Continued from (Part 2)

Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated.

• Yahoo! Japan’s First AR App Is Showing Gundam Rival On iPhone via MyCom. Y!J release
• Kansai-ben Windows Customizer Changes Your Windows In 19 Different Japanese Dialects – commentary
• In Aichi pref., a man who had collected information of new books arriving at a library by his crawling program was under arrest for suspicion of interfering the library’s duty – so-called #Librahack incident, Asahi.com’s librahack news author gives supplemental info on his Twitter.
• Flash Animation Company DLE Aiming Taiwan Stock Market. Nikkei reported
• Chinese Media Reports There Is A Japanese Company Forces Female Workers Naked via 2-channel summary site – the evidence seems a porn film
• Interlink, a 15 year-old ISP which is known for providing fixed IP address service for a discount rate, is being complained about a seven-hour service outage which is scheduled this Thursday.
• Japan Communication Inc. Announces iPhone 4 micro SIM Using Docomo Network
• Oniichan – iPhone App Plays 300 Patterns Of Voice Saying “My Brother” From Little Sister
• Kodak releases Cerevo-like camera
• Mixi Tracks Down The Cause Of Their Long Service Down – A Memcached Bug
• Google starts promotion Google Places in Shibuya.
• Livedoor To Switch To Naver Search From Google – as Livedoor is now a sibiling company of Naver Japan, it is natural move. Japan No.2 search engine position race will be very hard but at the very low points.
• Kyushu Electric Power To Sell Non-heated Iron In 2012 via Slashdot.jp
• Bijin Tokei Osaka Signage At Osaka Station
• Japan Twitter Academic Meeting Established As A Local Mayer Had Announced
• Cup Noodle Brand Discontinue Ceremony Turned Out To Be The New Product PR Only 4 Days Later
• Plastic Model Gundam Robot In Cup Noodle
• Gree Introduces “Like” Button. Planned To The Outside Of Their Network
• Popular Blogger 100shiki Begins Groupon Clone via idea*idea, his another blog
• Higawari – A New Groupon Clone For Female
• SourceNext Greeting Card Package Announced To Have AR Feature – Not the world’s first, but may be the first commercial package
• Twitter-Gathered 101 People Orchestra Gave Their First Concert
• Nagareyama-city gives Android phones to council members for bill votes. – Interesting. Current wired-system costing 2 million yen per year is also interesting
• 4-koma Manga Generator From Twitter Timeline
• MIT-EFJ Business Plan Contest Held – grand prize given to MyTracks.jp
• Togetter Releases iPhone Reader App
• Yahoo! Japan Officially Announces To Keep Yahoo! Category(link directory service) Even After Google Search Switch
• Many Shops At Local Shopping Street In Kobe Enbraces Twitter – printed on their free brochure
• New Groupon Clone Hitoshina.jp – This time Japan’s First “No Discount” Daily Deal
• Hatena’s Charismatic CTO Naoya Ito Resigns

If you want to know any specific news more, but unable to find them in other English blog/media, please let us know.

Tags: Japan IT Links // Add Comment »

A Japan’s most popular Twitter user Gachapin, who took the most followed user title recently back from ex-prime minister Yukio Hatoyama who once passed him, is expanding his brand on two different geeks-loving products, Vocaloid and iPhone.

Gachapin is a 5-year-old dinosaur kid from a popular children TV program Hirake Ponkikki, who is also known as a blogger and a Twitter user(@GachapinBlog).

Gachapoid – Gachapin on Vocaloid

Last week, Osaka-based company Internet Co, Ltd. (great name!) announced that they adds a new product on their human-voice-synthesizer series based on Yamaha’s Vocaloid 2 technology with Gachapin’s voice, named Gachapoid. The package price is 15,750 yen (US$187).

# Popular virtual diva Hatsune Miku who once beat Lady Gaga in Japan by CD sales, who was emerged from Nico Nico Douga culture is another variation from another company on the same Vocaloid.

One Gachapoid’s sample song is available here for Windows Media.

GachaTwi – Gachapin on iPhone for Twitter User

GachaTwi is a iPhone/iPod Touch Twitter Client themed with Gachapin by Genesix and Fuji Television Kids Entertainment, Inc.

Besides the regular Twitter client feature, the app has a special page to see Gachapin’s Tweets only, which can be seen by one of four menu button.

GachaTwi is 350 yen but 115 yen ($1.36) until September 12th.

Gachapin himself tweeted that he can not use GachaTwi because iPhone’s touch panel does not detect his hands.

via AV Watch and MyCom Journal

See Also:

Gachapin Vocaloid news release [J, pdf]

Tags: Japan // Add Comment »

Tokyo-based Android app developer ACL Inc.[J] has kindly developed the Android Reader App for us, it has been just released today on the Android Market.   Following MotherApp’s iPhone Reader App which was introduced at the beginning of this year, now we have our exclusive apps for both of the two major smartphone platforms.

