Here's my understanding. Is this accurate? What else is popular?
Posted Oct 16, 2016, 11:37 PM UTC · edited
Twitter has been used before FB (Japanese people really like anonymity) and is still widely used I think.
FB is becoming quite big with Japanese people that interact with foreigners mainly. It's less personal than giving your LINE (at least I see it like that) while remaining a useful service to keep in touch.
Most of my friends only have Facebook to maintain contact with their international friends, but they rarely post anything. On Twitter, though, they're super talkative: random updates about their daily lives, promoting events, etc. One friend also told me that in Japanese you could actually write a lot more within the character limit which is a nice appeal to Japanese users. Twitter novels are also quite popular.
This is how I see it as well. When someone wants to see me again or hang out they offer there line. If we just met (say at language exchange) and were not at the "lets hang out" friends stage they tend to add me on Facebook.
Facebook is popular but many (not all) Japanese people use it as a business networking platform - lots of profile pictures of people looking somber in suits.
Twitter is huge.
Line is more a messaging platform than a social network (it has vestigial social network features) and is utterly essential - it's the default way for most people under the age of about 40 to communicate.
Nothing else really comes close to the popularity of those three, unless you start including video services like YouTube, NicoNicoDouga etc. Mixi fell by the wayside years ago and LinkedIn is a ghost town.
it's the default way for most people under the age of about 40 to communicate.
Maybe even under the age of 50 or 60. Everyone I know uses it, except my in-laws, who are in their 70s.
My sampling may be skewed by working with some older people who still consider their flip-phones almost too modern...
My wife used to be one of those, until I pointed out that her 70-year-old uncle was more tech savvy than her.
Instagram seems really popular to me, which is good because Im not using nor will I, so I dont have to look at stupid pictures.
In our Neighborhood all Woman use the "Baba-Net" to update us which Neighbors violated the Gumi-Rules, who was drunk, noisy or even had Sex in the last Month!
Outside of Da Hood we go with Line!
How apps are used in Japan may differ from some western countries.
Snow is more popular than Snapchat. The only Japanese person I know who uses snapchat uses simply to view stories from her favourite band.
Twitter is more used for every day things and interests, like following school mates, 'circle' activities, news... kind of how we use a Facebook feed.
Instagram is more used to follow celebrities or personalities you like. My Japanese friends that have Instagram don't post much unless their account is somehow linked to a group or business.
Facebook is mostly a thing among internationally minded millennials. High school students and uni students don't use it as much. I feel like all my Japanese friends who have Facebook only got it to communicate with the international community.
Everyone (under a certain age) has/uses LINE.
Most people have Facebook and use it to connect with new people.
Lots of people have and use Twitter (mainly older/slightly geekier crowd).
International-minded professionals do use LinkedIn a lot (and yes, that means tonnes of annoying recruiters).
Rest is pretty much anecdotal.
LINE is the go-to chat/messaging app. Create groups and organize activities thru there, free phone calls, etc.
Twitter is (quite) popular with the young crowds (teens and uni students to young adults even) just for keeping close friends updated on their lives (as most of them keep their accounts private so only people they know are kept up to date). People use this instead of posting to the LINE timeline. I mean, who actually uses the LINE timeline?
Instagram is...kinda popular to an extent? A few of my friends use it
Facebook is rarely used I find. Those that have it only have it cause of international friends mainly...otherwise they got it cause their friend had it and they stopped using it shortly thereafter.
Haven't seen anyone really use SnapChat, or any other messengers...
Every time I make a joke about Mixi I'm told that they've actually managed to do quite well for themselves because of all the mobile games they host... I imagine it's all that freemium gatcha-based stuff that's popular like Granblue or whatever. So if that's your thing, apparently Mixi is the way to go.
The company Mixi is doing great - Monster Strike is the main game they publish and it's one of the top grossing mobile games in the world. The social media platform Mixi is dead in the water - it's largely a ghost town with a few legacy communities still active (a bit like LiveJournal) and isn't connected in any particular way to the mobile game business.
At a guess, they'll shut down the SNS and switch to being a pure mobile gaming firm within a few years.
Mixi's parent company managed a very unlikely survival by striking gold with one smartphone game. Which they will presumably try to milk to the end, while ignoring any possible diversification all along, until that, too, slowly dies out and they are gone for good.
The social network, though, is an absolute ghost town.
Hot now with young people: LINE, Instagram, Snow, MixChannel
LinkedIn is a cesspool of shitty recruiters
Just got contacted by some recruiters in LinkedIn, is this true? should I be worried??if yes, what's not shitty then?
because I'm badly in need for a job..
I disagree wholeheartedly with that statement. I have been using LinkedIn for a few years now and can say with some confidence that it is an excellent resource for finding work, networking, and just maintaining a professional presence on the internet.
