State of the Indian Blogosphere 2011

Are Blogs Dead?

A Drizzlin Media analysis of the current state of the Indian Blogosphere

Why the question?

Blogs were pitted as ‘the’

medium for honest, opinionated

and user generated content…..

Blogs were pitted as ‘the’

medium for honest, opinionated

and user generated content…..

BUT HAVE THEY BEEN ABLE

TO SATIATE THAT NEED?

The number of blogs over the

last decade have grown

manifold, the number of genres

quadrupled, the internet

population base in India ever

growing…..

The number of blogs over the

last decade has grown

manifold, the number of genres

quadrupled, the internet

population base in India ever

growing…..

BUT DO WE REALLY

FOLLOW THEM TODAY?

OR HAVE THEY ASSUMED A STATE OF REDUNDANCY?

Curious to find out?

SO WERE WE!!!

We initiated a month long research to understand the qualitative aspects, which from ablogger’s perspective, impact the scale, effectiveness and viability of the blogosphere.

No amount of data previously quantified has ever been able to reflect on these aspects.We have therefore tried to address them by asking the following pertinent questions-

• Has there been a drastic change in the underlying context to Blogging over the lastdecade?

• Are there any genres within the Indian Blogosphere which stand out for greatquality content?

• How do emerging platforms like social networks impact this space?

Which is why….

And this is what we found…

• Social Networking does not mark the demise of blogs

Most believe it only enhances reach.

• Majority of the bloggers face a challenge with content quality

Majority of the bloggers rate themselves as bad or average on content quality. Lowest quality rating observed in technology genre

• Blogs currently do not seem to be a viable professional proposition in India due tolimited opportunities to monetize, lack of technological and legal supportinfrastructure.

• Blogger Communities and initiatives are consistently losing steam Majority of the bloggers stated they were opting out of such community initiatives.

• Brand relationships are still evolving

Brands recognize the value add that blogs offer. However there seems to be amis-match in terms of expectations e.g. seeding content, providing for free contentetc.

Key Findings

So how did we go about it?

• Type: Qualitative

• Sample size : 32 (snow-ball sampling)

• Blogger Identification Process:

A conscious effort was made to ensure that the 32 bloggers approached wererepresentative of the popular genres within the blogosphere. In addition, the focus wasalso to interact with bloggers who had been blogging for varied time-periods, to obtaina sense of how this space has evolved over time.

Distribution of the various genres along with the year of blogging initiation have beenprovided below:

Genre No of Bloggers Percentage

Tech 7 21.88%

Food 4 12.50%

Personal 4 12.50%

Culture 3 9.38%

Humour 3 9.38%

Travel 2 6.25%Advertising, Copyrights

1 3.13%

Automobiles 1 3.13%

Bollywood 1 3.13%

Book reviews 1 3.13%

Design 1 3.13%

Finance/investment 1 3.13%

Gaming 1 3.13%

HR/Consultancy 1 3.13%

Self development 1 3.13%

Research Methodology

3.13%

3.13%

6.25%

15.63%

21.88%

12.50%

9.38%

15.63%

6.25%

6.25%

1

1

2

5

7

4

3

5

2

2

0 2 4 6 8

0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00%

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2002

2001

% of total respondents

year

Blog Initiation Year

• Framework

– Through the course of the interviews we gathered insights and perspectivespertaining to the following aspects-

– Individual insights on the above aspects were collated to derive trends.

– To measure content quality, a 10 point rating model was utilized. As rankings tendto be fairly subjective, the bloggers were also asked to enumerate the reasonsprovided for a particular ranking so as to ensure consistency in comparison acrossvarious genres.

Key Focus Areas

Key motivating factors behind blog initiation

Prime challenges faced/or being faced pivotal to overcome for the blog’s success

Content Quality Benchmarks• Quality benchmarks for Indian vs Foreign Blogs• Self rating for content quality and scope for improvement

Effectiveness of blogger communities

Perspective on Brand Outreaches

SWOT analysis for the blogosphere

Research Methodology

Bloggers approached..

Evaluating the Blogosphere in Retrospect

Q: What is Iconic about the

blogosphere?

‘Content is King’: It is the defining proposition and key differentiator.

This a prime criterion on which blogs should be evaluated as they provided the spacefor alternative voices to emerge and offer variety and perspectives not available viatraditional mediums.

To evaluate the extent to this has been made possible, it becomes important tounderstand the following aspects-

• What motivated bloggers to turn to this medium, why did they consider it viable?• How did blogs evolve in terms of context in India providing a variety of content

across genres?• What do they think they have been able to achieve?

