Bloggers lure blog watchers
(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-06 09:25

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.