New Media Is Now Mainstream Media

May 7, 2008

Universal McCann has published a new report that suggests that new media is rapidly becoming mainstream media around the world.

The comparative study looks at social media trends through three ‘waves’:

  • Wave 1 - September 2006
  • Wave 2 - June 2007
  • Wave 3 - March 2008

Research highlights:

  • Social media is a global phenomenon happening in all markets regardless of wider economic, social and cultural development.
  • Asian markets (not including Japan) are leading in terms of participation, creating more content than any other region
  • All social media platforms have grown significantly over the three Waves: Video Clips are the quickest growing platform, up from 31% penetration in Wave 1 to 83% in Wave 3
  • 57% have joined a Social Network, making it the number one platform for creating and sharing content: 55% of users have uploaded photos, 22% of users have uploaded videos
  • The widget economy - 23% of social network users have installed an application - 18% of bloggers have installed applications in their blog templates
  • Blogs are a mainstream media world-wide and a collective rival to traditional media (184m bloggers world-wide, China has the largest blogging community in the world with 42m bloggers) - 73% have read a blog, 45% have started a blog
  • Social media has strong impacts over brand’s reputation - 34% post opinions about products and brands on their blog - 36% think more positively about companies that have blogs

The report offers additional details on Internet media use:

Video Sharing:

  • Brazil leads on 68%, Asian countries dominate (not including Japan)
  • Significant variation in involvement (Hungary 16% < Brazil 68%).
  • High frequency of involvement: 20% are uploading every day

Watching video clips:

  • Growth is universal across all countries (31% to 82% global reach seen in all markets)
  • Lowest difference between markets of any social media platform (Range 63% - 99%)
  • Very high frequency medium: 71% weekly reach

Downloading podcasts

  • Growth massive between Waves 2 and 3 (from 21% to 49% world-wide).
  • China is the world’s biggest podcast market (74% use, with an estimated 45m users)
  • Actively involved medium: 18% listen and download everyday

Methodology:

Universal McCann Wave 3 survey was conducted on 17,000 internet users in 29 countries and was completed in March 2008.

Source: Universal McCann (pdf)

(Podcasting News Via iTech Savannah)

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