This document discusses social media in Japan and its key features. It summarizes several major social networking sites in Japan including Mixi, Mobage, Gree, 2ch, Niconico, and others. It outlines characteristics of Japanese social media such as the preference for mobile use, anonymity, simplicity, and asking strangers for advice. It also describes common behaviors on these sites such as "yominige" which is reading friends' updates without commenting.

1. Hot Social media
in Japan and its features
Arcarna Inc.
May 2008

2. 1
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Who am I?
Name
Profession
Works
Kazuhide HARADA
CEO of Arcarna, Inc.
7 books about social networking
Blog “Socialnetworking.jp”
Blog ”Socialmedia.jp”
Social media consulting
Other Traveled 90 nations

3. 2
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Socialnetworking.jp
http://www.socialnetworking.jp/
 Since 2004
 More than 3,000 entries
 About social networking

4. 3
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Socialmedia.jp
http://www.socialmedia.jp
 Since 2006
 2,372 socialmedia

5. 4
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Social Networking world in Japan
Function
Target
mobile PC
General

6. 5
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mixi
http://mixi.jp
 The biggest social networking
service in Japan
 12 million users (Dec/2007)
 Diaries, photos, movies, music,
news, community…
 Since 2004
 Mixi, Inc.

7. 6
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Mo-ba-ge
http://mbga.jp
 The biggest “mobile” social
networking service in Japan
 9 million users (Feb/2008)
 Games, news
 Since 2006
 Active users:Teens
(junior, high school students)
 DeNA Co.,Ltd.

8. 7
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gree
http://gree.jp
 The big “mobile” social networking
service in Japan
 4 million users (Feb/2008)
 Active users: mobile users
 Games, diaries.
 Since 2004
 Gree. Inc,

9. 8
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2ch
http://2ch.net
 The BBS (bulletin board service) in
Japan
 600 million page views (April/2008)
 Since 1999
 Anonymous

10. 9
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Niconico doga
http://nicovideo.jp
 The biggest video service in Japan
 100 million page views (Feb/2008)
 Comments on video
 niwango. Inc,

11. 10
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Zenryaku profile
http://pr.cgiboy.com/
 The biggest profile introduction
service in Japan
 4 million users (Oct/2007)
 Simple Profile
 Rakuten

12. 11
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kotonoha
http://kotonoha.cc
 The unique voting service in Japan
 10 million comments (Oct/2007)
 Multiple choice
 Personal service
 Vote hot or not

13. 12
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Hatena haiku
http://h.hatena.ne.jp/
 The big mini blog service in Japan
 Drawing function
 Hatena Star
 Hatena. Inc,

14. 13
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Nounai maker
http://usokosearch.com/
 The unique personality revealing
service in Japan
 600 million page views (Dec/2007)
 Since June 2007

15. 14
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Anonymous Diary
http://anond.hatelabo.jp/
 The blog service in Japan
 163,365 entries(April/2008)
 Anonymous diary
 Hatena.Inc,

16. 15
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OK wave
http://okwave.jp/
 The Q&A service in Japan
 3 million questions (April/2008)
 1 million users (April/2008)
 OKwave.Inc,

17. 16
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Characteristic 1: mobile
 Many users prefer mobiles over
computers.
 100 million cell phones in Japan
(Oct 2007)
 Example: mixi, mobile, mobage

18. 17
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Characteristic 2: anonymous
 Japanese people prefer to be
anonymous
 They rarely publish their real
names
 Example: niconicodoga, 2ch,
anonymous diary

19. 18
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Characteristic 3: simple
 Simplicity is the best
 Mixi is very simple compared to
other SN
 Zenryaku, you put your profile,
that’s all.
 Kotonoha, you click Yes or No.

20. 19
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Characteristic 4: ask
 Ask someone (usually strangers)
anything important
 This includes “my wife is going to
have a love affair this weekend.
What should I do?”
 OK wave, 2ch, mixi

21. 20
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SN trait 1: yominige@mixi
 Yominige means “Read and run
away” in Japanese
 Reading friend’s diary, and adding
no comments

22. 21
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SN trait 2: imepu@mobage/2ch
 Imepu(Image Play) means “role
play” in Japanese
 Role play through a social
networking medium
 Using Manga-like characters

23. 22
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SN trait 3: mobakano@mobage
 mobakano means “girl friend only
in that SN” in Japanese
 You pretend as if you both were girl
friend / boy friend on the SN, and
they rarely see each other offline.

24. 23
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SN trait 4: anka@2ch
 anka means “anchor (like Link)” in
Japanese
 “anka” is advice for your agenda
from strangers.
 You are #1. #1 may ask, “Tell me
what I should do >>3”
#3 will then reply.

25. 24
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SN trait 5: kiseki no maimiku@mixi
 Kiseki no maimiku means “connect
with the man of destiny on SN” in
Japanese
 You say “your star sign,your type of
blood, your cell phone and so on”,
and connect with the exactly same
one.

26. 25
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Proprietary and Confidential to you and arcarna.
 アルカーナ株式会社
 原田和英
 Harada@arcarna.com