

Facebook unpopular in Japan - shard
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/technology/10facebook.html

======
Sym3tri
Facebook is actually starting to get popular in Japan, but it will have a slow
start just like everything else has had recently.

For some reason Japan still has this image of being a technologically advanced
nation. I guess regarding hardware and infrastructure they are still advanced,
but when it comes to the web and software they are waaaaay behind. Both in
what they build, and in what they use.

The iPhone didn't really take off until a full year after it went on sale here
(2 years after the US), android phones are just now starting to be sold,
Twitter blew up recently but that wasn't until it was already a household name
in the rest of the world. Nearly all mobile websites here are written in a
carrier proprietary subset of WAP/HTML. Most non-mobile sites are entirely
flash. The most popular search engine is still Yahoo. Shift-JIS encoding is
more widely used than the world standard UTF-8. The list goes on and on.

I've been living in Japan for 4 years so I can speak from first hand
experience. Before I came here I had the same image of Japan, but after being
here for a while I can tell you that your image of Japan is not how it really
is.

The Nintendo and Walkman era has ended. I wish people outside of Japan would
finally realize this and stop acting surprised when Japan doesn't seem to be
following the latest tech trend.

~~~
kazuya
> I guess regarding hardware and infrastructure they are still advanced

It depends. Your categorization is too coarse.

> Most non-mobile sites are entirely flash. The most popular search engine is
> still Yahoo. Shift-JIS encoding is more widely used than the world standard
> UTF-8.

I didn't know these 'facts'. Can you give me the details? Just out of
curiosity, how did you know Shift-JIS is popular than UTF-8?

~~~
Sym3tri
> It depends. Your categorization is too coarse.

Yes it is course b/c that is not my area of expertise. Feel free to inject any
information here.

> I didn't know these 'facts'. Can you give me the details? Just out of
> curiosity, how did you know Shift-JIS is popular than UTF-8?

Well I don't have any hard statistics to back up my statements. They are all
simply personal observations.

However in Japan "moji-bake" (character encoding error) is an everyday phrase.
Shift-JIS is mostly to blame. I think that's enough to show that it's still
widely used.

~~~
drinian
My Japanese mobile phone would occasionally silently fail to display an email
message (forwarded to the phone's Softbank address, naturally, since I
couldn't get data access without a contract plan) because of the character
encoding.

And then there's the fact that you can't get a prepaid SIM in Japan without
buying a phone to go with it. And the fact that Softbank is the only prepaid
provider. And the fact that I wasn't legally supposed to have a prepaid phone
anyway, because I didn't have an Alien Registration Card but was lucky enough
to find a discount store that would overlook that.

Japan is VERY technologically advanced, but they often do things in a way that
lacks any consideration for the world outside of their islands. The mobile
phone debacle is a perfect example of this, because it affects so few Japanese
directly. "Open" platforms like Linux, the Internet, and even Windows are
largely regarded as hobbyist items, while Docomo and Softbank's closed,
curated networks are reality for most Japanese. The recent film "Summer Wars"
is an excellent expression of this.

------
pyrmont
I think I remember this story:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/technology/internet/30goog...](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/technology/internet/30google.html).

Oh wait: <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/technology/28yahoo.html>

------
r3demon
Japanese society is way more resistant to any changes where social relations
are involved. Facebook-encouraged openness is too much for most japanese
people. Maybe it's too much for the western society as well, but we took a
bait already.

~~~
aik
There's also a very prevalent and unfortunate number of perverts as well. It's
no wonder women wouldn't want to show their identity. The fact that they have
women-only cabins in the public transportation systems is telling enough.

~~~
chopsueyar
The used schoolgirl panties vending machines probably do not help, either.

<http://www.snopes.com/risque/kinky/panties.asp>

~~~
bluedanieru
I have never seen one of these machines and I couldn't tell you where to go to
find them. There might be a few fake ones somewhere in Akihabara to appease
the Japanophile weirdo crowd and I'm certain Snopes is correct about them
being around ~20 years ago, but as near as I can tell these things no longer
exist.

~~~
aik
I can't comment on the vending machines, but the panties are sold in S&M
stores still and it's quite disturbing. (Disclaimer: I noticed them as I was
following a friend through den den town.)

------
pwim
See <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2087622> for the previous discussion
of the same article.

------
brudgers
Based on the article, the Japanese social networks appear to address an
entirely different set of social goals than Facebook. Real names are important
on Facebook so that people who have lost track of each other over time can
reconnect. And that's most of what people do on Facebook. Meeting new people
online through Facebook is entirely secondary (and not really beneficial to
the data collection upon which Facebook relies). On the other hand, anonymous
user accounts require another channel of communication in order for people to
reconnect (such as meeting at a party) and therefore they are oriented toward
connecting online with people with whom one has recent real world connections,
i.e.42 year old Rod Wingstead's high school sweetheart has no way of knowing
that he is "winger471" without already being in contact some other way.

------
yoshiks
Most Japanese dislike to join fb simply just because it is still English sns,
as you don't feel good if you are in mixi, fully in Japanese. Then I'm
curious, why we Japanese love Twitter...

~~~
iloveponies
Probably because Facebook decided to "invade" and set up office, whereas
Twitter worked with Tokyo-based Digital Garage to localise Twitter for the
Japanese market (and attempt to provide extended services geared for the
Japanese market). Twitter also doesn't require your real name - all they care
about is that impersonators specify that they are parody and not genuine.

------
Concours
I just release a new post analysing how Facebook's doping in japan, and from
what I found: <http://blog.gmbhnews.com/how-facebook-is-winning-in-japan> ,
they are doing quite well and it's just a matter of time till the gain all the
japanese market.

------
j2d2j2d2
Tumblr appears to be very popular over there. Instgrrm too.

Can anyone from Japan comment on these two?

------
kazuya
So how is Facebook accepted in other countries than US and Japan? Maybe US is
the outlier and we may have to think why Facebook is popular in US.

That's just a speculation. But we need more data points anyway.

~~~
Concours
you should check this post to understand how facebook's doing in Japan:
<http://blog.gmbhnews.com/how-facebook-is-winning-in-japan>

