Articles
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Mar 08 2019
Japanese Advertising: Crucial Factors to Consider for Effective Japanese SEM
After the United States and China, Japan falls within the top three largest advertising markets in the world. The notion of Japanese advertisements to an outsider often sparks peculiar images of people dressed in flamboyant costumes, or ridiculous narratives that are very left-field to the product they are selling. Although these traditional forms of advertising are still dominant, their equally extravagant digital counterparts are increasing at a significant rate. This is mainly due to the rise in ownership of mobile phones, allowing for greater access to the internet and prominent social media platforms. The digital realm of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) allows businesses (small or large) to reach a wider audience and to have complete control over their ad spend and creative outputs. Instead of spending millions of yen on a print or television commercial, where key metrics such as conversion rates are almost unobtainable, SEM can provide real-time data on campaigns that have
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Jan 28 2019
Japan’s Top Social Media Networks for 2019
Welcome to our fourth annual report on Japanese social media, where you can find the latest statistics and insights for Japan’s social networks in the coming year. This article will list up the most popular social networks in Japan, give insights on how each platform is different, and deliver our take on where things are headed in 2019. All of our insights are based on our tracking of the past four years of data. Please check out our reports from 2016, 2017, and 2018 to see how social media has changed in Japan over the past few years. *This blog was updated on February 25, 2019 with MAU data for TikTok. Japan’s Top Social Media Networks for 2019 SOCIAL NETWORK USAGE IN JAPAN BY % OF POPULATION *Tap or hover on the graph below to see details. Source: Pre 2018 Data, Facebook, Social Media Lab, Techcrunch, Japan Statistics Bureau, ICT *2018 Instagram data reported in November 2018 **2018 Facebook data reported in September 2017 ***2018 Twitter data reported in Dec 2018 Ja
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Nov 12 2018
Crowdfunding Japan: How to Kickstart Growth in the Japanese E-commerce Market
Crowdfunding can be an exciting method of raising capital in order to realize unique and creative projects. The concept has been well-established in the west, with websites such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Gofundme being recognized as market leaders in attracting community investment. Focusing on Japan, crowdfunding has only recently attracted greater attention in the media, with platforms being utilized by single women to fund their quest to find love, or even give individuals the unusual opportunity to date Hello Kitty. You may be reading this because you’re determined to secure capital for your impressive new idea, have an already successful overseas product that you believe is great for the Japanese market, or you might simply just be fascinated by the concept and intrigued to see how it fits within Japan. Whatever the reason, we hope you’ll be able to take away some key insights and useful information regarding the great potential of Japanese crowdfunding. This articl
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Jul 23 2018
Choosing the Right Japanese Translation Service for Your Website
This article is meant to help you select a Japanese translation service that will become an effective part of your Japanese localization strategy. Translation is often the first hurdle for companies looking to expand their web presence across international borders. Unfortunately, there are a lot of lasting problems that can come from choosing the wrong translation service. There’s also a lot more to localization than just a translation of your existing website. We hope this advice helps you avoid those mistakes when you enter the Japanese market, or any foreign markets for that matter. Three Questions to Ask Your Japanese Translator SEO results vary by language, be sure your translator can maintain your SEO rankings You should properly vet your Japanese translator before hiring them to make sure they have the skills you need. There are different kinds of translation services for different purposes. The following questions will help you find a translation service provider that ha
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Mar 13 2018
Our Keyword Research Process for SEO in Japanese
This article lays out our methodology for doing multilingual SEO keyword research for Japanese websites. The process can be used for virtually any language but there are a few things we’ve highlighted that must be considered for SEO in Japanese. If you’ve already got your keyword research covered, be sure to check out our guide on organizing your website for multilingual SEO to get your site setup perfectly. If you still have any questions about SEO in Japanese or English, check out our SEO Services or get in touch. Anyway, on to the process! #1 Keyword Brainstorming All ideas are worth jotting down, go wild with your brainstorming! Before doing any external keyword research we start with our client and our own team. The client knows the product best, so we gather as much information as we can from them and then start a brainstorm session from that. This is usually an offline affair, just pen and pad, getting as many raw ideas as possible for keywords and phrases. It’s best
