Ryan MacMillan

While Japan was often seen as slow in introducing the PC into the household, it has been the global leader in telecommunications and is a few years ahead of Europe and the US in several areas. One of these areas is the use of mobile devices to consume web content. A recent study by comScore put the number of people using mobile device to access the Internet at 53.6 million, a figure nearly equaling the 53.7 million who accessed the Internet from either a home or a work computer in June 2007. It is thought that the number of those using a mobile device for net access will take the lead in the very near future.  

The same study gave the following breakdown of how time was spent on the web:

* Mobile Web activity conducted within last 30 days

**Study conducted among 3100 people

Mobile phones are the dominant electronic device in Japan, hitting the 100 million subscriber mark in January 2007. The majority of these are 3G subscribers. 

comScore’s survey revealed that web browsing by mobile phone averages 8.1 hours per month, much less than the 18.9 hours using a PC. Age also plays a factor, with those users under 34 years of age making up 64 percent of all mobile phone web users compared to 45 percent of PC web users. These numbers have had a great impact on the way the Japanese participate in social media.

Blogging in Japan 

The Japanese are very keen bloggers. According to Technorati, Japanese is the most common language in the blogosphere in terms of blog posts by language (37%), and it ranks in the top five countries in the world in terms of number of blogs. The majority of bloggers in Japan are individuals and, at this stage, corporate blogs are not common, as Japanese bloggers prefer to separate their private lives from their company lives. A study carried out by international PR consultancy firm Edelman together with Technorati Japan found that:

• 84.5% of respondents blogged on subjects related to companies, industry, products and services
• 49.3% blogged on such issues on a weekly basis
• 14.9% did so on a daily basis

Interestingly, 55.4% said they had never been contacted by the companies in response to their blogging, suggesting perhaps that companies have not embraced alternative methods of communicating with their customers.  Edelman North Asia President Robert Pickard said “This seems to argue in favor of companies supplementing their traditional one-way ‘monologue’ communication of messages by engaging with bloggers online through a new two-way ‘dialogue’ where conversations are key.”

Blog readership is also highest amongst the Japanese (74%). Of the readers, women read blogs more often than men but age does not play a significant role with both young and old partaking in about equal numbers.

Japanese Social Networking Services (SNS): mixi & mixi Mobile

Japanese participation in Social Networking Services (SNS) has shown remarkable growth with the number approaching 12 million. There are a range of providers, including Gree (virtually a copy of mobagetown) and MySpace, now delivered in Japanese, but undoubtedly the biggest social networking site is mixi, currently hosting more than 8 million users with almost 1 million communities. These communities are very diverse ranging from popular actors and singers to fans of 1960s Japanese cinema to lovers of Belgian chocolate. 

Page views for mixi and mixi Mobile together total around 10 billion per month, with page views generated from mobile phones accounting for more than 30% of this- a number that continues to rise. As of December 2006, mixi Mobile had 2.3 million members and that number was increasing by around 12,000 new members a day. On January 15, 2007, mixi Mobile had 100 million page views in a single day. mixi Mobile attributes its success in attracting new members largely to the site’s ease-of-use, mobile messaging for all members and allowing invitations via QR codes (as shown below):

Both mixi and mixi Mobile members can create diaries, share photos, post messages, and participate in discussions. 

Mobagetown: www.mbge.jp

  

mobagetown (mobile-games-town) is a mobile-only site offering free high quality online games including full-scale, real-time, match up games, and simple mini-games. The site also offers SNS content (blogs, email, chat, diaries and message boards) and allows members to create avatars that can be clothed and equipped with virtual items purchased with mobagetown’s virtual currency,  “mobaGold”.  In addition, the site offers shopping, auctions and affiliate advertising.  mobagetown launched in February 2006 and has attracted 9 million members in just over two years, and gets a staggering 15 billion page views per month. mobagetown was originally, and still is, very popular with teenagers, but more recently, the number of users in their 20s and 30s has begun to increase. 

Source of images and data DENA.

One reason for its success lies in the difference between mobagetown and mixi. With mixi a real name is required to register and you need to be invited. mobagetown is anonymous. Anyone can register, regardless of age, and no invitation is necessary. The anonymity taps into the Japanese psyche for stepping outside of oneself. In mobagetown, like “Second Life”, you can be whoever you want to be. You can dispose of the business suit, tie and conservative haircut and instead wear the hippest flamboyant fashions and give yourself, or your avatar, a full makeover. This explains the mass appeal of  mobagetown to the salarimen (company workers), OLs (office ladies) and the otaku, (geeks), all of whom long for a chance to step outside their day-to-day lives. and let off some creative steam. Additionally, mobagetown was initially populated by teenagers but the trend has caught the attention of many in their 20s and 30s. This follows the well-worn path of trends that begin with the youth market (as early adopters and influencers) and are then copied by those older members of society, who yearn to young and hip again. Another reason for its success is the collection aspect to it. The Japanese are great collectors. It is very often an obsession for men and women, young and old alike. Mobagetown allows them to collect items for their avatars.

mobagetown gives members the chance to demonstrate the flair that lies inside them, pairs it with the national pastimes of games and shopping, and capitalizes on the ‘Cult of Cute’ that has existed for decades in Japan and  shows no signs of abating. mobagetown satisfies all of these Japanese idiosyncrasies making it the perfect place to ‘hang out’ and it is not surprising that it has done so well.