As social networks have become universal in all major countries including United States, more and more internet marketers are investing heavily on them. Today, social networks are not only increasing the share of ad impressions, but are also the cheapest form of online marketing. While these are expanding fast in stateside, Japanese social networks are relatively slow.

A recent emarketer report suggests that although traditional social networking is not keeping up well, mobile social networking sites are getting good response and are at par with American sites. The survey was conducted by Ofcom in October 2010 and reported the penetration of mobile social networking at 22 percent in both Japan and U.S.

Sorting the data by age, most of the users, 37% in U.S. and 39% in Japan are of age group 18-24 years followed by 37% again in U.S. from age group of 25-34 years. So, most of the users of mobile social networks are youngsters. Moreover, the company reports of Japan’s three largest social networks including GREE, mixi and DeNA’s Mobage-town reported increased number of mobile users. In September 2010, GREE had 46.52 billion mobile and 500 million PC page views while mixi had 26.12 billion mobile and 4.62 billion PC page views.

Besides, their profits are also soaring high. In Q3 of 2010, DeNA and GREE reported net sales of ¥27.1 billion and ¥12.4 billion that was 216% and 82% more respectively than the previous year. This tremendous growth and research figures clearly demonstrate the increasing realm of mobile internet and gaming across Japan. The best part is that this success is expected to replicate across the Pacific, especially United States.

Mobile social gaming is continuously growing and spawning in Japan. An example of this is the growing number of users on @games, the Japanese version of TinierMe. It is not only experiencing the increasing users from Japan, but U.S. and Philippines as well. The credit of this success goes to the increased average spending of $100 by average Japanese gamer on virtual goods, almost five times more than an average American gamer.

This has also urged to make some winning virtual strategies by the company. In an interview TinierMe CEO Masaru “Nogi” Ohnogi said,

“TinierMe has a global audience, but the focus is in the U.S. and Philippines.  Some major differences in the user base is their attitudes.  Japanese users are more shy, and hesitant to communicate in virtual worlds.  We provide more private rooms for them,” Nogi explains.  “U.S. users are less shy, and will start a conversation in the open.”

This clearly reflects the strategy that TinierMe has made for the Japanese gamers who don’t hesitate to quick open their wallets!