International Business Research; Vol.6, No. 5; 2013 ISSN 1913-9004 E-ISSN 1913-9012 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education An Analysis of User Attitudes to SNS Tsuyoshi Aburai1, Yasuo Ishii2 & Kazuhiro Takeyasu3 1 Osaka Prefecture University, Japan 2 Osaka International University, Japan 3 Fuji-Tokoha University, Japan Correspondence: Tsuyoshi Aburai, Osaka Prefecture University, Japan. E-mail: [email protected] Received: March 3, 2013 Accepted: March 21, 2013 Online Published: April 17, 2013 doi:10.5539/ibr.v6n5p69 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v6n5p69 Abstract Social Networking Service (SNS) have become widely used in Japan in recent years with Facebook, mixi and Twitter being the most popular. These are used in various fields of life together with the convenient devices such as smart-phones. A questionnaire investigation was used to clarify the current usage condition, issues and desired function etc. Information for marketing purposes was then extracted. Fundamental Statistical Analysis, Multi Corresponding Analysis, Quantitative Analysis and Text Minig Analysis were then performed. Reviewing past research, there are some related papers, but they do not include new tools which are evolving rapidly. Moreover there has been little research conducted on this precise topic. Some interesting results were obtained. Keywords: SNS, questionnaire investigation, Multivariate Analysis, Text Minig 1. Introduction Social Networking Service (SNS) become widely used in Japan in recent years with Facebook, mixi and Twitter are the popular one. Big Disaster happened at 11/March/2011 in the east part of Japan. It is well known that Facebook played important role in communication under the condition that telephone and/or cellular phone connected with Internet could not make link. Google launched forth into SNS by the name Google+ at June 2011. Thus, it has become a hot business spot and it makes great influence upon society and economy. In this paper, we make questionnaire investigation in order to clarify the current usage condition, issues, and desired functions etc. Marketing applications would then, be extracted. Reviewing past researches, Miyao et al. (2008) made questionnaire investigation concerning usage objective of SNS and its usage consciousness. They analyzed into 4 clusters by cluster analysis but it does not include Facebook and Google+, which are increasing among users recently. Yamamoto et al. (2011) made research on the intimacy among friends on SNS but it does not mention about sharing information. Thus, there are researches concerning SNS, but there has been few researches made on our above stated themes. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Current condition of SNS is stated in section 2. Investigating Former Researches is stated in section 3. Outline of questionnaire research is stated in section 4. Multivariate Analysis such as Multi Correspondence Analysis and Quantitative Analysis is executed in section 5. Text Mining Analysis is executed in section 6, 7. Section 8 is a summary. 2. Current Condition of SNS SNS means the services to construct social network on the Internet. Friendster which has started in the year 2002 is said to be the father of SNS (Saito, 2010). Various typed SNS were born ever since. Japanese users have reached 42.89 million at the end of December 2011. It is reported that 45.1% of Internet users (95.1 million) use SNS. SNS users will increase as is shown in Figure 1. From the Nielsen data, major SNS’s usage condition is as follows (Table 1, 2, Figure 2). Visitors to Facebook are 16.92 million people, which are the largest, and then Twitter: 12.78, mixi: 4.92, Google+: 3.86 follow. Nearly 30% domestic Internet users in Japan use Facebook. As for the average visiting time, mixi is the most for 125 minutes and heavy users often use this media. Twitter has achieved 120% compared with the former month’s usage. This may be because it is used in such real time events as the eletion of The House of Representative. Various field of usage would prevail hereafter. 