Korean blogging is huge!
Did you know there are more Korean bloggers than American ones? That 90% of South Koreans in their 20s have a blog?! UsageWatch.org cites the makers of Cyworld and some market research to suggest that one in four of all South Koreans have a blog on that service alone. Makes the November figures for the US (7% of adult US internet users or 2.7% of the US population according to Pew) seem puny by comparison.
I will be studying UK weblogging for my thesis but this really makes me wish I spoke Korean and could do my research there… Also see:
- this International Herald Tribune article for the demographic and financial figures
- ‘I Was a Cyholic, a Cyworld Addict’ for a more personal view (from one of the ‘citizen reporters’ for OhMyNews - another S Korean phenomenon I blogged about earlier…
- and here for some suggestions about why S Korea has such high broadband penetration.
- Update: Blogcount cites sources suggesting even higher numbers of Korean bloggers and points out that the various blog monitoring services like Technorati don’t seem to be tracking them.
January 23rd, 2005 at 6:54 pm
They seem to be doing all big-style in Korea. The first election where the internet had an impact, the fastest growing wirelss market, the most connected (hyperlink in, hyperlinks out) country outside the G8… If you have a chance pay a visit to Han Park’s site (fellow academic) which will tell you why Korea is on the bleeding edge…
January 25th, 2005 at 8:00 am
Hi!
Randomly came across your site. I actually just wrote a piece on Korea’s broadband environment and CyWorld:
Where Technology Is Ubiquitous, Opportunity Abounds
What the United States and others can learn from Korea’s ubiquitous broadband environment.
http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=7906_0_1_0_C
January 31st, 2005 at 1:44 pm
Wow - that’s quite a figure. I wonder what the figure is among British youngsters - 5%? 10%?
December 7th, 2006 at 11:04 am
[...] The main exceptions to this picture are South Korea and India. In Korea, blogging is huge, and their subject matter covers all walks of life. The figures aren’t available in these reports, but I’ve read elsewhere that around 90% of Koreans in their 20s have a Cyworld blog, and that there are perhaps 11.9mn bloggers across the entire population (48.3mn). Korea arguably skews the average figures given above upwards. [...]