talk about phones june 2007 white paper slides (english)

The Talk About Phones:An overview of Internet Word of Mouth discussions around mobile phones on Chinese BBS

WHITE PAPER

June 2007

© 2007 CIC

2

BACKGROUND*

• This white paper is an overview of community and discussion around 4,997,258 BBS (online message board) messages written by 731,403unique users related to mobile phones or coming from online mobile phone communities during the period of January 1, 2007-March 31, 2007.

• The discussions were mined using CIC’s proprietary data collection and text mining tools and methodology.

• This type of systematic research of such a rich and unique resource can generate significant insight and is a necessary part of research and intelligence gathering for any company involved in the mobile phone industry.

*This white paper was conducted independently and is not sponsored by any manufacturer or any organization.

Accompanying presentation slides located here or on www.cicdata.com

http://www.cicdata.com/register.htm

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SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

• Approximately 70% of all BBS message content covered in this white paper was created by 20% of the content creators (posters)• Community influence, as defined by message initiation, inspiration and participation, can be systematically tracked• Online mobile phone communities have their own culture and their own unique language. For example, Motorola E2 is called “e-rabbit” because the English pronunciation of “2” sounds like the Chinese pronunciation of “兔 (rabbit)”• The 18 brands and 600 models tracked for this study were mentioned in 923,295 messages; 613,371 messages mentioned 15 attributes and/or 118 sub-attributes • The top 5 brands in terms of message volume (in order, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Dopod) were mentioned in 96% of all brand and product mentions• Certain models such as Nokia N-GAGE QD and Motorola e680i have long sustained buzz over many months due to certain attributes• Among product messages mentioning attributes, accessories (24%) was the most discussed, followed by software (21%) and User Posted Material (UPM) (18%)

Chinese IWOM Introduction

5

Definition: Consumer discussions and multi-media content related to brands, products or services on such online channels as BBS (online message boards), blogs and video sites.

BBS Blogs Video-Sharing

INTERNET WORD OF MOUTH (IWOM)

N73 Flashing system guides

Smart Phones Basic Knowledge “Design is the soul of product”

… …

Thread List

6

IWOM HAS MASSIVE REACH

020406080

100120140

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Internet Users In China (Unit-million)

3.311.2 15.0

19.6

46.250.6

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Regular BBS User online (Unit-million)

15.8

34.7

2005 2006

Regular Blog User online (Unit-million)

*Data Source: The 19th Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China by CNNIC, January 2007

• 137,000,000 Internet users in China*

• 50,553,000 BBS regular users (36.9%)*

• 34,661,000 Chinese bloggers (25.3%)*

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IWOM MAKES COMMUNICATIONS LANDSCAPE MORE COMPLEX: Consumers are gaining control

TVCBillboard

Newspaper & Magazines

Blog

BBS

Video Sharing

InfluenceShape ReshapeIWOMTM

Mainstream Media

8

IWOM HAS IMPACT: Not just for geeksIn April 2006, bloggers authored 3 out of 10 top selling books in China (Danwei)

Chinese Internet users are spending more and more time online (CNNIC)

13.7

9.8

16.9

8.5

15.9

13.213.4

Dec, 2

000

Dec, 2

001

Dec,20

02Dec

, 200

3Dec

,2004

Dec,20

05

Dec,20

06

Unit: Hour

Trend of Average Weekly Hours Spent on Internet of Chinese Netizens

3 out of the 10 most-searched people on Baidu.com are “net stars” (by June 17, 2007)

One of the world’s top blogger is Chinese (Xu Jinglei) (Technorati)

Chinese Social Networking Site QQ.com has strong traffic (Alexa)

Mobile Phone E-Communities

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IMPRESSIVE IWOM NUMBERS: Almost 5 million BBS messages in CIC’s Mobile Phone Practice for Q1 2007

Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1

4,997,258

731,403

# of BBS Messages in Q1 # of Unique BBS Poster in Q1

Mobile Phone Related BBS Messages for Q1, 2007

Unit: Post Unit: Poster

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POSTER INFLUENCE: Top 20% of posters contribute around 70% of messages

Messages Contribution Percentage by Posters

0%10%20%

30%40%50%60%70%

80%90%

100%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Percentage of Posters

Perc

enta

ge o

f Pos

ts

Data Base: Total posts=4,997,258 Total unique posters=731,403


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BREAKING DOWN INFLUENCE: Top posters demonstrate different types of influence.