Lets look at these by exploring the key motivating factors behind blog initiation, whatbloggers think is unique about their blogs and how they would evaluate this space froma qualitative standpoint?

Understanding how the medium has evolved overtime….

Initially most of the blogs served as personal logs utilized primarily for the purpose ofnetworking and archive building.

Q: What were the motivating factors behind your blog initiation?

As blogs increased both in number & readership, a shift was observed with moreindividuals choosing the medium to explore & publish their interests in specific genres. Amajor catalyst for this was the rise of social networks as well which allowed formovement of content on multiple platforms.

Key Motivating Factors

4%

6%

14%

18%

18%

40%

2

3

7

9

9

20

0 5 10 15 20 25

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Recognition

Money

Archive building

Love for writing

Networking

Passion for genre

% of total responses

fact

or

Motivation behind the initiative

Further, majority of the bloggers believed that their offering was differentiated withopinionated and original content. Most stated their focus area lies within a niche.Humor, objectivity and honesty were additional aspects that enhanced the USP of theblog.

Blog USP

2%

6%

8%

8%

8%

10%

13%

13%

15%

17%

1

3

4

4

4

5

6

6

7

8

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18%

Visual Appeal

Interactive

Information/Research

Objective

Appeals to a mass audience

Honesty

Humour

Niche

Originality

Opinionated

% count of total responses

feat

ure

Distinguishing feature of content

The obvious question to ask then is…

Q: How would you rate yourself on content quality?

Interestingly, a majority of 56% of the bloggers rated the quality of their blog’s content as bad or average. Only 22% rated the quality of content as good.

Self Ratings

9%

22%

22%

47%

3

7

7

15

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Bad

Good

No comments

Average

% of responses

ran

kin

gs

Self Ranking for Quality

The obvious question to ask then.. is how they would evaluate the performance of their respective blogs over time…


Interestingly, 56% of the bloggers rated the quality of their blog’s content as bad or average.

Self Ratings

9%

22%

22%

47%

3

7

7

15

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Bad

Good

No comments

Average

% count of responses

ran

kin

gs


Is there a disconnect?

The obvious question to ask then.. is how they would evaluate the performance of their respective blogs over time…


Interestingly, 56% of the bloggers rated the quality of their blog’s content as bad or average.

Self Ratings

9%

22%

22%

47%

3

7

7

15

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Bad

Good

No comments

Average

% count of responses

ran

kin

gs


How would the bloggers then rate their peers on quality?

Q. If you were to rate quality of content by Indian and Foreign*<genre> bloggers, what would it be?

Peer Ratings

In comparison, it seems bloggers have more faith in the ability of their peers, with 31%of the responses suggesting quality of content to be good for Indian bloggers and acorresponding figure of 63% for foreign bloggers

31%

28%

25%

16%

63%

22%

16%

10

9

8

5

20

7

5

0 5 10 15 20 25

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Good

No comments

Average

Bad

% of responses

ran

kin

gs

Quality Rankings

Foreign Bloggers

Indian Bloggers

* Most of the Bloggers drew comparisons with their counterparts in mature markets like the USA and the U.K., the analysis purely reflects that.

Rating Reasons behind the rating Count

Average

Data insufficiency and lack of in-depth analysis 1

Lack of diversity 3

Lack of opinion 1

Focus on Monetization 1

Bad

Clutter 1

Lack of original content 2

Lack of quality content 1

GoodQuality content 6

Opinionated Content 1

Grand Total 17

Indian Blogs

International Blogs

Q. What do you think is fairly remarkable or lacking about Indian and Foreign <genre> blogs?


Average Better brand relationships 2

Maintenance, Presentation, Consistency, Correct tagging. 1

Good

Quality content 9

Variety 2

Strongly opinionated 2

Greater exposure 1

Powerful visual appeal to content 1

Professional approach, Backed by organizational support. 1

Different perspective 1

Grand Total 26

Peer Ratings


Average

Data insufficiency and lack of in-depth analysis 1

Lack of diversity 3

Lack of opinion 1

Focus on Monetization 1

Bad

Clutter 1

Lack of original content 2

Lack of quality content 1

GoodQuality content 6

Opinionated Content 1

Grand Total 17

Indian Blogs

Foreign Blogs

Q. What do you think is fairly remarkable or lacking about Indian and Foreign <genre> blogs?


Average Better brand relationships 2

Maintenance, Presentation, Consistency, Correct tagging. 1

Good

Quality content 9

Variety 2

Strongly opinionated 2

Greater exposure 1

Powerful visual appeal to content 1

Professional approach, Backed by organizational support. 1

Different perspective 1

Grand Total 26

Peer Ratings

Majority of the bloggers rated the content quality between bad to average for Indian Blogs.

