Social Has Been Around Since Ancient Times: Insights from the Head of Instagram in Japan

Follow @ArtieBe

Thanks to event organized by EN World, I had a chance to listen and talk with the head of Instagram in Japan, Mr. Tsuguhide Nagase. Instagram is part of Facebook but runs as a separate service. What’s unique about this network and why it could be relevant to users and advertisers in the mobile-first era?

Social is Nothing New

Social connectivity has been a part of human nature since ancient times - sharing things while having a tea or nonverbally while at campfire. Humans have always been messengers and story tellers. Thus, people have always been publishers as well. What has changed is the media – same behavior but in a whole new world.

Today, people look at mobile instead of TV. Time spent on mobile is significantly increasing in Japan. From 2009 to 2013 it has grown by 2.5 times while 4 times among those in the age of their 20ies. Usage of mobile is 1.5 times higher than that of PC. Trend of using mostly one device at a time is also increasing due to larger screens available for mobile devices. Mobile is the preferred screen in Japan. Facebook and Instagram are not social tools – they are marketing and branding tools. Instagram is in the business of branding. As of today, Instagram has 300 million monthly active users.

The Contributors
There are 2-3 groups of users on Instagram. Instagrammers – just upload pics and enjoy community. Instant meet is an activity where community can gather in a physical location to share and understand how nice and creative pics were made. It is not a drinking party.

Another group is famous users - celebrities. The number of followers is also affected by the actual artistic sense of the photos they upload. People will not follow if their pics are not nice. Famous users can also be organizations like National Geographic, Starbucks who use the service for branding. Getting more followers means creating great images rather than just clicking to like others and exchanging follows. As of today, Instagram has 70 million number of photos contributed a day and 2.5 billion likes a day.

In Branding Business

In the mobile-first world, the power of user’s thumb – tap or skip means that an ad needs to be very good at first impression and should have creative impact. What you saw is important. 99% of people who saw a Facebook ad and then bought a product in a store never clicked on that ad at all. They remember the impression and make the transaction later. Therefore, Instagram is focused on branding and awareness via images rather than click-through rates. Here, images are universal language. Therefore, it is no wonder that from the beginnings of the service, 70% of the users are coming from outside of the US from various geographies.

If a company publishes nice images unrelated directly to their trademark, those can attract followers who can also become customers via overall brand awareness. For example, Louis Vuitton often publishes images not linked directly to their trademark or promotions. Burberry can publish images of London. Then London could potentially tag with Burberry in the user’s mind etc.

Facebook and Instagram ads are different. Facebook targeting is based and follows click-through rates. Instagram is focused on creative images and the measurement would be different. Instagram will start advertising services in Japan this year. One of important principles will be to maintain good user experience.