Japan is becoming a Social Business!

I was just in Japan for a Social Business Summit. Over 1500 people registered — more than 2x that of last year.

Did you know that Japan is the 4^th largest population of internet users, 3^rd in the world for the most bloggers, and 2^nd in the Asia Pacific region for online video usage. About 18% of the population leverages social networks like Twitter per Wikipedia.

With over 97% of Japanese consumers using ecommerce, the picture becomes even clearer. According to the IBM CMO Study, 82 percent of CMOs say they plan to increase their use of social media over the next three to five years. The need to deliver a seamless mobile experience has also become increasingly critical to CMOs. According to Yankee Group, online commerce is expected to hit $1 trillion by 2014 and mobile commerce $200 billion by 2015. Japan is leading the way.

Japan is transforming both business to consumer and business to business networking.

Japan is starting this revolution. Their citizens and consumers are using these connections as a primary means of communication, in many cases, replacing other more traditional interactions.

It is this newsocial graph which originally referred to the social network of relationships that is now emerging in the business world. The social graph is a powerful illustration of people, their connections, and their networks.

Most organizations have not exploited the power of these connections and applied them to basic business processes. The potential value of these networks to improve business has largely gone unrealized.

An organization that applies social networking tools and culture to business roles, processes, and outcomes to create business value is a social business.   And Japan is truly becoming a social business!!!