Interestingly, rankings varied greatly with genres.

• Technology as a genre received the lowest rankings.

Lower rankings were attributed to the excessive use of mirrored content. Inaddition, excessive use of SEO tactics like click-baits was also cited as anuisance. The presence of mirrored content was further attributed to the lackof brand support.

Rating Genre count % count

Good

Culture 2 6.25%

Tech 1 3.13%

Personal 1 3.13%

Travel 1 3.13%

Automobiles 1 3.13%

Bollywood 1 3.13%

Food 1 3.13%

HR/Consultancy 1 3.13%

Self development 1 3.13%

No comments 9 28.13%

Average

Tech 1 3.13%

Personal 1 3.13%

Culture 1 3.13%Book reviews 1 3.13%

Design 1 3.13%Finance/investment 1 3.13%

Gaming 1 3.13%Humour 1 3.13%

BadTech 3 9.38%

Personal 1 3.13%Travel 1 3.13%

Grand Total 32 100.00%

• In comparison, personal andniche blogs such as traveland food are credited withproviding alternative voicesand quality content whichmay not be readily availablein the traditional mediums.

Inferences drawn

Q: What are the factors that

impact the sustainability of the

Blogosphere?

Lack of opinion, diversity, and in-depth analysis were all cited as reasons for lowerquality benchmarks.

But why do they exist?

To answer this, we decided to look closely at the factors impacting the process ofcontent creation- the key challenges faced, the opportunities and threats they entail.

Understanding the key challenges….

Q. What is the one biggest challenge that you feel overcoming it would be or has been the key to your blog's success?


2%

2%

2%

5%

12%

12%

14%

1

1

1

2

5

5

6

6

7

9

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

No monetary growths

Plagiarism

Scability

Technical support

Brand relationship

None

Audience Connect

Consistency

Reaching out to a wider audience

Quality content

% of total responses

chal

len

ge f

ace

d

Challenges detrimental to blog success

14%

16%

21%

On evaluating the same, the viability of blogging can be questioned on the followingparameters-

• Lower audience thresholdsLimited internet penetration. The online space is also increasingly being dominatedby the presence of genre specific celebrities, diluting the potential audience reachfor bloggers.

• Lack of support infrastructure impacting ScalabilityOutdated legal and technical support framework, less evolved brand relationshipsand the failure of blogger communities to address these via community basedaction. All these combined have a bearing on the sustenance of blogs, impactingscalability.

• Lack of a professional approachLimited means to monetize in addition to the aspects highlighted above entail thatblogging will rarely be a professional pursuit for many. Most of them supplementincome needs via day jobs or by associating themselves with larger entities - whichleads to inconsistency.This further impacts the quality of content.


In comparison, Foreign blogs were given a higher quality ranking because of the followingfactors-

• Strong Structural SupportMore evolved legal framework, strong backing from media publication houses andbetter brand relationships.Bloggers have a recognized/dignified position amongst brand marketers and are knownto have a significant impact on the audience.

• A more professional approachHigh levels of professionalism and quality is showcased, fine balance of visual andtextual content. Over time, content formats have been able to evolve to enhance theuser experience.

• Wider reach and ScalabilityA wider audience base due to higher internet penetration rates makes the bloggingproposition a lot more viable. Scalability leads to a more professional approach tocontent and marketing.


In comparison, Foreign blogs were given a higher quality ranking because of the followingfactors-

• Strong Structural SupportMore evolved legal framework, strong backing from publication houses and betterbrand relationships.Bloggers have a recognized/dignified position amongst brand marketers and are knownto have a significant impact on the audience.

• A more professional approachHigh levels of professionalism and quality is showcased, fine balance of visual andtextual content. Over time, content formats have been able to evolve to enhance theuser experience.

• Wider reach and ScalabilityA wider audience base due to higher internet penetration rates makes the bloggingproposition a lot more viable. Scalability leads to a more professional approach tocontent and marketing.


In contrast, it’s almost a ‘one man show’ for the Indian blogger…suffering at all fronts, losing out

in comparison.

Special Focus:

Role play of Blogger

Communities and Brand

relationships

Q: Are you an active member of any blogger community?

When we talk about bloggers as a community – we’re talking about those who startedblogging to feel the sense of belongingness and some who wanted to take their onlinerelationship off-line and meet fellow bloggers to network with people of similarinterests.

From our analysis, we realized that 46% of the bloggers felt that, these meets heldsome value at an initial stage but over a period of time have lost value.