Now their security on the other hand.....
It depends on your circle of friends/who you follow but all of the Japanese people my age (23) love instagram and twitter.
Facebook is okay to keep in touch but the people who post most often on it are usually the ones who have been exposed to Western culture more (usually those that speak English). Same for snapchat.
LINE is basically good for messenging but I don't see many people my age use it to post statuses or photos or update people on their lives.
LINE, Twitter and Instagram. Maybe FB.
ITT Facebook seems to have various interpretations on how Japanese use them. I found that while it's not as rare to find someone who doesn't use FB here compared to the US for example, I feel like people here use them in very similar ways compared to the west. Some people just use it as a sort of online business card where you can give out the info during a party or a casual encounter and whether or not you want to follow up on that contact is up to you or them. Some people use it to connect with international peoples, while others only have other Japanese friends. Some people only post personal notes and photos, while others post news articles, silly memes and photos and other junk. In other words, it seems quite similar to how people use it in other countries from my experience.
Line has always been the preferred method for communication because it's essentially "free" texts and even voice calls. It does have a social media aspect with the home page but I found that very few people use it, whether Japanese or not.
I don't use Twitter but similar to the west, every online personality has a Twitter account so it does seem super popular.
Tinder seems to be more for finding friends or language exchange partners where I live (male looking for female.) It doesn't have that casual hookup vibe at all as it does in the US.
Depends on how you're using it. I assume you have a handle on whats popular when it comes to messaging apps, but I'll give you a bit more insight on social media. Maybe some other people can fill in the gaps.
Mixi It's certainly has become a thing of the past, but it was popular because of ease of making anonymous profiles.
speculation It's failing horribly, and probably serving as a tax write off for the owners of the company. The company is successful in at least one other market however...
Facebook The reason why Facebook never made it in Japan (and why Mixi at one point was popular) is because of the anonymity. Even considering that Mixi is pretty much dead, Facebook in Japan is still somewhat irrelevant. Facebook's TOS essentially scare people away from using it.
Twitter Seems that for every real twitter users, there's an anonymous user. Just like Mixi, most users are not causing trouble, but we just can't seem to escape things like politicians making racy comments on twitter can we? (At least in the US, we know who is starting twitter wars...)
INSTAGRAM From what I understand, Instagram is much more anonymous than Facebook, but it has a completely different purpose. It seems to be filling the social media void that LINE is trying to attain with it's timeline (which I'll mention below).
That said, I know many small business owners who promote their shops with Instagram. From small coffee shops to local izakayas to Eikaiwa Schools... People are taking a business approach to Instagram. I actually like it... I frequent a coffee shop here in Kagoshima particularly because the owner is a great guy, but also because he frequently updates us on what he is doing- trying to stay relevant in this crazy economy. It's a beautiful thing.
LINE Line is a solid messaging platform in Japan, but it's popular because it's considered private social media.
It's social media applications are a complete failure. It has a huge audience, but it has twice... three times as many sponsored ads compared to FB and Instagram (timeline). In fact, I recently realized that LINE accounts with Japanese registered phone numbers have so many sponsored ads... it's crazy. None of these sponsored ads can be blocked either... Whats the point of using LINE's social media if it's over 50% ads? This is why people (like the coffee shop owner I know) don't use LINE's social media timeline.
Also, anything you open in the timeline goes through LINE's own web browser...
And one other thing I'll mention.
I recently met a group of people who work at a bank in the area. All the men (and none of the women) had lens covers covering their cellphone camera lenses. Front and back. They were not allowed to take pictures with their phones- whether on the job or off the job. Ever. Seems draconian to me (considering that they put their phones in a locker while they're working anyway...), but it's part of the bigger picture concerning work culture in Japan. People in a certain generation here are way too afraid of technology.
very informative
Here is what i think about this topic.
Facebook; Japanese have some of the most boring profiles ever, like they only post pictures of that one bbq trip and there are like 100 pics about that.
Instagram; only kawai stuff like pretty girls eating pretty food.
Twitter; i just can not understand anything japanese users twitt, more like very local info.
So i came to the conclusion that Japan is so behind when it comes to social media.
Have you heard of kakikukeko? It's totally on fleek right now with J-teens.
Line.
Just Line, everywhere. Messages, party planning, wanky little stickers, games, photo album sharing... Line.
If you don't have Line in Japan you're basically a ghost
Awesome. TIL I'm a ghost.
Aaaaah. It's a scary ghost.
I had Line. I might as well have been a ghost.
I use LINE and I am not even in Japan. But if you want to communicate with friends there, LINE is the way to go.
Me and my wife have iPhones, I always message her using the native iOS chat app. I later found out I'm the only person who messages her that way. Everyone else is on LINE except me, apparently.
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