Note: Poster rank measured by total number of posts created within a specific community

Top Poster Rank*

# of Initiated Topics

# of Unique Repliers to Initiated

Topics# of Total Replies to Others' Topics

# of Total Posted

Messages

1 317 173 3,888 4,893

2,878

2,729

2,580

2,502

2,149

2,122

9,54

8,83

7,91

2 231 91 2,300

3 78 33 2,520

4 172 59 2,214

5 243 101 2,034

6 234 88 1,591

7 225 59 1,691

8 74 21 788

9 93 32 613

10 248 93 332

… … … …

Initiation ParticipationInfluence and Participation on a Sample Tight Knit Community

Inspiration


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MAPPING INFLUENCE: For tighter knit communities, relationships can be mapped via replies to threads

*Each node represents number of conversations by one poster (node size related to conversations volume)

*Each line represents relationship between posters defined by replied to conversations for each respective poster (line thickness related to number of conversations)

Relationship Map of a Sample Tight Knit Community’s Top Posters


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SPREAD OF INFLUENCE: Top posters communicate with both experienced and “newbie” posters

Top PosterNew Comer

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 49 53 58 61 68 74 84 105

161

194

249

648

1,081

2,221

Poster Rank by the number of messages the poster posted during Q1, 2007

# of posters the top 1 poster have conversation with

Top Poster Participation Spread

Question: Do I need to download specific software to flash my E2’s system?

There are 2 different kinds of software to flash E2’s system. You can find it at this link…

Helping New Comer Sample Quote

Newbie

Top 1

Calling “sister”!

I am coming… I just get back from dinner.

Sample Quote

Familiarity with other Top Posters

Top 1

Top X

Note: Analysis within a within a specific community


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UNIQUE NETIZEN LANGUAGE: The existence of online culture is represented by a unique lexicon

Fans: 粉丝

make suggestions: 拍砖

Support:顶

Very: 粉

Savvy:大虾 (big shrimp)-

go to hell: 74 (去死)

Me:偶 (我)

Faint: FT(晕倒)

kissing ass: PMP (拍马屁)

No:表

Sick: BT (变态)

shame on others: BS (鄙视)

Common Net Language

Motorola: 摩记 M机 Motorola Moto Motolula 摩托摩托罗拉摩托骡拉

Nokia: N机 N记诺鸡鸭諾基亞偌机挪积压NO积压诺基亚 Nokia 诺记诺机

ROKR E2: E2 兔子 E兔小兔一兔伊兔

Nokia 5300: 5300 N5300 小5 小3

Bluetooth: LY BT 蓝牙兰牙蓝芽蓝鸭篮牙

Mobile Phone Net Language

E兔 (E-Rabbit)=E2: the English pronunciation of “2” sounds like the Chinese pronunciation of “兔(rabbit)”

LY=Blue Tooth: since the Chinese pronunciation of Blue Tooth is “Lan Ya”, many netizens use the initials of Lan Ya to represent Blue Tooth (similar to BT for Bluetooth)

Sample Explanations


Mobile Phone IWOM Content

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867

979

1,231

1,719

2,486

2,808

3,826

5,859

7,816

8,697

9,196

9,669

12,643

42,235

100,003

118,443

329,999

649,014

Haier

Daxian

TCL

HP

Bird

NEC

BENQ

Palm

Siemens

LG

Philips

Amoi

Lenovo

Dopod

Samsung

Sony Ericsson

Motorola

Nokia

Top 5 Brands Messages=886,440Total Brands Messages=923,295

96%

Brand Messages in Q1, 2007

TOP 5 BRANDS DOMINATE OVERALL BUZZ: Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Dopod account for 96% of the buzz

Note: Brand buzz includes number of messages mentioning brand and/or its models. CIC tracked 600 models from 18 manufacturers

Unit: Post


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TOP 2 BRANDS DOMINATE MODEL BUZZ: Nokia and Moto account for 19 out of 20 top in model buzz volume

Rank Model Launch Date

Messages Mentioning Rank Model Launch

Date

09/2006 01/2007

02/2006

11/2004

10/2006

12/2005

03/2006

10/2006

05/2005

10/2004

12/2004

03/2006

10/2005

06/2006

04/2005

07/2006

07/2006

07/2004

03/2005

11/2006

Messages Mentioning

1 Nokia N73 69,601 11 Nokia 6300 20,329

2 Motorola E770 44,307 12 Motorola A1200 18,256

3 Nokia N70 43,885 13 Nokia N-GAGE QD 18,015

4 Motorola ROKR E2 36,834 14 Nokia E50 17,579

5 Motorola E680i 34,236 15 Motorola SLVR L7 17,416

6 Nokia N72 33,783 16 Nokia 3250 16,606

7 Nokia 6233 27,920 17 Nokia 5300 15,923

8 Nokia 7610 21,038 18 Sony Ericsson K750c 14,521

9 Nokia 3230 20,980 19 Motorola V3 13,804

10 Motorola ROKR E6 20,796 20 Nokia 6630 13,544

Model Buzz Volume in Q1, 2007

Note: Model Ranks are based on the No. of messages mentioning the models. Higher rank means more messages

