Early Stats Show Twitter Taking Off in Japan
Last week trendy micro-blogging service Twitter launched officially in Japan, after the company had "noticed a significant percent of Twitter usage consistently originating from Japan". At the time of launch, Joi Ito - an investor in Twitter - claimed that Japan usage "was nearly 30% of Twitter earlier on", but had dropped to "about 13% as the US user base has grown."
However, the signs are that Japanese Twitter usage is set to explode in popularity - Twitterlocal shows that Tokyo is currently by far the city with the most Twitter usage.
Twitter itself hasn't released any stats, but Google Trends is another to show a large Japanese presence on the service, both in location...
...and in language:
And in many ways this trend is logical, given Japan's history with succinct writing - from haiku to text messaging. As the AFP recently noted, "the Japanese are among the world's most avid users of cellphones, which they use to pay for train fares, shop, watch television, read novels and, of course, to send messages to one another."
Could Japan be the first country where Twitter usage becomes mainstream, rather than just being popular among geeks - as it is in the US and english speaking countries? Judging by these early stats, that's a good bet!
image: TrendsSpotting
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Twitter is everywhere and I am amazed to see that it is starting its international presence with int. websites. May be we have under estimated Twitter. :-D
As there are currently already more than 1 million Twitter users (see http://twitterfacts.blogspot.com/2008/04/1-million-twitter-users-according-to.html), Twitter is reaching more than just geeks.
htank you.
But its not reaching me and I plan to keep it that way :p
Its interesting that Twitter is trying to expand their userbase even more while they still have no business plan.
I wouldnt call a couple of ads on their webpage a good source of income. I think I remember reading somewhere that more than 80% of twitter usage happens through their API... doesnt that mean those ads are worthless?
A correlation between twitter usage and population density seems apparent here. Mobile usage (we know the Japanese are highly mobile)?
What might also be interesting is seeing the relationship between twitter usage and popular recreational activities. Is twitter more popular in Japan because golfing is so darn expensive there? Or is twitter popular in places such as NY, SF, and London because of the plethora of cafes, lounges, and theatre that lend themselves to discussion in regards to "what are you doing?"
Obviously, you'd have to extract technology savvy and the density of venture-backed internet startups from any such analysis.
Links nicely with my commentary on global social networking,
http://bridgingculturekorea.blogspot.com/
Other than the usual stereotyping (as above) and "whatcha doin' over there?" glances over the fence, nothing really special is happening here in Japan which isn't happening elsewhere. Yes, Japan is very advanced in the mobile front but the vast majority of these people are NOT using their keitai for twitter.. it's still for "tomomail" (e-mail to friends) and games.
Most Japanese people DON'T know what Twitter is and give the same strange glances when you try to explain it to them as anyone in North America or Europe would react. "People SHARE what they are doing? Why?" is the usual response.
For the geek or "Otaku" culture, Twitter also has the same appeal and following mentality as any Scoble or Lockergnome fanboy/girl would admit to. There are blogging and twitter stars here.. they're just either former bikini models or brilliant people who hide behind childish icons.
We're all scratching our heads as to the WHY this is happening not just in Japan, but throughout the world. Guess I'll have to put that question out to my followers on Twitter...
I can say Twitter is really doing good in Japan after seeing these numbers.
http://feedshub.blogspot.com/2008/04/twitter-in-japan.html