Facebook links accounts with Mixi in Japan

New tool lets Mixi users connect their account to the Facebook platform, may end up stealing users

[Article updated at 12:45 PDT on Nov. 5, 2010 to qualify Mixi's size.]

Facebook is not settling for half a billion users. While it might be the number one social network in the United States and many other countries, Facebook still faces stiff competition from much smaller companies in places like Brazil and Japan.

Mixi, one of the most-used networks in Japan, updated its platform a month ago to allow users to share their information with third-party Internet services. In no time at all, Facebook built a tool to synchronize Mixi profiles with their Facebook profiles. The move could end up poaching users from the smaller site.

“We built this application using Mixi’s standard APIs available for all developers,” said Facebook spokeswoman Kumiko Hidaka. “Through this application, we hope to simplify connecting and sharing with friends across different social platforms.”

Facebook has similar syncing applications with other social sites, like Twitter, but those two offer pretty distinct services. Mixi and Facebook, however, are both just social networking sites.

Mixi, with 21 million registered users, is easily one of the most popular social networking site in Japan. (Competitor Gree, as a commenter points out, rivals Mixi with just over 21 million registered users.) Facebook, in comparison, boasts over 500 million users worldwide, but the company won’t say how many of those come from individual countries. It probably wouldn’t mind having all of Mixi’s users on its site.

Two other countries where Facebook longs for the crown are India and Brazil. Though Google’s Orkut dominates in those countries (despite going relatively unnoticed most other places in the world), its domination may not last long. Similar to the Mixi move, Facebook recently launched a tool that lets Orkut users link their profile with their account on Facebook.

While the feature seems relatively harmless (the linking works both ways, right?), one has to consider how much more immense Facebook is in comparison to these smaller networks. In isolation, the smaller community can thrive because it has its grip on one geographic community. Opened up to the entire Facebook audience, however, previous Orkut and Miki users might find more of their friends on Facebook and jump ship.