Why Facebook and MySpace are failing in Japan
August 4, 2008 //
TechCrunch has published a good post about the difficulties of taking a social network from one country to another without thinking about their cultural differences. I agree with their position. Too many companies assume that their software (in this case, social networks) will work in other countries in the same way it does back home. However, they fail to realise the cultural and religious differences that borders impose.
Social networks have become integrative elements of modern American youth culture over the last years, shaping social patterns and changing the ways that people communicate. When taken abroad, these services have to deal with a large number of cross-cultural peculiarities by their very nature.
Societal and cultural gaps are particularly evident in the case of Japan. Market entry in this country with a “What works in the US must also work over there”-attitude is going awry for both Facebook and MySpace. It’s not a stereotype that communication tends to be nonverbal in Japan. The society generally puts more emphasis on the community rather than on the individual. Also, security plays a major role in many aspects of Japanese life.
I’d like to emphasise that it’s not just about translation. It’s about internationalistaion and localisation (I’m now hooked on Wikipedia thanks to Orit). Luckily, this is something I learned early on at AOL during the launch of numerous territories in the mid 90’s. AOL, for all it’s silly mistakes in recent years, did after all, encourage mass adoption of the Web across many countries including the US, UK, Germany, France and Australia. It took a while, but the US did manage to see the light, thanks to the strong teams/personalisties in the UK and Germany in particular.
This topic isn’t restricted to social networks by the way, it applies to any product or service. My advice is to partner with companies already in a similar space. If that isn’t possible, the recruitment of local staff to manage and controle the launch is imperative.
Read TechCrunch’s post for more insight.
This is one of the reasons Wubud is being developed in Hong Kong.
Cuan Mulligan says 
This topic is really interesting. As a Japanese living in Unite States, I thought I can take advantage of my knowledge in Japanese SNS such as mixi, and built a social networking service for iPhone users (Big Canvas PhotoShare, available on iTunes store).
Even though we released this application to Japan and United States at the same time, this application became an instant success in Japan, but way behind MySpace and Facebook. The application is fully localized to two languages (English and Japanese).
I am wondering if I am witnessing the opposite issue MySpace and Facebook are facing. As a Japanese, I am very familiar with the needs and bahavior of people with advanced cell phones. Have I optimized this app to specific to Japanese uses who are much more familiar with always-connected lifestyle?
August 4th, 2008