Buzzfeed is bringing its angry cats, quizzes and listicles to the Japanese market by the end of this year. However, many Japanese competitors already offer similar entertainment.
Numerous challenges stand in the way of the viral online content and social news site making it in Japan. Staffing, an alien internet culture and a well-established web infrastructure will all pose challenges to its success.
The new venture will be 49 per cent owned by Yahoo Japan and 51 per cent by Buzzfeed. “In Japan, we want to open with a partner who can help to accelerate our growth,” Greg Coleman, the president of Buzzfeed, said.
Yahoo Japan says that it will help to tailor content for Japanese users and handle advertising.
“Nowhere in the world prints nearly as many newspapers as Japan,” Daisuke Tsuda, a media activist, said.
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“What that means is that staff at these places are getting great wages [upwards of £50,000 a year] by the time they are 30. Few of the old guard are moving into positions with new media.” Making sure the content goes beyond straightforward translations from the US site will also be essential.
Kohei Kanayasu, a 20-year-old student in Tokyo, fits the Buzzfeed user profile. He is young, and interested in technology and internet culture. He is also bilingual. “I don’t think simply importing articles from other versions of Buzzfeed would be effective,” he says. “People would feel detached.” He and his friends, many of whom do not speak or read English, get their cat pictures through the social media site Snapchat.
He says that he sees space for Buzzfeed as a website that focuses on news that established media in Japan fails to cover. Civic journalism here is “overshadowed by major political news,” Mr Kanayasu says.
Competitors for Buzzfeed will include Toyo Keizai, a website that focuses on business and international news, and SmartNews, an app that aggregates viral content and sends news updates to phones.