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rfmcdonaldThe head of the Zynga Game Network, maker of Farmville and others, thinks that Mixi is bound to predominate.
Back in September I blogged about the different countries where non-Facebook social networking systems still predominate. While Orkut has been or soon will be surpassed by Facebook in Brazil and India, there are still some countries where local social networking systems predominate: Russia (and the rest of the Russophone world) with VKontakte), South Korea with CyWorld, and Japan. The fact that none of these three countries don't use the Latin alphabet might have something to do with it.
Ultimately, people will use Facebook--or any other social networking platform--because it's useful. In the case of the above three countries, perhaps especially Japan, Facebook may be most likely to become competitive with local networks if user interest grows in establishing contact with social networking platforms like Facebook which outside the three countries' domestic markets, i.e. for Russians to be in regular contact with Poles, or South Koreans and Japanese with each other. The proprietary nature of Facebook makes it likely (I think) that there won't be anything like VKontakte/Facebook interoperability. The question then becomes one of whether or not sufficient pressure to push these countries towards Facebook use.
Thoughts?
Japan “is one place where Facebook may not end up being dominant,” Robert Goldberg, head of Zynga Game Network Inc.’s operations in the country, said in an interview in Tokyo. “Despite the unique cultural challenges that Japan presents, we fully expect Facebook to be successful in this market as they have across the world.”
Facebook, boasting more than 500 million users and a valuation above $80 billion, is focusing on expanding in Japan and Russia, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said in July. Mixi, which began social network operations in 2004, has about 22 million customers in the country, 10 times the number of Japanese Facebook users.
Concerns over privacy issues and early problems with site design and translation have also set back Facebook’s popularity in the country, Goldberg said.
[. . .]
Facebook, available in more than 70 languages, almost doubled its subscriber base in Japan in the past six months to about 2.2 million, according to market researcher Socialbakers. The country ranked 49th in terms of total users registered for the service, with the U.S. topping the list at 148.9 million.
[. . .]
Zynga chose Mixi for the Japan release of its “FarmVille” hit title in December. The game is Facebook’s second most popular title with 53 million users, after Zynga’s “CityVille” with 98.6 million, according to researcher AppData.com.
Goldberg declined to disclose the user numbers for FarmVille in Japan.
Mixi is better suited for Japanese users because it gives subscribers more control over who sees their content and personal data is more secure, President Kenji Kasahara said in an interview on Dec. 15. Users can also send Twitter-like messages limited to 150 characters, a service that began in September 2009 and isn’t available on Facebook, Kasahara said at the time.
[. . .]
Mixi’s monthly active users, subscribers who log in at least once a month, have reached 14.5 million as of Dec. 31, the Tokyo-based company said earlier this month. That compares with Facebook’s more than 500 million users worldwide and 24.5 million for DeNA Co., Japan’s biggest developer of social games for mobile phones.
Back in September I blogged about the different countries where non-Facebook social networking systems still predominate. While Orkut has been or soon will be surpassed by Facebook in Brazil and India, there are still some countries where local social networking systems predominate: Russia (and the rest of the Russophone world) with VKontakte), South Korea with CyWorld, and Japan. The fact that none of these three countries don't use the Latin alphabet might have something to do with it.
Ultimately, people will use Facebook--or any other social networking platform--because it's useful. In the case of the above three countries, perhaps especially Japan, Facebook may be most likely to become competitive with local networks if user interest grows in establishing contact with social networking platforms like Facebook which outside the three countries' domestic markets, i.e. for Russians to be in regular contact with Poles, or South Koreans and Japanese with each other. The proprietary nature of Facebook makes it likely (I think) that there won't be anything like VKontakte/Facebook interoperability. The question then becomes one of whether or not sufficient pressure to push these countries towards Facebook use.
Thoughts?
