Since it opened in 2003, mixi has grown the user base quite rapidly, became one of the biggest social networking sites in the world. 10 years later, the social environment has changed, and they seem to be struggling to maintain the user base, and to expand the social services to other area.

This year, they have announced the ending of several services, including mixi Park, mixi Petite Jete, mixi video, and the service to connect you with your current and past colleagues. Despite some speculations that the mixi may be shutting down the operation soon, they just announced the mixi Research service to start on July 1st. This is the online research service using mixi members as research monitor.
The paid monitor is very popular in Japan. The service detail is unknown at this time, but if they pay the monitors, this could be a way to bring inactive mixi members back to the site.