Twitter, mixi form Japan tie-up as gains 30 November 2011, By TOMOKO A. HOSAKA , Associated Press

(AP) -- Inc. and Japan's biggest More than 14.5 million users visited Twitter, and homegrown social networking site mixi Inc. joined 11.3 million went to Facebook, according to the forces Wednesday to strengthen their ground Nielsen report. In contrast, about 8.4 million visited against a rapidly expanding Facebook. mixi. Google's social networking service was a very distant fourth. For Twitter, the partnership with a local could point to a new strategy as the San Facebook has surged over the last year in Japan, Francisco-based microblogging service seeks to in part due to the popularity of the hit movie "The accelerate global growth. Japan is the company's Social Network." The Nielsen data indicates that it second-biggest market after the U.S. and has surpassed mixi midway through the year. Growing served as a key international testing ground of social gaming services GREE and DeNA also pose sorts. threats to mixi.

Japanese was Twitter's first foreign language Twitter and mixi said they offer contrasting - and platform, and it opened its first overseas office in mutually beneficial - services. While Twitter is a Tokyo earlier this year. In April, the company hired public platform with real-time information, mixi is a James Kondo in Japan as its first international closed network. Most users limit their networks to a country manager. small group of their closest friends.

Kondo said he didn't know if Twitter would forge Mixi hopes that by partnering with Twitter, it can similar partnerships in other countries. But the better integrate public information and conversation company is keen to see what happens with the into its tight-knit communities. experiment, which launched with a limited Christmas-themed application, he said. "Mixi rightly had a choice to do it themselves or partner with someone who's good at this," Kondo "This is going to be an interesting case," he told said. "And we're glad that they thought that Twitter The Associated Press. "We're going to see what would be a good partner. I think we can provide works and what doesn't work, and we're going to value that's distinctive." build on top of that as opposed to throwing out something that may not work." Kenji Kasahara, mixi's founder and president, said that the two companies started talking after the For mixi, the announcement couldn't have come at March earthquake and tsunami. Both services were a better time. used extensively as critical information lifelines in the wake of the disaster. The seven-year-old Tokyo-based company had been the dominant social networking platform in Twitter in particular gained credibility in Japan after Japan. Despite its massive popularity elsewhere in the earthquake. New users flocked to the site for the world, Facebook failed to make much of an real-time information about the nuclear crisis, impact in the country. That is, until this year. electricity blackouts and aftershocks.

Data released this week from Nielsen NetRatings "Had our services been connected during the Japan showed that mixi stood in third place behind disaster, we would have been able to provide much Twitter and Facebook in terms of unique visitors in better service for our users," he said at a joint press October. conference at mixi headquarters.

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But for starters, mixi has created a "mixi Xmas 2011" page, through which its users can share holiday messages on both platforms and send "social gifts" to friends.

Other new joint products are also in the works. The companies said they hope to cooperate on emergency communications during disasters, location-based applications, advertising and business services.

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