Do Japanese People Today Prefer Tech & Social Media with a KISS?

Friday, January 18th, 2013 | Filed under Business,Japan,Latest Articles,Lifestyle,Technology,World | Posted by

Do Japanese People Today Prefer Tech & Social Media with a KISS?

Horace C. White

Modern Tokyo Times

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With today’s rapidly changing technology coming from all parts of the world, and only a handful of Japanese companies such as Komatsu Ltd. (TYO: 6301), NTT Data , Marubeni (TYO: 8002), and GREE (TYO: 3632) willing to take the helm to lead Japan to a more global standard, Japanese end-users seem to be moving towards technology services and gadgets that are simple and more internationally geared.

Brand name companies like Sony (TYO: 6758), Panasonic (TYO: 6752), and Sharp (TYO: 6753) that once held high prestige and was known for creating the greatest high-quality, innovative, high-tech products and services around the globe, are now gradually being replaced with Apple (NASDAQ: APPL), Samsung, and Lenovo (SEHK: 0992) products.

Likewise, in the 1990s, Yahoo Japan! (TYO: 4689) emerged victorious as the top web portal for Japanese. Packed with tons of information, services, and news at a glance, Yahoo Japan! (TYO: 4689) was the Japanese preference for search compared with HotBot, Excite, and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).

Although Yahoo Japan! (TYO: 4689) still dominates the Japanese market with 57% of the market share as oppose to Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) 30% and rising, today’s young Japanese adults tend to be moving away from the traditional norms of search to a more simple textbox style of searching in which Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) provides.

According to a new survey conducted by Comnico, Nifty, and LifeMedia, 776 young adults in Japan (425 females and 351 males) claim that their top social media choice is Twitter (42.5%), Line (16.9%), and Facebook (13.0%). Surprisingly, Mixi (TYO: 2121) that once held center stage over social services in Japan with more than 80% market share is now struggling to survive. Therefore, are the Japanese today moving towards tech and social media with a KISS?

The acronym “KISS” for “Keep It Simple Stupid,” which was coined by Kelly Johnson, asserts that systems work best if they are “kept simple” rather than complex. With Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) having only a textbox for entering search terms and keywords on its homepage, and Twitter allowing 140 characters to be entered into a tweet, coupled with the simplicity of Apple (NASDAQ: APPL), Samsung, and Lenovo (SEHK: 0992) with their internationally style products, are the Japanese today switching to technology gadgets and services that are more globe and simple to use.

Whatever the case might be, with Amazon Lockers (NASDAQ: AMZN), mobile SGI ICE Cube data centers (NASDAQ: SGI), Tobii, Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU), Displair and a whole range of other technology products and services created every second from around the world, it may be wise for Japanese companies that have focused solely on the Japanese market for introducing new technology products and services to take into consideration these new Japanese generational trends.

http://moderntokyotimes.com

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