For more information on CIC white papers, please visit our website http://www.cicdata.com/en/iwom_whitepaper.php

1. WHITE PAPER
The Talk About Phones:
An overview of Internet Word of Mouth discussions
around mobile phones on Chinese BBS
June 2007
© 2007 CIC

2. BACKGROUND*
• This white paper is an overview of community and discussion around
4,997,258 BBS (online message board) messages written by 731,403
unique users related to mobile phones or coming from online mobile
phone communities during the period of January 1, 2007-March 31,
2007.
• The discussions were mined using CIC’s proprietary data collection
and text mining tools and methodology.
• This type of systematic research of such a rich and unique resource
can generate significant insight and is a necessary part of research and
intelligence gathering for any company involved in the mobile phone
industry.
Accompanying presentation slides located here or on www.cicdata.com
*This white paper was conducted independently and is not sponsored by any manufacturer
or any organization.
2

3. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
• Approximately 70% of all BBS message content covered in this white paper was
created by 20% of the content creators (posters)
• Community influence, as defined by message initiation, inspiration and
participation, can be systematically tracked
• Online mobile phone communities have their own culture and their own unique
language. For example, Motorola E2 is called “e-rabbit” because the English
pronunciation of “2” sounds like the Chinese pronunciation of “兔 (rabbit)”
• The 18 brands and 600 models tracked for this study were mentioned in
923,295 messages; 613,371 messages mentioned 15 attributes and/or 118 sub-
attributes
• The top 5 brands in terms of message volume (in order, Nokia, Motorola, Sony
Ericsson, Samsung and Dopod) were mentioned in 96% of all brand and product
mentions
• Certain models such as Nokia N-GAGE QD and Motorola e680i have long
sustained buzz over many months due to certain attributes
• Among product messages mentioning attributes, accessories (24%) was the
most discussed, followed by software (21%) and User Posted Material (UPM)
(18%)
3

4. Chinese IWOM Introduction

5. INTERNET WORD OF MOUTH (IWOM)
Definition: Consumer discussions and multi-media
content related to brands, products or services on such
online channels as BBS (online message boards), blogs
and video sites.
BBS Blogs Video-Sharing
Thread List
N73 Flashing … …
system guides
Smart Phones
Basic
Knowledge “Design is the soul of product”
5

6. IWOM HAS MASSIVE REACH
• 137,000,000 Internet users in Internet Users In China (Unit-million)
China* 140
120
• 50,553,000 BBS regular users 100
80
(36.9%)*
60
40
• 34,661,000 Chinese bloggers
20
(25.3%)* 0
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Regular BBS User online (Unit-million) Regular Blog User online (Unit-million)
50.6
46.2
34.7
19.6 15.8
15.0
11.2
3.3
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2005 2006
*
Data Source: The 19th Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China by CNNIC, January 2007 6

7. IWOM MAKES COMMUNICATIONS LANDSCAPE MORE
COMPLEX: Consumers are gaining control
Blog
Billboard
TVC
BBS
IWOMTM
Shape Influence Reshape
Mainstream Media
Newspaper & Magazines Video Sharing
7

8. IWOM HAS IMPACT: Not just for geeks
Chinese Internet users are spending more In April 2006, bloggers authored
and more time online (CNNIC) 3 out of 10 top selling books in
Unit: Hour China (Danwei)
16.9
15.9
Chinese Social Networking Site QQ.com
13.7 has strong traffic (Alexa)
13.4 13.2
9.8
8.5
Trend of Average Weekly Hours Spent on
Internet of Chinese Netizens
2
4
5
6
00
01
03
00
00
00
00
20
20
20
,2
,2
,2
,2
,
,
,
ec
ec
ec
ec
ec
ec
ec
D
D
D
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D
3 out of the 10 most-searched people on
Baidu.com are “net stars” (by June 17, 2007)
One of the world’s top blogger is
Chinese (Xu Jinglei) (Technorati)
8