We wish to thank ACL’s founder Yasushi Iizuka (@YasushiIizuka[J]) for his great work and cooperation.

The Asiajin Android reader app is absolutely free, and you can download it from the Android Market by simply clicking on the banner which is appeared on the right sidebar of our website.

Tags: Announcement, Cellular Phone // Add Comment »

Ngi Group, which has spawned a number of new Internet businesses in Tokyo and is known for having invested in Japan’s top social network Mixi[J], unveiled a new API called “ngi social connect[J]“  at a serial meet-up by and for Japanese social app providers and developers[J] “Social App Night” today.

The API allows app developers to integrate their apps with multiple social network platforms more easily, such as Twitter and Facebook, without putting a code for each.   The company expects to develop ad solutions and marketing services that can reach social app users whom Google Ad can never reach, they say, based on the technologies of social graph marketing and behavioral targeting.

In September, the new API will be installed on Tokyo-based commerce site developer Venture Republic[J]‘s price-comparison service Coneco.net[J], word-of-mouth-based marketing service for hotels and inns Hotel.jp[J] and ngi’s iPhone/social app showcase Applie[J].

Above: Yozo Kaneko, CEO of ngi Group and his colleague demo-ed “ngi social connect” at Social App Night, Akihabara, Tuesday.

Tags: Japan, New Service, News // Add Comment »

Agile Media Network, a Tokyo-based marketing company using blog and word-of-mouth media and led by A-list blogger Motohiko Tokuriki who also serves an adviser for Asiajin, held the second edition of annual tech and social media conference WISH in Roppongi this weekend.  550 attendees joined.

The event started with a panel discussion titled “How Japanese web services can stand in the international arena?” and welcomed Gree[J] Founder/CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka, Mixi[J] COO Akinori Harada and DG Incubation[J]‘s Manager Hiroki Eda who manages Twitter’s operation in Japan.

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From Left to right: Moderator Motohiko Tokuriki (Agile Media Network), Yoshikazu Tanaka (Gree), Akinori Harada (Mixi) and Hiroki Eda (DG Incubation)

Moderator Tokuriki (M): Let me start with Eda-san, you know overseas well, what is the most different between Japanese market and the world?

Eda (E): The biggest one is language.   But I think Japanese users tend to dive in novel web services compared to the rest of the world.  When we look at the characteristic of web service users in the world, Japanese users are mostly categorized in the early adaptors.

M: Gree and Mixi have overseas services.  Do they have any difference from your domestic service?

Harada (H): We have an operation in Mainland China.  But I’ve been in charge of it for the last two months.   Mobile handset specs, line speed – these are different from Japan.   Flat-rate data subscriptions also required to spread out the service, but China does not have it.   That’s why Internet Messenger services are still popular.

E: Twitter got a sensation in Japan despite there was no Japanese edition.

M: Wondering if Japanese are too much conscious about national borders.  For example, Gremz[J], a blog widget service that allows you to virtually grow a sprout by your blog postings, got a popularity among Taiwanese users as unforeseen.   If the service is highly evaluated, it may break the language barriers.

E: When we deploy the service in our market, “mobile-enabled” is an essential option, that is totally different from the rest of the world.   I mean feature phones.

Tanaka (T): PCs are still usual for using web services in the overseas.  But transition from PCs to mobile were so rapid in this country, that’s why we can’t see how the world trend will become from now.  Mobile culture is well-matured in this country, but its technology is neither.

M: How about the difference of the start-up environment?

E: Conditions are different for each case.  Aiming at Japanese market or the world?  That’s it.

T: The world market has ten times potentiality.  But so is the number of your rivals if you go to the world.   I think unless the service may succeed even in Japanese market, that can’t make it in the international market, neither.

H: There’s a time gap when we look at the difference.  US-based start-ups are usually launched in the West Coast, moved to the East Coast, and then go to non-English countries.  It is very important to foresee that process when launching.

M: If there’s no flat-rate subscription in Japanese mobile services, we all find out we’ve run up a fortune by web access mobile, which is “Pake-Shi (packet death)”.

H: We should keep our eyes on the trends which are different country by country.   The iPhone is now so popular in Japan, and we can’t bring Flash-based services from other countries.

M: Had we better aim at succeeding in Japanese market?  Otherwise, should we aim at a specific region that a service suit for?

T: If your service has proved a success here, there’s another country where you can make it.

M: Can we work in Japan with aiming at other countries?

E: We have an incubation program called Open Network Lab[J] that encourages potential entrepreneurs to develop international services.   If the service has a sound business model, that can be launched anywhere in the world.

H: I think going abroad without testing at the domestic market tends to fail.   There’s no case that Silicon Valley-based company chooses Japan as their first market.   Neither is it for us.   We live here, we know the core values of our mobile community.   That’s why we’d better start with our country, then go abroad.

T: If you plan to launch an extraordinary service, you don’t need to do it in Japan.  I think you’d better succeed something in Japan and then leverage it outside the country.