Unit: Post


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SOME MODELS HAVE LONG, SUSTAINED BUZZ: Certain attributes account for this sustained buzz

Note: Model Ranks are based on the No. of messages mentioning the models. Higher rank means more messages

Models Q1-2006 Q2-2006 Q3-2006 Q4-2006 Q1-2007

Nokia N70 4 1 1 1 3

Motorola E680i 11 9 16 10 5

Nokia 7610 3 6 10 5 8

Motorola A1200 30 18 12 13 12

Nokia N-Gage QD 5 2 2 8 13

Motorola L7 20 15 9 13 15

Sony Ericsson K750c 2 5 11 11 18

Motorola V3 6 4 15 12 19

Nokia 6630 9 8 3 9 20

Buzz Volume Rank by Quarter


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HOT MODEL PRE-LAUNCH BUZZ: Hot models often have pre-launch buzz inspired by professional review articles

0.0%

0.5%

1.0%

1.5%

2.0%

2.5%

3.0%

3.5%

4.0%

Aug-06 Sep-06 Oct-06 Nov-06 Dec-06 Jan-07 Feb-07 Mar-07Buz

z In

cide

nce

of T

otal

Bra

nd a

nd p

rodu

ct M

essa

ges

Motorola ROKR E6 Nokia 5300 Nokia 6300 Nokia E50

Nokia 6300 Official Launch

Motorola E6 Official Launch

Nokia 5300/E50 Official Launch

Trend of Model Buzz Incidence


Note: Model Buzz incidence is the percentage of the models messages in all brand and product messages

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Data Base: Total Brand and Product Messages=923,295

Attributes Buzz Volume for All Products

2%

3%

3%

4%

6%

8%

8%

10%

10%

12%

15%

18%

21%

24%

1%Network Type

Carrier

Internet & Mobility

Mobile Type

Customer Service

Design

Data transmission

Operating System

Business Functions

Sales Channels

Performance

Entertainment Functions

UPM

Software

Accessories

ACCESSORIES, SOFTWARE AND UPM TOP ATTRIBUTES: Buzz focuses on content and accessories

(Buzz Incidence of Total Brand and Product Messages)

User Posted Material (UPM): includes applications, game, music, video, ring tones and other elements created, published and/or republished by consumers


22

CONTENT AND ACCESSORIES TOPS FOR TOP BRANDS:Accessories, Software and UPM are key for top brands

Brand Nokia Motorola Samsung Sony Ericsson Dopod

Accessories 15.78% 18.26% 19.36% 12.83% 12.85%

Software 14.76% 17.17% 11.41% 11.48% 11.43%

UPM 12.03% 16.29% 9.64% 10.96% 9.27%

Entertainment Functions 10.87% 10.19% 8.80% 14.05% 9.13%

Performance 7.76% 8.52% 9.08% 7.73% 8.58%

Sales Channels 7.66% 4.62% 12.59% 6.35% 6.43%

Business Functions 6.44% 7.58% 8.80% 5.82% 7.14%

Operating System 7.93% 4.40% 2.32% 1.82% 6.70%

Data transmission 4.64% 6.25% 8.31% 4.39% 6.31%

Design 4.15% 3.47% 6.13% 3.89% 2.99%

Customer Service 2.40% 2.23% 2.61% 2.72% 1.98%

Mobile Type 2.66% 1.65% 2.44% 2.40% 5.16%

Internet & Mobility 1.85% 2.13% 2.53% 1.60% 2.08%

Carrier 0.88% 1.95% 0.87% 1.13% 1.88%

Network Type 1.06% 0.82% 1.62% 0.89% 1.67%

Buzz Incidence of Each Topic by Brand in Q1, 2007


Note: Each Attribute Buzz Incidence by Brand is the percentage of each attribute messages among brand and product messages

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APPLICATIONS TOP UPM MESSAGES: Applications, themes, e-Books, and Users Guides are top UPM topics

UPM Discussion Percentage by Topic

2%2% 2%1%1%1%

3%

5%

8%

17%

58%

Applications

Themes

e-Books

User Guides

Games

Hacking System

Videos

Picture

Ringtone

Music

Map

Turn on/off Animations

Animations

MTV

Advertisements

Applications

Themes

e-Books

User Guides

Game

Data Base: Total UPM Messages=193,730


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SAMPLE UPM TOPICS: What drives UPM discussion?

Category Subject Reply No.

