Japanese Internet Becoming Consumption Driver

[Mulboyne]

This is from Kyodo

The number of people operating blogs on the Internet totaled 8.68 million in Japan at the end of March, with their word-of-mouth information becoming increasingly influential in defining consumer trends, the government said Tuesday...As of the end of March, the number of people operating blogs increased 2.6-fold from 3.35 million a year earlier, and that of SNS users surged 6.5-fold to 7.16 million.

This from the Yomiuri:

The number of Internet users through cell phones and other mobile terminals reached 69 million, surpassing the 66 million accessing through computer terminals at the end of 2005, with 48.6 million using both, the paper said.

And this from the Mainichi:

The proportion of Japanese people who have experienced online shopping stands at 26.1 percent, the government said in an annual report Tuesday. The report also showed that 62.0 percent of the online shoppers gathered information on merchandise via the Internet before purchase.

See also: How Japan's Mobile Experience Informs US Marketers.