69 www.ccsenet.org/ibr International Business Research Vol. 6, No. 5; 2013 30,000 80.0% 25,636 70.0% 25,000 22,580 19,323 60.0% 20,000 15,715 58.6% 50.0% 38.8% 50.1% 54.5% Total Registration Number of SNS 15,000 31.7% 11,233 45.1% 40.0% 30.0% Total Users Number of SNS 10,000 7,808 5,234 5,643 3,671 4,289 4,784 20.0% Usage Ratio of SNS 5,000 2,978 10.0% 0 0.0% 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Figure 1. Users number of SNS in Japan Source: ICT.Reserch & Consulting Inc. Table 1. Audience data for Dec/2012 mixi, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ by PC net User Ratio to the Reach Total using time Ratio to the Average using time Ratio to the (×1000) former month Ratio (million minutes) former month (minutes) former month mixi 4,916 97.8% 8.1% 617 102.1% 125 104% Twitter 12,776 100.5% 21.1% 562 120.6% 44 120% Facebook 16,918 99.9% 28.0% 1,328 102.2% 78 102% Google+ 3,861 98.6% 6.4% 25 86.3% 6 88% Source: Nielsen. mixi Twitter Facebook Google+ 20,000 18,000 16,000 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 Figure 2. Time series of visitors by PC for Sep/2010～Dec/2012 (×1000) Source: Nielsen. Table 2. Time series of visitors by PC for Sep/2010～Dec/2012 (×1000) Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. mixi 9,557 9,744 9,608 10,214 11,228 10,659 13,211 12,507 12,864 12,433 Twitter 11,129 11,778 12,444 12,901 14,211 12,824 17,571 15,489 14,666 14,516 Facebook 2,080 2,819 2,934 3,077 4,598 6,030 7,659 6,939 8,204 8,717 Google+ － － － － － － － － － － Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. mixi 14,033 14,917 14,723 8,385 7,684 8,135 8,037 6,839 7,428 6,914 Twitter 14,914 14,962 14,416 14,551 13,199 13,529 13,593 13,419 14,017 14,866 Facebook 9,504 10,827 11,274 11,319 13,061 12,543 13,049 13,508 14,877 14,831 Google+ 91 166 2,257 1,622 1,541 2,038 2,051 2,045 2,480 3,028 May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. mixi 6,682 6,463 6,127 5,671 5,686 5,745 5,028 4,916 Twitter 14,824 13,741 13,920 13,741 13,243 13,011 12,710 12,776 Facebook 17,241 16,083 16,027 16,730 17,369 17,821 16,937 16,918 Google+ 3,099 4,852 4,295 4,019 4,159 3,949 3,916 3,861 70 www.ccsenet.org/ibr International Business Research Vol. 6, No. 5; 2013 3. Investigating Former Researches 3.1 Positioning in SNS There are some related papers concerning SNS. Thomson Robert et al. (2012) made a study of 131 Japanese SNS users who use both Facebook and mixi.In that research, self-disclosure, numbers of contacts, in-group numbers, and levels of perceived commitment on mixi and Facebook were measured. The study found that such users showed a lower level of self-disclosure, connected with fewer people and had fewer categories of contacts, and felt a higher degree of commitment on mixi than on Facebook. It may have found the characteristics of the correlation and distinction among tools, but it lacks the viewpoints of organizational management theory. In this paper, focusing the past researches of Harada (2008), a new approach is executed based upon organizational management theory. Such research is quite a new one. Harada arranged four business models as Figure 3. The horizontal line shows the users’ communication motive and the vertical line shows the solution to be captured. Former one is represented as “Construction of relation” vs. “Self-expression” and the latter one as “Realization of dialogue” vs. “Self-assertion”. Solution to be captured Realization of dialogue Blog relation of Construction Self-expression Self-expression SNS Communication Communication i CS CRM (Customer (Customer Satisfaction) Relationship Management) Self-assertion Figure 3. Positioning of SNS Source: Harada Tamotsu/ Formation of Tribes by Cooperative Experiences- Revised by the writer. 3.2 SNS Users’ Desire Harada pointed out that SNS users want to have relation so as to satisfy following three desire. ・Desire for having relationship: Desire for having relationship by making communication with friends in having mail and/ or agreement behavior. The expected role in using SNS is to build good relationship with friends and keep it long. Furthermore, it is used to keep contact with those who are busy or stay in the distance. ・Desire for sharing sympathy: Desire for sharing sympathy by enjoying hobbies with friends. As for the second role, it is to talk with friends for about hobby freely. By attending the same hobby group, they seek to share the sympathy. ・Desire for making expression: Desire for making expression as actor/ actress and being fascinated. As for the third role, it is to confirm his own value through the evaluation executed by other people. By letting others know himself and by expressing his skill, SNS can be utilized as a “Theater”. 3.3 Social Background for the Prevailing SNS In Marketing 3.0 by P. Kotler (2010), consumers can gather information speedily by utilizing IT.