In nearly every location in Japan beauty consumers are easily able to access huge amounts of information about trends and products via their computers and smartphone. So how and from where do they get this information? In this article we’ll introduce 3 of the biggest Japanese beauty and cosmetics online social sites.
@cosme
17M monthly visits
https://www.instagram.com/p/B75gSolHJ0t/
https://twitter.com/atcosmenet
This website mainly provides cosmetic product information and word-of-mouth communication with users. It offers a lot of content, and is popular among women in their 20s to 30s. It has 17M monthly visits and is ranked 4th in the beauty & cosmetics category. Users can search for products by brand, category, and keywords, but also by setting detailed conditions such as narrowing down by reviewers’ age and skin type. It’s great that consumers can see other people’s reviews who used the products before purchasing. There is also a Q&A section where people can share beauty related concerns and advice. Besides that, it provides information about its original product line, event details, articles and much more.
Happy Plus One (ハピプラワン)
12M monthly visits
https://www.facebook.com/happyplus.shueisha
This curation site includes 8 women’s magazines, “Non･no”, “MORE”, “BAILA”, “LEE”, “Marisol”, “éclat”, “SPUR”, “MAQUIA”, published by Syueisya. The monthly visitor number is 12 million and it’s the largest media network operated by a publisher. In cooperation with magazines, seasonal information on fashion, beauty, lifestyle is posted each week to a wide range of mainly female users. It’s best feature is that there are many fashionable photos and it feels like reading a magazine. There are often links in the articles which go to a Shueisha’s official EC site “FLAG SHOP”, it’s a user-friendly site that you can purchase products.
LIPS (リップス)
6M monthly visits
https://www.instagram.com/lipsjp/
https://www.facebook.com/lipscosme
This one of the largest cosmetic review sites with 6 million monthly visits. A little different from the above mentioned sites, it has more photos and videos of products. Popular beauty YouTubers also post reviews, so users are able to learn how to do makeup with the products by watching their videos. Users can follow their favorite users much like Instagram. Therefore it’s easy to use the site and popular from teenagers to 30s. Apart from users reviews, there are many articles written by the official writers approved by LIP so people can get reliable and detailed information.
Although we introduced just 3 beauty online social sites, there are more and the number grows year upon year. These sites enable Japanese consumers to connect to each other closely, so that they can get detailed information about beauty products and tips.
This article is written by JapanBuzz, a Japanese influencer marketing agency. Please feel free to get in touch if you are you looking to run campaigns or need help with research!