Blogger Communities

22%

34%

44%

7

11

14

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Yes

No

Used to be

Active member of a blogger community?

Q: Are you an active member of any blogger community?

When we talk about bloggers as a community – we’re talking about those who startedblogging to feel the sense of belongingness and some who wanted to take their onlinerelationship off-line and meet fellow bloggers, network with people of similar interests.

From what we understand, 47% bloggers said,these meets held some value at an initialstage but over a period of time, they’ve lost value.

Blogger Communities

22%

34%

44%

7

11

14

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Yes

No

Used to be

Active member of a blogger community?

Why are Blogger Communities losing value?

Q: What were your reasons for joining Q: What were your reasons for not joining/leaving?

Main motives for joining was to engage on a broader basis with their peers to networkand share perspectives on related aspects.

Though the communities do facilitate networking, the appeal has not been sustainable.Common inferences derived indicate this is due to the lack of a commonagenda, interactivity and community appeal.

Blogger Communities

3%

6%

13%

10%

26%

29%

1

2

3

4

4

8

0 2 4 6 8 10

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Never felt the need

Lacks community appeal

Logistics

Not genre specific

Session lacks interactivity

Not applicable

Lacks an agenda

% of responses

reas

on

Reasons for not joining/Leaving

4%

15%

81%

1

4

21

0 5 10 15 20 25

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

Agenda specific

Experience sharing

Networking

% of responses

reas

on

Reasons for joining

13%

9

Q: Have you ever been approached by a brand?

Q: What was your experience like interacting with the brand?

64% of the bloggers rated the outreach experiences as average or neutral which provided nothing exceptional for them to write about.

Brand Relationships

19%

81%

6

26

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

No

Yes

% of responses

Re

spo

nse

Approached by a brand?

16%

20%

64%

7

9

28

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Negative

Positive

Neutral

% of responses

rati

ng

Brand Experience




Brand Relationships

19%

81%

6

26

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

No

Yes

% of responses

Re

spo

nse


16%

20%

64%

7

9

28

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Negative

Positive

Neutral

% of responses

rati

ng

Brand Experience

Fact is: A large percentage of brands acknowledge and want to connect with bloggers, but are unable

to maintain relationships.




Brand Relationships

19%

81%

6

26

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%

No

Yes

% of responses

Re

spo

nse


16%

20%

64%

7

9

28

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

Negative

Positive

Neutral

% of responses

rati

ng

Brand Experience

Why?

Addressing the mismatch of expectations

Lack of responsiveness

Treatment rendered at venue/location

Expectation to provide services free (collaboration for content) or pay and seed content favorable to the brand

Lack of agenda on branded blogger meets

Perpetual comparison with traditional press- brands fail to recognise the distinct offerings/plus points the online medium provides and how via a blog they can engage with a relatively smaller yet more active audience base.

Within the 20% positive experiences, the following aspects were believed to be major contributing factors-

Product Experience 4 36.36%

Special treatment 5 45.45%

Freedom of expression 2 18.18%

Grand Total 11 100.00%

Within the 16% negative experiences, the following aspects were believed to be major contributing factors-

Agencies keep changing with different modus operandi

1 14.29%

Non-responsiveness 2 28.57%

Mismanagement 4 57.14%Grand Total 7 100.00%

Brand Relationships

Q: How do you see this space

evolving?

Given the infrastructural bottleneck, does this space hold future growth potential?

Having studied the challenges, there is a greater understanding of bloggers’ attemptsto have an impact irrespective of the challenges being faced.

They have certainly succeeded in making blogs an alternative platform ofcommunication.

But what turn will this platform take? What kind of changes will it undergo?

This is yet to be discovered and it intrigued us to pose the same questions to thebloggers we interviewed which has enabled us to showcase a SWOT analysis.

Addressing the future growth potential….

The strength of the medium lies in its ability to provide for user generated contentwhich provides for more variety. Parameters which were stated under the purview of‘Quality Content’ includes opinions and perspectives which are relatable.

In addition, the degree of interactivity on the platforms allows for a deeperengagement with the audience base on a regular front.

Strengths

4%

4%

4%

4%

4%

4%

4%

7%

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

5

13

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Closer connect with your audience and bloggers

Evolving brand relationships

Internet penetration

No comments

Quick source of information

Use of right marketing technique

Variety

Honesty/Transparency

Quality Content

Alternative Content

% of responses

fact

or

Strengths

19%

48%

Weaknesses identified are inter-related and impact the potential the bloggers are ableto realize. For e.g. Lack of quality content was observed to be of high incidence in theTechnology space which can further be attributed to minimal brand involvement.

