This article is the continuation of the discussion on social media 2010 trend and 2011 outlook for Japan, focusing on similarities and differences of those of rest of the world mentioned in recent blog articles, to conclude 2010, following Vol.45 – 2011 Trend of Social Media: Worldwide and Japan (Part 1).
4. Mobile grows, worldwide including Japan
Mobile was the trend predicted for 2010 and also for 2011 as well, and it is the same for Japan, too. Mobile phones had been extremely popular in Japan since 1997 when Japan specific mobile platform and services called I-mode started, and so many people have been using mobile phone on trains etc. And, 2010 marked another milestone in Japan mobile market; launch and outbreak of feature phones such as iPhones and Android. This was one of the reasons for the Twitter outbreak in Japan in 2010, as mentioned in the previous article Vol.42 – How to Leverage Twitter to Reach and Engage Glocal Audience .
Early adopters started to use iPhones in 2009, and in latter 2010 more feature phones including Android and Windows mobile have been launched. (Blackberry is also available but has not become popular like western countries, probably because it has not been sufficiently tailored to meet Japan local needs). Today advertising (online, TVCF, print) of iPhone and Android can be seen almost everyday, anywhere. Also carriers have been developing variety of value package products, such as combination of smart phone, monthly phone call cost and internet access fee, and portable wireless LAN system, thus now is a good timing to switch from normal mobile phone to smart phone. Of course, there have also been many applications coming out. As a result, according to recent statistics reported by Nikkei.net (online news portal specialized in business and economy) mobile sales of smart phone has reached as much as 50%. The percentage is expected to continue to rise in 2011.
5. Social gaming grows, worldwide including Japan
Social gaming was another predicted trend for 2010 worldwide, which is likely to be the same in 2011 as well. This is the same for Japan, one of the countries that have been leading gaming industry.
The main players of social gaming industry, worldwide including Japan, are usually considered to be global companies such as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, and global SNS such as Facebook are also becoming hot in the industry. The recent rapid growth of Zynga is a good example. And, there may well be more players entering the industry, further activating the market and industry.
Some Japan local web content providers such as Gree http://gree.jp/ and DeNa http://www.dena.jp/, have been providing SNS platform with which members can enjoy gaming, which have become very popular and the popularity in Japan is likely to continue in 2011 as well. Such companies are not well known outside Japan but the situation may change in 2011. In autumn 2010 DeNA acquired a U.S. company in order to start and grow their business internationally, which was reported by Forbes as “a company you need to know in 2010”.
6. Use of social media in business increases, worldwide including Japan, although Japan may be behind in the speed and degree of the increase
Use of social media in marketing and business seem to have taken root in western countries, including among Fortune 500 companies, and some (not all) Japanese companies and business owners are following such trend. With the outbreak of Twitter in 2010, Japanese IT companies such as Softbak http://mb.softbank.jp/en/ started to use Twitter as an information sharing platform among employees (like Yammer https://www.yammer.com/ is used in some western companies). There also have been some case studies introduced in which Japanese companies started to leverage Twitter in business and marketing. There are a few Japanese people specialized in social media, providing know-how and information about leveraging social media in business.
Organizations and/or individuals that are not following such a trend seem to be Japanese traditional companies and conservative people. RSS is usually available in the company websites of such Japanese traditional companies but their Twitter account and Facebook fan pages are rarely found. Some possible reason include the fact that although Internet is well used in recruiting, PR and marketing, such things as finding talent and business partners online is not yet a well accepted concept in Japan, and conservative organizations and individuals still think social media is a fad.
7. Social Media metrics and ROI become more crucial issue worldwide including Japan, although Japan may be behind in this issue
When social media is used in business and marketing, measurement of its success, i.e. metrics and ROI, becomes crucial, and thus there have been some articles on social media measurement ROI in the U.S. It goes without saying that this issue is another area that is likely to become more important and hot as many people say, although as Ferriss (2010) mentions, large companies still may well not be able to define appropriate metrics. Having wrote her MBA thesis on “Concept and Maximization of Web Equity) in 2006, the author strongly feels that it would take time for framework and standard criteria of this issue (or of measurement/valuation of website) to be established similarly to measurement and valuation of company and brand.