9. Mobile Phone E-Communities

10. IMPRESSIVE IWOM NUMBERS: Almost 5 million BBS
messages in CIC’s Mobile Phone Practice for Q1 2007
Mobile Phone Related BBS Messages for Q1, 2007
4,997,258
731,403
Unit: Post Unit: Poster
# of BBS Messages in Q1 # of Unique BBS Poster in Q1
Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1 10

11. POSTER INFLUENCE: Top 20% of posters contribute
around 70% of messages
Messages Contribution Percentage by Posters
100%
90%
80%
Percentage of Posts
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Percentage of Posters
Data Base: Total posts=4,997,258 Total unique posters=731,403
Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1 11

12. BREAKING DOWN INFLUENCE: Top posters demonstrate
different types of influence.
Influence and Participation on a Sample Tight Knit Community
Initiation Inspiration Participation
Top # of Unique # of Total
Poster # of Initiated Repliers to Initiated # of Total Replies Posted
Rank* Topics Topics to Others' Topics Messages
1 317 173 3,888 4,893
2 231 91 2,300 2,878
3 78 33 2,520 2,729
4 172 59 2,214 2,580
5 243 101 2,034 2,502
6 234 88 1,591 2,149
7 225 59 1,691 2,122
8 74 21 788 9,54
9 93 32 613 8,83
10 248 93 332 7,91
… … … …
Note: Poster rank measured by total number of posts created within a specific community
Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1 12

13. MAPPING INFLUENCE: For tighter knit communities,
relationships can be mapped via replies to threads
Relationship Map of a Sample Tight Knit Community’s Top Posters
*Each node represents number of conversations by one poster (node size related to conversations volume)
*Each line represents relationship between posters defined by replied to conversations for each respective poster (line thickness
related to number of conversations)
Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1 13

14. SPREAD OF INFLUENCE: Top posters communicate with
both experienced and “newbie” posters
# of posters the top 1
poster have Top Poster Participation Spread
conversation with
100
Helping New Comer Sample Quote
90
Newbie Question: Do I need to download specific
80 software to flash my E2’s system?
70
There are 2 different kinds of software to
60
Top 1
flash E2’s system. You can find it at this Familiarity with other Top Posters
50 link…
Sample Quote
Top X Calling “sister”!
40
30 Top 1 I am coming… I just get back from
dinner.
20
10
0
1
4
7
1
1
5
1
4
9
8
61
68
74
84
28
31
34
37
40
53
58
19
25
49
10
13
16
22
08
22
10
16
19
24
64
1,
2,
New Comer Top Poster
Poster Rank
by the number of messages the poster posted during Q1, 2007
Note: Analysis within a within a specific community
Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1 14

15. UNIQUE NETIZEN LANGUAGE: The existence of online
culture is represented by a unique lexicon
Common Net Language Mobile Phone Net Language
Fans: 粉丝 Motorola: 摩记 M机 Motorola Moto Motolula
摩托 摩托罗拉 摩托骡拉
make suggestions: 拍砖
Support:顶 Nokia: N机 N记 诺鸡鸭 諾基亞 偌机 挪积压
NO积压 诺基亚 Nokia 诺记 诺机
Very: 粉
ROKR E2: E2 兔子 E兔 小兔 一兔 伊兔
Savvy:大虾 (big shrimp)-
Nokia 5300: 5300 N5300 小5 小3
go to hell: 74 (去死)
Me:偶 (我) Bluetooth: LY BT 蓝牙 兰牙 蓝芽 蓝鸭 篮牙
Faint: FT(晕倒) Sample Explanations
kissing ass: PMP (拍马屁) E兔 (E-Rabbit)=E2: the English pronunciation of
“2” sounds like the Chinese pronunciation of “兔
No:表 (rabbit)”
LY=Blue Tooth: since the Chinese pronunciation
Sick: BT (变态)
of Blue Tooth is “Lan Ya”, many netizens use the
initials of Lan Ya to represent Blue Tooth (similar
shame on others: BS (鄙视)
to BT for Bluetooth)
Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1 15

