Trending online services in Japan

It is not an easy thing to truly understand how people living in different countries think about certain things and what values they have.

In this article, by deepening the understanding of trending online services in Japan, you will see what is the key to satisfying Japanese users and the important values that they have.

Before going any further, I would like to mention a famous joke about a sinking ship, which reveals the deep inner motivations of people from many different nations. It starts with this question:

In a sinking ship with various kinds of people, how can you encourage the passengers to go into the water?

To Japanese people, you can say,

Everyone else does so.

This is a joke that can make us laugh a little, and agree with a lot. This joke actually captures the Japanese people’s personality that they prefer to try things when “everyone else” is doing it.

Now, let’s look at some trending services that Japanese people use and find out different Japanese cultural ways of thinking.

PayPay

PayPay is a smartphone payment service that uses barcodes (QR code).

To be the driving force in attracting people to use online payments, PayPay did a huge campaign called the “10 billion yen giveaway” which gave 20% cashback to anybody using PayPay for Payment and a chance to win 100% cashback every 40th time it was used (every 10 times if you met certain requirements) in order to encourage people to not just download the app, but to actually use it. 10 billion yen is roughly equivalent to 90 million dollars!

This led to PayPay becoming one of the top trending topics on Twitter for a while. Everyone reported the rewards they got by purchasing products using PayPay. Some reported that they bought expensive electronic goods and got 100% cashback.

paypay全額キャッシュバック当たっちゃった　やばい pic.twitter.com/4Il4SQzOOq

— みずさき (@sakiorit) December 4, 2018

The campaign ended in 10 days after PayPay had given away all 10 billion yen. However, after the campaign, the total users of PayPay increased 55 times more than before the campaign. And also data showed that 62.6% of 2,000 people interviewed (aged 20~69) knew about the campaign which contributed to making it the top-rated above all the other online payment services.

Hesitation with cashless culture – “It’s not safe”

A survey showed that one-third of people in Japan say they don’t prefer cashless society. The largest reason at 54.5% was “Fear of when you cannot use electricity, such as in the event of an earthquake, etc.” The next most popular was “Fear of security, such as identity theft,” at 42.7%. Next, “Concern about the outflow of personal information” was 40.8%.

Actually, in Japan, cash is still the mainstream method of payment, with the current cashless payment ratio remaining around 20%. Consequently, the Japanese government is taking measures to raise the cashless payment ratio to 40% by 2025, with a long-term goal of 80%, the highest level globally.

Why PayPay became so popular in Japan?

The background of this rapid user increase is due to Japanese characteristics. By promoting this campaign, it made the atmosphere of “Everyone else is using PayPay,” which worked really well because of the Japanese characteristic of wanting to be part of the majority. It also allowed Japanese people to think that it was safe because everyone else was using it. This trending PayPay campaign was surely the first step for Japan to become a cashless society. In fact, they decided to do the “10 billion yen giveaway” again from February 12th.

TikTok

TikTok is a video-sharing app which allows users to upload 15-seconds-long videos often with the creator lip-syncing something. With its simplicity and short videos, it has become popular among teenagers. Some creators even have millions of followers. In Japan, TikTok has the 7th highest usage rate(7.1%) of social media services.

A community where everyone can be a creator

TikTok offers a database of songs, effects, and sound bites. That means the users don’t need any special skills when creating videos. So far, YouTubers have been very popular and there are a lot of creators on the platform, but they still need to have their unique ideas and content to come up with by themselves. However, TikTokers don’t need the skill for content because it’s already prepared for them. Most of the teenagers do not have special skills in editing videos and content creation. It eliminates barriers and makes it easier for them to easily upload the videos.

TikTok’s advantage over other social media

For example, Instagram and Twitter are the best platforms for building communities among users and friends who are interested in the same material, that is, those with the same interests. In contrast, TikTok promotes a wide community allowing one to share videos regardless of hobbies, interests, sex or ability more easily. This means the TikTok users can broaden their interests and their audience more easily using this platform. Not only the videos of the followers but also the recommended videos are displayed. In this, it is possible to see popular videos in a wide community because it means that they can broaden the interests of viewers which may not be true for other social media platforms.

Why TikTok is a huge trend in Japan?

So why is TikTok so popular in Japan? Japanese people tend to be known as being “shy”, but you wouldn’t think shy Japanese would like using TikTok.

