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.
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...
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.
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.
I agree and would like to add a couple more points.
I think the notion of privacy is perhaps more of an issue in the Japanese psyche. Perhaps it's a consequence of such a long experience living in such close contact with each other but there are an awful lot of "unwritten rules" about what you can and cannot do. Witness the uproar when Google Maps took photographs over people's fences - that is simple "not done" in Japan and Google were forced to reshoot a lot of photos. It's the same with personal relationships. They are not supposed to be so visible in Japanese society. The trend for westerners to accumulate as many "friends" as possible .. I cannot imagine normal Japanese behaving in such a way. The members of the group are indeed kind of private and unsolicited "friend requests" would be looked upon dimly.
I know a few Japanese on Facebook but they really are the westernised outliers. Furthermore, Japan also has a rich and highly functional range of services which fulfil all the functions they want - it's not just Mixi. They have their own little ecosystem of web apps, usually optimised for the ubiquitous web-capable mobile phones. Facebook adds little to this equation. Indeed FB's strengths, like public photo sharing, might seem like a negative to the Japanese mind.
I don't see it taking off there. Or in China, for that matter. It's just a whole different concept of how you deal with social relationships. It sounds like a cliché to say it's just an East vs West thing but seriously .. there is a big gap, and FB is affirmatively on the "West" side...
update: I'd like to add an example. One of my best friends in Japan has an auntie who is engaged in a two decade long affair with a married salaryman. Basically a mistress. This is very common. I learnt the rules very very quickly - say nothing and accept everyone at face value. Give nothing away. Everyone knows what's going on but everyone just ignores it - it's their right to do what they want.
So what the hell would these people write on FB? Taking pictures with each other? Writing blog entries about how they spent the night together? This stuff should never be written down or recorded in any way. It's hard to explain but this is a basic tenet of their society and it's kind of central to their concept of respect. You never, ever divulge anything about the people you know. Those who have been in the military may understand what I am talking about - a set of rules for people getting along for extended periods in close quarters. It is actually pretty similar. You never, ever dob. This is antithetical to FB, IMO.
Complex relationships should never be aired in public, least of all in some glib, context-free "status update" or shared picture. Living under this kind of social regime .. can you imagine suddenly being taken by the irresistible urge to let it all hang on on FB and facing? Me neither.
While this suggests that listing peoples "friends" publicly would be a negative, it does not remove the advantage of publicly using your name on a social website. Reconnecting with someone you know in collage but lost track of still happens in Japan. So, the best option for the 30+ crowd might be public profile, private relationships / conversations.
PS: Another option would be to allow sub groups of friends on a social site where each network has its own independent "wall" that they can post to.
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.
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.
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.
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.