16. Mobile Phone IWOM Content

17. TOP 5 BRANDS DOMINATE OVERALL BUZZ: Nokia,
Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Dopod account for
96% of the buzz
Brand Messages in Q1, 2007
Nokia 649,014
Motorola 329,999
Sony Ericsson 118,443
Samsung 100,003
Dopod 42,235
Lenovo 12,643
Amoi 9,669
Philips 9,196
LG 8,697
Siemens 7,816 96%
Palm 5,859
BENQ 3,826
NEC 2,808
Bird 2,486
Top 5 Brands Messages=886,440
HP 1,719 Total Brands Messages=923,295
TCL 1,231
Daxian 979
Haier 867
Unit: Post
Note: Brand buzz includes number of messages mentioning brand and/or its models. CIC tracked 600 models from 18 manufacturers
Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1 17

18. TOP 2 BRANDS DOMINATE MODEL BUZZ: Nokia and
Moto account for 19 out of 20 top in model buzz volume
Model Buzz Volume in Q1, 2007
Unit: Post
Launch Messages Launch Messages
Rank Model Rank Model
Date Mentioning Date Mentioning
1 Nokia N73 09/2006 69,601 11 Nokia 6300 01/2007 20,329
2 Motorola E770 03/2006 44,307 12 Motorola A1200 02/2006 18,256
3 Nokia N70 10/2005 43,885 13 Nokia N-GAGE QD 11/2004 18,015
4 Motorola ROKR E2 06/2006 36,834 14 Nokia E50 10/2006 17,579
5 Motorola E680i 04/2005 34,236 15 Motorola SLVR L7 12/2005 17,416
6 Nokia N72 07/2006 33,783 16 Nokia 3250 03/2006 16,606
7 Nokia 6233 07/2006 27,920 17 Nokia 5300 10/2006 15,923
8 Nokia 7610 07/2004 21,038 18 Sony Ericsson K750c 05/2005 14,521
9 Nokia 3230 03/2005 20,980 19 Motorola V3 10/2004 13,804
10 Motorola ROKR E6 11/2006 20,796 20 Nokia 6630 12/2004 13,544
Note: Model Ranks are based on the No. of messages mentioning the models. Higher rank means more messages
Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1 18

19. SOME MODELS HAVE LONG, SUSTAINED BUZZ: Certain
attributes account for this sustained buzz
Buzz Volume Rank by Quarter
Models Q1-2006 Q2-2006 Q3-2006 Q4-2006 Q1-2007
Nokia N70 4 1 1 1 3
Motorola E680i 11 9 16 10 5
Nokia 7610 3 6 10 5 8
Motorola A1200 30 18 12 13 12
Nokia N-Gage QD 5 2 2 8 13
Motorola L7 20 15 9 13 15
Sony Ericsson K750c 2 5 11 11 18
Motorola V3 6 4 15 12 19
Nokia 6630 9 8 3 9 20
Note: Model Ranks are based on the No. of messages mentioning the models. Higher rank means more messages
Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1 19

20. HOT MODEL PRE-LAUNCH BUZZ: Hot models often have
pre-launch buzz inspired by professional review articles
Trend of Model Buzz Incidence
Buzz Incidence of Total Brand and product Messages
4.0%
Nokia 5300/E50 Motorola E6 Nokia 6300
3.5% Official Launch Official Launch Official Launch
3.0%
2.5%
2.0%
1.5%
1.0%
0.5%
0.0%
Aug-06 Sep-06 Oct-06 Nov-06 Dec-06 Jan-07 Feb-07 Mar-07
Motorola ROKR E6 Nokia 5300 Nokia 6300 Nokia E50
Note: Model Buzz incidence is the percentage of the models messages in all brand and product messages
Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1 20

