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Thursday, July 28, 2005
Ng: Blogs and market success
By Wilson Ng
Wired Desktop
One of the significant developments in the last two years has been the phenomenal growth of blogging—the creation of personal diaries or journals as a way to share information and opinion in the Web.
In fact, BusinessWeek reported that as of June 2005, there are nine million bloggers in the United States, representing three percent of the population. In France, there are three million, or 4.9 percent of the population; Britain, 900,000, or 1.4 percent; and the Netherlands, 700,000, representing 3.5 percent.
You will note that almost five percent of French people blog. It was reported that a majority of schoolchildren in France have their own blog.
The growth of blogging has created a very different form of news dissemination and opinion making.
Blogging is essentially what I would call high tech, glorified gossip (I don’t mean to be derogatory here.) Instead of just talking about it, people write their opinions in the web, and share photos and files. Of course, now, technology has also enabled audio and video blogging, which makes sharing easier.
During the US presidential election campaign, thousands of pro and anti-George Bush posted blogs on the web. One of the most popular informal blog (if you call it as such) was Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, a documentary film that attacked George Bush and his policies.
Although I am not aware of any formal study, I believe the movie influenced a significant number of voters.
The growth of blogs is made possible because of the technology of search engines, and of other blogs.
If you think you have something important to say, you put up a website. Before long, other people who think that what you are saying is significant also point their blog to you. In no time, thousands of people would be visiting your blog.
For instance, daily visitors of a blog site in Manila grew to thousands after it was known to allow downloading of the “Hello Garci” tapes. Before, only a dozen visited the same site.
A lot of the opinion (ranging from which president to support to what product to buy) are shaped in blogs. So opinion-making and discussions become less a function of news media, than chat rooms, fora and other blogs.
Nowadays, when people want to buy a cell phone or an MP3 player, they don’t go to the company website. They go to chat rooms, and ask their friends which is good. They read reviews. They read user’s blogs. They check informal polls and opinion surveys, all of which are easy to find in the Web.
This phenomenon indicates that the success of a product in the market can be gauged by conversations in the Internet. Learning now comes from sharing information and one-on-one conversation through the Internet.
As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, and more organized. People now strive to get better information and support from one another instead of relying on the product distributor or the manufacturer. There is now more emphasis on social networking, and on establishing communities.
Of course, people still go, for instance, to the Microsoft web site. But more flock to the numerous fora that discuss about these products.
Thus, we came to realize that while the company website is important to introduce the firm, it is no longer the sole source of information.
We also believed that we have to go through this phenomenon of enabling market conversations, and thus create a site where there would be an aggregation and sharing of technical news and knowledge. We have decided to open a second website in http://www.ngkhai.net/blog where our people share technical facts, and converse directly to customers and surfers.
The blogging world is new. Let us all see how it will benefit our businesses and our lives!
(www.bizdrivenlife.net)
(July 28, 2005 issue)
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