Social networking East & West

They're "going global" from countries all over the world, as the International Herald Tribune reports. Once a Korean-only social site, Cyworld has launched in the US and soon will do so in Germany, while MySpace is "on the verge" of announcing its arrival in two Asian countries (if Japan is one, MySpace will be taking on Mixi, "a two-and-a-half-year-old social networking site with more than 5 million members" that just went public, valued at $1.8 billion). The Herald Trib describes the experience of Korean-American Hawaii resident Danny Kim who grew up in New Mexico and had 750 friends on MySpace when he started up his Cyworld account. There are cultural differences in social networking, as in the rest of life, and Kim said he wondered if most Americans would be as attracted to Cyworld's "cute" feel as Asians are. And Mixi users seem to like its "structured approach," as compared with MySpace's more free-form style, with which "members can easily create multiple profiles, add their own programming and post other kinds of media, like pictures, music and videos," according to the Herald Trib. At Mixi (more like the Facebook experience), "a person can join only if invited by current members. Personal profiles are based only on text, except for three photos (premium service allows more). Surprisingly, [Mixi] users do not seem to mind. In fact [unlike MySpace users], most members do not post pictures of themselves, opting instead for photos of celebrities, scenery or pets."