Blogging Asia: A Windows Live Report shows that blogging is already a significant force in Asia. Haven’t been able to find the original report online, but I’ve been able to piece together the following from here, here and here.

• 46% of the online population in Asia have a blog (compared to just 8% of US web users).
• Almost half of all Asian bloggers (56%) are under 25, while 35% are 25 to 34 years old, and 9% are 35 years old and over. 74% of bloggers in Malaysia are under 25. Compare this to the US, where there is a much wider age spread: 46% of bloggers in the US are aged 30 or over.
• Females make up 64% of Malaysian bloggers compared to 46% in the US. On average, women make up 55% of Asian bloggers.
• More than 40% of Asian bloggers have less than 10 visitors per week.
• 74% of those in the survey find blogs by friends and family to be most interesting.
• About 50% believe blog content to be as trustworthy as traditional media. (Compare to 24% in Europe)
• 56% of those polled said they blogged in order to have an opinion space for themselves.

Asian bloggers are unlikely to read or write about politics and business issues, with the report describing these uses as ‘nascent’.

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.

In India, blogging is a predominantly male activity, with only 24% of bloggers being female (which will skew the 55% average downwards). It’s also an exception when it comes to subject matter, since business-related blogs are very popular. Around half of Indian bloggers said they found business blogs most interesting, compared to a quarter in the other areas polled.

Update: Was a bit shy of offering any analysis in the original post, not being Asian. Just thinking about how India might skew the averages, it appears personal communications with friends and family are overwhelmingly the most popular use of blogs in the rest of Asia. According to Pew (op cit), this is quite different from the US: it isn’t a reason to blog for 40% of their research respondents and only a minor reason for a further 22%. The culture of blogging, personal and feminised for most of Asia, seems very different to the Western model where it appears to be very much a personal and professional public platform. Indian blogging, on the other hand, seems to be very much driven by entrepreneurial endeavour.

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