Vietnam Thinks Local & Excels In Online Video Use

A recent survey from comScore revealed some interesting data about the popularity and growth of online video in the East Asia region.

In June of this year 83.1 percent of the world’s online population watched online video from a home or work computer. That represents 1.2 billion people worldwide age 15 and older undertaking this activity.

In the same month 197.5 billion videos were viewed online globally.  The average viewer watched 159.4 videos in June of 2012 and it is a particularly popular past time in Asia.

A significant factor in this development has been increased broadband access and content availability which has resulted in higher online video viewing activity.

It should be noted though that these results only present part of the picture, as they relate to video watching using a PC and do not include other platforms or situations such as viewing a video in an Internet cafe, on a mobile phone or tablet.  Given the impact of mobile not having this data included is a flaw.  Where too are South Korean and Thailand both of which are heavy users of broadband & mobile technologies?

The key findings from the survey were:

• Vietnam has the strongest reach of online video viewers in the Asia-Pacific region
• Vietnam has the highest video viewing penetration (89.8 percent ) and  Indonesia  had the lowest (66.9 percent ).
• Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and New Zealand all exceeded  the global average for online video penetration
• China was the leader when it came to the largest online video market by audience size.  It hads 266.2 million unique viewers (79.4 percent reach).  Next was Japan with 61.5 million viewers (83.7 percent reach) followed by India with 44.6 million viewers (73.1 percent reach).
• When it came to online video engagement, the average Japanese viewer watched 242.5 videos per month, Hong Kong viewers watched 180.7 videos, Singapore 158.1 videos and Australia 151.4.
• Google sites are the top video destination in Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam thanks to its ownership of YouTube
• Facebook.com ranked as the second largest video viewing destination in the Philippines and the third ranked destination in Indonesia and Taiwan
• VEVO and Viacom Digital were in the top five  video viewing destinations in both Indonesia and the Philippines
• Yahoo! Sites are big in Taiwan, ranking second. Tudou Sites come in 4th ranked and Youku Inc.5th.
• Local providers always excel in Vietnam so it is no surprise that VnExpress, Vega Corporation (Clip.vn) and Tuoi Tre Online securing places were all in the top five in the rankings.

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Australia and New Zealand Online Facts

More Just Like To Watch

Social networks continue to grow at an exponential rate but quantity does not necessarily equate to quality.

Social technographics data from Forrester Research shows a growing disparity in numbers between those that join and those who actually contribute or critique content.

Forrester uses these categories in their analysis: Creators, Conversationalists, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators and Inactives.

Their report summary highlights that while social technology behaviors are at the centre of many strategy discussions around the globe, the focus should be on the changes in consumers' adoption of these behaviors. Consumers continue to sign up for and interact on social networking sites, but other social behaviours that require creating content have seen no substantial growth in adoption since 2009. In fact, some behaviors have experienced attrition. In metropolitan China, for example, Joiners saw an increase of 18%, while Creators decreased by 3%.

For example, while a third of US online users watch video on YouTube only 10% of those surveyed actually upload their own videos to the site.

Reviewing the findings, Sarah Perez of ReadWriteWeb points out that "Creators" - those who record videos, post blog entries, write reviews and post comments to articles online - are less active this year than they were in 2009, with shrinking percentages of users in the majority of markets studied.

As can be seen from the chart above, Japan showed any growth in content creation, up two percentage points from the previous year while the others did not.

This is a concern as it would appear only existing Creators are contributing and there is little if any new perspectives being added.  As Forrester's Jackie Rousseau-Anderson puts it, "A lack of growth in this area translates into a lack of fresh ideas, content and perspectives."

Critics who provide ratings and reviews are also a declining group, recording flat or diminishing growth globally.

Spectators (the audience for the creators and Critics) are in the ascendant with Australia recording a 3% increase, Europe 4% and Japan 6%.

New users of social networks ("Joiners") records the biggest growth of any segment, with 8% growth in the U.S., 11% in the E.U., 3% in Japan, 11% in Australia and a whopping 18% in metropolitan China. 

Joiners are unlikely to immediately become Creators if they follow previous patterns of use.

So what are we to make of this diminishing 'gene pool' of creative talent in the blogosphere?  It represents an strategic option  for businesses with an online presence to become top of mind.

Given the dearth of content creation, the opportunity is to become the definitive source of knowledge and opinion, driving traffic back to a product or service online.

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The 2010 Asian Digital Marketing Association Handbook

Image via Wikipedia

Based in Hong Kong, this association produces one of the most valuable marketing resources in the Asia Pacific Region.Its annual yearbook contains a wealth of information . See the Boxnet file share at the bottom of this blog site to get a copy.

Some salient statistics to consider when developing your digital marketing strategy:

•  Asia Pacific internet uses spent more than 5.6 trillion minute online in 2009
• They bought an estimated $US7 billion dollars in virtual goods
• The influence of online friends when making a purchasing decision is notable
• Mobile shopping is undertaken by 80% of mobile users
• Australians spend more time on social networking sites than anyone else in the world
• The Asia Pacific region is home to the largest and fastest growing internet population in the world with 764 million users at the beginning of this year, compared to 995 million for the rest of the world combined.
• Search is an increasingly popular activity with the volume of searches rising 31% over the previous year.
• Half of the top twenty sites in the Asia Pacific region are based in China.

 Comscore's Data Passport for the first half of 2010 also supports these findings and the usage type varies quite markedly by region - charts below

Source: Comscore

Source: Comscore

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• Social Networking Habits Vary Considerably Across Asia-Pacific Markets (searchenginewatch.com)