Ejovi Nuwere

Kenji reports YouTube is big in Japan. I think YouTube has really figured out visual navigation. It can be big in any country because its not language dependant. They will come out on top.

Ask A Ninja has successfully used MySpace, Flickr and other social networks for marketing. As reported by Peter Cashmore. I met a Japanese photographer who markets very successfully on Mixi using similar techniques. This is the way brands will be built going forward.

When Columbia Business School’s dean was passed up for the job of Fed Chairman he went his students went out and made a video about his anger.

Check out these crazy videos from the land of the raising sun.

David Weinberger points out that most people hate their cell phone provider. I have to agree. I’ve never had a cell phone provider that I felt cared about my business or me as a customer. I also hate my gas company and my electric company. I hate most car rental companies too. Most of my anger is around various hidden charges. Like FCC recovery taxes. WTF is a FCC recovery tax? Or “Airport Recovery Tax.” My electric bill has “Renewable Energy” and “Energy Conservation” fees. If they are conserving so much energy why is my gas bill so damn high?

Abusive businesses like these suck, and when a business sucks you have few options (no options if it’s a utility company). You can either stop using the service or build a new service. This is why MVNO’s are so popular, most people hate dealing with cellular providers so much that they will take anything that is marginally better.

Martin V. once told me that he felt the telecoms in Spain were ripping people off. So he started another one (it became Spains second largest). That’s what I’m talking about.

Some comments were held for moderation by mistake. I’ve freed them from comment jail. I encourage you to look through them because they provide very interesting insights. Especially the comments on Italy and the Mafia.

I wonder if American internet companies appreciate the value of mixi.jp? With 3M users and more than 500K communities it has to be worth atleast $150M dollars (I’m not a banker)? Not just because of the number of users on mixi but because its growth potential. For example, mixi users are just now learning how to take advantage of social networks for monetary gain. Similar to the way myspace bands have learned to game friendships to increase their page visits. I have noticed a large number of users pay, yes PAY to use the mixi premium services. I have no idea what the percentage is (anyone?) but I would guess 10% of them. Especially because being a premium member allows you to access the site from your cell phone, many young girls in Japan use the internet via their cell phone.

After having lived in Japan I am convinced that Japanese people are true consumers. They actually pay for and buy things that look interesting. That makes potential revenue from advertising very attractive. Japan has 42M broadband subscribers. 3M registered accounts on mixi. America has 45M broandband subscribers and 73M registered accounts on MySpace. The numbers are not an exact science since MySpace is English and international but it does say something. MySpace users are mostly young, average age of about 17 and don’t buy much. My experience on mixi is that the average age is about 26 and since I believe Japanese are consumers, they do buy things.

Of course the one word of caution I would give is that that Japanese users move in herds. Could 3M mixi users walk away tomorrow? No, but it could suddenly stop growing if management made a series of bad moves and something slightly better came along. It would need to be a combination of both.