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This makes me wonder, what’s the iMessage situation in Japan? Their smartphone market is also majority iOS, sitting at above 60% (while it is only a little bit

This makes me wonder, what’s the iMessage situation in Japan? Their smartphone market is also majority iOS, sitting at above 60% (while it is only a little bit above 50% for the US)[0]. Despite that, I am yet to hear about their version of the whole “blue bubble exclusion” controversy. It could definitely be just due to the japanese users not being super active on western internet, and not necessarily due to that controversy not being a thing in Japan. But it could just be a non-issue in Japan. Can anyone with knowledge of this chime in? 0. https://www.pcmag.com/news/ios-more-popular-in-japan-and-us-android-dominates-in-china-and-india https://www.pcmag.com/news/ios-more-popular-in-japan-and-us-...

hocuspocus 3y ago
LINE absolutely dominates the Japanese market in instant messaging and beyond (it's a super app like WeChat or KakaoTalk).
- filoleg 3y ago
  Yeah, I was familiar with LINE and Kakao, and I like how similar the setup is for SK and Japan. Thanks to your point, this way we can easily see that despite SK being android-dominant and Japan being iPhone-dominant, both are not heavily into iMessage and prefer their native super apps instead. Which provides a solid data point in favor of those claiming that the iMessage proliferation and dominance don’t necessarily have a direct causation stemming from iOS/Android dominance in a given market.
  - hocuspocus 3y ago
    Interestingly enough in Korea, the iOS market share is fairly high among some demographics, especially young professionals with enough disposable income. Android (Samsung, at this point) phones are seen as an option for boomers or younger kids. So in practice my wife uses FaceTime quite a bit with her siblings, and falls back to KakaoTalk when needed. Her iMessage usage isn't zero either, but mostly 1:1, group chats happen over KakaoTalk, since you know everyone will be there. I don't know if similar patterns are seen in Japan.
    - filoleg 3y ago
      Yeah, I suspect there is indeed something special about Kakao compared to LINE as well. Out of my friends who moved to Japan, pretty much not a single one of them uses LINE aside from rare one-offs. But with Kakao? Hell, everyone I know who even traveled to SK uses Kakao on regular (not even talking about those who moved there) pretty much as the main app in general for so many different things. EDIT: oh wow, this sent me down a pretty interesting rabbithole. Apparently 85% of people under 30 in SK had an Android as their first phone, with 53% of those people having switched to iOS since then[0]. 0. https://www.counterpointresearch.com/insights/30-south-korea-survey-85-bought-android-first-phone-now-53-ios/ https://www.counterpointresearch.com/insights/30-south-korea...
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hocuspocus 3y ago

LINE absolutely dominates the Japanese market in instant messaging and beyond (it's a super app like WeChat or KakaoTalk).

filoleg 3y ago
Yeah, I was familiar with LINE and Kakao, and I like how similar the setup is for SK and Japan. Thanks to your point, this way we can easily see that despite SK being android-dominant and Japan being iPhone-dominant, both are not heavily into iMessage and prefer their native super apps instead. Which provides a solid data point in favor of those claiming that the iMessage proliferation and dominance don’t necessarily have a direct causation stemming from iOS/Android dominance in a given market.
- hocuspocus 3y ago
  Interestingly enough in Korea, the iOS market share is fairly high among some demographics, especially young professionals with enough disposable income. Android (Samsung, at this point) phones are seen as an option for boomers or younger kids. So in practice my wife uses FaceTime quite a bit with her siblings, and falls back to KakaoTalk when needed. Her iMessage usage isn't zero either, but mostly 1:1, group chats happen over KakaoTalk, since you know everyone will be there. I don't know if similar patterns are seen in Japan.
  - filoleg 3y ago
    Yeah, I suspect there is indeed something special about Kakao compared to LINE as well. Out of my friends who moved to Japan, pretty much not a single one of them uses LINE aside from rare one-offs. But with Kakao? Hell, everyone I know who even traveled to SK uses Kakao on regular (not even talking about those who moved there) pretty much as the main app in general for so many different things. EDIT: oh wow, this sent me down a pretty interesting rabbithole. Apparently 85% of people under 30 in SK had an Android as their first phone, with 53% of those people having switched to iOS since then[0]. 0. https://www.counterpointresearch.com/insights/30-south-korea-survey-85-bought-android-first-phone-now-53-ios/ https://www.counterpointresearch.com/insights/30-south-korea...
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]