U.S. Social Networks Flop in Japan
By Anna Johnson on August 6th, 2008Analysis by Tech Crunch indicates that Facebook and MySpace have failed to gain traction in Japan due to a failure to adapt to the local culture.
It’s not that the Japanese don’t like social networks. After all, Japan’s home grown social network, Mixi.jp has grown into a $1 billion-listed company. It’s more that they like a different kind of social network to the kind MySpace and Facebook have attempted to impose on them.
MySpace opened in Japan in 2006, three years after launching in the U.S. Facebook has followed with a rather poorly translated version of its site. Meanwhile, Mixi has become the dominant Japanese social network with barely any competition.
Tech Crunch believes that while Mixi has always been in sync with what its Japanese market wants, by their very nature MySpace and Facebook have, if anything, turned Japanese users AWAY.
For example, Facebook’s “selling point” of having its members use their real names and photos DETRACTS from its appeal to the Japanese, who traditionally value modesty, if not anonymity. And while MySpace and Facebook promote themselves as tools for people to make new friends and express or promote themselves, Mixi seems to be much preferred as a tool for communicating at a distance through diaries and communities, and NOT for making new friends or self-promotion.
On top of this, neither MySpace and Facebook are optimized for Japanese mobile handsets… a major omission in a market where most people access the Internet via their mobile phones.
Does it matter? Well, with an online advertising market worth an estimated $5.6 billion in 2007, Japan should hold huge appeal for foreign social networks. But, as with anything, it pays to provide a product or service that gives people what they want, which, in this case, means appreciating what Japanese social network users are looking for in a social network.
