JAPAN: Mixi ready to face MySpace in Japan market, says Mixi president

Japan's most popular social networking website has more than 8 million members

The Japan Times
Thursday, February 8, 2007

By Shinichi Terada

The president of Mixi Inc. expressed confidence Wednesday the country's most popular social networking Web site will not be beaten by the world's biggest site, MySpace, which has 140 million members worldwide.

"It is difficult for latecomers to enter the market," Kenji Kasahara, who is also the founder of Mixi, said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo. "Our site is a destination for more than 8 million registered members and they commit to our site by keeping diaries and exchanging opinions in communities on a daily basis."

Kasahara said the more users get together on the site, the more valuable the site becomes, just like auction sites.

In November, U.S. News Corp., the parent company of MySpace, teamed up with Softbank Corp. to start a Japanese version of MySpace.

One of MySpace's biggest selling points is users can find member pages for everyone from rock stars to aspiring musicians, who promote themselves with music files, videos and messages.

Mixi is the market leader in Japan, picking up more than 8 million members in only three years. People can join by invitation only. Members form Internet communities and can blog, send each other messages, put photos, music and video on their sites.

About 60 percent of Mixi users are in their 20s and 30s and about 67 percent of the members log in the site at least once every three days, Mixi said.

Kasahara said Mixi will still have to keep adding new services to attract more members. The company began a video-uploading service Monday, hoping to compete with YouTube, the popular U.S. video-sharing Web site.

Kasahara said he hoped that copyright laws will be eased as it is becoming common for people to watch movies and TV programs, and listen to music over the Internet.

Japanese authorities met with YouTube executives Tuesday to urge them to work harder to stop people from posting videos that violate intellectual property rights.

"I do hope it (the law) gradually changes so that it is easier for viewers to upload TV programs and other things," the head of Mixi said.

However, Kasahara said Mixi would be used for different purposes than YouTube.

"I do believe that members, for example, upload video clips of their newborn babies or their weddings. I don't think many people upload a full movie or other things that are illegal," he said.

Date Posted: 2/8/2007