Servant of Chaos

Number of Chinese Bloggers Exceeds Population of Australia

When I was last in China, I spent quite a lot of time with kids like the ones in this photo. I was attending an exhibition in the holiday resort of Hangzhou (which also happens to be one of the regional centres of technology and animation) with hundreds of other vendors. My focus during the event was to engage and entertain kids with some interactive and stimulating digital games.

What struck me was not only the outgoing and friendly personalities of all the kids (except when they were frightened by my Gweilo appearance), but also the fact that these kids were talking to me in English. And I don't mean the stilted, embarrassing mishmash that I normally trot out as an excuse for "foreign languages". I am talking real conversation, real questions, personal interest.

These kids took every opportunity to speak with a native English speaker that they could. A few feet away you could see smiling grandparents and excited parents watching as their pride and joy edged ever closer to ask a question. And like kids everywhere, once the ice was broken, the flood gates opened. "What is your name ?" gave way to questions about home, family, school, favourite things. They were bright, fun and engaging kids, open and enthusiastic. And they could all use computers, picked up the games and activities with a few clicks, and were keen to see their names on the leaderboard. Technology was definitely seen as an advantage ... and every kid I spoke to saw the potential.

I was reminded of all this today as I read Shel Israel's third post summarising his findings from the SAP Global Survey. This third posting builds on the Overview and the Seven Key Findings (regular readers will find little to surprise, as Shel, himself, notes), and provides an EXCELLENT snapshot of the state of social media play all around the world. There are some amazing statistics, including:

• Facebook has grown at a rate of 400% during 2007, but not in Germany where its adoption continues to lag (despite 45% of Internet users engaging in social media of some kind)
• Scotland continues to be a world leader in the field of education (just take a look at Ewan McIntosh's brilliant blog to learn more)

But the one statistic that really hit me was this -- there are now 20 million bloggers in China. That is the equivalent to the entire population of Australia. A great example of SHIFT HAPPENS unfolding in front of our eyes.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: ShelIsrael, SAP Global Survey, Ewan McIntosh, shift happens, china rising

BlogWorld and New Media Expo -- Some Facts and Figures

Mike Sansone reminded me that BlogWorld and New Media Expo is scheduled for early November 2007 ... and the time for discounts is almost over. The breadth and range of the speakers on offer demonstrate exactly how challenging "keeping up" with Web 2.0/social media really can be -- there are strategists, PR and advertising types, technologists, journalists, podcasters and others who cross all these boundaries. But the real reason that social media is fascinating is not the technology or even the ideas.

It is the people. People like you and me. And people like "Jane Doe". And there are lot of them:

• Over 12 million American adults currently maintain a blog.
• More than 147 million Americans use the Internet.
• Over 57 million Americns read blogs.
• 1.7 million American adults list making money as one of the reasons they blog.
• 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years.
• 9% of internet users say they have created blogs.
• 6% of the entire US adult population has created a blog.
• Technorati is currently tracking over 70 million blogs.
• over 120 thousand blogs are created every day.
• There are over 1.4 million new blog posts every day.
• 22 of the 100 most popular websites in the world are blogs.
• 120,000 new blogs are created every day.
• 37% of blog readers began reading blogs in 2005 or 2006.
• 51% of blog readers shop online.
• Blog readers average 23 hours online each week.

The last two bullets serve as a powerful reminder of the close link between social media and purchasing. It will be interesting to read Des Walsh's coverage.

Monday Love

The Collector - detail
Originally uploaded by foom23.

I have grown to love Mondays. I know ... hard to believe, but in this world of always on/forever connected instantly gratifying communications, Monday is a relatively quiet haven for me. You see, Monday in Australia is the day when the rest of the world rests -- and this gives me the precious time to actually get things done.

Tuesdays, however, are a whole different kettle of fish. There are a ton of emails, phone calls, RSS feeds and blog posts. All this makes it easy to miss things. Peter Kim thankfully points out Ad Age's 2007 Digital Fact Pack with plenty of lovely top line data, interesting facts and even links to other downloadable goodies. Glad someone was keeping an eye on the details!