A recent Japanese TV drama features the Twitter phenomenon in Japan. Written by a famous screenwriter and starring popular Japanese actors, this show is about a group of youngsters who met each other through Twitter and grew their friendships and relationships in real life. This TV show shows that Twitter has gone mainstream in Japan, and makes me feel curious about how Twitter got its popularity there.

The total number of Japanese Twitter users is impressive: it passed 5 million in February and is expected to reach 10 million by the end of this year. (source) In contrast, most international social networking sites have had difficulties attracting users in Japan. For example, Linkedin and Facebook have less than 1 million users in Japan. (source) The number of registered members of the local social networking site, Mixi, is 10 times greater than Facebook. Twitter is the first foreign brand to break through and obtain success in Japan.

Launched in 2008 in Japan, Twitter didn’t establish a local office; instead, it partnered with a Japanese internet service company, Digital Garage. Using Twitter is very similar to sending text messages. Since the Japanese are heavy users of text messaging, they were able to easily adopt the Twitter service. In addition, Japanese people very often use mobile phones for web services, and Twitter Japan provided official mobile access. Furthermore, while the Japanese market was full of social networking services, there were no services in existence that were similar to Twitter.

Twitter has been implemented differently in Japan than in the U.S. Some applications and functions are only available in Japan, like video sharing and ads on each page. Twitter Japan also built a business model in January, earlier than Twitter in the U.S. Users are charged to access certain types of content, images and videos from businesses, and then Twitter shares the revenue with those companies. This model is different from the “promoted tweets” model in the U.S, Twitter’s version of keyword ads.

It is always interesting to see how culture affects technology adoption. An article from Techcrunch shows the reasons why the business model of Twitter Japan might work. Twitter obviously understands the importance of localization and how to win local customers’ hearts. Every other international web service could learn something from Twitter’s actions.

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According to the IFPI, an organization representing the recording industry worldwide, 99 percent of music downloads in China are illegal. In such an unfriendly environment, how can record labels survive?

Google’s answer to the question is its new Music Search feature. Chinese users of Google Music Search can download free tracks and preview music from the partner, Top100.cn, while Google profits from ads on search results. According to The New York Times, “About 84 percent of China’s nearly 300 million Internet users download music over the Web, and most of it is used for cellphone ring tones.”

Google believes that Music Search will help it compete with Baidu, a dominant search engine in China that earns the majority of its traffic from music searching. However, most music files downloaded through Baidu have been illegal. From Google’s music search engine, users can get authorized, high-quality files from record labels such as EMI, SonyBMG, Universal and Warner Music.

Record labels seem confident about the new deals with Google. Sandy Monteiro, a senior vice president at the Universal Music Group, said “The level of online advertising in China is quite mature, so we’re willing to try this out.”

Google Music Search with free downloads is only available in China. It was launched seven months ago, and The Wall Street Journal reports that five advertisers have committed $370,000 to the music service. But these numbers are still far from Google’s goal: 30 advertisers, some of them paying $1,000,000 within six months. However, there is potential for growth. Five million songs have been downloaded per day through Google’s music service in China. This number shows that the service is popular with Chinese users.

Baidu has reacted by announcing a partnership with Qtrax, an ad-supported music-downloading service. Now Google won’t be the only provider in China of free, legal online music, and the competition has intensified.

According to TechCrunch, MySpace may move to a pay model; its revenue from advertising does not currently offset its costs of streaming music for free. It’s still hard to tell if an ad-supported music service could profit. However, the proliferation of online music downloads in China has led to a new business model for music distribution.

References:

Google and Music Labels Bet on Downloads in China

Baidu Partners With Qtrax For Ad-Supported Music Downloads

Early Results From Google’s China Music Service

Imagine resource: http://www.google-kai.com/free-google-music-mp3-search-in-china.html

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In the MCDM program, we study many positive examples of digital media. Now I would like to share information about the shutdown of Cyworld, a negative example of brand management and customer service in social media.

As the largest social networking site in South Korea, Cyworld started reaching an overseas market in 2006. Local offices were launched in the U.S., Taiwan, Japan and China. However, Cyworld’s big dream of globalization crashed in 2008. Most local offices were closed, but those services were still maintained by Cyworld headquarters in South Korea. Then in early November this year, an announcement of the closure of the Cyworld U.S. service was posted on its U.S. website and mailed to its American members. The content was poorly written and full of grammatical errors, as reported by TechCrunch. The same embarrassing thing also happened with the closure notice for Cyworld Taiwan: inappropriate phrases, grammar errors and bad layout. For loyal Cyworld users, the shutdown notices were rough and thoughtless.

