Release Date: May 17, 2005

Analysis on Current Status of and Forecast on Blogs/SNSs

Since March 11, 2005, MIC has been holding a "Study Group on Information Frontier" (Chair: Prof. KOKURYOU Jiro, the Faculty of Environmental Information, Keio University) toward the realization of a ubiquitous network society. The purposes of the Study Group are to i) have a broader exchange of opinions on institutional and technological issues based upon the latest trends in creative ICT, ICT services and ICT businesses, and ii) promote such ICT use.

At the meeting held on May 17, 2005, the Study Group announced some outputs, including i) an analysis of the current status and topics in new services including blogs (web logs), SNSs (social networking sites) based upon the advanced ICT, and ii) calculations and forecasts contributing to development of future business models. Outlines of the announcement are as follows (for details, please refer to Annex (PDF) attached hereto):

<Outlines of the announcements>
-    The cumulative number of blog users in Japan is about 3.35 million as of the end of March 2005. The cumulative number of active blog users (of blog users, those who renew their blogs at least once a month) is about 0.95 million. The cumulative number of blog readers is about 16.51 million. By the end of March 2007, those numbers will increase to about 7.82 million, about 2.96 million and about 34.55 million, respectively. This Study Group i) estimates that the blog market size in FY2004 is about 680 million yen and the total blog market size including relevant markets will increase to about 3.4 billion yen, and ii) forecasts that those market sizes will reach about 14.06 billion yen and about 137.7 billion yen in FY2006.

-    The cumulative number of SNS users in Japan is about 1.11 million as of the end of March 2005. The cumulative number of active SNS users (of SNS users, those who use SNSs at least once a month [diaries, e-mails, BBS, etc.]) reaches about 0.8 million. By the end of March 2007, those numbers will increase to about 10.42 million and about 7.51 million, respectively.

  This Study Group will continue to deliberate upon topics and compile its outcomes as a final report in June 2005.

[Reference]
Blog: An abbreviated form of web log (weB LOG). A web page contains personal diary, commentary or journal and is frequently updated. Postings on such blogs are arranged in chronological order.

Social networking site (SN): An SNS is a community-type web site with the purposes of finding new friends, introducing friends and registering a personal interest, hobby, etc.


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