Social networking site Facebook begins services in Japanese

Tuesday 20th May, 05:52 AM JST

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10 Comments

muniqui19 at 12:45 PM JST - 20th May

its about time
Zen_Builder at 12:52 PM JST - 20th May

My guess is they will fail as Myspace, Ebay/Paypal,etc did. Very different cultures, Mixi is big here and caters to the local taste.

If you can't adjust you will only get a small slice of the pie. Microsoft is getting their butt kicked outside the US too. Never mind that ebay failed a few years ago in Japan.

US Business models/practices don't translate well across the globe.
Notginger at 01:02 PM JST - 20th May

It would be nice if Mixi offered an English/Portuguese service. Does anyone remember the English/Portuguese stuff on the Keitai internet from Jphone (a long time ago, I know)? It was pretty limited but it was a move in the right direction.
keshii at 02:12 PM JST - 20th May

I agree with Muniqui. I don't think Facebook will be over to take over Mixi by any means, but it will still probably succeed in doing the job of connecting Japanese->America and Americans->Japan exchange students with their friends.
keshii at 02:12 PM JST - 20th May

By the way, I say Americans simply because they are the largest number of users of facebook. Other English-dominant countries that use facebook certainly apply, too.
movieguy at 03:41 PM JST - 20th May

Zen Builder... I wouldn't say MySpace has failed here, but like you said Mixi caters to local taste. That's why they have the upper-hand. That and they had a huge head start on MySpace and Facebook. My Japanese students love Facebook and from what I've seen of Mixi it's not too different from that. They'll be able to get some people and besides I don't think people are using only one SNS. like any international company that enters other markets, they're goal is to get a slice of the pie. There's too much competition out there to think they would be able to get a monopoly. It would be stupid not to at least enter other markets.

Last thing on Zen Builder's comment. Not sure where your information on Microsoft is coming from but don't Microsoft and Apple control the OS market worldwide??? Both U.S. companies. Seem to be business models/practices doing well internationally. To put it mildly...
namabiru4me at 06:53 PM JST - 20th May

they asked me (from within my profile) to help translate facebook into Japanese. What a JOKE!!! A multi-million dollar company looking for handouts from users. Hopefully no-one helped them and they had to do what other businesses do and shell out the cash properly! I am not saying I wouldn't do it for free...cause for open source I would, but not for a FOR PROFIT entity where I am not getting a paycheck!
thepro at 10:42 AM JST - 21st May

God these sites are terrible
Ultradude at 02:23 PM JST - 21st May

"US Business models/practices don't translate well across the globe" - Which globe do you live on? Many US companies have a considerable portion of thier sales/operations outside the US. Whether as a consumer or commercial user I bet a few minutes of thought will yield a rather long list of very successful US companies here in Japan and elsewhere. Do you use Ichitaro and Sony PCs at your office? Sure there are many that fail but that IS business - success is not pre-ordained. Mixi is a local company - guess they would cater to the local tastes. Can Mixi/Rakuten/iMode succeed in the US? - might be a good question.
1keiron at 07:37 PM JST - 23rd May

Why is it that when i arrive at the Mixi homepage it has two Westerners on there though? http://mixi.jp/ I'm cool with any origin but it doesnt give me a local impression for my first visit.