Social media site metrics and ROI issue have not yet been hot in Japan, however. This may be because the use of social media in business and marketing is behind western countries so there is no need to measure ROI in Japan, Japan is simply behind the west in this realm (similarly to overall web/IT marketing), and/or lacks in talent who has knowledge and expertise in web/Internet, marketing and finance. Whatever the reason may be, Japan has not yet reached the stage to discuss and define measure success and ROI of social media.
References:-
Ferriss, Tim (2010) 4 Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2011
http://mashable.com/2010/12/28/social-media-marketing-predictions/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29
Jonas, Trevor (2010) 5 Predictions for Social Media in 2011
http://socialmediatoday.com/trevorjonas/253235/5-predictions-social-media-2011?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Social+Media+Today+%28all+posts%29&utm_content=Twitter
Thomas, Jesse (2010) 6 Predictions for Digital Advertising in 2011
http://mashable.com/2010/12/21/advertising-industry/
White, Charlie (2010) 7 predictions for the Gaming Industry in 2011
http://mashable.com/2010/12/26/gaming-industry-predictions-2010/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29#
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
Saturday, 25 December 2010
Vol.45 – 2011 Trend of Social Media: Worldwide and Japan (Part 1)
To conclude 2010, the author would like to discuss social media 2010 trend and 2011 outlook for Japan, comparing to worldwide trends of 2011 (mostly of the U.S.) mentioned in recent blog articles by Jonas and Thomas (2010).
1. Japan local SNS continue to prevail while major global SNS gets popular in Japan
International SNS originated in the U.S. such as MySpace http://www.myspace.com/, Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ and LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/ have not sufficiently penetrated Japan online market, where Japan local SNS such as mixi http://mixi.jp/ have been extremely popular and Twitter broke out in early 2010 when it won attention from mass media.
However, Facebook, whose Japanese version became available in May 18 2008 seems to taken root among early adaptors, starting to spread among other people as well as well in 2010. As a regular user of Facebook, the author noticed that more Japanese business owners and general public as well as social media and web marketing experts joined Facebook to benefit from in their business (making alliances) and private (keeping in touch with friends).
The author met a few Japanese web marketers online who blog in Japanese about how to leveraging Facebook in business and marketing. The author herself advised and supported a Japanese online business owner engaged in international trade to leverage global social media such as Twitter and Facebook in 2010, who at first was skeptical but now is a great fan of Facebook. Some of her friends (not necessarily web marketers) have been switching from Japan local SNS to Facebook. Therefore, it is possible that Facebook becomes hot in 2011 in Japan like Twitter became hot in 2010 in Japan. Being the largest SNS worldwide, its potential to become a leader in Japan is large; it may well be simply about the timing and marketing. The fact that Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder and CEO was chosen as the hottest person in 2010 by Times, is a huge positive factor for Facebook to become hot in Japan in 2011.
LinkedIn is a leading SNS for professionals worldwide but it is hardly used among Japanese people, and whether it becomes popular is a question under current situation. LinkedIn was the first SNS that the author started and it took a year for her to meet a Japanese people, especially those currently located in Japan. Possible primary reason is the language (it is unrealistic to join and benefit from LinkedIn community through group discussion and Q&A function without English communication skill as well as expertise and specialties). Having said that, the author was recently told from a Japanese online friend (the person mentioned above, who became a Facebook fan) that he found a Japanese how-to book about LinkedIn and is reading it, determined to master LinkedIn next. If Japanese version is launched (currently profile can be made in Japanese but it cannot be bilingual, English and Japanese), if discussions can be done in Japanese, and if how-to-use know how tools targeting Japanese become available, LinkedIn may also start to take off in Japan.
