There’s no doubt that Japan is the world leader in 3G technology, with 3G penetration standing at an impressive 95% and 84.3% of mobile phone users browsed mobile Internet from their mobile phones in 2009. And Japan’s postpaid market is going to be extinct soon — just 1.3% of accounts are prepaid and they are heading south rapidly.

According to a recent study conducted by Mobile Marketing Data Labo on 4,000 social network users in Japan, 75.4% of the respondents claimed that they access social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter via their mobile phone (and not from their PC). What’s more shocking is that a mere 2% said they visit it from their PC (and not their mobile phone). Meanwhile, 22.2% access from both PC and mobile phone.

Apparently, social networking sites seem to attract more females than males in Japan, with 61.2% of females active on social platforms as compared to 51.2% of males. Among the most used features on social networks include blogging, playing and messaging.

Similar to China, home-grown social networks such as Mobage Town, Mixi and Gree dominate in Japan whereas Facebook and Twitter are still far behind in the race. The main reason is simple. Local brands have a strong gaming element that attracts and connects users while Facebook and Twitter are more on basic interaction and communication, therefore keeping global players at bay.

Even though Twitter has launched its Japanese version quite a while back, however, lady luck wasn’t at its side. Only 520,000 people in Japan use Twitter, a relatively low reach of just 0.90% of all Internet users. On the other hand, there are about 17.08 million (10.2%) Americans are on Twitter.

When it comes to mobile technology, Japan is a level higher than most industrialized nations, including the United States, United Kingdom and Singapore. Up to now, these developed countries definitely aren’t up to par with Japan’s extremely high 3G mobile usage yet. The time will come, but it may take a while.

Last September, Facebook reported that over 65 million people are using its mobile phone application. The social networking juggernaut has two mobile websites: m.facebook.com, which works on any mobile browser, and x.facebook.com, which is designed specifically for touch screen phones like Android, Palm, iPhone and Nokia. And even San Francisco-based micro-blogging platform Twitter has made several improvements to its mobile web version (mobile.twitter.com), in an effort to encourage mobile usage.

Unlike Japanese social networking websites which generate a lot of revenue by offering premium services, both Facebook and Twitter have been struggling to make a quick buck from their mobile web version. One good example would be Mobage Town, touted as “Japan’s biggest mobile-only social network“. Besides merely exchanging messages and interacting with people, the site provides a wide variety of free games. The folks there earn money from sales of virtual currency, advertisements, and subscriptions to affiliate services.

It would be great if Facebook were to roll out a similar service in the near future. Maybe they can rely on its huge network of game developers, especially Zynga or PlayFish, to create games suitable for mobile phones. And Facebook could get a slice of pie of revenue from the either premium services or virtual currency.

I really would like to know what the mobile world will become five years down the road…

Via FreshNetworks