Social Media, Advertising, and the Role of the Cloud in the Japanese Market
If there is one field where Japan has been a slow adopter, it is in social media, particularly the Western brand of social media such as services like Facebook. While private users have eagerly used these platforms, businesses in Japan have been slower. This represents a huge opportunity for companies willing to take advantage of this untapped resource.
How cloud computing can help the development of social media platforms in Japan
There is definitely a rising trend in the adoption of social media platforms by Japanese businesses and it is clear that the next few years will see an increase in the use of this resource for market research and advertising. One of the reasons why the cloud and social media go hand in hand is because most businesses, even the largest companies, do not have the necessary IT resources needed to manage the enormous amounts of marketing data that are gathered through social media platforms. With the promise of virtually unlimited computing power and data storage, cloud providers provide an essential service for marketers.
Japanese businesses tend to move together when making changes to the status quo. Because of this, a snowball effect is likely in the future, when not only one but a large number of businesses will adopt the cloud for industry, marketing, and collaboration. Scalability is also a very large issue. In short, the inevitable adoption of Western social media platforms by Japanese businesses (or homegrown clones and variants) will result in a large influx of marketing data and a need for computer power. Cloud service providers will then step in to allow companies to take advantage of this, and it will also let social media companies adapt to the quick growth that the market will demand.
Advertising methods, marketing and the cloud
The digital age has made advanced marketing techniques and advertising cheaper than ever before. Conventional media advertising represented a huge percentage of a company’s resources before the advent of the Internet. Today, companies seldom use more than 15% of their expenses on traditional advertising, instead increasing their Internet presence. Now, companies all over Japan are fighting for turf on the digital billboard. In Japan, this is especially true of mobile advertising, which is growing even faster than Internet advertising.
Trends show, however, that Internet advertising may grow in the future as more consumers use Internet search engines to carry out their searches for products and services. Some of the most important benefits of Internet advertising include its cost efficiency, broad coverage, and quick effects. Out of all the forms of Internet advertising, search engine advertising is consistently better than banner ads and other kinds of marketing. This represents an important opportunity for cloud service providers because Internet advertising requires higher storage capacities, scalability, and wide availability. These three points are where cloud technology shines.
The role of the cloud in Internet advertising in the Japanese market
Few businesses are prepared to handle the huge amounts of computing power and storage needs needed for an effective online marketing presence. Japanese business values trust and good service very highly. A company must be reliable and dependable in this culture. Cloud computing promises businesses the scalability they need to keep up with growing demand and avoid interruptions of service and downtime. To gain a better understanding of this capability, visit GMO Cloud’s High Availability page to view auto-scaling and fault tolerance features.
The cloud will also be important in helping companies deliver advertisements that are personalized for each customer. While this would be prohibitively expensive when talking of traditional advertising or even digital advertising handled with an on-premises data center, it is considerably easier for a cloud-based advertisement model.
While businesses have been slow to adopt cloud computing, recent improvements in cloud security, data protection, and disaster recovery have helped assuage many business’ fears for the safety of their data. Cloud service providers have also been able to offer lower costs thanks to advancements in this technology and the improvements in Japan’s already stellar IT infrastructure. In the end, the bottom line will win out over any other concerns and, as Internet advertising and Western social media models attract more customers, cloud technology will also be adopted to deal with the increased data flows and management.
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About the Guest Author:
Nida Rasheed is a freelance writer and owner of an outsourcing company, Nida often finds herself wanting to write about the subjects that are closest to her heart. She lives in Islamabad, Pakistan and can be found on Twitter @nidarasheed.
