[Stefanos Karagos. File Photo]
As I've recently written, Greece was a non-player in blogging, when we researched Naked Conversations three years ago. Now there is a great deal happening in social media there, and it seems that wherever you look, Stefanos Karagos is a contributor.
He is among the best known Greek bloggers having started earlier (2001) than almost all of his countrymen. He comes at it as publisher of the Greek edition of PC Magazine, the largest tech publication in Greece with 210,000 readers, along with three other tech publications.
Stefanos first became active in online conversations back in 1993, when he created the first Greek BBS, which was used to discuss Windows.
He started his first personal blog, to improve communications with Greek Internet users and to reach his magazind subscribers. "As a public personality, I need to communicate often," he told me. "Blogging is the most interactive way for me to talk one-to-one and one-2-many."
Toward that goal, he has created several blogs including Anabubula.com which tests how the global market works and, " to prove that if somebody creates unique content, he'll have more opportunities to make a difference," he told me.
For each magazine, he has created a social media platform connecting the offline media with online, giving. He told me the online/offline braiding has given each a significnt boost in followers. He's also created the largest Greek blogger custom search engine which is about to include social networking functionality. Very early in January, he will also launch Foracamp.gr, the first vertical social media for 500 tech communities worldwide.
1. Tell me about technology in Greece. How many people go online and where do they do it? How available is broadband?
Greek Technology adoption has accelerated over the last 4 years. Recent indicators indicators show that the penetration of Internet in Greece is more that 35% of the population but household broadband penetration is only 5%. This year, fortunately, the Greek Government pushed the National Telecommunications Organization [OTE] for lower prices of ADSL and in the last 6 months, we saw the biggest expansion of broadband connections ever in Greece.
As publisher of the Greek PC Magazine, I distributed 50.000 free ADSL modems and trial ADSL connections last September, giving the opportunity for more users to enjoy broadband. The prediction of ADSL penetration for 2008 is that it will more than double.
Another intersting fact is that 70% of the users spend more that 3.5 hours on the net, every day. There are 170,000 registered Greek Facebook users.
2. Blogging also seems to have taken off in the past couple of years. What are the factors that have
contributed? Who blogs and why?
Most Greek bloggers are young people who adopted the medium quickly and use it as a personal communication platform. We are a Mediterranean country and many days of the year are sunny helping people to go out for coffee and drinks and this is one of the reasons that blogging was not so popular the past years.
But now with low broadband prices the 3G mobile networks to cover a big part of Greece users can use blogging and social media all over the place. Greek bloggers come from many professions and social level and this year, because of the National elections, many politicians to blog and use social media as well.
3. What other social media is popular in Greece?
International
National
Wadja.com [Mobile Social Networking]
Zoo.gr [social networking]
Joy.gr [social networking]
Zuny.gr [a Facebook like special for Greek Universities students]
Pblogs.gr [most popular blogs platform after blogger.com]
Foracamp.gr [Social bookmarking for Tech communities]
Cull.gr [Digg clone for Greek Internet market]
New local entry in beta:
Me.gr [social networking]
4. Tell me about language. Other than their own, what other languages do Greek people speak? You speak English quite well. You have even started sites in English. Have you considered translating your blog? Why or why not?
English is the most spoken foreign language in Greece. From the 23.000 Greek blogs which I monitor via blogz.gr search engine, more than 3.000 are in English. In my Greek blog I offer translation as a feature, via an automatic translation service, because of my very good SEO, 10% of the visitors come from outside of Greece. Translating a site to another language is not so easy and most Greek bloggers actually are looking only for other Greek Internet users.
6. How do most people earn a living in Greece? Has social media impacted them at all?
Tourism is the No1 market and many Greek people earn a living that way. Until now, social media hasn't played a clear role on everyday life here, so actually, it doesn't impact most people. For example, there is not one Greek blogger earning a living from it. If blogs grow over the next three years the way they have in the past three years, we will start to see the real impact in Greece.
7. Has social media had much impact in Greek culture so far? What about in the next five years?
I believe that over the next five years, social media will grow rapidly in Greece. 2007 was the milestone year when social media started to make a serious impact on Greek culture. International Social networks, local blogs and the huge penetration of cell phones are the key reasons. Countires that have big cell phone penetration are on a different path toward social media.
8. How has social media changed your life?
Since I started blogging in 2001, social media has radically changed the way I conduct my media business, how I direct companies , how I attract and keep clients, or make friends, and even view my local market or the world. I don't think I would still be involved with anything regarding innovation and differentiation if Social Media didn't exist.
Without the ability to give input in a product or a service and see the same time the quick response from the audience, the Internet in my country would not have expanded as quickly without the technologies involved with social media.
9. Additional comments?
Social Media is a crucial factor for countries like Greece to provide the innovation and differentiation of their technological achievements.
Good blog post.
Are there in fact Greek microblogs ? are is everybody just using twitter ?
Posted by: jansegers | April 21, 2008 at 04:08 AM