Social networks going Global

Social networks going global.

A little background theory .

Cultural standardization

“ Cultural standardization”

The myth that by spreading cultural artifacts & practices, culture around the world is becoming the same everywhere.

Examples: “Coca-cola-ization”, “The world is flat”, “The death of distance”, “The convergence of tastes” .

People give meaning to artifacts & practices.

Technological determinism

“ Technological determinism”

The myth that there is one path of technological evolution that we all follow, determined by technology itself.

Example: “We’re 10 years behind Japan in cellphone technology.”

Technology and culture interact, are co-created.

Global social networks.

Some numbers

Registered users (million)

Facebook: 60

QQ.com: 500

Cyworld: 20

Mixi: 14

Revenues 2007: (million US$)

Facebook: 150

QQ.com: 520

Cyworld: 200

Mixi: 100

Cyworld

It’s a cultural phenomenon.

“ My name is Kim Yoo Bin… I am 21 years old… I am Wonder Girls… I like Horror movies… I like pretty things… I’m…Truthfully…I…have a confession to make…

It’s a cultural phenomenon.

“ My name is Kim Yoo Bin… I am 21 years old… I am Wonder Girls… I like Horror movies… I like pretty things… I’m…Truthfully…I…have a confession to make… I am……. Snow White…. “

Features and culture

Environment:

Fast internet

Real identity.

No anonymous browsing.

Features:

The usual photo/video sharing, buddy lists, groups etc…

Avatar’s and 3-d homepages that you can decorate with items you buy.

You can write a “couple-diary” with your special someone (way too corny for US audience).

You can also write a group diary with your friends as many as 12.

You can “lend” comic books (online).

Cyworld evolved in South Korea.

Technology and users co-evolve.

Exporting culture/adapting features.

Features and culture: Nico Nico Douga vs. YouTube

How “Japanese” is Nico Nico Douga?

Webkare

Social networks on the move.

CyWorld

USA South Korea Orkut is focusing on Brazil Brazil Japan Friendster is focusing on Asia Netlog Is moving (leaving their home market) Is expanding

Netlog’s strategy: add languages & smart localization.

Smart localization: KISS

Language based (not country based).

An easy to localize platform.

A smart global gateway.

Content prioritization.

Users see relevant content when logged in: users in their country, content in their language.

No local offices.

Community managers (students based in Gent) that speak the language.

Xing

Categories are cultural

Tags can be separated by the user’s default language

Crowdsourcing translations

Standardize, then localize

Go international (standardize)

After some time has passed, in some markets, go local

Users of the same service are not necessarily the same.

“ LiveJournal has decided that, in order to make certain that different communities are represented, there will be two user representatives in the Advisory Board. One will be elected to represent the Cyrillic language community and the other will represent the non-Cyrillic users.

Conclusions , if any.

Conclusions

Myth: technological determinism.

Users and technology co-evolve.

Myth: cultural standardization.

Users give meaning to features.

The world isn’t flat, it’s regional.

Some social networks seem too “local” for export.

Regional export tends to work.

How do social networks go global?

KISS the internationalization/localization:

Localize on language.

Content prioritization:

Users in your country, content in your language.

Keep tags separate per language, but users and content global.

Expand into culturally similar regions:

moving from Belgium to Spain is much easier than moving from the US to Korea.

If you do expand (like Cyworld) into a culturally different location, building a culturally mixed team is the first step, adjusting features is the second.