Only a few years ago, people speculated the possibility of Facebook and Twitter succeeding in Japan. With strong domestic competitors such as Mixi and other social platforms (such as online forums) in a country already highly literate and connected to the cyberspace, people doubted that “Western” SNS can take roots here. Additionally, the strong Japanese, and indeed East Asian, obsession with “cyber-anonymity” largely conflicts with an equally strong obsession for the opposite shown by the likes of Facebook.
Then, in what seems like a quick flash of time, the potential dominance of both Facebook and Twitter has become a foregone conclusion. While domestic social platforms still lead in absolute numbers of visitors, the what-used-to-be “foreign novelties” from Silicon Valley have become household names. Their growth rates in the country have become the envy of all other dot-com firms in Japan, both foreign and Japanese in origin.
Yet, a closer observation shows that the increasingly narrowing gap between Facebook, Twitter, and their Japanese counterparts can be attributed to a source unlikely to be considered equally important in other national markets. As domestic students and entertainment-seeking youth continue to show loyalty for strictly domestic platforms, the growth of foreign SNS cannot ignore the boosting effects of businessmen and enterprises joining them in hopes of enlarging channels for commerce.
The logic is easily comprehensible. The major strength of Facebook and Twitter outside the American market is their global presence. Joining Western SNS gives members opportunities to meet anyone from any corner of the globe. Certainly, this would have little appeal for the domestic student in Japan, as everyone they know is already on Japanese social networks. And as long as they do not stay outside Japan for extended period of time, there is little incentive for the Japanese to switch away from the likes of Mixi.
But the deep and well-established penetration of the Western SNS among the American, and increasingly, the entire European and Anglophone student communities, has attracted an increasingly significant portion of Western firms, both IT and otherwise, to turn to the SNS as an effective advertising platform. For the Japanese firm seeking to expand abroad, building business connections in unknown countries seem to have gotten much easier with the advent of these foreign SNS in Japan.
It is not an overstatement to say that such a sudden “commercialization” of SNS platforms offers perhaps the biggest-ever challenge to their fundamental direction, and in turn, long-term survivability. Looking back at the (rather short, in human terms), history of SNS, we can see it being a continual effort to enhance “social entertainment” on an individual, grassroots level. The widely opposed (at least at the time) decision by Facebook to open itself to the non-student public is but a small part of this still-ongoing process.
But as enterprises and businessmen begin to dominate SNS despite their complete indifference, or even disregard, for the entire concept of “social entertainment,” will this process of improving the platforms for the fun-loving commoner be seriously, or forever, disrupted? And with their economic and social influences unthinkable and unmatchable for the commoners, will the corporations force SNS, for the sake of mutual economic gains, to change their entertainment-centered developments?
Certainly, while SNS platforms designed for corporate use, such Linkedin and Yammer, are increasingly making their presences felt (not the least within my own company), the fundamental possibility of SNS as a tool for business remains to be evaluated. For many of the student-turned-employees among these SNS-enthused enterprises, ambivalence mixes with duty and economic interest. We ask: can the SNS really transcend the workplace and the private home to truly dominate every part of our increasingly online-focused social lives?
Then, in what seems like a quick flash of time, the potential dominance of both Facebook and Twitter has become a foregone conclusion. While domestic social platforms still lead in absolute numbers of visitors, the what-used-to-be “foreign novelties” from Silicon Valley have become household names. Their growth rates in the country have become the envy of all other dot-com firms in Japan, both foreign and Japanese in origin.
Yet, a closer observation shows that the increasingly narrowing gap between Facebook, Twitter, and their Japanese counterparts can be attributed to a source unlikely to be considered equally important in other national markets. As domestic students and entertainment-seeking youth continue to show loyalty for strictly domestic platforms, the growth of foreign SNS cannot ignore the boosting effects of businessmen and enterprises joining them in hopes of enlarging channels for commerce.
The logic is easily comprehensible. The major strength of Facebook and Twitter outside the American market is their global presence. Joining Western SNS gives members opportunities to meet anyone from any corner of the globe. Certainly, this would have little appeal for the domestic student in Japan, as everyone they know is already on Japanese social networks. And as long as they do not stay outside Japan for extended period of time, there is little incentive for the Japanese to switch away from the likes of Mixi.
But the deep and well-established penetration of the Western SNS among the American, and increasingly, the entire European and Anglophone student communities, has attracted an increasingly significant portion of Western firms, both IT and otherwise, to turn to the SNS as an effective advertising platform. For the Japanese firm seeking to expand abroad, building business connections in unknown countries seem to have gotten much easier with the advent of these foreign SNS in Japan.
It is not an overstatement to say that such a sudden “commercialization” of SNS platforms offers perhaps the biggest-ever challenge to their fundamental direction, and in turn, long-term survivability. Looking back at the (rather short, in human terms), history of SNS, we can see it being a continual effort to enhance “social entertainment” on an individual, grassroots level. The widely opposed (at least at the time) decision by Facebook to open itself to the non-student public is but a small part of this still-ongoing process.
But as enterprises and businessmen begin to dominate SNS despite their complete indifference, or even disregard, for the entire concept of “social entertainment,” will this process of improving the platforms for the fun-loving commoner be seriously, or forever, disrupted? And with their economic and social influences unthinkable and unmatchable for the commoners, will the corporations force SNS, for the sake of mutual economic gains, to change their entertainment-centered developments?
Certainly, while SNS platforms designed for corporate use, such Linkedin and Yammer, are increasingly making their presences felt (not the least within my own company), the fundamental possibility of SNS as a tool for business remains to be evaluated. For many of the student-turned-employees among these SNS-enthused enterprises, ambivalence mixes with duty and economic interest. We ask: can the SNS really transcend the workplace and the private home to truly dominate every part of our increasingly online-focused social lives?
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