What have I learned from Cyworld? First, the closing should not have happened. Chris Anderson’s book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, states that technical costs such as storage and bandwidth are approaching zero, which makes web services become free. Cyworld isn’t disappearing completely; the South Korea and China sites are stable enough. The removal of diaries, photos and other data was frustrating for users of Cyworld sites that were shut down. They should have been provided with an appropriate tool to copy all of their data.

Secondly, Cyworld failed to do customer service. The poorly written shutdown notices are one example. The notice should guide users to the Korean service since their local service will not be available. Many users register for Cyworld because of their interest in Korean pop culture. One of the reasons that Cyworld failed in most of their overseas markets is that the local service couldn’t connect to the Cyworld Korean service, leading to user disappointment. If Cyworld supported multi-language services, it won’t lose so many members globally.

The Cyworld U.S. shutdown notice does not only show the loss of Cyworld’s international markets; it also displays bad branding and marketing. Having strong branding and marketing is especially important to companies in the digital age.

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“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:

http://www.checkfacebook.com/

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People in Taiwan are now trying their best to bring relief to those victims by donating goods and money and volunteering in affected areas. What helps organize people, information and resources? Social media, not the government.

(Google Map)

Microblog service Plurk played a new role during this Typhoon’s attack. People published instant messages to gather goods and volunteers via Plurk. There were tons of related messages but they were spread individually without integration. Therefore, a specific account was established to collect and republish information. Moreover, several developers created Web sites voluntarily for the public to report the latest news. For example, Google maps shows the latest situation visually. typhoon.oooo.tw looks simple, but it presents each area’s immediate need for food and volunteers. disastertw.com also serves a similar purpose. The largest BBS forum in Taiwan, PTT, also created a discussion board for fundraising and recruiting volunteers.

(Microblog: Plurk)

This is the first time people gathered together through social media after a natural disaster in Taiwan. We can see how those online messages motivated people to stand up and devote themselves to rescuing others. However, access to the Internet in southern Taiwan isn’t as common as in the north. Those online mobilizations rely on people who live in the north to update and maintain them. People in the south are still used to reporting news by calling the government. How we can integrate this information from different channels effectively is still a challenge. Besides, our government is not organized and acts slowly to help victims. Even though there is so much online information, no officials receive it and react immediately. People self-organize to help victims and show their love to our hometown. Our authorities definitely need to learn how to utilize social media to receive the information and help victims within the shortest time.

I would like to dedicate this article to my hometown of Taiwan. Please pray for those people who are still suffering in southern Taiwan. Hope that those who await people will be rescued soon. All the sorrow will be gone and the homes will be rebuilt again one day with the strength and love of Taiwan’s people.

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Cyber violence is a serious problem in South Korea. Nearly 200,000 cases were reported in 2007, which is 50% increased than in 2006. Several celebrities committed suicides because they were too depressed about the serious criticism on the Internet. For example, Choi, a 39-year-old actress, was a national sweetheart in South Korea. Bloggers criticized her about her personal life, loan scandals and divorce.  She suffered from depression and ended her life in 2008. The government in South Korea has enforced the real-name verification law this year to prevent irresponsible messages. From April 1^st, 2009, websites which have 100,000 unique visitors per day have to verify users’ identify before they post any content on the websites.

South Korea tried to promote the real-name verification in 2003 for the first time. It was postponed because of the huge opposition from the public. Then in 2005, an event brought the issue back to the society. A female’s photo was posted online because that she didn’t clean her dog’s excretion on the subway and her attitude was very rude. Then people started to search her personal information and disclose it online. Some people visited her personal blog to criticize her and recognized her on the street according to the online photos. The female’s privacy was damaged and the police couldn’t do anything because they can’t follow the violators without their real names. The incident showed the influence of cyber attacks. Not only the celebrities, everyone could be a victim easily. The government reconsidered to enforce the real-name system. Survey showed that there are 80% people agree with the policy on Yahoo Korea and 65% on the Naver.com.

The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) began to test the real-name verification system on two major websites in 2007, Naver and Daum. On April 1^st, 2009, the law was expanded into websites which have 100,000 unique visitors per day. YouTube refused to follow the law and disable Korean users to upload videos and leave comments. The announcement on the official blog claims that, “We have a bias in favor of people’s right to free expression in everything we do. We are driven by a belief that more information generally means more choice, more freedom, and ultimately more power for the individual. We believe that it is important for free expression that people have the right to remain anonymous, if they choose.”

Without the freedom of speech on the Internet, the online world won’t be so active. The Internet helps people to create their niche group and develop a diverse faces of their lives. The real-name verification system might be a policy to turn the society back to a uniform one. Besides, the system is only applied with major websites which reach a certain numbers of visitors. So what about the minor websites? People still are able to spread negative messages on a variety of websites. Are these messages could not be defined as cyber violence?

