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Bloggers lure blog watchers
(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-06 09:25 Candy Tang writes her
blog (online diary) almost every day to share experiences and feelings with
readers. Tang, 26, regards it a pleasure but someone may be "watching" her blogs
daily for commercial opportunities.
The "blog watch" service providers collect people's comments and opinions on
select topics such as various brands of products and services, including Nokia
or Sony, on the blogs or BBS (online forum) and sell reports to the owners of
the brands.
At present, the service is still in its infancy in China.
"Simply speaking, we help companies listen to the buzz," said Sam Flemming,
co-founder of CIC Data, who claimed his firm is unique in providing the blog and
BBS watch service in China.
Flemming called the service word of mouth (koubei in Chinese) research. CIC
Data helps companies monitor, measure and analyze the conversations that take
place daily among the 40 million BBS message board users and 6 million bloggers
in China.
The watch focuses on conversations where consumers share information and
opinions about brands, products and services.
Tang, for example, often talks on her blog about her shopping experiences,
favorite restaurants, cosmetic brands and beauty salon choices.
CIC Data uses both search technologies and part-time workers to monitor and
collect the data. Among all the data collection processes, automatic search
technology accounts for 95 percent, according to Flemming.
"Compared with surveys and other promotion methods, the voices on blog and
BBS are natural from the consumers' heart, without any external influence," said
Flemming, who created the Website in 2003.
Thousands of consumers are listening and being influenced by these
conversations daily. Systematic analysis provides a powerful alternative or
supplement to traditional media monitoring, focus groups and surveys and a
unique channel to candid, unfiltered, timely opinions and perceptions.
"I also care about such information in my friends' blogs," said Tang, who
worked for a foreign media in Shanghai. "In some aspects, I just trust the
recommendations from people I know, including which beauty salons and
restaurants."
Depending on the project, CIC Data can deliver daily, weekly, monthly,
quarterly or customized reports. It has more than 10 multinational clients
including those in anti-virus software, food and mobile phone brands.
The topics online include before-and-after purchase inquires and experiences
of using different brands. The information collated will let clients know how to
improve service, the product's shortcomings, if any, their rivals' market
position and corporate image.
Blogging, the frequent and chronological publication on the Web of personal
thoughts and opinions for other Internet users to read, has become more and more
popular in China with the growing Internet population.
By the end of December, the number of China's Internet citizens reached 110
million, ranking the nation No. 2 behind the United States, according to CNNIC
(China Internet Network Information Center).
China now boasts about 20 million blog spaces and the number will triple by
the end of this year, industry experts forecast.
Currently, several companies, including Google, Technorati, Feedster, Yahoo,
oao.cn, Grassland and Feedss, have launched Chinese-language supported blog
search services.
But Baidu.com, the most-used search engine in China, said it won't launch
such services in the near term, according to Yang Zi, Baidu's spokesperson.
"In China, blog promotion is still in its infancy compared with online
advertisements and Internet search services," according to Square Yan, an
analyst at iResearch Inc, a Shanghai-based Internet consulting firm.
Some users worry about privacy concerns that there are search firms which
trawl the blog and BBS without informing them.
"It is not a problem on BBS as it is 100 percent open to the public," said
Flemming. "We won't sort blog spaces if owners set password or other access
restrictions to strangers."
But Tang said she doesn't care about the blog watch even after knowing its
existence.
"I won't set up special passwords on (my) blog as that will cause trouble for
my friends who want to read it," Tang said.
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