’s latest estimates.
What this means for companies is that gaming is an important industry to ally their products with. For example, Coca-Cola printed millions of Coke cans with the gaming characters from Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, a popular online massively-multiplayer game.
Users who purchase these imprinted Coca-Cola cans could then redeem extra playing time for World of Warcraft. This promotion effectively cross-promoted both Coca-Cola and World of Warcraft and helped Coca-Cola create a relationship between it and the legion of dedicated World of Warcraft gamers. Gamers who purchase these Coke cans could enjoy their favorite beverage and at the same time save money on a popular game.
The game World of Warcraft generates more than $100 million annually in China, making it a bigger hit than most movies or music albums.
Blogging
Blogging is another activity that has grown in popularity in China. By the end of 2007, the number of blog writers reached 47 million compared to just 16 million in 2006. With an estimated one out of every 30 Chinese citizens writing on a blog service, Pearl Research believes companies must begin to formulate digital strategies focused on the needs of young blog users.
Approximately 47% of the written content on blogs contains inner monologues or records of personal feelings indicating blogs are a means of self-expression. Functions such as the upload/display of personal pictures, music and video were cited as being the most used by blog writers.
Mobile phone-maker Nokia is a company that has leveraged the popularity of blogging in China, promoting its products through various company-owned blogs. These blogs are written in a more informal manner and help update Chinese consumers on Nokia products, what applications are available and also contain photos from Nokia marketing activities.
Blogging and online gaming follow the same theme and that is of young Chinese Internet users choosing to focus on entertainment, sports, celebrities, food and tourism while surfing the Internet.
Pearl Research believes companies seeking to connect with Chinese youth should consider a targeted strategy focused on leveraging the popularity of both of these activities, as both Nokia and Coca-Cola have successfully accomplished.
Categorized under: Gaming, International, Ypulse Research
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:15 am
Great post Anastasia! My sister lives in China now and she too has mentioned that blogs are hugely popular over there.