The latest survey from China Internet Network Information Center shows that such factors as the inconvenience in visiting blog addresses and lack of reliable advertising evaluation systems have restricted the development of blog advertising in China.
The survey says there are 17.5 million bloggers in China and about 7.7 million are active bloggers. The survey also finds there are 75.565 million blog readers–more than 40% of them say they would accept advertising on blogs.
According to the survey, up to 40% of the readers visited blogs by directly inputting the respective blog's address, and more than 80% hope to use short, personalized domain names to identify their own blog space. Blog service providers like Sina, Sohu, BlogCN, Bokee.com, ChinaBlog.net and others already have their own blogging services and provide usernames within the blog address (i.e. username.chinablog.net).
However, more than 20% of the blog writers say they are planning to register independent domain names on which to host their own blog.
Advertising on blogs in China is still immature, and local media quote experts who believe that the lack of reliable measurement standards between bloggers and advertisers is causing confusion about the potential value of ads on blog websites. They say that independent domain names may help solve this problem as it will separate domains and allow for better web metrics.