Japan has always been regarded as a slow adopter of every new, non-Japanese technology. There are some facts to support this observation. A typical example is the unexpectedly slow acceptance Japanese businesses have for social media like Facebook, Twitter and Mixi etc. In a survey reported in Nikkei Computer, the results tabulated below indicate that Japanese businesses are cold to the idea of massively using social media in their day-to-day business activities; however, this revelation obviously points to the fact that there is a huge possibility for their usage in the near future.
|
Purpose
|
Twitter
|
Facebook
|
Mixi
|
|
Get info before Newspapers & TV
|
49.3%
|
31.9%
|
5.8%
|
|
Get info on products & services of interest
|
20.6%
|
12.1%
|
8.6%
|
|
Advertise and promote products & services
|
2.7%
|
3.2%
|
0.5%
|
Source: Nikkei Computer
The figures above show ample opportunities for future expansion in the use of social media as Japanese businesses warm up to the adoption of these technologies in their daily business operations. And foreign developers and marketers of social media applications will also have equal chances of entering gallantly into Japan’s social media market.
So, how can cloud computing facilitate the use of social media in Japan? The table above indicates that a moderate number of Japanese businesses have already been utilizing social media to obtain information about products and services of interests. This entails that large amounts of information will be collected on daily basis, which may include the price information, specifications of products and services, contact/communication information etc. This bulk of information requires appreciable space on these businesses’ servers for storage, processing and retrieval. In this case, cloud computing will offer more storage capacity for these businesses while making sure that the information obtained is protected and stored in a format that can be easily accessible to these Japanese businesses’ usage.
Secondly, the results above reveal a hope for future increase in the utilization of social media by Japanese businesses in the area of advertising and promoting their products and services. This revelation attests to the expectation that the social media market in Japan will be big and profitable, calling all potential new entrants into the market to be ready for quick action.
And as the volume of advertising and products/services promotion on social media increases in Japan, companies (both local and foreign) that offer these services will have a lot to gain if they migrate their storage facility to the cloud so as to be able to handle the huge amount of data that will be generated by this action. New foreign entrants into Japan’s social media market will hugely benefit from coming into the country because Japanese businesses usually act in a group, meaning that once the concept of using social media has become popular, so many Japanese companies will come aboard at once to apply the same procedure to their day-to-day operations.
However, there will be huge demand for data storage, protection, easy accessibility and flexibility. And the only way to achieve this purpose effortlessly is for the social media companies, developers of social media applications and other accessories (software and hardware) to adopt the cloud technology. Cloud computing, tested and trusted, will offer these companies (both local and foreign) the needed storage capacity, security assurance, flexibility and scalability. The good news is that companies can scale down their storage capacity in case Japanese businesses suddenly withdraw from using social media in their advertisement and products/services promotion.
The points raised above strongly support the fact that cloud computing is the only solution for dealing with the projected demand for social media services in Japan in the coming years. Without it, it will be impossible for social media companies as well as their Japanese customers to grow in size and profitability.
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About the Guest Author:
Jerry Olasakinju, a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) degree holder, is a passionate researcher and writer whose interest in everything computing is unparalleled. He blogs about his literary works at
http://jerryolasakinju.blogspot.jp/
