Japan's digital landscape shifts as niche platforms lead growth in 2025 rankings

Annual Digital 100 report reveals significant growth in Japanese digital platforms, with jisin.jp showing 61% year-over-year increase.

Note achieves 29% combined growth with web traffic up 37% and app usage rising 20% in Japan's digital market
Note achieves 29% combined growth with web traffic up 37% and app usage rising 20% in Japan's digital market

The Japanese digital landscape has undergone a notable transformation, according to data released this month by Similarweb in its annual Digital 100 ranking for 2025. The comprehensive analysis, focusing on web traffic and app usage across multiple categories, reveals significant shifts in consumer behavior and digital platform adoption.

According to the methodology outlined in the report, websites required a minimum threshold of 30,000 average monthly visits to qualify for consideration. The analysis focused on year-over-year growth in unique visitors, comparing 2024 to 2023 data. For the first time, the study expanded its scope to include mobile applications, examining the top 10% of apps available on both Android and iOS platforms.

In the web category, jisin.jp emerged as the leading platform, demonstrating remarkable growth with a 61% increase in year-over-year traffic, expanding from 7.0 million to 11.2 million monthly unique visitors. The women's weekly magazine website's success underscores the growing demand for digital content targeting specific demographic segments.

Following closely, gendai.media secured the second position with a 53% growth rate, increasing its monthly unique visitors from 14.0 million to 21.4 million. The food-focused platform delishkitchen.tv claimed the third spot, showing a 46% increase and reaching 16.0 million monthly visitors, up from 10.9 million.

The mobile application landscape revealed equally compelling trends. The part-time job platform "スキマバイトはタイミー" dominated the app rankings with a 56% increase in monthly active users, growing from 2.3 million to 3.6 million users. The ENEOS service station application followed with a 40% uptick, while a medical prescription management app secured third place with a 34% increase.

Note.com emerged as the standout digital performer, achieving the highest aggregated growth across both website and mobile platforms. The platform recorded a 37% increase in web traffic and a 20% growth in app usage, resulting in a combined growth rate of 29%.

Traditional media platforms maintained strong positions in the rankings, with ntv.co.jp showing a 39% increase in traffic. E-commerce giant Rakuten demonstrated sustained growth with a 39% increase, while platforms like lettuceclub.net and the-ans.jp each recorded 38% growth.

Or Offer, Co-Founder and CEO of Similarweb, emphasized the significance of this year's rankings: "The Digital 100 celebrates brands with exceptional online growth. Since 2020, we've ranked the world's fastest-growing websites. This year marks our first inclusion of mobile apps in the analysis."

The analysis employed robust methodologies to ensure accuracy, with Similarweb's expert analysts examining thousands of websites and apps. The selection process utilized proprietary algorithms and diverse data sources to identify legitimate growth patterns and filter out artificial traffic inflation.

The Japanese market demonstrated unique characteristics compared to other regions analyzed in the global report. While international platforms like ChatGPT dominated rankings in countries such as France, the UK, and Australia, Japanese domestic platforms showed stronger performance in their home market.

Looking at sector-specific performance, the data revealed diverse growth patterns across different industries. News and media platforms demonstrated particularly strong growth, while financial services and e-commerce platforms also showed significant increases in user engagement.

The findings highlight the evolving nature of Japan's digital ecosystem, where traditional media companies successfully transitioning to digital platforms coexist with emerging specialized content providers and service platforms. This transformation reflects broader changes in consumer behavior and digital adoption patterns in the Japanese market.