2. Blogging and Micro-blogging continue to grow, worldwide and Japan
Blogging has been popular in Japan similarly to other countries but blogging environment and blogosphere in Japan are rather unique, and this situation seems to remain the same in 2011. Japan local blog platform such as Ameblo http://ameblo.jp/ being popular instead of global ones of Wordpress http://wordpress.org/ and Blogger http://www.blogger.com/ that also allows blogging in Japanese. Blogging has been popular among authorities (TV starts, politicians) and individuals of general public but company blogs are not popular. Company blogs available in Japan are mostly of Japan office of the U.S. IT companies such as IBM and Dell and company blogs of Japanese traditional companies become popular in 2011 is a question.
Twitter http://twitter.com/, whose Japanese version became available in April 2008, had only been used by early adopters until 2009 but when Twitter and its related information such as smart phone application was introduced by media in February it became extremely hot and drastically became popular. Authorities including politicians (e.g. ex-Prime Minister Mr. Hatayama and ex-Minister of Environment Ms. Koike), TV starts and celebrities as well as social media/web marketing experts and general public now enjoy tweeting, as mentioned in the previous article Vol.42 – How to Leverage Twitter to Reach and Engage Glocal Audience. Twitter became so popular that many new Japanese words originated from Twitter and tweeting, one of which was nominated as a “popular word of the year”. Some Japanese companies developed interesting marketing models leveraging Twitter, and new Twitter model is a predicted worldwide trend for 2011. Twitter’s popularity and development of new marketing model likely to continue in 2011, worldwide including Japan.
3. Movies/videos grows and interactive TV news may become hot, worldwide and Japan
Further growth in online video, short and long content, is another trend worldwide including Japan. YouTube http://www.youtube.com/ has been very popular worldwide including Japan and this trend is likely to continue in 2011. Ustream http://www.ustream.tv/ is also drawing attention of some Japanese early adopters when a Japan local movie platform/portal site called Gyao http://gyao.yahoo.co.jp/ that has been providing videos of movies/cinemas for over 5 years (originally by Japan local IT company, which sold the platform to Yahoo! Japan).
The fact that such online contents and services are growing implies that needs/market of interactive TV is present. And with recent news about interactive TV from such companies like Google, there may well be a big progress in interactive TV technologies and interactive TV becomes a big topic in 2011.
The author would like to continue the discussion in the next article.
References:-
Jonas, Trevor (2010) 5 Predictions for Social Media in 2011
http://socialmediatoday.com/trevorjonas/253235/5-predictions-social-media-2011?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Social+Media+Today+%28all+posts%29&utm_content=Twitter
Thomas, Jesse (2010) 6 Predictions for Digital Advertising in 2011
http://mashable.com/2010/12/21/advertising-industry/
1. Japan local SNS continue to prevail while major global SNS gets popular in Japan
International SNS originated in the U.S. such as MySpace http://www.myspace.com/, Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ and LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/ have not sufficiently penetrated Japan online market, where Japan local SNS such as mixi http://mixi.jp/ have been extremely popular and Twitter broke out in early 2010 when it won attention from mass media.
However, Facebook, whose Japanese version became available in May 18 2008 seems to taken root among early adaptors, starting to spread among other people as well as well in 2010. As a regular user of Facebook, the author noticed that more Japanese business owners and general public as well as social media and web marketing experts joined Facebook to benefit from in their business (making alliances) and private (keeping in touch with friends).
The author met a few Japanese web marketers online who blog in Japanese about how to leveraging Facebook in business and marketing. The author herself advised and supported a Japanese online business owner engaged in international trade to leverage global social media such as Twitter and Facebook in 2010, who at first was skeptical but now is a great fan of Facebook. Some of her friends (not necessarily web marketers) have been switching from Japan local SNS to Facebook. Therefore, it is possible that Facebook becomes hot in 2011 in Japan like Twitter became hot in 2010 in Japan. Being the largest SNS worldwide, its potential to become a leader in Japan is large; it may well be simply about the timing and marketing. The fact that Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder and CEO was chosen as the hottest person in 2010 by Times, is a huge positive factor for Facebook to become hot in Japan in 2011.