The reason is that TikTok helps lower Japanese people’s barriers by making them feel that they are not standing out alone. For example, there are many themes on TikTok which encourage the users to film videos with their friends. Some Japanese people may hesitate filming videos by themselves, but through filming with their friends, they feel more comfortable in expressing themselves. It is an extension of hanging out with their friends, like sharing Snapchat videos or Instagram stories but done so collaboratively.

SHOWROOM

Live streaming is a huge trend in Japan. Actually, Digital Content Association of Japan shows that the domestic market size of live streaming services in 2017 was 185 billion yen (~1.65 billion USD.)

The users of those live streaming apps are not only famous Japanese idols but ordinary school girls as well. Especially SHOWROOM, one of the most famous and popular live streaming apps in Japan. It was the No.1 live streaming app in 2018 and the number of SHOWROOM users is more than that of Netflix in Japan. So, why is SHOWROOM so famous in Japan?

“Social Tipping”: Why do they do that?

The biggest difference between SHOWROOM and other video services is that SHOWROOM allows audiences to tip the performers without having a subscription. This tip, which is called “a gift” in SHOWROOM, includes free virtual gifts or some charging money. The total amount of “gifts” become the performers’ income. This social tipping custom is based on the thought that people would prefer using money for others, not themselves.

This is because Japanese society has changed now and people’s values have shifted from having things or experiences to empathy based. They are fulfilled by being involved in the process of supporting somebody else to make them famous.

Empathy is the value in SHOWROOM

When it comes to SHOWROOM, just having an ideal appearance is not enough. Performers in SHOWROOM do not show up on TV, nor they are famous influencers on social media. Conversely, being famous on TV or elsewhere doesn’t mean they can be popular on SHOWROOM either.

Why is that? It’s because SHOWROOM is a place which values “empathy.” Unlike social media channels where the content needs to be “perfect,” SHOWROOM is a place where performers are not perfect. SHOWROOM is the place where fans interact with performers. So being unique and not perfect is the key to connecting.

SHOWROOM provides only live streaming and does not archive the videos. In other words, in order for the audience to see their favorite performer is through opening the app and joining the performance at the start of the live streaming. By doing this, it creates a deep community of performers and fans. What’s important for performers is not creating perfect content but that the live streaming is frequent enough that they become part of the audiences’ daily lives.

In addition, SHOWROOM regularly holds events for the performers to win prizes (i.e. appearance on a television commercial). To win the prize, they need the audience’s help as the winner is chosen based on how many points they get from their audience’s gifts. By making “success” transparent, the audience can easily feel that they are contributing to their favorite performers.

Like this, SHOWROOM can provide a feeling of satisfaction to audiences since they are supporting their favorite performers and get a feeling like they contribute to their success story.

Why it’s popular in Japan: Anonymity + Having own avatar

Japanese prefer anonymity. You can see the tendency on Japanese Twitter usage with it ranking 2nd in the world. And almost over 80% of Japanese are using it with anonymous accounts.

This tendency came from the Japanese way of thinking of being concerned with how others think of myself. Japanese culture is highly contextual and we tend to look at others’ faces to guess what they feel and think. Japanese people avoid saying their own opinions so that everyone in the room will go with the flow. They dislike being seen as not having the social skills of being able to “go with the flow.” So social media outlets are the only place they can be “real” without their titles and the expectation of how they are supposed to be.

Why SHOWROOM became so popular is not only the anonymity part, but also the avatar that they can create by themselves. Yuji Maeda, the CEO of SHOWROOM stated, “Being able to leave comments is not enough because in this way users cannot see their identities, so we let users set their own avatars so that they can have their other self on SHOWROOM.”

Online services are anonymous, but most of them are not visually interactive. SHOWROOM enables its users to be a part of the contents of the performers by letting them be in the screen with their avatars. In that way, the audience can enjoy the live stream more.

Conclusion

When expanding your business to Japan, it is always important to understand Japanese trends and the deep inner motivations to using services. Although trends change fast, it is always important to keep track of them as the trends reflect the people’s values and the way they think about certain things.

btrax provides expert knowledge of expanding your business to the Japanese market, which includes a deep understanding of the culture and values. Contact us here for more information.

Enjoyed this article? Sign up for our newsletter for more exclusive insights on business in Japan.