An interesting post by Elia Diodati - the State of the Singapore Blogosphere, May 2007. Among other things, it summarises the recent departures of several well-known bloggers from the blogosphere. The tentative conclusion is that the Singapore blogosphere is currently in bad shape.
I don't quite agree - there's one element which Elia Diodati didn't notice. In April 2007, there was a massive increase in my readership numbers. Emphasis on "massive". The main driver was the ministers' salary increase. I believe that many other Singapore blogs probably enjoyed a huge increase too.
My theory is that every time one of those types of events occur - eg a James Gomez election saga or the ministers raising their own salaries - a considerable number of Singaporeans flock to the Internet for alternative views, and end up discovering the blogosphere for the first time. In other words, the blogosphere gets a new big crowd of readers.
More importantly, if past experience is anything to go by, these new readers don't go away either. Instead they stick around for more and more. For example, in May 2006 (General Elections), my readership almost doubled, compared to April and March 2006. However, after the General Elections were over, readership numbers did not fall to the pre-May 2006 levels. Instead they stayed constant or resumed growing at a gradual rate.
In other words, controversial events drive up the readership of the Singapore blogosphere. And even after the controversial event is over, the new readers stay around. I guess they discover that many things on the Internet are more readworthy than the Straits Times. So the reach of the blogosphere just keeps expanding over time.
So, if you're new, Mr Wang says hello and welcome. However, do go visit other blogs too because Mr Wang has to start studying for his exams. In other words, Mr Wang won't be blogging very much for the next few weeks.
I don't quite agree - there's one element which Elia Diodati didn't notice. In April 2007, there was a massive increase in my readership numbers. Emphasis on "massive". The main driver was the ministers' salary increase. I believe that many other Singapore blogs probably enjoyed a huge increase too.
My theory is that every time one of those types of events occur - eg a James Gomez election saga or the ministers raising their own salaries - a considerable number of Singaporeans flock to the Internet for alternative views, and end up discovering the blogosphere for the first time. In other words, the blogosphere gets a new big crowd of readers.
More importantly, if past experience is anything to go by, these new readers don't go away either. Instead they stick around for more and more. For example, in May 2006 (General Elections), my readership almost doubled, compared to April and March 2006. However, after the General Elections were over, readership numbers did not fall to the pre-May 2006 levels. Instead they stayed constant or resumed growing at a gradual rate.
In other words, controversial events drive up the readership of the Singapore blogosphere. And even after the controversial event is over, the new readers stay around. I guess they discover that many things on the Internet are more readworthy than the Straits Times. So the reach of the blogosphere just keeps expanding over time.
So, if you're new, Mr Wang says hello and welcome. However, do go visit other blogs too because Mr Wang has to start studying for his exams. In other words, Mr Wang won't be blogging very much for the next few weeks.