Social media and blogging is soaring with Asia a key growth market, according to research conducted by Universal McCann as reported by Brand Republic on May 11.

While I have some concerns about this story (see below), some of the reported stats are quite interesting:

• According to the report, China and South Korea lead the way in actively creating content and socialising online
• In China, 72.3 per cent of blog readers also post online
• More than 170 million people globally now post blogs
• Blogs are read regularly by some 340 million internet users worldwide
• The largest audience is the US, where 64 million people read blogs
• The number of people watching video clips online on sites such as YouTube has doubled from 31 per cent to 62 per cent in the last nine months
• Internet users are increasingly connecting to others across the globe with an estimated 194 million, or 36 per cent of the 16-54-year-old research sample, joining a social network

All that’s missing from this data is some means of validating it so as to provide a bit of credibility. I found it impossible to locate the research source for the report to confirm some simple facts such as when the research was conducted – try searching any of the McCann websites and see how far you get.

According to the Brand Republic report, “Universal McCann conducted research across 21 global markets.” I have no ideas what that means. Which markets? How many people were surveyed and in which countries? What’s the survey methodology?

If Brand Republic’s source was a press release, I couldn’t find it. If the report itself, ditto.

So if anyone has any details about this survey, I’d love to know.

I hope this doesn’t turn out to be like the Jupiter farce last year.

And by the way, McCann, it’s “social media such as blogging,” not “social media and blogging.” If you don’t agree, then please share your definitions of ‘social media’ and ‘blogging.’