is an online Japanese social networking service. It was founded in 1999 and is owned by Mixi, Inc. (). As of September 2012, Mixi had about 14 million monthly active users, with about 8.6 million of those on smartphones. Mixi, Inc. was founded by Kenji Kasahara in 1999 as a limited liability company and became a Japanese corporation in 2000. The company changed its name to Mixi, Inc. from E-Mercury, Inc. in February 2006 to align its name with the social networking service, and was updated to MIXI, Inc. in 2022. Its headquarters are in Shibuya, Tokyo. They also publish the popular mobile freemium game Monster Strike, the family photo-sharing app FamilyAlbum, and various other communication services. Overview The focus of Mixi is community entertainment, that is, meeting new people based on common interests. Users can send and receive messages, write in a diary, read and comment on others' diaries, organize and join communities, and invite their friends. Research indicates that some users, particularly young women, are more likely to use Mixi to connect in more private ways with close friends, particularly in contrast to perceptions of Facebook as a more public social network. Registration requires a valid Japanese cellphone number, which bars anyone who is not or has not been a resident of Japan. Since 2012, both Android and iPhone users can apply for a new Mixi account via specific apps made for their devices. A community is a place for people to share their opinions through an online forum and a way to express tastes and hobbies. myMixi, or Maimiku for short, means buddy or friend. This is similar to a contact in flickr, or friend on Myspace, and involves an approval process. The maximum possible number of myMixi a user allowed to have is 1,000. Accounts that are marked as tarento or celebrities don't have this limitation. The word Mixi is a combination of Mix and I, referring to the idea that the user, "I", "mixes" with other users through the service. "Mixi Station" is an application that detects songs being played in iTunes and Windows Media Player and uploads them automatically to a communally accessible list in the "Music" section, and was implemented late in June 2006. By July 2006, support for Winamp was implemented via a Winamp plugin, which was quickly made official by Mixi. Batara Eto was the only developer at the start of