Facebook faces language, privacy fears
As previously blogged here on JP, the social networking site, Facebook has recently been translated from English into various languages including Japanese. Lisa Katayama reports at the Japan Times on the details of the by-users-for-users translation, and notes the obstacles the Japanese version faces against long-reigning Japan-based service, Mixi:
One of Facebook’s biggest challenges will be competing against the native social networking site Mixi. With over 10 million users and the loyalty of more than 50 percent of citizens in their 20s, Mixi is a social networking site made by the Japanese for the Japanese. Newcomers can join by invite only, which provides the degree of privacy and safety that users feel they need in order to divulge their identities online.
. . .MySpace, LinkedIn and Cyworld are just some of the global SNS that have a presence in Japan already, but so far, no competitor has succeeded in making a dent in Mixi’s dominance.
Katayama cites the possibility that a crowd-sourced (in this case, user-based) translation may damage the credibility or usability of the service, but the very “open to everybody” nature of Facebook may be an even bigger deterrence, in light of certain events which led to Mixi stock taking a dive shortly after its hugely successful IPO in 2006. [link to herro flom japan podcast mp3, warning -- contains language that some may find offensive]
Still, Takuya Oikawa, a Japanese technology adviser quoted in the article, chalks it up to the Japanese fear of the English language:
“Most Japanese don’t use English on a daily basis . . .They could get confused by seeing English messages in their inboxes from people they don’t know.”
Given that the Japanese landscape is pretty much littered in English and/or Engrish advertisements, signs, directions, random ephemera — somehow Oikawa’s comment doesn’t quite square with this reality. My take is that unless Facebook implements an easy-to-use cell phone based user interface, its sheer omnipresence the world over won’t mean a thing on this island nation.
