Over the last two and a half days – the short window of time within which the GeeksOnAPlane group has been staying in Tokyo – I’ve attended two industry events (Tokyo 2.0 and Startonomics Japan) and talked with those who live or do business here about how web technology in Japan differs from that in the US. And while this is enough time to gain only a superficial amount of insight into the Japanese tech scene, I’ve gotten the impression that things aren’t fundamentally that different from the way things are back home; there are just idiosyncrasies (albeit important ones) within the Japanese tech landscape.
Take mobile, for example. Before coming here, I had the impression that Japan was light years ahead of the US when it came to mobile technology. I’ve found that this reputation, while supported by indisputable advantages, belies a more complicated reality. Mobile devices certainly play a far greater role in everyday life here, with something like 90% of the Japanese owning 3G-capable handsets and 85% of all phone subscribers accessing online services while on the go regularly. The Japanese also use their phones for purposes simply not available to Americans such as watching live TV, scanning QR codes, and paying for goods with the proximity readers that are located in stores and subway stations.
However, we’ve also seen demos of several Japanese mobile applications, and the technological sophistication and design of these apps are surprisingly primitive. The general quality appears more in line with the WAP apps from yesteryear than the powerful iPhone and Android apps that have come upon the scene over the past year or so. And from what I’ve been told, they operate in a very closed environment akin to Compuserve that gets reinforced by strong carrier lock-ins and family plans.
Speaking of the iPhone, the reaction to it appears to be mixed here. While the iPhone is (generally speaking) more advanced than any other handset on the Japanese market, it poses a number of problems for Japanese consumers. Namely, it doesn’t play nicely with the closed suite of online services that Japanese have become accustomed to using on their phones. It doesn’t do TV streaming without a $100 hardware add-on. The touch keyboard isn’t great for entering Japanese characters. It has a hard time enticing people away from the strong contract lockins they have with other mobile providers. It doesn’t contain a proximity chip for mobile payments. And the iPhone service contract is expensive, despite the fact that carriers have begun giving the device itself out for free in exchange for contracts.
Social networking is another area in which familiar trends can be spotted alongside peculiarities. Whereas we in the US track the ongoing struggle between Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, the Japanese witness a mindshare grab between the social networks Mixi, Gree (which had an IPO last year) and DeNA (which operates mobile social network Mobage-town). These networks are very Japan-specific, despite attempts among them to branch out to surrounding geographical areas such as China. Mixi, for example, requires a Japanese phone number and an invitation to join. While Japan doesn’t appear to breed the same sort of clones that we see come out of China, Japanese firms don’t hesitate to borrow ideas from Western companies. Mixi has forged an open strategy modeled after Facebook with platforms that are designed, and even named, quite similarly (e.g. “Mixi Connect”).
Two differences between Japanese and American social networking are particularly conspicuous. The Japanese are much less inclined to put their real identities online, preferring instead to use usernames and avatars that obfuscate their individuality. This is perhaps one reason why Facebook hasn’t taken greater hold here, although I’ve heard from several people that its translations have been rather poor (Twitter, on the other hand, has experienced a modest level of success already). Not surprisingly, Japanese social networkers also tend to spend a lot more time on their mobile devices compared to their American counterparts, with mobile pageviews greatly exceeding desktop pageviews on the predominate social networks.
Entrepreneurialism in Japan is inauspicious despite how good the infrastructure is here. In addition to enjoying an extraordinarily high level of mobile connectivity, many Japanese have access to very cheap and fast broadband in their homes. But for a country that also has a large enough population (~127 million) to form a self-contained market for internet services, Japan isn’t home to a large entrepreneurial community. Much of this results from the culture, which discourages people to undertake risky ventures. The government could also be friendlier to small businesses, as it tends to defend incumbent corporations against the encroachments of young upstarts (although luckily web ventures don’t butt heads with them as much as others). The country’s business laws were also not designed to foster new companies until changes were made recently in 2006. As a consequence, the entrepreneurial community is small enough for people to notice when even individual members leave.