Application Smart Movie has new version now: Smart Movie v3.21 Chinese Version 23,925

Themes How to select, install and uninstall the themes on Nokia N73 12,324

e-Books Share my self-written e-books. Absolutely enjoyable, and always updated 4,526

Guides The most detailed guides for A1200 Telnet with supporting pictures. 1,200

Game The most classic action game - GunFever 1,112


UPM Threads with Most Replies in Q1, 2007

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SAMPLE QUOTES: Different angles for UPM conversations

Before downloading and implementing the theme, do check if the theme is designed for N73:

1. If the theme is not designed for N73, please do not use it in case bad display or some unknown errors2. Some themes are not practically useful, for example, the stand-by picture is beautiful, but the fonts on function list, SMS are too blurry to read3. Be careful about the size of the theme, if it is bigger than 1M, it will really affect your phone’s speed.…

How to select, install and uninstall the themes on Nokia N73

The post is a great reference for me to learn something about this, thanks for sharing!

To supplement this info: right now, according to some crazy theme fans’tests, Nokia 73 can have 26 themes at most. And it is suggested to install the official theme on driver C while installing netizen created themes on driver E

WOW. Such a long conversation…this is incredible

General Reply

Specific Reply

Guan Shui


Summary and Implications

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (1)

IWOM IS POWERFUL: IWOM via blogs, BBS, and online video sharing channels has great reach and influence among consumers in China

MOBILE IWOM IS IMPRESSIVE:IWOM’s reach for the mobile phone category is represented by 4,997,258 messages written by 731,403 unique users identified for time period January 1 through March 31, 2007

MOBILE IWOM COMMUNITY IS COMPLEX: The complexity, depth of influence, and relationships within online mobile phone communities can be quantitatively tracked and mapped for deeper understanding

IWOM IS MEDIA AND RESEARCH:IWOM is important to marketers because it both influences as a more credible media while at the same time is reflective of consumer sentiment

HANDLE IWOM WITH CARE: Opinions are being expressed within a community context which has networks, leaders, and a unique language. Marketers need to fully understand this culture before implementing online community marketing or “buzz tactics”

IWOM FOR CONSUMER INSIGHT:IWOM represents naturally occurring (i.e. unsolicited) expressions of opinions, experiences, and ideas around mobile phones from some of the most informed, connected and influential consumers. Systematic analysis of IWOM is a necessary element of research and intelligence gathering.

Finding Implication

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (2)

TOP BRANDS DOMINATE: The top 5 brands in terms of buzz volume were mentioned in 96% of all brand and product messages, while the top 2 brands provide 19 out of the top 20 most buzzed models

SOME OLDER MODELS ARE TOPS IN BUZZ: Some of the models with the most buzz, for example Nokia N-GAGE QD, are older and / or not big sellers, suggesting that understanding what makes a phone “buzz worthy” is complex

USERS IN CONTROL: In addition to functional attributes like accessories and software, User Generated Content (UGC) accounts for high buzz volume within all product messages

BE PROLIFIC OR DIFFERENTIATE:Brands should seek to identify unique selling points based on community needs in order differentiate.

USERS TALK ABOUT USING: The fact that there is high buzz volume about using the phone and making the phone useful and fun should inform marketing communication and support programs (i.e. Moto music). The fact that consumers want content in their own way on their own terms should not be ignored.

PHONES WITH SUSTAINED BUZZ ARE WORTH UNDERSTANDING: Systematic analysis of the attributes which contribute to overall sustained buzz can improve marketing communication as well as product development program

Finding Implication

About CIC

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ABOUT CIC

CIC is the leading Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) research and consulting firm in China. CIC helps its clients make sense of the buzz found on Chinese blogs, BBS forums, and other IWOM channels using proprietary text mining technology developed specifically for the Chinese language.

With sensitivity toward marketing, market research, media planning, public relations, and product development, CIC’s team of IWOM analysts provide actionable insights for a stable of Fortune 500 retainer clients in China and around the world.

CIC was founded in 2003 by a team of local and international professionals with experience in the Chinese public relations, market research, and brand consulting industries. Visit www.cicdata.com or www.seeisee.com for more information.

http://www.cicdata.com/

http://www.seeisee.com/

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UNMATCHED IWOM EXPERIENCE

EXPERT ANALYSTS

CIC IS AN IWOM RESEARCH AND CONSULTING FIRM:Our analysts use proprietary technology to help clients make sense of the buzz

PROPRIETARY TECHNOLOGY

Using proprietary technology, CIC tracks tens of millions of IWOM messages every month on BBS and blog to tell you how much talk there is, who’s talking, where they are talking, and if the talk is good or bad. Most importantly, our analysts tell you what it all means and what you can/should do about it.

Thank You

OUR BLOGS:www.seeisee.com (Chinese)www.seeisee.com/sam (English)

OUR WEBSITE:www.cicdata.com

CONTACT US:[email protected]

talk about phones june 2007 white paper slides (english)

Technology

mobile phone communities

cic mobile phone practice

mobile phones

mobile phone industry

unique bbs poster

cics mobile phone practice

mobile phone ecommunities

poster influence