Mixi has a fresh new logo too (Photo: techwave.jp)
Japanese social networking site Mixi followed the lead of Facebook today by launching public pages for companies and individuals. ‘Public’ is an important word here, since Mixi usually requires a login to view content, so these new pages will be accessible by anyone, and by search engines too.
The new pages are said to bridge the public space on the net with Mixi users’ private social graph. And companies will will be sure to try to capitalize on the new feature. Disney is one company already on the bandwagon. A survey of some Mixi users earlier this summer by Adam Acar seems to indicate that users are ready to follow their favorite brands on the platorm too.
Nevertheless, it does seem very much like a ‘me too’ shift for Mixi, as Facebook is just starting to make inroads in Japan. According to SocialBakers, Japan is just approaching 5 million Facebook users, but it looks to be growing quickly. Take for example, the city of Takeo which creatively shifted its entire municipal government website to Facebook. That’s far from commonplace in Japan, but we thought it was pretty fascinating.
According to Mixi’s recent quarterly report, it has over 15 million active users right now (see chart above), but its growth rate doesn’t quite seem to have the upward trajectory that Facebook has. Then again, that’s no easy feat.
Twitter user @takumeister expressed his thoughts on the new Mixi pages in a clever posting. I wonder how many other Japanese social media users feel the same way?
[Photo: techwave]
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