Are Japanese people using different websites than users in other countries? Back in July 2008 and 2009, we made two lists that showed some similarities and differences in usage, and now it’s time for a reboot.
Note:
We know that this list is highly subjective. We know that some sites are not identical in nature (but just similar) in some cases (Netflix-Posren, for example). Leave a comment if you want to know more or think one of these attributions is off.
I linked to the English versions whenever possible (see the [ENG] mark).
Here’s the list (in no particular order):
What is the Japanese equivalent of Tripadvisor?
4Travel.
Google?
Yahoo! Japan.
-> Since our first list in 2008, Google caught up in terms of search engine-related traffic and is now cooperating with Yahoo in Japan.
Wikipedia?
Wikipedia Japan.
Facebook?
Mixi.
Flickr?
Photozou.
-> Photozou, now a Zynga Japan property, plays in the same league as Flickr in Japan.
delicio.us?
Hatena Bookmark. [ENG]
MySpace?
MySpace Japan.
Digg?
Hatena Hot Entry.
-> Hatena lists up the “hottest” bookmarks by their users here.
LinkedIn?
No equivalent (many business social networks failed in Japan – look here for a list).
Twitter?
Twitter Japan.
Youtube?
YouTube Japan and Nico Nico Douga.
Amazon?
Amazon Japan.
-> Online mall Rakuten is actually Japan’s biggest e-commerce player.
dooyoo (price comparison engine)?
Kakaku.com.
Netflix?
Posren.
Quora?
No equivalent.
Youporn?
DMM.
Craigslist?
No equivalent (there is no culture for classifieds in Japan, which means an instant success for a “Japanese Craigslist” is next to impossible to achieve).
Yelp?
Tabelog and Gourmet Navigator.
Groupon?
Groupon Japan.
IMDb (Internet Movie Database)?
Nihon Eiga Database (Japan Movie Database).
Wall Street Journal Online?
Nikkei Online. [ENG]
monster.com?
Rikunavi.
Ebay?
Yahoo! Japan Auctions.
Alexa?
No equivalent.
Match.com?
Rakuten O-net.
Hulu?
acTVila. BeeTV from NTT Docomo on cell phones.
4chan?
Futaba (the original).
last.fm?
No equivalent.
Technorati?
Kizasi.
Yahoo! Answers?
Oshiete!goo, OKWave, and Yahoo! Chiebukuro.
-> OKWave is powering Oshiete!goo and a host of other Q&A sites in Japan.
Zynga?
Zynga Japan.
Deviantart?
Pixiv.
The Onion?
Kyoko Shimbun.
Allrecipes.com?
Cookpad.
Hotels.com?
Jalan.
Miniclip?
Yahoo Mobage. GREE and Mobage-town on cell phones.
Techcrunch?
TechCrunch Japan.
Huffington Post?
Agora.
tmz.com?
Zakzak.
Boing Boing?
Zaeega.
Gizmodo?
Gizmodo Japan.
Engadget?
Engadget Japanese.
In case you want to know more, please add a comment.
Serkan Toto
PayPal?
Maybe Rakuten Merumane, but not really popular. PayPal Japan also exists but regulations cripple individual-to-individual money sending services in Japan.
There are also PayPal like service on cellphone offered both by Docomo and KDDI au.
I would like to add to the list,
deviantART?
–> Pixiv.net
Well, they are already on it.
Do you know huge English cosplay community or figure lovers community? Japan has them.
Hmm…I think deviantART is very all-in-one art site, and I saw many cosplay lover (with very professional photoshoot) there.
You can take look at their works
http://browse.deviantart.com/photography/people/cosplay/
but if you want cosplay-only website, maybe it’s cosplay.com, I don’t really sure, but the forum there look quite active.
I see. Pixiv seems to be (mostly Japanese manga style) illustrations, whilst deviantART accepts anything artistic.
From your information, I say that cosplay.com matches Japanese cure.com , but cure.com is localized also to English and has competitive traffics.
http://asiajin.com/blog/2008/06/13/japans-biggest-cosplay-site-cure-overhauled-with-english/
Cool, Thanks for the infos. ๐
Rainy, yes, the comparison is a bit of a stretch, but I still think Pixiv comes closest (in terms of purpose, reach and engagement) to Deviantart in Japan.
Anyway, what is japan cosplay + figure community you mention? ๐
Cosplay – Cure
http://curecos.com/
Figure – Fg
http://www.fg-site.net/
too niche ๐
The subject might be better with “English” or “US” services.
have you got something similar to http://www.wired.com/?
also IMHO, Japanese equivalent of TechCrunch shall be Asiajin ๐
I name Dime(http://www.digital-dime.com/ ) as a Japanese Wired.
There were Wired Japan, both online and paper long ago, and coincidently, their re-try was announced about ten days ago.
http://wired.jp/
http://wiredvision.jp/info/201101/201101131000.html
This time, that Japanese Wired will be handled directly by Conde Nast’s 100% subsidiary.
And thanks for flattering. ๐ If we have Asiajin Japanese (in Japanese language), that might be a blog similar with TechCrunch in US.
Hmm.. Goodreads?
I want to say that it is http://yonda4.com/ , which is my own. But Booklog ( http://booklog.jp/ ) and Dokusho Meter( http://book.akahoshitakuya.com/ ) have more users.
Thanks!
Would love to see a 2012 version of this with more vertical e-commerce sites:
Birchbox – Glossybox.jp
Zappos – Locondo
Warby Parker – Oh My Glasses! (kind of – same market, different approach)
Fab.com – Monoco.jp
interesting. Are there more notable English vertical e-mall for us to match the Japanese counterparts?