Facebook (2 mio. Japanese users) has many competitors in the land of the rising sun – Mixi (21.6 mio. Japanese users) , Gree (22.5 mio. Japanese users) and Mobage-town (21.7 mio. Japanese users).
The main questions are: How is Facebook different from the japanese SNSs?
There are many reasons:
1) Cultural differences
Paul Sawers says: "culture has a big say in which networks take-off…and which don’t."
Culture does matter and the key factor for social network sites’ popularity in Japan is the concept of anonymity.
"Whilst Facebook is all about the people behind the profile, the Japanese web population typically like their privacy, with nicknames, pseudonyms and other monikers used to disguise their true identity. And this is what the likes of Mixi and Gree offer. Twitter offers this too, with users able to shield their true identity behind whatever username they choose." (Sawer, 2011)
Also, in contrast to Facebook, Mixi offers the “ashiato” (“footprint”) functionality, which enables to see who visited your profile, making it more transparent for the user. Furthermore, Mixi enables users to decide for themselves what context is to be displayed to what circle of friends.
Facebook is all about "you" and the "you" in Japan tends to stay private. Mixi is a community-centric site, where users gather in communities to connect with people of similar interests. Anonymity is the key again, as they don’t worry about who is talking but rather what is being said.
"Mixi is less about interacting with friends than it is about interacting on hugely popular community pages where personal identity isn’t quite so important. And it offers greater control not only on what personal information is revealed, but which friends get to see it." (Sawers, 2011)
As the Japanese Mobile SNS Study 2010 shows, japanese users tend to use mobiles to access their profiles.
Apart from Mixi, which focused on 150 character message sending, the Gree and Mobage-town SNS focuse on mobile gaming, offering different mobile gaming applications.
But cultural difference is not the only reason Facebook is failing.
2) Timing
As Sawers puts it, timing really is essential in this business and at while entering the japanese market Facebook was already facing tough competition.
Mixi was developing in Japan at about the same time as Facebook was developing in the USA and was the Japanese equivalent of Friendster.
Next big hindrance is the 3) Language.
Facebook was translated to Japanese as late as 2008 the same year as Twitter. But Japanese was the first foregin language availabe on the Twitter platform. Also, The Japanese writing system enables more use of the 140 characters than other languages – thus a lot more information can be captured in a single tweet making Twitter a fascinating tool with currently 10 mio. Japanese users.
Concluding with the words of Shaffer "Will FB blend in Japan? Only time will tell…"
Mixi
Gree
Mobage-town
Resources:
Staš Ivanc (11.1.2011) Japonci so raje anonimni. Facebook na Japonskem. http://www.delo.si/clanek/135948
Neal Shaffer (19.1.2010). Facebook in Japan: Will It Blend? http://windmillnetworking.com/2010/01/19/facebook-in-japan-will-it-blend/
Alexei Poliakov. Japan Mobile SNS Study 2010 http://www.slideshare.net/yaromir/japan-mobile-sns-study-2010
Paul Sawers (2.2.2011) Why Twitter outguns Facebook in Japan. http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/02/02/why-twitter-outguns-facebook-in-japan/
Japan's Social Networking Sites Full of Shy Lurkers. http://goldsea.com/810/06social.html
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