Social networking site Facebook begins services in Japanese

Tuesday 20th May, 05:52 AM JST

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11 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.
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.
joelmblatt at 09:12 AM JST - 13th February

Do I have to Facebook?

Online Networking has reached epidemic proportions. I’m on Facebook for social networking, LinkedIn for business networking, and Sparkbliss for romantic networking. There are things I like and things I don’t, but what matters most to me is privacy.

With Facebook, the proposition is join or seem aloof. Given its pervasive nature, forget about your privacy. When my friend Calvin asked if he should join Facebook, I put it this way “it depends if you want to fill up your inbox and then allocate the time to respond.” I added “expect everyone you have ever known from childhood to today to want to be friends and then ask you to join this, vote on this, attend this, play this, and so on.” He was deterred for now, but will succumb. Personally, I avoid being sucked into its online vortex. My approach is to log in about once a week, blindly accept friend invites from anybody and ignore everything else.

LinkedIn offers an extremely productive tool for professional networking; it makes sense for anybody in any kind of business. I use my profile as a virtual public resume; I knowingly relinquish my privacy. However, I manage my account and maintain its content with great discretion. Instead of universally accepting every connection request, I qualify each one. The site offers powerful internal search capabilities and externally your profile is easily found by Google. The downside being savvy sales people will use this vast database to find you and sell you.

While Sparkbliss is similar, it is focused upon romantic recommendations through your private network. You control who see your personal information; trusted friends and family screen for eligibility and make introductions. It is unique by its architecture, which places priority upon personal security and privacy. For example, a Sparkbliss profile can not be searched on the site internally or found externally by Google. This is an excellent alternative for people such as teachers who would rather avoid disclosing personal information on on the public Internet.

While Facebook and LinkedIn pay lip-service to increasing default security and privacy settings, stricter measures would only stunt site growth. Don’t expect policies to change any time soon. Unfortunately, most users surrender control of their personal information without knowledge or consideration. Today, it is incumbent upon the individual to protect themselves.