InsideJapan News Network

Micro-blogging site Twitter has been launched as a mobile version in Japan, it has announced, the first offering from the website in a foreign language.

In a bid to break into the market in Japan, a country known for being one step ahead of the technology and gadget game, Twitter teamed up with Digital Garage last year, to create the mobile phone platform in Japanese.

According to reports, social networking has failed to have the same impact in Japan as it has around the world, with sites such as MySpace and Facebook not attracting the same number of people in the country as in nations such as the US and UK.

Twitter first launched in the country back in January but did not prove popular with many users apart from "male tech geeks", said the Associated Press.

"Still, Twitter remains a mystery to the vast majority of Japanese web users. Mixi, the country's top social networking site, has 17 million users and is aiming for 30 million within four years," the news source said.

Written by Kimberley Homer.


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