Analysis of Social Networking Service

I started Facebook soon after I came to the United States on September 2008. Most of my friends told me that I needed to make an account of the Social Networking Service (SNS) to contact friends, to participate in events, and to share pictures. Although at first I hesitated to take part in Facebook for a while, I eventually followed their advice. At the time, I already had an account of mixi, which is a SNS in Japan. Since then, I compared and contrast them without conscious. As a total, mixi and Facebook have similarity each other, but some of their character is different. I read the article, which is “Mixi vs. Facebook,” and it compares and contrasts both of them, and concludes that mixi is a more successful site than Facebook.

The article focuses on systems of these two SNSs. It explains that mixi is diary-based, and it looks like blogs. Also, comments can be posted to most of its posters in mixi. Unlike mixi, Facebook is more focusing on uploading pictures. The unknow author said, “Facebook seems more public, whilst mixi is more private – I think this reflects the two cultures in that Japanese people in general are much more concerned about their privacy, about what is public, and what is private.” The point is interesting.

Although the article mentions technological characters of two networking services, the article is missing two aspects. One aspect is that Facebook is totally easier to make friends and to widen networks. In my own experience, I usually don’t hesitate to apply to friends online partly because I do not need to say anything. Only I have to do is to click “Add as friend.” On the contrary, when people apply to friends online, they have to say some kinds of greeting. That makes people more bothersome. Undoubtfully, one click is much easier. In fact, while I still have only 83 friends on mixi, I already have 122 friends on Facebook despite of that I have stayed in the United States for one and a half year. Another aspect is that some of participants of mixi do not use their actual name; on the other hand, people usually use their real name on Facebook. Therefore, Facebook users can search their friends much easier.

Overall, two SNSs, mixi and Facebook, have different points. As opposed to the assertion of the article, I would have to say that Facebook is more successful service as a SNS because the first purpose of SNS should be to broaden and widen relationship among people, and Facebook does its duty better than mixi.

[Via http://reporting1blog.wordpress.com]