“Like” or “Suki desu”?

        Firms are having a difficult time understanding the psychology behind Social Networks. They want to reach users but they are still trying to learn the “etiquette” of this event.

Facebook users will slip through the network jumping from one profile to another leaving behind those cheerful “like” footprints that drive firms crazy. At first they thought that a higher amount of “likes” equaled a higher amount of “sales”. However soon enough they understood that something was missing in the equation.

Potential customers would become followers of a firm on Facebook to obtain the promised discounts. Firms thought they were creating “connections” with their followers but they were wrong. The same user would then go to at least five other profiles and become follower of ten other things. It is as easy as a click and it is for free! Were they seriously expecting faithfulness? Those users have been “liking” anything that passed in front of them for the past five years!

With this chaos in mind firms could only look at Japan’s Facebook platform with dread and outer despair. How do you say “I like” in Japanese?! .......Suki desu

Facebook entered the Japanese market in 2008. Since then all the reports on its performance have been very disappointing. “Facebook is nowhere in Japan” or “Facebook Wins Relatively Few Friends in Japan” are some of this blatant demostrations. Both journalists state that the main reason is the lack of privacy.

Surprisingly enough Japanese wide Internet population (3^rd biggest in the world) does not like the fact that they have to use their own names and pictures to set up a profile. Their online world is full of imaginary profiles and that is how they like it. Facebook’s competitors know it and they allow their users to have nicknames, avatars and even, virtual rooms for their avatars (which of course you can decorate!)

Mixi is the closest to Facebook with profiles where you can share pictures and create groups based on discussion topics. However the leader in the market is Gree, a game-platform in which the user creates an avatar to play games online while sharing interests with the other users.

The Japanese Social Network market seems as static as ever. Not only do international networks have difficulties entering the market due to cultural barriers. But also, Japanese platforms are finding it difficult to expand outwards despite their national success. The reasons are their lack of global strategy and a tendency towards seclusion. This is proved by the fact that registration to Mixi requires a Japanese cell phone in use.

The Japanese Social Network business needs an in-depth research. 

#1 Gree

#2 Mixi

#3 Mobage-Town

Check it out...

•  “Facebook is nowhere in Japan” by Pascal-Emmanuel Gobri; Business Insider

• “Facebook Wins Relatively Few Friends in Japan” by Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times Online

• Top 20 countries with the highest number of Internet users  Internet World Stats

•  "Mixi trumps Facebook in Japan"  By Pavel Alpeyev and Yoshinori Eki, Bloomberg News

• "Social networking site Gree becomes Japan's no.1"  by Robert Michael Pole; CNN International

• "Mobage-town: Japan’s Biggest Mobile-Only Social Network"  by Serkan Toto; Tech Crunch

• "Gree, Mixi innovators say Japan Web firms need global strategy" by Kazuaki Nagata; The Japan Times Online

 

Are we heading towards the iDollar?

Starbucks has recently made public that they are launching a new service that will allow customers to pay with their own Smartphone’s through the Starbucks Card mobile app. This application provides a generated picture of the barcode in the back of a Starbucks debit card that can be scanned by the register. The company has stated that this is only the beginning. The service is being developed and in the near future there is hope that it will work through NFC.

This alone gives enough prove of the infinite capabilities that new technologies can favor us with. Gossip has it that Mac is trying to develop the NFC to “carry” your computer in the phone and load it into any Mac platform (laptops, computers) available. So easy, so comfortable, so scary…

This form of payment is only a new innovation in the way of electronic payment. We have had credit money for a long time now. So what will this new service result in?

Research has shown that people spend more when they are paying with credit card than in cash. It’s not the same to see the bills go away one by one, that to pass a piece of plastic through a machine and press “accept”. No more difficult than a kids game. It’s even satisfactory to do it!

We are moving towards a society in which dollars (bills) won’t exist anymore. How will we show our kids the value of money? It’s believed that humans can control their behavior in a better way if they have physical objects that can guide their actions, instead of having to think about it in a conceptual way. 

Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/01/19/starbucks.payment.mashable/

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/11/01/rumor-iphone-5-will-use-nfc-for-remote-computing/

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulterior-motives/201001/spending-and-credit-cards