Asia's blogosphere is "surging forward" with nearly half of those online actively blogging, according to research published today by Microsoft's MSN and Windows Live Online Services Business.

The report claims that blogging as a corporate or business tool appears to be "nascent" in most Asian markets, with little interest from consumers in blogs from business or political leaders. The exceptions are online powerhouse Korea, where blogging has permeated all aspects of life, and India where business-related blogs have become very popular.

Blogging Asia: A Windows Live Report details the research findings which are based on an online survey of more than 25,000 MSN portal visitors across seven markets.

According to the report, the region's bloggers are primarily driven by the need to express themselves and share their lives with family and friends. The highest number of respondents (53 per cent) indicated that they chose to start a blog to share a diary or photo album with loved ones.

The report also showed that Asia's blogosphere is fuelled by youth with almost half of all bloggers (56 per cent) under 25, while 35 per cent are 25 to 34 years old, and nine per cent are 35 years old and over.

When broken down by gender, 55 per cent of bloggers in Asia were found to be female and 45 per cent male.

"User-created content and community-based online services are really propelling the internet in Asia right now," said Alex Stewart, director of Microsoft's Online Services Business, Asia Pacific.

The survey also shows that blogs are a relatively trusted source of information, with half the respondents believing that blog content is as trustworthy as traditional media. A quarter of the respondents also believed blogs to be the quickest way to learn about news and current affairs.