![]() It confined the Mixi experience to Japan. Taking the opposite route, Mixi restricted membership to Japanese cellphone owners and ran strictly in Japanese.Īlthough Mixi’s strategy offered extra security, it came at a cost. Although membership had been limited to those with registered college email addresses, in 2006 Facebook emerged from its isolationist shell, allowing anyone to join. Thanks to smartphones’ popularity and intuitive apps, Mixi’s competitors became more accessible and easier to use than they had been during the keitai era.įacebook spurred a paradigm shift in Japanese social-networking. Smartphones kicked archaic keitai (cell phones) to the curb by offering streamlined interfaces and smooth internet browsing experiences. Twitter offered second-by-second news, sharing, and personal expression. Facebook allowed “real” people (more on that later) to connect and reconnect. Twitter, Line, and Facebook chipped away at Mixi’s market share by offering slightly different experiences. But just when they appeared to have a secure grasp on the Japanese market, foreign competition entered the game. “At one point, 27 million people, or one in five Japanese, had a Mixi account,” says Jonathan Soble of the New York Times. Mixi had conquered Japan’s social networking scene. Monster Strike’s domination of the mobile gaming scene struck me as random, but was anything but.īy assembling a crack production team that brought old school gaming elements to the current mobile gaming world, Mixi and its pet Monster dethroned the leading mobile gaming king, forced the mighty Nintendo to take notice and became 2014’s mobile game phenomenon. Yet, instead of squandering resources on a losing battle, Mixi hatched a plan to conquer new territory – the mobile gaming scene. Mixi used to be Japan’s social media kingpin, until they were overtaken by upstart competition. ![]() To kindergartners in Japan, owning a smartphone means one thing Monster Strike.Īnd Mixi, Monster Strike’s parent company, couldn’t be happier. ![]() This past year the kids showed me a mobile game called Monster Strike, or Mon-Suto (モンスト) to those in-the-know. As an added bonus, the children keep me up to date with the latest trends in their world.Ī couple of years ago Yo-kai Watch exploded onto the scene and possessed children’s handhelds, t-shirts, school stationary and even bentou lunch boxes. We sing, dance, read picture books, and even take naps. Teaching kindergarten has its advantages. ![]()
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