LinkedIn is a leading SNS for professionals worldwide but it is hardly used among Japanese people, and whether it becomes popular is a question under current situation. LinkedIn was the first SNS that the author started and it took a year for her to meet a Japanese people, especially those currently located in Japan. Possible primary reason is the language (it is unrealistic to join and benefit from LinkedIn community through group discussion and Q&A function without English communication skill as well as expertise and specialties). Having said that, the author was recently told from a Japanese online friend (the person mentioned above, who became a Facebook fan) that he found a Japanese how-to book about LinkedIn and is reading it, determined to master LinkedIn next. If Japanese version is launched (currently profile can be made in Japanese but it cannot be bilingual, English and Japanese), if discussions can be done in Japanese, and if how-to-use know how tools targeting Japanese become available, LinkedIn may also start to take off in Japan.
2. Blogging and Micro-blogging continue to grow, worldwide and Japan
Blogging has been popular in Japan similarly to other countries but blogging environment and blogosphere in Japan are rather unique, and this situation seems to remain the same in 2011. Japan local blog platform such as Ameblo http://ameblo.jp/ being popular instead of global ones of Wordpress http://wordpress.org/ and Blogger http://www.blogger.com/ that also allows blogging in Japanese. Blogging has been popular among authorities (TV starts, politicians) and individuals of general public but company blogs are not popular. Company blogs available in Japan are mostly of Japan office of the U.S. IT companies such as IBM and Dell and company blogs of Japanese traditional companies become popular in 2011 is a question.
Twitter http://twitter.com/, whose Japanese version became available in April 2008, had only been used by early adopters until 2009 but when Twitter and its related information such as smart phone application was introduced by media in February it became extremely hot and drastically became popular. Authorities including politicians (e.g. ex-Prime Minister Mr. Hatayama and ex-Minister of Environment Ms. Koike), TV starts and celebrities as well as social media/web marketing experts and general public now enjoy tweeting, as mentioned in the previous article Vol.42 – How to Leverage Twitter to Reach and Engage Glocal Audience. Twitter became so popular that many new Japanese words originated from Twitter and tweeting, one of which was nominated as a “popular word of the year”. Some Japanese companies developed interesting marketing models leveraging Twitter, and new Twitter model is a predicted worldwide trend for 2011. Twitter’s popularity and development of new marketing model likely to continue in 2011, worldwide including Japan.
3. Movies/videos grows and interactive TV news may become hot, worldwide and Japan
Further growth in online video, short and long content, is another trend worldwide including Japan. YouTube http://www.youtube.com/ has been very popular worldwide including Japan and this trend is likely to continue in 2011. Ustream http://www.ustream.tv/ is also drawing attention of some Japanese early adopters when a Japan local movie platform/portal site called Gyao http://gyao.yahoo.co.jp/ that has been providing videos of movies/cinemas for over 5 years (originally by Japan local IT company, which sold the platform to Yahoo! Japan).
The fact that such online contents and services are growing implies that needs/market of interactive TV is present. And with recent news about interactive TV from such companies like Google, there may well be a big progress in interactive TV technologies and interactive TV becomes a big topic in 2011.
The author would like to continue the discussion in the next article.
References:-
Jonas, Trevor (2010) 5 Predictions for Social Media in 2011
http://socialmediatoday.com/trevorjonas/253235/5-predictions-social-media-2011?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Social+Media+Today+%28all+posts%29&utm_content=Twitter
Thomas, Jesse (2010) 6 Predictions for Digital Advertising in 2011
http://mashable.com/2010/12/21/advertising-industry/
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