21. ACCESSORIES, SOFTWARE AND UPM TOP ATTRIBUTES:
Buzz focuses on content and accessories
Attributes Buzz Volume for All Products
(Buzz Incidence of Total Brand and Product Messages)
Accessories 24%
Software 21%
UPM 18%
Entertainment Functions 15%
Performance 12%
Sales Channels 10%
Business Functions 10%
User Posted Material (UPM):
Operating System 8%
includes applications, game, music,
Data transmission 8% video, ring tones and other elements
Design 6% created, published and/or republished
Customer Service 4% by consumers
Mobile Type 3%
Internet & Mobility 3%
Carrier 2%
Network Type 1%
Data Base: Total Brand and Product Messages=923,295
Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1 21

22. CONTENT AND ACCESSORIES TOPS FOR TOP BRANDS:
Accessories, Software and UPM are key for top brands
Buzz Incidence of Each Topic by Brand in Q1, 2007
Brand Nokia Motorola Samsung Sony Ericsson Dopod
Accessories 15.78% 18.26% 19.36% 12.83% 12.85%
Software 14.76% 17.17% 11.41% 11.48% 11.43%
UPM 12.03% 16.29% 9.64% 10.96% 9.27%
Entertainment Functions 10.87% 10.19% 8.80% 14.05% 9.13%
Performance 7.76% 8.52% 9.08% 7.73% 8.58%
Sales Channels 7.66% 4.62% 12.59% 6.35% 6.43%
Business Functions 6.44% 7.58% 8.80% 5.82% 7.14%
Operating System 7.93% 4.40% 2.32% 1.82% 6.70%
Data transmission 4.64% 6.25% 8.31% 4.39% 6.31%
Design 4.15% 3.47% 6.13% 3.89% 2.99%
Customer Service 2.40% 2.23% 2.61% 2.72% 1.98%
Mobile Type 2.66% 1.65% 2.44% 2.40% 5.16%
Internet & Mobility 1.85% 2.13% 2.53% 1.60% 2.08%
Carrier 0.88% 1.95% 0.87% 1.13% 1.88%
Network Type 1.06% 0.82% 1.62% 0.89% 1.67%
Note: Each Attribute Buzz Incidence by Brand is the percentage of each attribute messages among brand and product messages
Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1 22

23. APPLICATIONS TOP UPM MESSAGES: Applications,
themes, e-Books, and Users Guides are top UPM topics
UPM Discussion Percentage by Topic
Applications
1%
2%1%1%
2% Themes
2%
3% e-Books
User Guides
Ga
5%
Us
m
Games
er
e
G ui Hacking System
de
8% s Videos
e-Bo
oks
Picture
Applications
Ringtone
s
me 58% Music
e
Th Map
Turn on/off Animations
17%
Animations
MTV
Advertisements
Data Base: Total UPM Messages=193,730
Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1 23

24. SAMPLE UPM TOPICS: What drives UPM discussion?
UPM Threads with Most Replies in Q1, 2007
Category Subject Reply No.
Smart Movie has new version now: Smart
Application 23,925
Movie v3.21 Chinese Version
How to select, install and uninstall the themes
Themes 12,324
on Nokia N73
Share my self-written e-books. Absolutely
e-Books 4,526
enjoyable, and always updated
The most detailed guides for A1200 Telnet with
Guides 1,200
supporting pictures.
Game The most classic action game - GunFever 1,112
Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1 24

25. SAMPLE QUOTES: Different angles for UPM
conversations
The post is a great
reference for me to learn
How to select, install and General Reply something about this,
uninstall the themes on Nokia thanks for sharing!
N73
Before downloading and implementing the theme, do check Specific Reply
if the theme is designed for N73:
To supplement this info: right now,
1. If the theme is not designed for N73, please do not use it according to some crazy theme fans’
in case bad display or some unknown errors tests, Nokia 73 can have 26 themes at
most. And it is suggested to install the
2. Some themes are not practically useful, for example, the
official theme on driver C while installing
stand-by picture is beautiful, but the fonts on function list, netizen created themes on driver E
SMS are too blurry to read
3. Be careful about the size of the theme, if it is bigger than
1M, it will really affect your phone’s speed. Guan Shui
…
WOW. Such a long
conversation…this is incredible
Data source: CIC Mobile Phone Practice, 2007 Q1 25

