VIDEO SHARING AND COMMUNITY SITES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF YOUNG INTERNET USERS
A survey by Omnicom Media Group through the www.namivan.hu panel; Spring 2010
Social media, web 2.0, chat, iwiw, facebook… - We wanted to gain a better understanding regarding the background and real content of these undoubtedly popular expressions with our survey that was carried out through the NaMiVan? site. Data collected included those intensive internet users between 15 and 35.Chat, forum, blog, Wiki
Self-expression on the net mainly takes place in the forms of chats and forums. From the respondents 17% also write blogs, which, compared with international figures is not a bad result: this figure in the considerably more digitally advanced market of Sweden is 25% . No significant difference was apparent as regards gender, although the ratio of those also writing is slightly higher for males with reading being slightly more popular for females.
Almost half of the respondents use Wikipedia regularly, with nine out of ten at least occasionally. Obviously this primarily represents information searches, only a few stated that at times they also edit the web encyclopaedia.
Click on me!
If its chat, then its MSN! Six out of ten respondents use MSN at least once a week and the ratio of the daily users is 40%. The in-built functionality of the popular mail system, Gmail chat has approximately 50% of this penetration on a weekly basis, just as Skype that also operates as an online telephone service. Twitter could also be grouped here; although 14% of the respondents have tried it, fewer use the SMS sized option on a regular basis. Within the sample, the ratio of males frequently using MSN, Skype or twitter is higher than amongst females.
Online content
Eight out of ten respondents are regular visitors to online community sites with six watching videos on the video sharing sites. Every other respondent has already uploaded a small film onto YouTube, Videá or other similar sites. The number of those having some level of experience with online games, such as Honfoglaló, online poker, Age of Empires, Hódító etc was over 90% with every third respondent being a regular player. The signs of further media convergence are becoming more apparent - 41% look at TV programmes that are accessible on the internet at least occasionally, for radio this figure is 58%.
Small films from a big world
On average, respondents are familiar with, or even use, 3.6 video sharing sites. For males this figure was 4, therefore this can also be considered as a more male genre. YouTube being the most popular amongst them, known to all respondents, however the Hungarian developed Videa had an 80% response. Relatively well known is Indavideo, Gumicheezma and Google videos with figures of around 30%-40%. The panel members believe that there is a great supply on the video-sharing sites, so everybody can find their favourites (to which they then become attached to), although many do not think it is a good idea that today everybody can upload a video on anybody to the web without any special control.
Be my friend!
Amongst community sites, more people registered on iWiW than the increasingly popular Facebook (95% and 73%), though cross use is rather high, as three-quarters of those on iwiw are also on facebook, while the reverse ratio is almost 90%. From those on wiw the ratio of those also present on Hotdog is higher, than those on facebook also being on twitter. From the five community sites in question (iwiw, facebook, hotdog, MyVip, zizz.hu), over a third of the respondents are registered members on two, while another third are on three sites. The majority of respondents in addition to simply “being on” a community site, also actively use the applications and services offered. (A little more on Facebook than on iwiw.)
The most frequent activities include searching for people they know, maintaining relationships as well as looking at and uploading pictures. Whilst males rather appreciate practical things (e.g. RSS, Twitter, information exchange, organising), females are real “social” users and using the facilities for self-expression is more characteristic of them (chat, news, uploading photos and videos, sharing news and events in associated with them).
A larger section of the respondents agree that community sites make it easier to maintain relationships and to make friends. Despite many admitting to pretend to be someone else on the net, they consider these pages to be safe. Almost every fifth respondent has a friend who they only know online never having met them in real life.
It seems that this generation is aware of the dangers, but have learnt to live in the online world and they try to maximally utilise the opportunities within the constraints. We have also asked how many friends the respondents have on the community sites. Six out of ten respondents have more than 300 friends, while for every sixth of them, this figure is 700-800. Naturally the larger the community site they register on, the more friends they have, although the overlap between the sites is undoubtedly great. On their own account, those registered on iwiw on average have 483, and on facebook 457 friends. From the respondents females had slightly more online friends (453) than males (418).
Commercial messages
The majority (67%) of the respondents understand that adverts are necessary for having free access to community sites, even if at times they find them irritating. Every third respondent likes and even expects the displaying of adverts that personally target them. Just over 10% also prefer branding subpages and clubs, or have already entered into the fan club of a certain brand.
During a 2006 survey we have already examined who and in what way would or would not pay for online content. The results were very similar this time: the majority would prefer to watch a short advertising film in exchange for free download. The demand therefore exists for a new content providing policy. It seems especially true that whatever does not cost money or great effort can be included (even the caps and label collection common from promotions). Of course, the camp of those rejecting any kind of reimbursement is consistently high, they would rather not use (37%) or would try to acquire the contents in other ways, even illegally (24%). Short summary Not surprisingly, the studied age group actively coexist with the applications previously just simply called “web two”. They understand both the advantages and disadvantages of digital presence, it can be said that they do not have illusions but are clearly positive. Obviously there can be differences amongst them as regards attitudes and use, as the applications are not equally popular. One thing is sure though, that they are inescapable!
Methodology
The online survey took place in April 2010 amongst those registered on the www.namivan.hu panel. The 218 valid respondents were from a group of 15-35 year olds who frequently use the internet.
Copyright
This entire survey including any section of it is copyright material, as well as being protected by other intellectual property rights. The survey as a whole or any part of it shall only be used or quoted by displaying the author (Omnicom Media Group) as the source. All other rights reserved.
The Omnicom Media Group
Media agencies or in other words communication agencies are responsible for placing, selecting an appropriate environment and managing the whole business of the adverts that are displayed in our favourite magazines, appear or even interrupt programmes or sites. The majority of these are companies with a multinational interest strongly concentrating on the advertising market. One of the largest amongst them is Omnicom Media Group (OMG Hungary Kft), or at least they have the largest number of employees, and the data by TNS Media Intelligence, measuring list price spending, also supports that they accounted for the largest turnover in 2009.
The international company, employing near 4,500 people in 60 countries all around the world, links the interests of the media market as a holding company, thus for example the recently launched PHD Media Agency, or OMD, the Hungarian section of which celebrated its 10th birthday in 2008. OMG controls both the media ownership relationships and the specialist divisions, ensuring a common administration and technical background for them.
The innovation within the industry and the future of the marketing profession is a reoccurring thought for Omnicom, thus several professional initiatives and forums are associated with them. Such an initiative for example is the national Média Diákverseny (Media Student Competition), which have been running annually since 2001 for the graduating students of higher education institutes. It can also be mentioned in association with the Eyetracking covering an eye tracking research project in collaboration with the C3 Foundation. Perhaps these also contribute to Omnicom Media Group being the most awarded agency both in Hungary and in the world.
www.omnicommediagroup.hu
www.eyetracking.hu
www.namivan.hu
www.omd.hu
www.phdhungary.hu
The NaMiVan? Research panel
The first thematic online survey panel, www.namivan.hu was launched by OMG in 2006. Through the membership recruitment campaign as well as with the style and communication of the site, the panel represents Hungarian internet users between the ages of 14 and 34. We have several thousand consumer, social as well as demographic data available regarding the several thousand panel members admitted, based on which they are requested to complete certain questionnaires. In addition to the prizes to be won, the choice of topics for the surveys as well as the option for having a say also motivate those registered to participate.