In addition to using real-name verification system, I believe that there are other methods to regulate inappropriate content. For example, inappropriate content could be reported by users or regulated by administrators. Educating web users to respect the privacy and defamation is also important. People has the rights to speak, they also have to respect others to keep the freedom.

South Korea is the first country to deal with the critical issue. The effectiveness of real-name verification will be researched and observed continuously. We still need more discussion about how governments can keep the freedom of speech and avoid more slanderous messages in the digital world.

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The news was broadcasted widely in Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan. Because of his pervious good image, most people were surprised by his scandal. He apologized in a news conference after finishing the inquiry from the police. The ratings of TV news were increased a lot because of the live broadcasting. Then all the advertisements related to Kusanagi were removed and the estimated loss for his revenue is 3000 billion US dollars. Kusanagi is also the spokesperson for national digital TV. Even Kunio Hatoyama, Minister of Internal Affairs in Japan, blamed him seriously as, “disappointing person.” Besides, Kusanagi will stop working for several months. The scandal brought Kusanagi the most serious crisis in his career life.

(img from: http://www.zaeega.com/archives/50786609.html)

Some people may think the society and media over react, but idols are usually strictly regulated by their agency in Japan because of the high awareness of their images. They are not allowed to do anything that might damage their images. So, how can social media help Tsuyoshi Kusanagi’s career life? Absolutely, some people started to make fun of him, one of the poster for digital TV was modified into his announce of resignation from SMAP. T-shirts with his quotation when he was arrested, “What’s wrong with being naked?!” are available online. On the other side, online fan clubs proposed several actions to support their idols. For example, blog stickers, ask fans to write postcards to Kusanagi and send them to Japan. Some other fans also doubted police’s enforcement of the law is proper or not. In addition to show their supports, fans in Taiwan also cared about their discussion on the public online forum and wouldn’t be misunderstood as supporting their idol single-mindedly by ignoring the misbehavior. They also regulate their messages related to the event. Those actions from loyal fans may not prevent Kusanagi from judgment from his agency and the society. However, they will help him through the hard time by the heart-warming messages.

For the agency, it is important to process PR. If I were a staff, I may post an official announcement to fans on all the online platforms. The main message in the announcement will include apology for the misbehavior and the disappointments from fans. Also, show the willingness to deal with the legal issue and judgment from the public.

So, in your opinion, how can social media help Tsuyoshi Kusanagi’s career life?

Related news:

SMAP member Kusanagi arrested for stripping naked in Tokyo park.

SMAP’s Kusanagi dropped from commercials, TV appearances in wake of arrest.

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Cyworld did a lot of effort for overseas markets. Instead of launching multiple language versions for the site, Cyworld built a local team in different countries. (China, Japan, Taiwan, USA, and Vietnam) They considered a localized site to meet users’ needs. For example, Mini-room is a popular service features cute avatars and virtual items. Young adults enjoy decorating their rooms and express their own style. When the service was moved to US, the design is totally different and you can tell the shift from the following images. Moreover, Cyworld US also removed the original frame for users’ personal profile. It became a whole page instead of a pop-up window. But these changes are not enough for American users.

The problem is, Cyworld is a famous brand in South Korea. Most users in USA are American-koreans or Koreans oversea students. The strong preferences for Korean culture limited the growth of Cyworld US. People consider the site as a Korean fan site. Moreover, original users may feel betrayed because of these localized services. They use Cyworld US because of its unique concepts. Now parts of the concepts were gone. Therefore, Cyworld US locates in an ambiguous place which leads Cyworld’s limited growth.

Of course the market is competitive in USA. Cyworld launched in 1999 in South Korea when there was no blog services and strong web 2.0 trend. It is a pioneer in Korean market. When it entered USA, many sites have existed and gathered members quickly. Therefore, a foreign brand had barriers already in the early beginning. The same situation happened in Taiwan too. Most users have been addicted to a blog service,Wretch. Cyworld is hard to attract users because of its strong “Made in Korea” image. In Taiwan market, the idea of “social networking site” is still weak. The marketing team communicates to customers with the terms “multiple blog service” or “biggest social networking site in Korea.” The messages are obscure and failed to create a brand image in Taiwan.

What can Cyworld do for the global service? I think Cyworld still have great concepts about their service. They emphasize on true and reliable online personal relationship. It connects online and offline social life closely. There are some cool functions, for example, the latest service, Mini Life, high-quality and well design for virtual items and background music service. Maybe the service could be applied to other social networking site. Help global users get use to its unique functions first, then the brand?

How to conquer culture barriers in overseas market? A localized service or a standardized one? Those social networking sites are still trying hard.

Realted post:

Cyworld pulling plugs from US

Cyworld Leaving U.S. Market?

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