The social networking giant, MySpace.com, has attracted the attention of more than 150 million Americans since its inception in July 2003. Although still in its infancy, the company based in Santa Monica boasts being ranked as the third most popular website in the entire United States and the sixth most popular website in any language (Wikipedia, 2007). BusinessWeek published a MySpace-focused article on February 16, 2007 titled MySpace Faces Strong Competition in Japan. The article announces MySpace's entry into the Japanese Internet social networking market. However, as the title suggests, there are several obstacles to an easy entry into the potentially valuable Japanese market. As MySpace extends its domestic services overseas, it faces the massive threat posed by Japan's leading social networking site, "8-million-strong-strong." "Mixi. Mixi provides a platform for "peaceful communication" that addresses the Japanese collectivist tradition that group identity defines the individual. Mixi is an invitation-only service, meaning registration requires an introduction by someone who is already a member of Mixi. Such group tactics reflect the “cliquish” Japanese culture. While “Japanese people tend to be more reserved and prefer to get to know each other gradually,” the character of American MySpace is much more frank flashy and a bombardment of images, videos and messages, MySpace seems the exact opposite of the "structured, organized columns and postage-stamp photos" of their Japanese counterpart Tony Elison, senior vice president of Viacom International Japan, says "MySpace is about me, me, me, and look at me, look at me, look at me," which fits well with America's highly individualistic culture. After interviewing a MySpace user and a student at Bryant University, the three adjectives he used to describe MySpace were "1) Disturbing, 2) Informative, and 3) Stalker." As the adjectives suggest, in contrast to Mixi's highly protective and tight-knit community, MySpace allows an unlimited number of people to register and allows all users to view each other's profiles, a system that for some is lacking in the privacy department. Two websites both offer social networking services, but each approaches this goal through very different means. MySpace believes it has a chance of success in Japan "thanks to its 50-50 partnership with Japanese Internet company Softbank Corporation." The success of MySpace's overseas expansion lies in being able to conquer a Japanese market that is currently extremely loyal to Mixi.