Japan has a very lively video sharing ecosystem that is marked by significant innovations and a strong diversification of platforms. Video sharing services have existed in Japan at least since the late 1990s and became more widely used with the spread of broadband internet connections in the early 2000s, which made it easier for internet users to contribute and consume user-generated content. The market rose to prominence particularly after the establishment of YouTube in 2005, which was quickly adopted by many Japanese users and today boasts an exceptionally high
. One of Japan’s most successful homegrown video sharing services, Niconico Douga, started in December 2006 and initially used YouTube as a video source. The service became known for its bullet chatting feature, which made it possible for user comments to appear at a specific time during the videos.
Advertising and marketing aspects
Survey figures show that the possibility to watch videos at the time and in the way of one’s own choosing is the
most common reason for using video sharing websites. The spread of smartphones throughout the 2010s has made mobile internet use much more convenient than before, which led to a strong increase in the time people spend on watching video sharing services. Teenagers and people in their twenties are particularly enthusiastic consumers in this regard, which also means that these services are highly attractive for advertisers who want to reach these segments of the population. The increase in online media consumption brought about a reallocation of advertising spending from traditional to online media, which resulted in the internet overtaking television as the leading advertising medium within the Japanese market in 2019. Consequently,
online video advertising and
influencer marketing have become significant segments of the advertising and marketing landscape in Japan, with YouTube being particularly important due to its widespread adoption.
Variety of services
Next to international services such as TikTok and Twitch, Japanese consumers can choose from a wide variety of local video sharing services that cater to different interests, such as Showroom, where music idols and voice actors and actresses can get into contact with their fans, or TwitCasting, which allows users to link their accounts with their social media profiles and create live streams for their followers and friends via smartphone. One trend that originated in Japan and spread to other countries in the latter half of the 2010s were
virtual YouTubers, so-called VTubers, which are video content creators that use computer-generated avatars. The term was coined by the Japanese VTuber Kizuna Ai in 2016 and has since been used for similar content creators across various video platforms. Apps that allow users to create and share videos as VTubers include Iriam, Mirrativ, and Topia, among others.
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