Mixi, Japan’s Facebook, last month introduced a new function, “Check-In”. As the name suggests, Check-In works much like Facebook Places does: press the “Check In” button on Mixi Mobile (the site’s cell phone version) to broadcast your current location to let your friends know where you are or share info on certain points of interests (“spots”).
And today big M reports that it saw 2 million “Check-Ins” in the first month. The social network has 21 million users, and what’s interesting in this context is that 24.5 billion of the 30 billion monthly page views on Mixi come from its mobile version. I am not sure how many check-ins Mixi expected, but for a completely new service, 2 million sounds like a solid number to me.
Users can “check in” by pressing the grey button on top and deciding who to share their current location with via the drop-down menu at the bottom:
Facebook decided to switch on Facebook Places in Japan as the second country, right after the US. Foursquare recently announced during the New Context Conference in Tokyo that it plans to roll out a Japanese version in January 2011.
Serkan Toto
Interesting. My experience with Mixi is that it is an intensely private social network, if that makes any sense. I wouldn’t have expected an LBS to take off, given the inherent lack of privacy it entails.