Facebook, Your New Name is Happy Farm in Taiwan.
“Don’t steal my plants from my farm.” “Have you watered your farm today?” These daily greetings about farming are getting popular in most offices in Taiwan recently. For many Taiwanese, the hot flash game called “Happy Farm” is their motivation for Facebook usage.
“Happy Farm” features social networking and gaming. Each user owns a virtual farm for cultivation. Users have to check their farms, and water and weed from time to time. Friends on Facebook are able to steal plants and send gifts, which are the most interactive and fun parts of the game. Furthermore, it’s easy to play and kills employee boredom in the office. As a result, the game’s popularity has grown amazingly. Several similar games were also developed to attract users.
Due to people’s addiction to the game, Facebook draws a huge amount of traffic in Taiwan. Total registered members have reached 3.2 million, and that number exceeds the total population of Taiwan’s capital city. According to Checkfacebook.com, Taiwan is also one of the countries that has grown its members rapidly during the past week, second only to China. Companies have started to prohibit employees from using Facebook in the office. There is even a part-time job available to help people take care of their virtual farms while they are working. One survey shows that 31 percent of Taiwanese users use Facebook for recreation, and only 20 percent of users use it for connecting with friends. This phenomenon was probably not anticipated by Facebook.
A flash game has helped Facebook’s overseas market in Taiwan, more than any other marketing strategy. This situation reflects differences between cultures. The trend of flash games might fade away, but how to keep people’s attention will remain a future challenge for Facebook.
References:
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
Subscribe to Comments
Follow us on Twitter
Get email updates
8 Comments, Comment or Ping
Katy Balatero
I’m curious to know how long Facebook has been popular in Taiwan. I know that when I started using Facebook I was much more involved in using applications and playing various games. And then I kind of got tired of most of it. Now when I get Facebook application requests from friends, it’s more often than not from newer users. It’s (arguably) an interesting cultural trend in the U.S., where people transition from one type of usage to another.
Oct 16th, 2009
Pei-chieh
I think this trend of Facebook in Taiwan started this summer. I have similar
experience with you. I’m not sure if Taiwanese users explore other parts of Facebook besides those fun flash games and once they get tired of the games, will they stay or leave?
Oct 18th, 2009
Tang
Facebook usage took off during spring and summer 2009 when the site became available in a Traditional Chinese interface. Usage of Facebook in Taiwan will likely continue as long as the site features new and interesting apps to enjoy.
Facebook will likely show some staying power in Taiwan because, as in other countries, people here use it to stay in touch with school friends. But it’s hardly the only way to do that. Taiwan boasts many computer-savvy extraverts who already use social networks heavily. They have many choices. For a decade Taiwan has led the world in cell phones per capita. People make constant use of SMS and IM and Skype. Plurk and Twitter are also popular in Taiwan. Facebook gained ground in Taiwan when it offered something fun that other services didn’t have: novelty apps.
Oct 19th, 2009
pluyckx
Not all Happy Farmers are happy campers:
“‘Happy farmer’ plans to sue Facebook”
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Tech/Story/A1Story20091015-173800.html
Oct 20th, 2009
Tracey
It’s rather amusing to say the least as I’ve read in news articles that various government departments have banned Facebook from their employees because everyone is obviously playing apps on Facebook instead of working.
There are even some criticism that are circulating about the actual benefits apps such as Happy Farm can really bring to society. Mainly due to the ‘thief’ nature of the game, many people feel that it actually encourages crime and is therefore a bad influence to children who cannot yet know the differences between reality and game.
Oct 25th, 2009
-AntikA-
Facebook is also being a trend in Thailand now. Its Thai member has been grown-up rapidly since May last year. According to checkfacebook.com, Thailand has range at 2nd of 10 fastest growing in membership sign up over past week (today is Nov 17, 09). Before Facebook trend, Hi5.com, another online social website, used to be popular among Thai because it was supporting Thai language while Facebook was not. Same problem as Taiwanese, Thai workers are playing on the website instead of working. Thus, many companies have banned Hi5.com as the same time as Facebook started to support Thai language. Consequently, most of Hi5 Thai users move to Facebook. Now, I have heard that some companies in Thailand started banned Facebook. So, nobody can guarantee that how long Facebook will be the trend in Thailand.
Nov 17th, 2009
Anna.P
Before I tried this “happy farm” game, I just could not understand why so many friends of mine show their great interest in it, they are playing it all the time, especially during the working time. Excited by stealing vegetables?
Until I installed the application, I was dramatically addicted to the game. Once I even woke up in the midnight to steal one expensive vegetable from my friends.
The reason that Facebook (I am talking about Chinese Facebook http://www.kaixin001.com) can attract a huge number of users is that, as Peichen argues, people are more inclined to amusements. I cannot image if Facebook could still survive in China without any recreations.
Dec 7th, 2009
Nicole Maroutsos
Wow, what is it with virtual farming?! For the interactivity course, I just completed my term project on the success of FarmVille and was astounded by how it’s skyrocketed. In the past six months since it’s release, it has grown to over 65 million active users. I am really curious to see how FarmVille and Happy Farm compare. One distinct difference I can see just from this blog post is that there is more competition. While you can steal crops from neighbors on Happy Farm, FarmVille is much more friendly, with users fertilizing their neighbors crops and helping with different tasks. I thought that this lack of competition was part of what made FarmVille appealing but maybe I was wrong. It will be interesting to see what Happy Farm does to retain users. With most games gaining and losing popularity within 2-3 months, FarmVille has already beat that statistic as it is still gaining users six months after it’s release. However, the developers at Zynga are constantly updating the game – responding to user feedback and making improvements.
Dec 8th, 2009
Reply to “Facebook, Your New Name is Happy Farm in Taiwan.”