An interview with Chris Erickson about web analytics in Japan.

How mature do you think the market for web analytics is in Japan?

I think the market is not yet very mature. I see it as lagging about 4 years behind the West. In the West it’s to the point where CMOs and the like will be interested in web analytics and interested in the solution, but in Japan, so far web analytics isn’t on a lot of peoples’ radar where it would be in the USA or Europe.

What differences do you see in the approach to web analytics if you compare Japan to the United States?

Right now “SEO” is the hot buzzword in the Japanese online marketing scene, and “LPO” (Landing Page Optimization) is creeping up there. “Web analytics” often gets introduced under one of these two banners and from there, internally it can show its value in its own right. I think that when you look at the firms that are using web analytics well here- and they certainly exist- they aren’t necessarily much different from what you might find in the United States or elsewhere, but for many companies, they’re still struggling with a lot of the same issues such as executive buy-in which many American companies were struggling with three years ago.

Which are the three most popular web analytics vendors in Japan?

Google Analytics, Digital Forest and Omniture.

Number 1 in terms of number of installations is Google Analytics. Unfortunately I don’t know (and wish I did know) the exact number of installations here but anecdotally I can tell you that a huge number of Japanese websites use it.

For non-free solutions, number one would be Digital Forest with their product Visionalist. Digital Forest is the only Japanese firm out of the three and also the only firm that has a significant in-house PSO department for servicing the Japanese market.

Omniture is making a lot of gains recently by offering SiteCatalyst through their partners.

Do you think that Asian web analytics vendors can gain ground in the rest of the world?

I would say that just as when American web analytics vendors looked towards “the rest of the world” they looked first to Europe, WA vendors in Asia will look first to the rest of Asia. They may attempt to branch out into the United States and Europe some day, but I don’t see it happening any time in the next few years.

Have you noticed any significant difference in web behavior in Japan compared to the U.S.?

By far the biggest difference in web behavior in Japan is that people are more likely to browse the web from their phones rather than from their PCs! Successfully implementing web analytics to track mobile users is the elephant in the room that doesn’t get discussed nearly as much as it should. I would imagine that whoever figures that out the best should run away with the Japanese market, as well as that of Korea and other mobile-centric countries.

Is there a Japanese Eric T. Peterson?

While there are some very smart folks here using analytics very well, there is certainly not yet anyone who has had quite the singular impact on the WA community as has Eric T. Peterson. Eric himself proclaimed the first Web Analytics Wednesday in Asia not even a month ago! I think the industry here needs to be mature a bit before it can produce its own Eric Peterson.

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Chris Erickson is since the beginning of this year an online marketing manager for KK WebsoftTT, a startup in Tokyo. Prior to that he was a senior web analyst for WebEx in Silicon Valley, USA.

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