Teen Girls Heaviest Microblog Users in Japan

Microblogging in Japan tripled from 2009 to 2011, and is most popular among teen girls


According to December 2011 survey data from Video Research Interactive, a media research firm in Japan, microblog usage in the country almost tripled over the last three years, jumping from 12.3 million users in 2009 to 37.9 million users in 2011.

Japan’s affinity for microblogging is highlighted by how many records the country has set for tweets per second (TPS), as reported by The Next Web: 3,283 TPS during the World Cup in 2010; 6,939 TPS during New Year’s Eve in 2011; and the latest and most astonishing figure—25,088 TPS during a television screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s film “Castle in the Sky” on December 9, 2011.

Younger female users in the country were the most enthusiastic microbloggers during December 2011, spending almost twice as much time as the average Japanese internet user on the social sites, according to Video Research.

Demographic Profile of Microblog Users in Japan, Dec 2011 (% of internet users in each group and time spent)

Almost half (46.5%) of girls ages 13-19 surveyed by Video Research reported using microblogs during the previous month, compared to 37.6% of total respondents. For comparison, eMarketer estimates that only 10.3% of US internet users accessed Twitter during 2011.