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Published on July 27, 2007

The global blogging phenomenon shows no signs of abating, according to the latest research on social media from global media specialist firm Universal McCann.

From politicians to housewives, more than 170 million people have created blogs to share their inner musings with the world, according to the study Power to the People. The appetite for these inner ramblings shows no signs of slowing down either with 340 million internet users worldwide regularly reading blogs.

Power to the People is the second wave of Universal McCann's global research project across 21 markets - including Thailand -- which has been designed to track the rise of social media amongst regular internet users. Power to the People reveals that Internet users are increasingly connecting to other users across the globe with an estimated 194 million, or 36% of the 16-54 research samples, joining a social network.

The research shows that Thais are active participants in the social media movement. Thailand has the same percentage of blog readers as the United States, at a little more than half of both countries' total internet users. Thailand's percentage of blog readers who also write their own blogs stands at 45%, just between the US at 42% and Brazil at 47%.

But in other areas such as photo sharing, Thailand is far behind. Out of the 21 countries researched, Japan and Thailand have the lowest rate of photo uploading, at 13.5% and 14% respectively. This falls short of the 41% of users who post images for public viewing.

The study revealed that Asian markets are driving adoption, with China and South Korea leading the way in terms of actively creating content and socialising online. And although Thailand's overall participation in online activities is less than neighbors up north, the country surprisingly has the highest percentage of live audio listeners.

Mark Ingrouille, CEO of McCann Worldgroup Thailand, says that the trend in social media participation is moving slower in Thailand but sees the market catching up quickly.

"Infrastructure and government censorship right now are Thailand's biggest barriers to faster acceptance of social media," Ingrouille said. "Blogs and photo sharing sites require fairly robust broadband connections, while many internet users in provincial areas are still dialing up the old fashioned way. And government blocks on "offensive" sites such as YouTube doesn't help encourage the free exchange of content on which social media is based."