Tonight we’re off to Beijing in China to see how things operate in the world’s most populous country. Follow our travels – and the media we produce – on Flickr, YouTube, Slideshare, Twitter and our blog.
Come in Russia, here also no facebook, myspace, etc., but there are a loto of japan used cars on the roads.
Only one social net in Russia vkontakte.ru – clone of facebook.com.
Nice post. Helps balance that feeling of mobile inferiority we’ve been having here in the States.
I’ll be at the Beijing event! I’m looking forward to the session on the digital landscape in China.
Mark, I share many of your observations. I lived in Japan for some time and the barriers that you mention are very evident. On the other side it’s astonishing how “west-attracted” are Japanese citizens, but at the same they like to remix it into their own culture.
take fashion as an example. Japanese (both men and women) go crazy for western brands but they combine them in a way far different from what could be described as “Italian style”.
ciao
i think we learn -once again- from japanese habbit and culture that might differ from us… great article!!!
You know, South Korea is a another huge player in 3G technology and, as far as I know, are just as advanced as Japan. Regarding the web, they’re more advanced in that broadband has been nationwide for years there. GeeksOnAPlane really need to check out the tech in Seoul (not sure if it’s on the schedule). The Web 2.0 Asia blog is a great way to keep up with things. He’s been keeping track of topics for a few years now: http://www.web20asia.com/
Good post.
I’ll add something you may have not noticed : a lot of websites allow user to pay small fees for services thru the convenience stores.
You can buy something on your phone (usually credit or virtual goods) and you get a random number by email. Then you just have to go to the next conbini (usually less than 100m away), enter the number in a machine and pay at the register, cash
it’s very convenient and safe since you stay anonymous and don’t use your credit card number.
Besides, the crappy mobile web is mostly due to the DoCoMo i-mode outdated technology. I guess that’s a good way to keep people in their closed garden… But it’s probably gonna change soon because DoCoMo will release it’s first android phone in a few weeks (HTC magic)
Yeah, I have an Sony Ericsson phone through AU and it does everything under the sea! Photo, video, TV, GPS, Music, etc.
I do really want the new iPhone but might have to settle for a iPod Touch, which are selling very well here in Japan.
PS. Haven’t seen an iPhone on any of the trains here in Fukuoka for over 3 months…but at Starbucks I have seen plenty.
I think the event should be called “Geeks On A Plane (Supported by suckers who are willing to fork up thousands of dollars to try and kiss ass with the techcrunch “inner circle”)”.
I can’t believe I actually entertained joining this farce.
I love this line: “I’ve found that this reputation, while supported by indisputable advantages, belies a more complicated reality.”
A lot of $3 words, but the translation remains… “Japan is indeed lighyears ahead of the US in terms of mobile technology.”
Mark, please have the courtesy to thank the true “Geeks” who subsidized your travel out there, whoever those losers are.
I’d rather travel “Snakes on a plane”.
@jeff: gee, what an enlightened perspective there. really too bad u didn’t get to come with us & cheer us up with the sunny attitude.
seriously: you have nothing better to do at 6am than shit all over someone’s earnest efforts at sharing their first intl experience / cultural exchange?
ease up. some of us are really here to learn about tech, meet new people, and have a good time traveling with a fun bunch of folks. “kissing TechCrunch ass” is of course high on our list as well, but we do manage to squeeze in some QT otherwise.
get a life.
hahahaha
um, jeff …sounds like you have a lot of misdirected emotional issues about the tech world and your place in it.
i’d like to say it would’ve been great to have you join us but on second thought a quick re-read of your comment confirms that it was probably best for all that you and your attitude didn’t come along.
Thank you Mark for this balanced post about the situation in Japan.
We had a great time having you, Dave and all the Geeks here. Do come back and let the conversation flow between the various countries.
Cheers
“they operate in a very closed environment akin to Compuserve that gets reinforced by strong carrier lock-ins and family plans.”
