techcrunch.com — Sized at an estimated $5.6 billion in 2007, Japan boasts one of the biggest online advertising markets in the world – a huge potential just waiting to be tapped by foreign social networks. The world’s two largest social networks, MySpace and Facebook, barely register in Japan. MySpace and Facebook are trying - but why are they failing?
Aug 3, 2008 View in Crawl 4
diodejeneroAug 4, 2008
That may be, but are they smarter than the average bear?
mscripAug 4, 2008
> "You basically have your own website at your own domain. You're allowed into the pool if your page meets certain standards such as links to the home page (which would in turn link to the users homepage)"Everyone CAN have their own website and domain. But how many people do? Would you want your friends to mess with domain names, hosting and web design?Facebook is free and easy. You create and account and link to people you know. You can send messages to friends and share photos easily. Facebook handles everything for you. The whole point of social networking is the NETWORK. Facebook is the network... not a bunch of separate websites.
zgambitAug 4, 2008
Dengzhi and geminister both hit the right answer... Wow I was wondering when some1 was going to address this issue of cultural differencial choices and trends.Dengzhi hit it on the spot when he refered to google as not being as good in chinese. This is very true Baidu gives better results only due to it being specifically designed for Chinese culture.It is the same with social media, they may just not hit the mark due to the differences between other cultures and Languages.
origin415Aug 4, 2008
Its also just that american cars suck.
opinionationAug 5, 2008
Seriously, why do so many digg users have sticks in their asses. Ill try and make this clear.Yes it was a joke, sarcasm is funny.
terifanjoyAug 7, 2008
UltramegaOKI agree with you, Facebook is just a big social networking site. I stumbled across a new website, www.mylifehereonearth.com and it seems to have a new twist to networking sites and it bases it's service on keeping a persons id around long after their gone versus let's chat online all the time.Check it out...their giving away free accounts right now.
mana66Aug 7, 2008
I am from Taiwan but I see the same gap. I was an avid blogger but it took me a while to get used to Facebook too. Many of my friends who blog don't quite get on Facebook; on the other hand, my American friends whom I've invited to view my blog and rarely did get quickly hooked. So I have been thinking about cultural differences for a while. I can only speak for myself though. To me, Facebook resembles small talk which really doesn't exist in our culture. Small talks are confusing. Gestures of friendliness without deeper and more significant connection (like a real exchange of ideas and inner feelings) are also confusing. But I get to like the idea of getting connected to everyone without having to say a word.
poxonyouSep 7, 2008
This account has been closed by the user
yomimediaSep 18, 2008
You can see the subtle cutural differences of most social networks that are based in different countries. If I’m japanese and visit the Facebook front page, news flash, it’s not in japanese. Plus most of the people visiting Facebook are U.S. based. Another example is Bebo. Bebo took off in the U.K because if you visit their site, it is mostly geared toward a U.K audience. Myspace tried to appeal to international audiences by having a Myspace Latino, Myspace UK, etc. They created separte sites for these groups which is why they have a much wider user base then Facebook and the other social networks. It will be hard for social networks to appeal to everyone because you have to take into account numerous social differences and cultures between users in different parts of the world.
tkromoFeb 26, 2009
it seems as though the both of them have been failing for a while through the last several years<a class="user" href="http://www.spreadingyourknowledge.com">http://www.spreadingyourknowledge.com</a>