STUDY: Asian markets create social media, U.S. consumes

Emerging markets are outpacing Western markets in the adoption, creation of social media

Emerging markets are not just adopting the consumption of social media faster that those in Europe and North America, they are also creating more than just consuming, according to a new report.

The Forrester Research group just released the results of a poll of 100,000 people in Asia, Latin America, Europe and North America about social media use in the second and third quarters of 2011.

Looking at those who already have Internet access, 93% of the respondents living in emerging market (in Asia and Latin America) use social media more than once a month versus the 49% found in the seven European countries in the study (the U.K., Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Spain.)

Today, 86% of online U.S .adults and 79% of European online adults engage with social media but emerging countries are outpacing the rate at which this media is adopted and created. 

A staggering 80% of the respondents from India and 76% from China are also creators of content such as blogs, publishing Web pages, uploading audio or writing Web articles. This is compared to the 24% of creators in the U.S. and 23% from the EU7.

This stark difference likely has less to do with culture or attitude and more to do with the rate at which people and companies are adopting the vast possibilities of Internet culture.  Also, overall, the Chinese and Indian respondents were younger than their U.S and European counterparts, and were located in more urban and metropolitan areas. 

Consumers in the well-established markets such as U.S. and Europe, on average, are using social media less for communicating than for finding and processing information and are often deemed 'spectators.' Nearly two-thirds of consumers in the U.S. and Canada are called 'spectators' in the study -- this means that they are the ones reading the blogs, listening to podcasts, watching videos and reading reviews and tweets rather than creating the content. Roughly 70% of the EU7 is labelled 'spectator.'

One other interesting category in the study was the 'critics' segment of the online population. Just over one-third of people in the U.S. are called critics that post ratings or reviews, comment on blogs, contribute to forums and edit articles (such as wiki entries.)  

Japan, however, stands out against many of the other countries in Asia -- in that is returns lower adoption and creation on social media. A mere 28% of Japanese respondents visit a social networking site once or more a month and only 13% visit Facebook. Social microblogging, with it anonymity are much more popular options in Japan.