1）据serkantoto报道，Facebook日本活跃用户或许已经超过Mixi用户。在今年3月，Facebook日本工作室宣布其MAU已从去年9月份双倍增长至1000万。

近日Facebook首席运营官Sheryl Sandberg又宣布Facebook在日本已有1500万用户，Facebook在日本的使用率在过去6个月中增长迅速，Facebook今后将加强关注在日本业务的发展。

Mixi-MAU(from serkantoto)

而Mixi则在上个月宣布截止2012年6月，其网站MAU为1453万。

2）据insidesocialgames报道，NHN Japan推出的新手机社交网站Line（于2011年6月上线），虽然在日本海外市场仍然缺乏知名度，但目前用户已超过6000万，其中日本用户超过2500万。行业观察者Dr. Serkan Toto最近发布图表显示，该平台突破5000万用户大关的速度远超过Twitter和Facebook。

line-growth-nhn-japan(from serkantoto)

Line推出的iOS应用目前位居美国免费社交网络应用第45名，热销社交网络应用第19名。在日本则位居免费社交网络应用第3名，热销社交网络应用第1名。此外还是日本第12名热销应用，第26名热门免费应用。

在Android平台，Line位居美国Google Play通信类应用第52名，也是目前热销应用第64名。

3）据gamasutra报道，Cowen and Company分析师Doug Cruetz表示Zynga、EA、迪士尼Playdom等许多主流社交游戏公司日活跃用户都在逐月下降，而智能手机、平板电脑上的免费增值游戏却一枝独秀，在8月份iPhone、iPad和Android三大平台前20名热门游戏榜单的60款游戏中，免费增值游戏占据了56个席位。

free(from appdup.com)

Cowen公司认为在过去几个月中，休闲数字游戏热潮已经从PC社交游戏转向移动领域，许多Facebook大型开发商已经转战移动平台（游戏邦注：例如《Top Girl》开发商CrowdStar就已宣布停止开发社交游戏，将重心转向手机游戏）。

4）据games.com报道，Zynga最近与开发商The Method合作，将向Zynga.com及Facebook平台发行寻物解谜游戏《Yard Sale：Hidden Treasures》。该游戏最初将含有24个不同场景，玩家将根据故事情节与其中角色互动，找到后者正在寻找的特定物品。

YardSale_ZDC_Method(from gamezebo)

该游戏理念类似于Zynga原来的寻物解谜游戏《Hidden Chronicles》，但其新闻稿并未提及其中的社交功能。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Has Facebook Japan Finally Overtaken Mixi? Apparently, Yes. [Social Networks]

by Dr. Serkan Toto

It looks like the number of active users for Facebook in Japan is now higher than that of Mixi.

In March this year, Facebook caused a splash when the Tokyo office revealed its number of MAU doubled to 10 million from September 2011.

Back then, I wrote: “If Facebook can keep this growth rate, they will have overtaken Mixi well before 2012 is over.”

And now Facebook proper’s COO Sheryl Sandberg (who is currently on a business trip in Tokyo) claims that Facebook has 15 million users in Japan.

In an interview with business daily The Nikkei Sandberg is quoted as saying: “Japan is a really important market for us. We have over 15 million users in this market. Only six months ago, we had 10 million users.”

In other words, Facebook usage in Japan has been growing quickly after the last official announcement six months ago – which is actually not a big shocker to anybody living in this country.

Mixi, on the other hand, announced last month that its site saw 14.53 million MAU in June 2012.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mixi’s general downward trend in terms of MAU continuing in line with the rise of Facebook, meaning the difference could be larger than roughly half a million MAU by the end of this year.

What’s more, Sandberg told The Nikkei that her company intends to “increase its focus on Japan” going forward.（source:serkantoto）

2）Hands on with Line, the 60 million user strong mobile-social network from Japan

Pete Davison

Line is a fast-growing new mobile-social network and platform from NHN Japan. It’s available now as a free download for iOS and Android devices, with additional in-app purchases for custom content such as virtual stickers.

Although still relatively unknown outside of its native Japan, where it launched back in June 2011, as of this week Line had more than 60 million users, more than 25 millon of whom are Japanese.

Industry watcher Dr. Serkan Toto has been following the growth of the mobile social network and platform. As you can see from his chart, the service was able to pass the 50 million user threshold much faster than both Twitter and Facebook.

NHN Japan has been capitalizing on the popularity of its upstart social network, rolling out social games and a horoscope service in order to turn it into a social platform for other apps.

At its core however, Line is a free calling and messaging app. There are several components to the Line experience. After signing up — which may be done with an email address or phone number on iOS but requires a phone number on Android — the user is initially invited to start adding friends. This may be achieved in several ways — searching for a specific ID, scanning a QR code, “shaking” devices in close physical proximity to one another or joining a group chat and adding friends from the participants list. The app also allow for  ”official accounts” from brands and celebrities to post messages, but at present this functionality appears to be limited to certain territories such as Japan — there are, at the time of writing, no official accounts in the U.S. or U.K.

