1. 4/3/14, 2:33 PMJapanese web browser preferences | 世論 What Japan Thinks
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Demographics
This recent survey from iShare into web browsers contains some fascinating and
surprising data on preferences amongst a quite experienced sample of internet surfers.
Between the 14th and 17th of December 2009 468 members of the CLUB BBQ free email
forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.3% of the sample
were male, 33.3% in their twenties, 34.6% in their thirties, and 32.1% in their forties.
As you can see from Q1, most of the sample have over 10 years of web use under their belts,
yet although one associates Internet Explorer with newbies and Firefox with experts, the
data shows Explorer about a third ahead of Firefox.
Sleipnir is basically a new skin for Internet Explorer, but it does seem quite popular in my
office, and Lunascape is a three-in-one Internet Explorer plus Firefox plus Google
Chrome/Safari.
Of course, Opera is the best web browser by far.
Research results
Q1: How long have you been using the internet? (Sample size=468)
All
Male
N=268
Female
N=200
Less than ten years 16.0% 13.1% 20.0%
Ten to fifteen years 53.0% 50.7% 56.0%
Fifteen years or more 31.0% 36.2% 24.0%

2. 4/3/14, 2:33 PMJapanese web browser preferences | 世論 What Japan Thinks
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Q2: What web browser do you use the most? (Sample size=468)
All
Male
N=268
Female
N=200
Internet Explorer 42.3% 36.6% 50.0%
Firefox 31.3% 25.0% 35.9%
Sleipnir 10.0% 11.2% 8.5%
Google Chrome 4.7% 5.2% 4.0%
Safari 4.1% 3.0% 5.5%
Opera 3.6% 4.5% 2.5%
Lunascape 2.8% 3.7% 1.5%
Other 2.4% 2.6% 2.0%
Don’t know 1.5% 1.9% 1.0%
Q3: How satisfied are you with the web browser you use the most?
(Sample size=468)
All
Male
N=268
Female
N=200
Completely satisfied 22.4% 27.2% 16.0%
Perhaps satisfied 61.8% 58.6% 66.0%
Perhaps dissatisfied (to SQ) 13.5% 10.8% 17.0%
Completely dissatisfied (to SQ) 2.4% 3.4% 1.0%
Only 12.6% of Internet Explorer users were completely satisfied, versus 32.8% of
Firefox users. 36.8% of Opera users and 47.1% of Lunascape users were totally
satisfied. 2.5% of Internet Explorer users were totally dissatisfied, with all the
other browsers having zero dissatisfied users, except for one Opera user and five of
the seven people who didn’t know what their broswer was.
Q3SQ: What are you most dissatisfied with regarding the web
browser you use the most? (Sample size=74)
All
Male
N=38
Female
N=36
40.5% 44.7% 36.1%

3. 4/3/14, 2:33 PMJapanese web browser preferences | 世論 What Japan Thinks
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Resource-heavy
Slow to render pages 13.5% 15.8% 11.1%
Cannot freely expand functionality 8.1% 5.3% 11.1%
Difficult to understand how to use 8.1% 13.2% 2.8%
Cannot change the design to one I like 8.1% 5.3% 11.1%
Weak security 1.4% 0.0% 2.8%
Other 20.3% 15.8% 25.0%
Q4: What feature do you want the most from a web browser?
(Sample size=468)
All
Male
N=268
Female
N=200
Light on resources 46.6% 47.4% 45.5%
Strong security 14.3% 12.7% 16.5%
Fast page rendering 13.9% 13.1% 15.0%
Easy to expand functionality 10.7% 12.7% 8.0%
Easy to understand how to use 6.4% 5.2% 8.0%
Can change to a design I like 1.7% 1.9% 1.5%
Other 3.0% 3.7% 2.0%
No particular wishes 3.4% 3.4% 3.5%
Over two-thirds of Google Chrome users wished for a more light on resources
browser, and perhaps surprisingly better security was a more popular wish
amongst Safari users than Internet Explorer. Strangely enough, 25.0% of Firefox
users wanted an easily-expandable browser, but Firefox is probably the browser
with the most add-ons!
Q5: Would you like to change from your current web browser to
another one? (Sample size=468)
All
Male
N=268
Female
N=200
Yes (to SQ) 19.9% 17.2% 23.5%
No 80.1% 82.8% 76.5%

4. 4/3/14, 2:33 PMJapanese web browser preferences | 世論 What Japan Thinks
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Q5SQ: Which web browser would you most like to change to?
(Sample size=93)
All
Male
N=46
Female
N=47
Google Chrome 45.2% 52.2% 38.3%
Firefox 31.2% 21.7% 40.4%
Opera 6.5% 6.5% 6.4%
Safari 6.5% 8.7% 4.3%
Lunascape 4.3% 6.5% 2.1%
Internet Explorer 2.2% 0.0% 4.3%
Slepnir 2.2% 2.2% 2.1%
Other 2.2% 2.2% 2.1%