Comments on Tokyotronic: Can Facebook make it in Japan? Pros and Cons

The relation between 2ch/NicoNico vs. Mixi is dire...

2008-02-09T22:53:00.000+09:00

The relation between 2ch/NicoNico vs. Mixi is directly applicable to facebook as well. I'm not quite sure how facebook deals with 2ch.

True. What most people outside this country do no ...

2008-01-22T23:06:00.000+09:00

True.
What most people outside this country do no know is that many Japanese Web users (bloggers, SN users, sometimes even journalists) refrain from revealing their name, age, picture and other data online.

Mixi is a perfect example for that. Even I do not use the data mentioned above on Mixi and I am a gaijin ;).

It's not bad or good, IMHO it's just a cultural difference and hurdle for Facebook to conquer the mass market here.

Also, Facebook requires you to provide your "real"...

2008-01-22T22:58:00.000+09:00

Also, Facebook requires you to provide your "real" name and (for the most part) photo. Mixi enables one to hide their identity under a pseudonym, which makes it much more private. I don't think the "pros" of Facebook are compelling enough to outweight the privacy of Mixi. Just look at the Channel2 boards - its popular because it's anonymous.

Shun, thank you. You actually pointed me to one mo...

2008-01-22T22:42:00.000+09:00

Shun, thank you.

You actually pointed me to one more important "Con":
For many Japanese people, Mixi is their main/only blogging platform. That means Facebook not only deals with a well-established social network but has to lure away the hard users of Mixi diary as well...

I, as a Japanese, prefer mixi to Facebook.First I ...

2008-01-22T22:26:00.000+09:00

I, as a Japanese, prefer mixi to Facebook.

First I saw mixi, I thought it's a very commercial boring clone of Friendster, and wrote a negative review on it.

Now, I've changed my opinion completely. Mixi's diary (miniblog) feature really rocks. It makes people addicted. It can be compared with Twitter.