Sure! Apple is a bit of an exception because they created a completely new market -- the smartphone. Japanese companies move slowly, and are hobbled by design-

Sure! Apple is a bit of an exception because they created a completely new market -- the smartphone. Japanese companies move slowly, and are hobbled by design-by-committee, so their response to new market entrants is... leisurely. I'm not sure how that will play out long-term. We'll see where Apple is in twenty years. And Macs are very uncommon, compared to Windows PCs. SV tech tends to show up at startups, often started by Westerners that have moved here. That's a common pattern, and if you're in the foreigner bubble, it can be hard to notice. But in the rest of Japan? Slack? I'm not sure I actually know any Japanese companies that use it, and the market statistics don't show a lot of grip outside of the US/EU. Uber Eats is doing well! Especially with COVID-19. But that's after Uber fell totally flat launching here in Japan. And it remains to be seen if they can hold on to their lead. It took Uber years of flailing around when they first arrived here, during which they ignored advice like "Japanese taxis are super safe" and "Thumbing your nose at regulators here isn't going to work like it does in the US." Line totally dominates Japanese instant messaging. It's the WeChat of Japan. Facebook didn't really understand Japanese privacy needs until recently, and I don't see them un-seating Line. Apple Pay is a second-rate payment system in Japan, and doesn't work if you have a foreign credit card. Japanese banking is... complicated. I once had a gym that outright refused to take my monthly payment on a credit card -- until they realized that my bank and their bank didn't have a "relationship". Never in the US was I told that, in order to pay for a service, Wells Fargo first needed to take USAA out for dinner and a movie. Anyhow, Meetup never caught on here, because they didn't understand the market. Gap is around, but they never felt like a major player in the fashion space. None of the education offerings in the US have any traction here. OpenTable? Nope. You use TableCheck if you want a reservation somewhere. Overall, I don't see any of the companies on this list[1] having any traction at all here, outside of major players which (a) have invested billions; and (b) took years to understand the local market well enough to adapt their offerings. And even then... Google still has to to advertise in Japan, and I strongly suspect that Google Maps plays second fiddle to Norikae. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_based_in_the_San_Francisco_Bay_Area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companies_based_in_the...