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Jan 29 2018
Japan’s Top Social Media Networks for 2018
Welcome to our third annual Japanese social media report, where we bring you all of the latest stats and insights on the social media landscape in Japan. This article will highlight the most popular social networks in Japan, give insights on how users and interactions are different on each network, and give our take on where social media in Japan is headed for 2018. Please check out our reports from 2016 and 2017 If you’d like to see how things have looked in past years. Once you're up to date, let’s take a look at what’s been happening in the last year. For 2018 statistics, please check out our latest report on social media in Japan. Japan’s Top Social Media Networks in 2017 SOCIAL NETWORK USAGE IN JAPAN BY % OF POPULATION *Tap or Hover on the graph below to see details. Source: Pre 2017 Data, Nikkei, Gaiax(1), Gaiax(2), Twitter('17),Twitter,('16) Japan Statistics Bureau *2017 Twitter data reported in October 2017 **2017 Facebook data reported in September 2017 *
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Nov 27 2017
Organizing Your Website For Multilingual SEO in Japanese
While search engine optimization (SEO) in a single language is challenging enough, there are even more challenges in keeping a multilingual site optimized for top search results. This article will provide tips on how to organize your multilingual website for SEO in Japanese. Although we will be focusing on sites with Japanese, much of this advice applies to multilingual sites in any language. For SEO, clearly organizing your content by language serves two important purposes: It allows users to easily navigate your website in their preferred language It allows Google’s website crawlers to easily determine which language you are targeting If users can’t find what they need in their native language quickly, they will leave the page and never come back. Nobody wants to stumble onto a page where they can’t understand anything. This is why Google promotes websites that have clear distinctions between content in multiple languages. Following these tips will make your we
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Aug 31 2017
Why You Should Sell on Rakuten, Japan’s Top E-Commerce Market
Rakuten is the biggest e-commerce marketplace in Japan, and serves as a great platform for companies looking to enter the Japanese market. Selling on Rakuten Japan gives you access to over 90% of the population on a network that is very familiar to Japanese shoppers. To be successful, you have to do it the Rakuten way. This article will give you solid advice on how to sell on Rakuten Japan and develop a strategy that works. Why You Can't Ignore Rakuten in Japan RAKUTEN IS THE BIGGEST JAPANESE E-COMMERCE SITE BY MARKET SHARE *Tap or hover on the graph below to see details. Source: PwC MOST PRODUCT CATEGORIES HAVE POTENTIAL ON RAKUTEN The Rakuten Japan Marketplace has a fairly even spread of product categories. The top selling categories in Japan regularly include clothing, electronics, food, and health supplements. There’s a good chance that your product will fit within one of it’s main categories, giving you a chance to tap into an existing pool of customers who are searchi
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Jun 30 2017
How to be a Successful Amazon Seller in Japan
E-commerce marketplaces like Amazon and Rakuten are some of the most lucrative places to sell online in Japan, giving sellers access to great benefits such as: Access to Japan’s biggest e-commerce market share (Amazon and Rakuten) A streamlined buying process for your customers Secure purchase exchanges (especially important for cross-border shopping) This article will explain why Amazon Japan is one of the easiest Japanese e-commerce sites to sell on, and give advice on how to make the best of your efforts there. To learn more about E-commerce in Japan, Please check out our previous article which will give you a more overall outlook on the industry. Why Choose Amazon Japan? Amazon has been active in Japan since 2000, making it an established and trusted name for e-commerce shoppers and sellers. Though Rakuten has beaten Amazon for the number one market share spot, Amazon is actually the most visited e-commerce site in Japan when measuring by unique visitors. Addi
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Mar 10 2017
How to Advertise on LINE Messenger in Japan
LINE is Japan’s most popular social network and its most popular messenger, all built into one app. This article will explain how to get started as a business on LINE in Japan. We will highlight proven ways to build a network of followers and give advice on how to plan content for LINE users in direct and group contexts. Though mobile messaging apps haven’t caught on as a strong marketing tool in the west yet, platforms such as WeChat and LINE have become hugely popular among marketers in Asia. As for Japan, LINE is its number one messenger and is installed on over 90% of smartphones. As a result, LINE serves as an amazingly effective tool for creating genuine and useful connections with Japanese consumers. If you’re looking towards the Japanese market, it’s impossible to ignore its potential. If you’re unfamiliar with LINE or how it is used, check out our previous article that goes in depth on LINE’s general usage in Japan. If you already know how it works, then let
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