Recently Nikkei.net, an online media of Japan’s leading business media that also publishes newspapers, magazines and books, posted an interesting article on the result of its online survey about SNS they implemented in December 2010.
Although it has not revealed how many people responded to the survey, the results provide insight to the current situation and possible outlook of social media and SNS in Japan. Therefore, the author would like to explain it in this article as a follow-up of the previous articles from Vol.45 – 2011 Trend of Social Media: Worldwide and Japan (Part 1) through Vol.47 – 2011 Trend of Social Media: Worldwide and Japan (Part 3).
1. What are the survey results?
3 questions were asked to online users to vote and give comments if any. The questions, results of the vote, and summary of comments are as below.
1) Which SNS do you currently use? Multiple answers are acceptable.
(1) Result of the vote
SNS Name URL Brief explanation of SNS No. of votes
Mixi / http://mixi.jp/ Japan’s SNS leader / 306
Gree / http://gree.jp/ / Japan’s leading SNS strong in social games / 57
Mbga Town / http://mbga.jp/ Japan’s mobile portal site & SNS by DeNA, strong in social games / 26
MySpace . http://jp.myspace.com/ Worldwide SNS originated in the U.S. / 254
Facebook / http://www.facebook.com/ / Worldwide largest SNS originated in the U.S. / 27
LinkedIn / http://www.linkedin.com/ / Worldwide professional SNS originated in the U.S. / 72
Others / - / - / 46
N/A (Don’t use SNS) / - / - / 190
Explanation of SNS is by the author, who added URL as well to the article information.
(2) Summary of comments
People seemed to be surprised that Twitter was not included in the option because it is categorized as microblogging because they seem to feel it has SNS factors.
Facebook is the leader worldwide but Mixi is still the leader in Japan. One reason seems to be language issue. Japanese SNS are not available in English and other languages. For this reason, early adaptors of Facebook in Japan include those who would like to (re)connect with friends abroad as well as web experts.
What people desire is high security SNS, preferably originated in Japan, if not sufficiently localized to meet Japan market needs.
2) Which SNS would like to use in the future? Multiple answers are acceptable.
(1) Result of the vote
SNS Name / URL / Brief explanation of SNS / No. of votes
Mixi / http://mixi.jp/ / Japan’s SNS leader / 105
Gree / http://gree.jp/ / Japan’s leading SNS strong in social games / 21
Mbga Town / http://mbga.jp/ / Japan’s mobile portal site & SNS by DeNA, strong in social games / 15
MySpace / http://jp.myspace.com/ Worldwide SNS originated in the U.S. / 34
Facebook / http://www.facebook.com/ / Worldwide largest SNS originated in the U.S. / 252
LinkedIn / http://www.linkedin.com/ Worldwide professional SNS originated in the U.S. / 51
Others / - / - / 34
Don’t know / - / - / 139
Don’t want to use SNS / - / - / 145
Explanation of SNS is by the author, who added URL as well to the article information.
(2) Summary of comments
Most comments are on Facebook, which can be summarized that people are interested in and would like to try Facebook because they can network with people around the globe and it has been hot topic among media lately. Also some people point out that Facebooko has superior operability and has abundant functions which allow them to develop and maintain online networking effectively.
However, there are some others who would not use intend to use Facebook because they would like to keep work and private separate. Such people seem to find it is difficult to keep them separate on Facebook and they are happy to keep the two separate by using Twitter and blog.
Some others find current SNS has too much “fun, entertainment” factors and prefer business SNS. And some others who voted for “don’t know” say they already use Twitter and Facebook which is already sufficient; they do not have time and manpower to start using additional SNS.
3) What do you feel are problems or what are you dissatisfied with of the current SNS? Multiple answers are acceptable.
(1) Result of the vote
Options / No. of votes
Current IT services such as e-mails are sufficient / 132
Worried about privacy issues / 328
Using SNS daily is time consuming / 247
Others (to be specified in comments) / 41
Not dissatisfied / 118
(2) Summary of comments
Half or more comments were about privacy issue. Some people question the necessity of excessive online networking with people they have not met face-to-face. Some others are worried about security of private information and pointed out that security management is not sufficient e.g. registration is extremely simple. Some others pointed out about anonymity of the Internet world and some others about spoofing issue saying that he/she actually had problems with spoofing. And some others mentioned that level of etiquette and literacy of SNS among users is too varied and education to enhance the general level of etiquette and literacy of SNS users.
Some people who voted for “not dissatisfied” commented that Facebook is designed well and that privacy issue applies also in real world and it is that each individuals that are responsible for his/her privacy management. On the other hand, it is interesting to note that some others feel that flexible privacy setting of Facebook makes the SNS like a black hole in a closed online network.
Comments that was not about privacy include the fact that SNS is addictive to make you tired giving negative impact on real world community, and the fact that smart phones (in Japan) have been rather slow in adapting to needs attributing to rapid SNS growth such as application development and popularity.
2. What are the author’s final thoughts? (Conclusion from the survey result)
The survey results support the previous 3 articles by the author about recent social media trend and possible outlook in Japan, especially the following points.
1) Facebook to outbreak and 2011 will be the “first year of social media” in Japan
Facebook is getting hot and it is very likely that more people in Japan will start Facebook. The outbreak of Facebook in 2011 is a matter of time, or rather, it is already breaking. There have been so many online articles on Facebook in January, events related to Facebook. A summit was held in Tokyo on January 14, and on the same day in Osaka a co-hosted preview event plus discussion on a topic was held by a leading Japanese newspaper and Osaka University (team of students studying SNS) of the movie about Mark Zuckerberg that went on from January 15. There was a survey result targeted some 100 companies announced very recently that more respondents are interested in Facebook than Twitter. Indeed as an online article forecasted, 2011 will likely to be the “first year of social media” in Japan.
2) Privacy issue will become hot
Privacy issue, although it had not been much discussed in Japan, is a big concern for online users and therefore it is quite probable that this issue becomes hot in 2011 and we will see online articles etc. also in Japan.
3) Mobile and SNS grow together
Growth of smart phone (feature phone) is correlated with growth of social media and SNS. The entering of smart phone in Japan in 2010 by multiple OS companies was a big factor for Twitter’s gaining popularity and also the Twitter’s breakout drove more diversified products to be launched in Japan. Facebook’s popularity in 2011 would likely to further drive this trend, as well as more mobile applications meeting Japan local needs to be developed and provided to Japanese users.
4) Cannibalization among SNS, new strategy for Japan players needed for survival
One final insight as the conclusion of the 3 above points is the fact that Facebook popularization in Japan following Twitter cannibalization phenomenon is likely to occur in Japan SNS/social media market. This is because there is a limit to the number of social media vehicles one person can manage and/or one person can devote his/herself using social media. As in a recent online article of an interview of a senior executive of Mixi, Japanese SNS are thinking of new strategy and new competitive functions and services in order to survive global SNS and social media entering and gaining popularity in Japan.
References:-
Collaboration online survey result: Social Net Revolution – The Third Wave in IT (in Japanese)
http://www.nikkei.com/news/research/vote/result/q=9694E0E6E3E0E0E2E3E2EAEBE0E4;p=9694E0E6E3E0E0E2E3E2EAEBE0E6;o=F2F2F2F2F2F2F2F2F2F2F2F2F2F2
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