Its all about the vertical monopoly in japan.
But very similar to iphone apps / itunes / iphone hardware / at&t ecosystem, right?
This is very good summarized post. They have very unique & closed marketing place in Japan, and alot of people still think Japanese products are the best. With their unique circumstance, that’s true, but I think they should open their eyes to the world.
it seems like there was an interesting story about Mixi.
The Mixi CEO the GoaP met said a few interesting things. I will cover that tomorrow.
… got very interesting after Serkan started grilling him about Gree & Facebook competition
The reaction from everyone else in the room was priceless.
Serkan, I liked not only the question, but the way you asked it. It really showed the GoaP audience that there was something going on.
Looking forward reading your posts.
Had a great time helping the Geeks out here. Can’t wait to read re: Beijing and Shanghai, as Ken says.
Tc team, this is awesome stuff. really enjoy reading articles like this.
more video interviews with key peeps!!!
Please look here:
http://bit.ly/vA8HF
for video material on Japanese web and tech stuff (more to come tomorrow).
Thanks for this excellent and useful primer! Looking forward to more.
It was good having the team of Geeks here in Tokyo. I look forward to the upcoming reports about experiences in Beijing and Shanghai.
You managed to get a solid grasp of things here in your 2.5 days.
Also worth noting is the iPhone is only available through SoftBank, which has brutal reception… not to mention the lack of wi-fi hotspots in Tokyo.
It’s also probably due in great part to Mixi that Japanese is the most blogged language in the world (often via mobile) … and it’s the #4 language overall on the web.
One of the best posts I’ve read on TC. Nice work.
It was great fun seeing the Geeks and Tokyo2Point0 folks together. and this summary is very good, reflects my experience in Japan.
at the risk of being too meta, it feels as if the loose connections between Japan and the Western tech world are going to feed a burst of international entrepreneurism here…it’s really needed.
and in lighter news, I’m so sorry I missed the Cheezburger guy!
On a side note, I have to comment on the author’s suggestion that Facebook’s poor translation quality may be one reason that the site hasn’t done well in Japan. I assume he hasn’t verified what the actual quality is like, and hope readers do not automatically accept this as true, when it may be the opinions of a handful of people.
Hi Mark:
Happy to hear you enjoyed the visit, seriously would not expect anyone to ‘really’ get it in a matter of 48-hours, it’s interesting to read how outsiders perceive what’s going on at 1st blush.
No sure what apps you tried, but cannot have been any – of the many – really great Flash driven offerings we have seen running here since the ‘evil operators’ adopted that platform as a standard pre-install way back in 2004..?!?
Sorry, I don’t understand your comparison between Jpn mobile web, with it’s ‘Compuserve’ lock-in method, and the current AT&T – iPhone approach? Clearly, iPhone is based on iMode, they are the same suit with a different color tie.. only the starting point in the time-line is some 7-years different..
With over 90% 3G penetration and 1/2 of the Jpn mobile market on flat-rate data plans, pure data usage, therefore revenues and continued innovations, should speak volumes.
A simple case-in-point would be the latest numbers from US and Jpn telcos. The main 3 carriers from each country report almost exactly the same combined gross earnings from voice and data in 2008. If one considers that the US has 2x the subscriber base AND still charges a fairly hefty fee per sms, while messaging is essentially free in Japan, then clearly there is ’something’ going on here!
It was great to meet some of the crazy “Greeks on a Train” here last week and hope you folks manage to sort the apparent flight connection issues now between Beijing and Shanghai..?!?
Cheers,
Lars
Lars, well said. It really annoys the heck out of me when smart people travel to Japan and in less than 48 hrs make uninformed comments or assessments about the mobile ecosystem.
“while iphone is generally more advanced than any Japanese cell phones”….. omg….. did you ever use any of Japanese cell phones before?
you even point out in your article that they can do mobile payment / qr code / stream tv etc… how is that not more advanced than the iphone?