

Facebook in Japan: Will It Blend? - pwim
http://windmillnetworking.com/2010/01/19/facebook-in-japan-will-it-blend/?goback=.hom

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henrikschroder
_Japanese social networking users tend to like their privacy and therefore
will tend to use a nickname instead of their real name._

Uhm, before Facebook, every social network, virtual community, online
discussion board, etc, used nicknames. One of the things behind Facebook's
success is that they didn't, instead they used real names.

Before, whenever a new interesting virtual community appeared, I used to find
my existing "net-hooked" friends in there, because I knew which usernames they
usually use, or I already discussed it with them over some other channel,
resulting in me only meeting the usual suspects.

When Facebook came, I started finding people that I had never seen online
before, it allowed me to get a connection to them because they used their real
names. We were all used to nicknames, but it turned out to be a strength, not
a weakness, to use real names instead. I don't see why this would be different
in Japan.

~~~
ramchip
_I don't see why this would be different in Japan._

That's exactly what the article is about. People here are a lot less direct
and value privacy. One example: on Facebook many people write their
relationship status, sometimes even the name of the person they're with. On
mixi, you can't. Even in real life it's very hard to guess people's
relationship status because they just never mention it, and people don't
kiss/hug/touch in public. I've been in a hilarious (in retrospect) situation
where I was interested in someone and confided to a good friend about it, only
to learn that they had been going out together for a while!

Another point is that "the group", the people you associate yourself with, is
a very important thing. I think many people would feel embarrassed if other
people 'friended' them without being asked to. It's considered rude to say
"no", but at the same time people don't want to be "friends" with people they
wouldn't assume responsibility for (it's normal in Japan to apologize for
something your brother, friend or co-worker did - the whole group is
accountable). I know it's happened numerous times to me that someone I vaguely
know but don't want on my facebook adds me, and then I must either bear with
it or look like a jerk...

~~~
henrikschroder
Those are all good points, but they don't say much regarding nicknames vs.
real names, they say that the Facebook concept itself may not work very well
in Japan, real names or no. :-)

The only thing that touches on real names is unwanted friend invites, since
real names makes it easier for people to find you and possibly try to friend
you. I don't know if that's gonna be a dealbreaker though, I think people can
overcome that with the limited friend profiles?

Anyway, the article tries to predict the failure of Facebook in Japan on the
grounds of it not being like all previous virtual communities, i.e. about
groups of people already online making new circles of friendship. But Facebook
was never such a virtual community, it was always about modelling your real-
life social network, about hooking up online with people you were already
friends with, not the other way around. And having real names is a crucial
part of that.

Facebook may very well fail in Japan because of different privacy
expectations, but changing it to make it more similar to existing community
products is pretty bad advice.

~~~
ramchip
Just in case that wasn't clear: there is already a japanese version of
Facebook, and many (probably most) people have heard of it at some points, but
in my experience the only people who actually register are people learning
foreign languages or living outside Japan.

Mixi can be used to meet new people, but most of the people I know only use it
to communicate with their real-life friends, and using nicknames isn't a
showstopper. Friend on mixi is usually closer than friend on Facebook. Photo
sharing isn't very popular (they usually post food...) but the 'diary' (a blog
with comments essentially) is.

It's possible to look for someone by name and/or location on mixi, not all
people write their full name but they'll tell you what to look for otherwise.

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ntoshev
Different social networks have different feature sets and perhaps their
popularity in different countries reflects how well they fit local customs and
social protocols. For example, Orkut became popular in Brazil entirely
unexpectedly, maybe they hit a sweet spot with Brazilian culture.

It's surprising that Facebook does no tweaking to different cultures and it is
still going so strongly worldwide. I guess this is a sign of real
globalization - social norms online do not seem to vary from country to
country so much.

~~~
mattm
I remember hearing a similar thing about Friendster. They didn't have much
success in the US, but at one point, they just suddenly exploded in popularity
the Philippines.

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domodomo
The real cultural hurdle isn't the indirectness in Japan, it's the burdening
sense of obligation Japanese people who are connected socially feel to one
another. Facebook already feels like a part time job to me, but transplant an
urban Japanese's persons relationships as well as their loose ties onto a
social networking site...that would be a lot of work for them to maintain that
sense of equilibrium in all those relationships.

But if they do try, they should totally get Joi Ito's help.

