Survey Says Nearly 1 in 5 Japanese are Heavy Users of News Aggregators

Naver Matome

Dentsu Public Relations has conducted a survey into the usage of news aggregators in Japan (such as Naver Matome or 2 Channel Matome), and has come up with some interesting findings.

When the company asked 10,000 individuals if they had ever used news aggregators, 36.5 percent of respondents said that they had. Furthermore, 18.5 percent were found to be heavy users, or that is to say that they used such sites on a regular/daily basis.

Dentsu notes that men in their twenties showed the highest usage at about 90 percent, while just 10 percent of men in their 50s were heavy users. Looking back at a report last year from ComScore on how different demographics kept informed after the tragic earthquake, we can also see this tendency of younger segments towards new internet media.

The use of aggregator sites been much debated, not only in Japan but in the West as well. 2 Channel has recently had issues with summary sites and blogs that collected and presented its content in the past. But it’s hard to deny that such sites, whether in blog form or otherwise, are useful in that they bring together and collect information from a wide range of sources into one convenient place.