by Mike Oakland
The top five Japanese websites of 2012 are so mundane we decided to include a picture of a scantily clad supermodel at the end of this article just so you’ll read it (No peeksies!).
An independent study from Freshtrax has rounded up Japan’s most popular websites of 2012 and the most shocking thing about the entire list is that Yahoo! wins out over Google on it.
Average American Yahoo user
Below are the top five sites from 2012:
- Yahoo! Japan
Believe it or not, Japanese people use Yahoo! a hell of a lot. Long term Japan residents may not be so surprised about this, however, as Yahoo!’s most innovative service is its weather tracker and Japanese people freakin’ love to talk about the weather.
Yahoo! Japan also instituted something just shy of an armed coup when top dogs elected to oust more or less every person over 50 in a position of power and install a younger, wilder generation to lead the company and maintain its pole position over other giants like Google and Rakuten. No word yet on just how differently this younger leadership will run the company, but if the real world is anything like Lethal Weapon, there are sure to be a lot of explosions and heated calls for Yahoo! Japan to turn in its gun and badge.
Google Japan was the second most popular website in Japan in 2012, which could only mean that Google, pretty much the most used website ever, actually chose the position.
Judging by Japanese Wikipedia’s top 10 searches of 2012, however, Google’s decision to censor pornography from image searches in late 2012 may have resulted in a 99% decrease in users.
- FC2.com
The Japanese love blogging, which would explain this blogging tool’s position as third most popular site of 2012.
FC2 makes it possible for Japanese women to share all the pictures of food their hearts desire, thankfully prior to ingestion for the most part.
We think this is pre-ingestion
- Amazon.co.jp
Amazon got a piece of the action in Japan, coming in at number four in 2012.
The online retailing website has long held pole positions in many countries in the west, but this is the first year the company has overtaken Japan’s native Rakuten.
Both companies have their strengths and weaknesses, but we’re thinking the ability to find more or less anything for sale on Amazon, from headless, dead rabbits to “Subtle Butt” gas neutralizers gave it the competitive edge in 2012.
Rounding out the list is Facebook, which pulled in triple the number of new users in 2012 compared to the year before and decimated the native competition, Mixi.jp.
Some considered the No. 1 social networking platform in the world to be too public for Japan’s tastes, but it appears Facebook compromised by letting Japanese users set their profile pictures to photos of dogs and cats rather than their real likenesses.
The introduction of more flexible security settings may also have appealed to the Japanese, who are for some reason more averse to their bosses seeing pictures of them doing keg stands and pantless Gangnam Style dances than their western counterparts.
Just another Tuesday at the office
Check back again next year for the top five Japanese websites of 2013, which will hopefully contain something a little more scintillating than social media and popular search engines.
Now here’s your reward for sticking it out through this entire article, you little trooper, you!
Don’t say we never did anything for you.
