As X (formerly Twitter) continues its seemingly-terminal decline, what is next for its users? For those who have frequented the platform, the shared view by many is that decisions around the platform and the general presence of Elon Musk is a detriment to the enjoyment of being active on the platform, as the site continues to lose active users on a weekly basis. While this decline is certainly slower in Japan compared to what has been seen in other regions, issues surrounding AI and rule changes on the platform has left users in the country with the highest per-capita number of accounts seeking a new home.

Yet for those looking for a new home, the choices are fragmented. Threads has seen a significant number of Japanese signups in large part fuelled by the equal popularity of Instagram, although activity today on posts shared on both X and Threads show the latter lagging behind its rival service in sustained activity. Others, particularly illustrators artists, have made the move to Bluesky, but the numbers remain small on the platform even as official newspapers like the Asahi Shinbun make their home there. Other choices using the open-source Mastodon framework are similarly limited in their adoption. Then there’s mixi2.

The original mixi is an early example of social media more akin to MySpace than the more modern algorithmically-driven platforms of today. Users created their own accounts and could share photos or written long-form posts, join communities and meet new people. At its peak the service commanded millions of active daily users, but the ever-evolving pace of online interactivity means the site, while still operating, is far from the hub of activity it once was. The company has found plenty of success elsewhere as the publisher of Monster Strike, an anime producer for works like Promare and more while still keeping the site active, social media is no longer what the company is known for even if mixi itself remains a familiar name.

mixi2 is a successor, of sorts, but has been created far more to mimic the experience of X while retaining many features long-time mixi users will be familiar with. It has a chronological feed with posts limited to 150 characters, but you can also join communities or send unique reactions to posts beyond a simple like and repost just like the mixi of old. Indeed, the platform recommends these communities as a way to find new people, and will generally otherwise avoid heavily recommending new users or using an algorithmically-generated feed beyond occasionally inserting posts from these communities into a feed of accounts you specifically follow.

Moving from the increasingly-polarized and engagement-heavy posts of X, where the most popular posts in Japanese as with other regions range from celebrity PR to clickbaiting video content, it’s a refreshing change of pace. Name recognition and a desire for change have helped the platform to overcome its most difficult challenge of attracting new users, also. Despite only being available in Japan, the company soon announced that over 1.2million accounts had been created just before Christmas in the days following its public release.

In terms of the sheer numbers joining the site so soon after launch, it’s a success. Whether it can remain popular and replace X in the eyes of the public is far less certain.

The success of X in Japan is thanks to the core fundamentals that allowed the site to gain an influence far beyond an active userbase that was otherwise dwarfed by that found on Facebook, Instagram or TikTok. For those seeking live updates on current events, no platform could match the immediacy of X. In response to the 3.11 earthquake it became the best place to find updates on disaster-hit regions, increasing the Japanese userbase by 33%. Those who mapped tweets from the event to a map of Japan show users creating accounts and sharing information in real time, commenting on the issues with NHK servers and sharing their status. Those people, eventually, stuck around to chat about their favorite anime or livetweet drama or movies broadcast on TV.

It ingrained the platform within Japanese society to the same degree as something like LINE. Every successor platform has found a userbase, but none have quite been able to replace this key functionality. TikTok is massive, it’s impossible to go to some public spaces without witnessing groups of schoolgirls performing TikTok dances, but it’s not where you’ll learn if your friend is safe. mixi2 has had a great start, but without a strong userbase that can react in real time to current events people will end up needing to return to the platform.

For all Elon Musk and those at the site has claimed their desire to create the Everything App with X, turning it into a service that does everything that people would struggle to live without, that was what the old Twitter arguably already was, at least in Japan. X is avoiding the massive decline elsewhere because even those most upset about the app can’t entirely move away from it for its indispensable use in reaction to major events. They can learn about their friends and family in a disaster through LINE, but real-time news needs a platform like X.

Until another platform can replicate this, it’s hard to see anything replacing it. Maybe mixi2 can succeed. The fact it even exists and had the start it did showcases just how upset X users are in the country, even if they haven’t yet left their online home. The problem for any rival is they must eventually overcome a hurdle only achieved by X being in the right place at the right time in 2011, and the slow trickle of users back to Twitter as activity has declined from its launch-week peak suggests a mountain of challenges ahead between mixi2 and long-term sustainability.