Everyone seems to rave about Twitter but they are not the only kids on the block anymore.
Back in December, Ameba, a Japanese blog service with seven million users, launched a free new micro-blogging service for its members, Ameba Now (Ameba なう). Just like tweeting, you have 140 characters to tell the world what you are doing, and can also upload images.
Significantly, though, Ameba has integrated its trademark cute emoji into the messages that users can post. Given that Twitter doesn’t have this function so beloved by Japanese users, could it give Ameba Now the edge over its American rival? It was also launched first as a mobile site, then onto PCs a few days after. (Twitter did not have a mobile version until a year after its launch.) Ameba Now, like Ameba itself, has attracted a good contingent of popular Japanese geinoujin and celebrities (below is the account for model Yuka Hiura), bringing with them fans and publicity.
February 24 saw the news that there had been a million unique users on Ameba Now in January alone, and that 54% of them were female. Twitter is said to have 4.7 million users, so it probably won’t lose much sleep just yet. However, the balance of tweeters in Japan is weighted towards male users, with 64% of the share. The number of visits in January per person was not dissimilar either: 3.3 (Ameba Now) versus 3.9 (Twitter), though users were on Twitter for much longer (a total of over 25 minutes versus just under 7 minutes for Ameba Now).
Before we reject Twitter as a foreign upstart and past its prime, let’s remember there is more to these micro-blogging services than just celebrities or personal messages.
The Nikkei Marketing Journal reported recently about sushi chain restaurants using Twitter to harness word-of-mouth marketing and build up their consumer base. At the beginning of February Sushi Tokoro Saisho had a promotion rewarding customers who tweeted their visit to the restaurant, with the discount calculated at one yen off per Twitter follower (i.e. a 100 JPY [US$1.1] discount if you have 100 followers). Apparently this led to over 1000 tweets about the restaurant.
Toy store Sugorokuya also did a similar campaign from late January to early February, and saw the number of customers visiting increase by 30-40%.
Twitter may not have the emoji or the female users, but for marketing it is perhaps still winning this minor micro-blog war.
Post a Comment