Asia Next Frontier in Blogging

Lullabye_Muse writes "Japan Today tells us that there are 3 million people blogging in Japan and over 16 million people visiting a blog at least once a month in the country. It also mentions that over the next two years the market for blogs will expand over 40%." Meanwhile, in regards to Chinese blogging, wayfaring stranger writes "A new Wired News article talks about Hong Konger Edwyn Chan's new www.blogkumedia.com Chinese blog network, which aims to make blogging a mainstream reality for the Chinese internet." From the article: "Blogs haven't caught on in China, so even when Chan can hire bloggers, it's hard to market them to consumers, attract advertisers and raise venture capital. The investors he has met don't use blogs as sources of information, so they generally have no clue of what a blog is. 'All they know is that it's something hot which they hope to be able to cash out hopefully in less than a year,' Chan said."

Comments

Why it hasn't caught on there...

[bob whoops]

Instead of shutting him down, however, the Gong An told him if he wanted to continue he would have to remove the more heated posts, which he did

And so, why is blogging in China useful?

Re:Why it hasn't caught on there...

[jangobongo]

Exactly. When you have to follow the party line or face being "removed" - either your blog or you (going to jail) - what would there be to say?

The people are effectively gagged there as far as politics are concerned, which seems to be one of the hottest topics for blogging here in the U.S.

Blogging is close to the original vision

[Colin Smith]

For the World Wide Web. Wiki is maybe a bit closer.

However I've been looking into it and it seems to me to be a sad, isolated, lonely world, there are no connections between the people producing these blogs. No community.

Blogging, Video bloging, podcasting

[Ckwop]

Is it hype or reality? I don't know, I write my own blog almost as a hobby; a nice pass time. I like to read the thoughts of others who enjoy the pass-time too. But I'm not so pretentious to think that blogging will "change the world" (tm).

It's nice that blogging has brought communities together and is replacing the lecturing of the old media (news papers and magazines) with the debate brought in new media (blogs).

When all is said and done, I think blogging is and will always be a nice pass time for the majority of people. Don't get me wrong, blogging is on the march and by no means has it reached it's destination. What I contend, is the final position of blogging within society; it will be somewhat different than people have come to expect.

Simon.

There is no tradition of free expression in China

[wheelbarrow]

Blogging has not caught on in China because citizens in China have learned to keep their head down and stay quiet to avoid jail time or being murdered by army tanks. Blogging cannot work where there is government oversight and censorship. Especially not when the government in question has a long track record in stifling free expression.

Please enlighten me

[Strange Ranger]

I've been an active and curious internet user since WAIS and Gopher were the tools of choice, maybe I haven't "seen it all", but I've tried to. Sooo with that in mind...

Can somebody please explain to me what sets blogging apart from Geocities "Meet my Dog, check my favorite links" pages.. multiplied by a million screaming ME TOO posts and cross links? Everyone with their own personal sad little version of Fark??

This is not a troll. I get that out of 10 million blogs a few will be thoroughly engrossing, but still I obviously don't get the blogging thing, so I'm seriously asking to be smacked with a clue-by-four regarding blogs. What's the big draw? What do they accomplish for most people? A good place for blogging newbies?

Swing away please. Thanks.