26. Summary and Implications

27. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (1)
Finding Implication
IWOM IS MEDIA AND RESEARCH:
IWOM IS POWERFUL: IWOM via IWOM is important to marketers
blogs, BBS, and online video sharing because it both influences as a more
channels has great reach and credible media while at the same time is
influence among consumers in China reflective of consumer sentiment
IWOM FOR CONSUMER INSIGHT:
MOBILE IWOM IS IMPRESSIVE:
IWOM represents naturally occurring (i.e.
IWOM’s reach for the mobile phone
unsolicited) expressions of opinions,
category is represented by 4,997,258
experiences, and ideas around mobile
messages written by 731,403 unique
phones from some of the most informed,
users identified for time period
connected and influential consumers.
January 1 through March 31, 2007
Systematic analysis of IWOM is a
necessary element of research and
MOBILE IWOM COMMUNITY IS intelligence gathering.
COMPLEX: The complexity, depth of
HANDLE IWOM WITH CARE: Opinions
influence, and relationships within
are being expressed within a community
online mobile phone communities can
context which has networks, leaders,
be quantitatively tracked and mapped
and a unique language. Marketers need
for deeper understanding
to fully understand this culture before
implementing online community
marketing or “buzz tactics”
27

28. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (2)
Finding Implication
TOP BRANDS DOMINATE: The top BE PROLIFIC OR DIFFERENTIATE:
5 brands in terms of buzz volume Brands should seek to identify unique
were mentioned in 96% of all brand selling points based on community
and product messages, while the top needs in order differentiate.
2 brands provide 19 out of the top 20
most buzzed models
PHONES WITH SUSTAINED BUZZ ARE
SOME OLDER MODELS ARE TOPS WORTH UNDERSTANDING: Systematic
IN BUZZ: Some of the models with analysis of the attributes which contribute
the most buzz, for example Nokia N- to overall sustained buzz can improve
GAGE QD, are older and / or not big marketing communication as well as
sellers, suggesting that product development program
understanding what makes a phone
“buzz worthy” is complex
USERS TALK ABOUT USING: The fact
USERS IN CONTROL: In addition to that there is high buzz volume about using
functional attributes like accessories the phone and making the phone useful
and software, User Generated and fun should inform marketing
Content (UGC) accounts for high communication and support programs (i.e.
buzz volume within all product Moto music). The fact that consumers want
messages content in their own way on their own terms
should not be ignored.
28

29. About CIC

30. ABOUT CIC
CIC is the leading Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) research
and consulting firm in China. CIC helps its clients make
sense of the buzz found on Chinese blogs, BBS forums, and
other IWOM channels using proprietary text mining
technology developed specifically for the Chinese
language.
With sensitivity toward marketing, market research, media
planning, public relations, and product development, CIC’s
team of IWOM analysts provide actionable insights for a
stable of Fortune 500 retainer clients in China and around
the world.
CIC was founded in 2003 by a team of local and
international professionals with experience in the Chinese
public relations, market research, and brand consulting
industries. Visit www.cicdata.com or www.seeisee.com for
more information.
30

31. CIC IS AN IWOM RESEARCH AND CONSULTING FIRM:
Our analysts use proprietary technology to help clients
make sense of the buzz
Using proprietary technology, CIC tracks tens of millions of
IWOM messages every month on BBS and blog to tell you how
much talk there is, who’s talking, where they are talking, and if
the talk is good or bad. Most importantly, our analysts tell you
what it all means and what you can/should do about it.
PROPRIETARY
TECHNOLOGY
UNMATCHED IWOM EXPERT
EXPERIENCE ANALYSTS
31

32. OUR BLOGS:
www.seeisee.com (Chinese)
www.seeisee.com/sam (English)
OUR WEBSITE:
www.cicdata.com Thank You
CONTACT US:
info@cicdata.com