Ask young people what social media sites and apps they use the most on the streets of Tokyo, and you’ll mostly hear names like Twitter, Instagram, and Snow.
That’s because teens don’t yet have a use for Facebook – which serves a much more professional than social purpose in Japan, much like LinkedIn in the US. In the last two years, we’ve summarized and built upon our report on Japan’s social media landscape.Twitter themselves reported that they had 40 million monthly active users in2016. More than 50 percent of Japanese Twitter users are between ages 10 to 29.
Of course, thanks to Twitter’s anonymity, the content shared on the platform by Japanese users is much more diverse, engaged, and frequent, especially compared to Facebook where Japanese are friends with their bosses and have to keep up appearances.
As a result, Japanese Facebook users care about what they post and how they are perceived on Facebook.
Less than 7 percent of Facebook’s Japanese users are younger than 20, but more than half are between 20 to 40 years old.
Facebook reported 12 million monthly active users on Instagram in 2016, a 37 percent increase since 2015.
This ranks it as the fastest growing social network and Japan, and the momentum looks to continue as Japanese users rated Instagram as the most enjoyable social network in 2016, tied with LINE.
Many Japanese retail businesses also have Instagram accounts now on top of Facebook pages in order to promote their shop to users – in particular, retail stores that sell fashion and accessories, or hair and beauty services.
Popular among Japan’s teens, Snow is Japan’s answer to Snapchat, and is owned by Naver, which is also parent to LINE. The app recently crossed 100 million downloads in December 2016 and currently boasts around 50 million monthly active users.