Weaknesses

3%

3%

3%

3%

3%

3%

9%

11%

23%

40%

1

1

1

1

1

1

3

4

8

14

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Focus on monetisation

Less engaged audience

Too many blogs

Unable to monetize

Less scope for optimization

Bloggers underrated

Minimal brand involement

Lack of legal aid and support infrastructure

Lack of quality content

Casual approach

% of responses

fact

or

Weaknesses

Perspectives towards blogging is changing over time, thus opening many opportunitiesfor bloggers.

Opportunity for this space to grow primarily depends on external factors such asInternet penetration, better brand relationships and a growing network of influence viasocial networks (more and more people adopting them- potentially wider audience)

Opportunities

3%

3%

3%

3%

3%

3%

6%

6%

15%

15%

18%

21%

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

2

5

5

6

7

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

Career option

Expand influence with intermingling of mainstream and online media

Organizational support

Paid content

Personal blogging growth

Rise in the number of regional language blogs.

Better brand relationships

Unexplored potential in few genres

Developing niche

Increase in quality content

Internet penetration

Wider access via social networks

% of responses

fact

or

Opportunities

Threats

3%

3%

3%

3%

3%

3%

3%

6%

6%

9%

9%

9%

9%

15%

15%

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

2

3

3

3

3

5

5

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16%

Dishonest content

Domination of international bloggers

Domination of traditional media

Focus on monetization

Writers being drained out by media houses.

Decreasing readership

Decrease in active blogs

Celebrity domination

Employer restrictions

IT Act

Textual content dying

Cluttered space

Lack of support infrastructure

Plagrism

Social Networking

% of responses

fact

or

Threats

Bloggers who take on to social networks are the ones we call ‘casual bloggers’.They are capitalising on the fact that fewer people are reading long copy, traditionalblogging will/already has taken a back seat; hence some old school bloggers are lookingat micro-blogging as a threat.

The advent of social networking in the year 2007 has had a direct impact on the wayclassic blogs have been created and consumed till now.

Social Networking has made it imperative for the blogger to adapt to the dynamicaudience.

– This actually works at two levels• More consumers connect virtually across social networks providing a higher

potential reach

• More producers creating content in multiple formats across varied platforms likeTwitter, Facebook, Tumblr. Micro-blogs like Twitter have boosted the trend of casualblogging.

Threats

Interestingly, the advent of social networking sites has had a dual effect. Whilesome perceive it as an opportunity since they’re now able to reach out to a largeraudience via cross linking, some others feel it just gives way to casual bloggers andhas had a strong impact on the popularity of full text blogs.Though in the long-runshift in the form of blogging makes it a constantly evolving form of expression andcould pose a threat to’ Blogging’ as we defined it 10 years ago.

A major downfall associated with so many bloggers/content creators emerging, isthat it becomes difficult to

• Maintain the quality standards of content of old school blogs

• Avoid plagiarism/rehash of existing content

ThreatsThreats

Interestingly, the advent of social networking sites has had a dual effect. Whilesome perceive it as an opportunity since they’re now able to reach out to a largeraudience via cross linking, some others feel it just gives way to casual bloggers andhas had a strong impact on the popularity of full text blogs.Though in the long-runshift in the form of blogging makes it a constantly evolving form of expression andcould pose a threat to blogging as we define it 10 years ago.

Another downfall associated is that with so many bloggers/content creatorsemerging, it becomes difficult to

• Maintain the quality standards of content of old school blogs

• Avoid plagiarism/rehash of existing content

ThreatsThreats

Social networking may lead to the cannibalization of blogs, but infact fuel hyper

sharing in a new format

Conclusions

• What emerges clearly is that what is being considered as the ‘death of a blog’ is infactonly a process of evolution within the online domain. It’s a question of how we’recreating and consuming content differently today.

– Blogging will continue to adapt to newer formats and platforms, widening reach and allowing for morepeople to participate and create content.

– Despite the fact that social networks are widely being adopted by bloggers across, the likelihood ofcomplete abandonment of the platform is very unlikely given the high degree of customization andoptimization available via them. Social networks at present do not substitute that.

• The debate over the ‘qualitative aspects’, however would still bepertinent, irrespective of the platforms in question.

The space needs to evolve to the next level, allowing for greater potential to scale byensuring wider spread of the content matter, better legal and support structures.

So what are we saying here?

Thank You

New Delhi • Mumbai • Singapore • Dubai • New York

www.drizzlin.com

A Branding 2.0 Consultancy

State of the Indian Blogosphere 2011

Technology

Transcript of State of the Indian Blogosphere 2011