Bandwidth Magazine has an article up, The rise and rise of the Asia weblog. Phil of Flying Chair is prominently featured.
Statistics from Alexa.com, a Web measurement service, suggest these sites now reach audiences comparable to those of mass media. Each day, Instapundit is read by 311 out of every 1 million Internet users, while Andrew Sullivan is read by 287 out of a million. .....But it is this lack of commercialism that is the secret to the audience appeal of weblogs, argue some. “There is tremendous dissatisfaction with the mainstream media,” argues Phil Ingram, the real name of the blogger behind Hong Kong site FlyingChair.Net.
....
Unsurprisingly, most of the most controversial sites in Asia come from Hong Kong, notable for its freewheeling press. “This is Hong Kong – insulting the government, often in offensive and distasteful ways, is normal for TV, radio, newspapers and the man in the street. Most Hong Kong English-language bloggers are amateur by comparison,” argues Hemlock, the writer of the Hemlock Diaries.
China’s notoriously sensitive government has already seen fit to block all sites hosted by the leading American blogging provider, Blogger.com, but for the moment, English language blogs appear to be tolerated in much of Asia. “The most popular blogs in Asia do not probably have a large enough audience to concern the authorities within more restrictive governments nor are they large enough to have a significant impact on public opinion,” argues Conrad of the Gweilo Diaries. “When Asia spawns its own Glenn Reynolds or Andrew Sullivan, the situation may well be different, but that hasn’t happened yet,” says Conrad.
What I find most impressive is the article seems to be written by someone who actually reads blogs and therefore gives their readers a decent chance at understanding what this blogging thing is all about, as well as pointing them to major Asia bloggers. There's too much good stuff there to excerpt, so go read the whole thing.
And if you're up to a pat on the back, you can congratulate Phil here.
DC
Very kind comments - thank you
Posted by: Phil | November 26, 2003 at 05:40 PM