Once the user has some friends, they have a number of possibilities. The app can be used for simple asynchronous messaging similar to Apple’s own iMessage and other rival apps such as Kik and WhatsApp. It’s also possible to send photo, video and voice messages to one another, and also to make free voice calls between users. The chat functionality is solid, though some App Store users have complained that it does not show when a partner is typing — a relatively minor issue, but one which is expected by some due to its presence in other, similar apps.

The app’s monetization primarily stems from the sale of virtual “stickers” which can be posted into chat windows as a means of visual expression. A selection of default stickers is provided to users upon downloading the app for the first time, and additional stickers are made available for free during special events such as the Olympics. Naver also makes use of sticker offers to promote their other Line-branded apps, with free packs of special stickers available for those who download and install them.

Besides the asynchronous chat facility, Line also features a mobile-social network. Users are able to post photos, videos and location information on their “Home” page and follow the updates of their friends using the Timeline view. Privacy settings allow users to customize exactly which friends see different updates, and users are able to like and comment on individual posts as they see fit. In an interesting twist, “likes” are represented by one of several different icons according to various emotions the user may wish to express towards the post, including love, laughter and shock. This feature helps give users much more helpful, immediate feedback on their posts than a simple “like,” which can be somewhat ambiguous in meaning.

As a messaging service, Line is a solid app with some excellent functionality that has a strong but unobtrusive monetization strategy in place. The fact that it is also designed for brands and celebrities to be able to engage directly with their fans is a bonus, though for it to succeed in the U.S. and other territories there will likely need to be some takeup from these “official” accounts.

The iOS version of Line is currently ranked at No. 45 in Top Free Social Networking apps and No. 19 in Top Grossing Social Networking Apps in the U.S. In  Japan, the app is the No. 3 Top Free Social Networking app and the No. 1 Top Grossing Social Networking app. It is also the No. 12 Top Grossing app in Japan, and the No. 26 Top Free app overall at the time of writing.

On Android, Line is ranked at No. 52 in the Communication category of Google Play in the United States at the time of writing. It is also currently ranked as the No. 64 Top Grossing app.（source:insidemobileapps）

3）Social game players continue ditching desktops for mobile

By Eric Caoili

Mounting evidence points to mobile devices replacing social networks as the dominant platform for casual games — a trend underlined by audiences for the top Facebook titles shrinking rapidly.

In August, most of the top titles from major social game publishers like Zynga, Electronic Arts, and Disney/Playdom saw their daily active user numbers suffer double-digit declines month-to-month, according to Cowen and Company analyst Doug Cruetz.

Meanwhile, free-to-play titles on smartphones and tablets had their most dominant month yet — across the three top 20 grossing games lists for iPhone, Android, and iPad last month, 56 out of the 60 titles use the free-to-play model.

“We believe that over the last several months, trends in the casual digital gaming space have swung decisively towards mobile and away from PC-based social gaming, at least in Western markets,” says Cowen.

A number of Facebook’s biggest developers have been shifting their focus, if not completely migrating, to mobile in the last year. Top Girl maker CrowdStar, for example, decided to halt all development on social titles, and work on mobile games instead.

And Zynga, the largest developer on Facebook in terms of audience size, for example, has put plenty of effort into growing its mobile presence recently. It even spent a reported $210 million last March to acquire Omgpop, the studio behind one of the biggest mobile game properties at the time, Draw Something.

Just yesterday, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that users are more engaged and spending more time on mobile than on desktops, and that the company believes it can make a lot more money by targeting people accessing the social network on their smartphones.

“A lot of the development and the energy in the eco-system is not going towards building desktop stuff anymore, it’s going towards building mobile stuff,” says Zuckerberg. “We’re able to integrate and we’re helping a lot of folks build great mobile experiences – that’s the future.”（source:gamasutra）

4）Yard Sale: Hidden Treasures: Zynga brings bargain hunting to Facebook soon

by Brandy Shaul

The popular Yard Sale hidden object franchise will soon be given new life on Zynga.com, as Zynga has partnered with game Dallas based developer the Method to give the franchise a free-to-play and social overhaul for Facebook and Zynga.com.

Yard Sale: Hidden Treasures will start with two neighborhoods filled with homeowners that are looking to sell their old junk at yard and garage sales. These neighborhoods will include 24 different scenes at launch, and players will be able to interact with characters throughout the game’s storyline that are looking for very specific kinds of treasures that they’ll need to find. As players find hidden objects at each yard sale, they’ll earn Lucky Bucks which can be spent on decorating and customizing their own property, yard and home.

In this way, Yard Sale: Hidden Treasures sounds incredibly similar to Zynga’s original hidden object game Hidden Chronicles, but we’re guessing the games will have enough differences to make both viable options for fans of the hidden object genre. Unfortunately, the game’s announcement press release didn’t really speak to the social features that we can expect to find in Yard Sale: Hidden Treasures, but we’ll make sure to bring you news about all of that and more as the game gets closer to launch “soon.” Stay tuned!（source:games）