Moblog (Mobile Blogging) Gaining Popularity

In parallel with the increasing popularity of Internet blogs, the convenience of using cell phones for blogging is rapidly gaining attention in Japan. Users have found that mobile blogs, or moblogs, are an especially handy way to post pictures taken with cameraphones. The practice is thought to have originated in Japan, one of the first countries to have Internet-capable cameraphones. People now use moblogs as a fast, convenient way to provide fellow bloggers with upto- date information, for example, while traveling.

Although slightly less than seven percent of people who surf the Internet with mobile phones access moblogs, according to InfoCom Research, this promising new application could very well become a popular trend someday.

Japanese who have created their own blogs (via either PC or handset) reached nearly 8.7 million as of March 2006, some 40% greater than a forecast made by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and  Communications about a year earlier. The implication is that nearly 10% of all Internet users in Japan use blogs. A joint study by Rakuten Research and Mitsubishi Research Institute in September 2005 found that some 20% of bloggers use mobile phones to post content. DoCoMo makes moblogging particularly easy and convenient by offering full-browser handsets, high-speed packet transmissions and affordable billing plans.

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