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Perhaps an even bigger problem is that both Facebook and MySpace fail to offer an optimized version for Japanese handsets. Millions of Japanese are accustomed to using one thumb, a dialpad and a jog dial on their phones when accessing the web during their commutes to school and work. In this country, the mobile web is bigger than the PC web.

Offering a country-specific version before a local copycat beats you to it is an obvious key factor for success, and not only in Japan.

Practical experience from the Japanese web industry has shown that partnering up with a local company is the best way to diminish these dangers

What the advertiser failed to recognize, Chernin said, is that the MySpace homepage has as many viewers every day as the SuperBowl has once a year. (Of course, there’s a good argument that MySpace visitors aren’t quite as engaged with the content as SuperBowl viewers are.)

Mobile is attractive because of its scale. It “is by far the most penetrated device on earth,” he said. “So it’s this enormous distribution platform, but by definition you’re not going to be watching two-hour movies. It’s going to be interesting to see people develop uniquely mobile content.” It will take the medium a long time to develop, he said and predicted that in two years, the industry will still be trying to figure mobile out.