ClappingTree’s Web 2.0

SOME 93% OF TEENS USE THE INTERNET in 2007 (compared to 87% in 2005), and more than ever are treating it as a venue for social interaction – sharing creations, telling stories, and interacting with others.

According to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 64% of online teens ages 12-17 (or 59% of all teens) have participated in one or more online content-creating activities, up from 57% of teens in a similar survey at end 2005.

• 39% of teens share online their artistic creations (e.g. artwork, photos, stories, or videos), up from 33% in 2005.
• 33% create or work on webpages or blogs for others, including those for groups they belong to, friends, or school assignments, basically unchanged from 2005 (32%).
• 28% have created own online journal or blog, up from 19% in 2005, with girls leading the charge.
• 27% maintain own personal webpage, up from 22% in 2005.
• 26% remix content found online into own creations, up from 19% in 2005.
• 47% (more girls) have uploaded photos where others can see them and 14% (more boys) have posted videos online; with many restrict access to the photos/videos in some way at least some of the time. Most receive some feedback on the content they post online.
• 55% have created a profile on a social networking site such as Facebook or MySpace.
• In the midst of the digital media mix, the landline is still a lifeline for teen social life.
• Multi-channel teens layer each new communications opportunity on top of pre-existing channels.
• Email continues to lose its luster among teens as texting, instant messaging, and social networking sites facilitate more frequent contact with friends.

(Photo: CC Joshua Davis.)

IN 2008, the growth rates in Internet users among the top 10 emerging markets in the world (China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Indonesia, Iran, Poland, and Saudi Arabia) will surpass those of the top 10 developed markets (U.S., Japan, Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Canada, South Korea, and Australia), said Mary Meeker, a technology research analyst from Morgan Stanley at the recent Web 2.0 Summit 08.

In particular, the growth in China is the most impressive, growing by 53% (an addition of 73,000 users) since 2007 and yet its penetration rate is only 16 percent. For the others:

• Brazil grew by 17% (7,400) with a penetration rate of 26%. 
• Pakistan grew by 46% (5,500) with a penetration rate of only 11%. 
• Columbia grew by 80% (5,395) with a penetration rate of 25%. 
• India grew by 7% (5,000) with a penetration rate of only 7%. 
• Iran grew by 28% (5,000) with a penetration rate of 32%. 
• Russia grew by 17% (4,311) with a penetration rate of 21%. 
• Germany grew by 10% (3,900) with a penetration rate of 52%.
• France grew by 12% (3,553) with a penetration rate of 55%.
• Vietnam grew by 22% (3,188) with a penetration rate of 21%.

“EVERYTHING WE DO TODAY is now significantly impacted by 2.0 ideas. This applied to product development, marketing, customer service, operations, line of business, finance, communications, human resources, and just about everything else. How then do we start understanding the axes of opportunity and being applying to our organizations?”

Over the next few weeks, Web 2.0 analyst Dion Hinchcliffe will be posting a series of articles that deeply explore a strategy for using the power of Web 2.0 ideas to move businesses into the 21st century. He’ll begin exploring each quadrant in this diagram (below, taken from Hinchcliffe’s blog), looking at how to use 2.0 to dramatically create growth, transform the customer relationship to drive revenue, drive operational costs down, improve productivity, safely restructure our business models, effect change, and leverage/harnessing innovation.

FOUND A REALLY PRACTICAL MARKETING site maintained by Mr Mark Nagurski who had just posted a great comment on my post, “Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008“.

Among the many useful tips is a post entitled “8 reasons why interviews will spice up your content”. The eight benefits cited are:

1. Interviews can offer a different perspective.
2. Interviews can demonstrate a practical implementation. 
3. Interviews allow you borrow trust and reinforce your argument. 
4. Interviews allow you to borrow brand recognition. 
5. Interviews are a practical solution to your needs. 
6. Interviews inspire you to think more too. 
7. Interviews build contacts and make you smarter. 
8. Interviews enhance the quality of content you deliver. 

For more details, check out his blog.