On Dec. 16, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, Lead Architect Matías Ventura, and Govt Director Mary Hubbard have been joined by WordPress group member Junko Nukaga to replicate on all issues WordPress at Tokyo Node Corridor in Tokyo, Japan. The venue supplied the proper location for the annual occasion, which was held for the primary time exterior of america.

After delivering the night’s keynote, Matt, Matias, and Mary have been joined by distinguished company together with writer and poet Mieko Kawakami, Things Become Other Things writer Craig Mod, mgn CEO Hajime Ogushi, and SAKURA Web Inc. Senior Director Genki Taniguchi. The proficient pianist Aiko Takei additionally carried out throughout the introduction and intermission. 

Should you missed the livestream, you’ll be able to watch the total occasion beneath:

Highlights from 2024

2024 was a busy yr for the WordPress undertaking. Listed here are some notably noteworthy moments and milestones that Matt, Matias, and Mary mirrored upon from the occasion stage:

• WordPress is rising in Japan (and past). Our favourite open-source CMS at the moment powers 43.6% of all web sites around the globe, and has a CMS share of 62.3%. In Japan, it powers 58.5% of all web sites and maintains a 83% CMS share. 
• The worldwide group is rising too. WordPress websites utilizing languages apart from English are anticipated to surpass English language websites by 2025. 
• It’s all about extensibility. WordPress customers downloaded plugins 2.35 billion instances in 2024. Customers can set up plugins on the Marketing strategy and above. 
• Writing and designing with WordPress has by no means been simpler. An improved distraction-free mode supplies a cleaner expertise when writing within the editor. Because of the brand new zoom-out view, you should use patterns with out organising every single block. 
• Enhancements for builders and builders. The Templates API streamlines registering and managing customized templates, whereas WordPress Playground grew to become much more helpful because of an improved Github integration.  
• Much more free-to-use visible and audio content material. Openverse, a free device that makes it straightforward to seek out open-licensed and public area works, grew to 884 million pictures and 4.2 million audio information. Learn to use Openverse directly in WordPress.com.

WordPress in Japan

WordPress is flourishing all around the globe, thanks partially to the beneficiant help and contributions of the Japanese WordPress group. Listed here are just a few key highlights and enjoyable information:

Q&A session

It wouldn’t be State of the Phrase with out a question-and-answer phase. Viewers members (together with Tokyo Vice writer Jake Adelstein) sparked partaking conversations round subjects that included:

• What open social platforms like Bluesky and Mastodon imply for net publishers.
• How will AI proceed to affect SEO sooner or later.
• Why web sites are nonetheless related (and why it’s necessary to personal your on-line house)

And rather more. You possibly can watch the total session beneath: