Japan’s No. 1 social network Mixi [JP] just announced [JP] its member base surged past 20 million, meaning the site added 1.4 million users since the end of last year [JP] and 2.6 million registered users since June 2009 (the last time Mixi issued a press release about its member base).
By way of comparison: DeNA’s social mobile gaming site Mobage-town has over 17.25 million members (PDF/data for February 2010). GREE had 16.73 million users [JP, PDF] at the end of last year, but it’s very likely that it currently has more members than Mobagetown (GREE overtook rival Mobage-town (15.12 million vs. 15.10 million users) for the first time in October last year).
An interesting factoid is that while Facebook has managed to capture about 37.5% of the American population (116 of 309 million people) so far, Mixi’s member base of 20 million translates just to 15.7% of the Japanese population (internet penetration in both countries is almost identical at around 75%). Facebook opened up its site to all users in September 2006, whereas Mixi started its service in February 2004.
The Americans have entered Japan with a development base in February and are expected to launch a Japan-specific cell phone version soon.
Serkan Toto