M: Japanese start-ups are criticized for not seeing foreign markets.  But you just need to launch a business in Japan, first.

H: We should aim at foreign markets from the first stage.

T: In order to manage a big operation by a number of persons, we should do it in Japan, first.  I’m not confident to manage such a number of employees in English.

M: Tanaka-san, you’re encouraging your employees to learn English, aren’t you?

T: Not so much.  I’ve been often asked if we develop a new service targeting elderly people which has two million population in the next.   But we will develop what everyone can use and enjoy.   Regardless of nationality or religion, that’s our first priority.   Japanese market is not so huge that we can’t focus on a specific segment as a target of our service.

M: Tanaka-san, you were previously working with Rakuten. If you had been working there, how would you feel about that?

T: They have a bunch of servers.   They have a number of engineering guys to maintain them.  I became keenly aware of that.  They have 20 million users.   When they think of services targeting 700 million users in the world, they need more workforce for maintaining servers.

M: Here now we have the second topic.   We need a bunch of cost for adding servers and facilities when users increase rapidly.   But you need a long time to get to the monetization period.   How can we make a living between two timings?   It’s very short in the case of Japanese start-ups.

T: I’ve been unable to mention this, but I’d been throwing cash advance money to server purchase for my own service (before founding his company Gree).  For covering it by my bonus payment to come.   Then I enjoyed it.   I used to be an office worker who has built a virtual town of 70,000 citizens…   But when I first saw Evernote, Dropbox and LinkedIn, we can’t launch such services requiring a long-term period to make results in this country.

M: I remember Mixi has been showing a loss, there was a conference where users came together to talk about the issue (for preventing it from being terminated).

H: Yep, then I was working with NTT DoCoMo, and in charge of lending them a room for that.  I remember.

M: The user growth rate of Twitter, Mixi and Gree are all quadratic.  How could you make it grown at such a pace?

H: If you have a  sufficient number of users, investors will definitely come.   But we should depend on not only Japanese VC firms.  Mixi used to be in the red.  Then we added non-free membership and ads.   Yet we may not  have established a sound business model.  A rocket start allows no money period.   But the service requiring a long-range view needs a sufficient amount of money.

M: Some people are running their services individually.  Tanaka-san could corporate it, but most people have no idea on how they can make it.

E: When we look at the people participating in Open Network Lab, mostly they’ve developed prototypes.   Some people say, “We have not used money but engaged 150 core users.  That’s why we’re ready (for corporating and fundraising).”   They’re very confident. They’re going to fundraise in a very steady way.

T: When I founded my company, I was claimed it’s like killing myself.  That was the time when Mixi overtook us, then I just quit my previous company (Rakuten) to launch a company.

M: In Japan, there are a number of services being maintained by individual developers as part of their hobbies.  The services may be easily terminated when the developers get busy for their main jobs.   They have no way to handle it for stepping forward.

E: I used to be running Gree alone.  Mixi had 30 employees at that time.   If I had said I would stop that, I would be terminated (by users). I just founded the company to avoid it.

H: We’re forced to make up our minds to found a company in these days.  It used to be much easier 50 or 60 years ago.   My grandfather retired from the police and launched his business. (Civil servants don’t like to quit their jobs because of income stability.)  In the US, those who can earn above-average salaries at sound companies launch their own business.  I think they think of founding a start-up as a sort of game in the country.  But most of those killing themselves in Japan are owners of medium-sized companies.  Less Japanese companies have bankrupted than those of the US.   We need an environment where people who can work with top-ranked companies are motivated to launch their business.

H: It may be stemmed from the issues of fundraising.   Tanaka-san and my boss Kasahara (Mixi’s CEO) need to invest in start-ups more aggressively.  Both guys don’t use money enough. (big laugh by audience)   In Japan, there’s an atomosphere in which only some famous people can launch their business.   We just have to change our society and build an entrepreneurial ecosystem.  Tanaka’s cash-advance story (for server purchase) is a typical example of bad cases.

E: I wonder if we can have a system to bring start-ups the money from those who have made success in their business.

M: How can entrepreneurs protect themselves from bankruptcy?

T: We can get finance from the US now.   No worries.   Don’t worry about it, just do your business, that’s what I can say.

H: In Japan, if we’ve not made your mind for launching a business, we keep being an office worker and never launch it.  We need to remove the difficulties in launching a start-up.

M: Bill Gates quit the university and started his business.   That means, in a way, we need start it during our school days.  It’s not a good answer for attendees who are mostly office workers.  Could we have any good advice?

E: At Open Network Lab, we’ve been aiming at bringing feedback from successful entrepreneurs to potential entrepreneurs.  That can shorten the time to learn experiences for business (including how to avoid failures and recover from it).  Then it makes results in a shorter time.

H: There are two options, found a company first, develop a product in the next.  Otherwise, develop a product first, and found a company in the next.  I think Japanese tend to take the latter option.   I recommend entrepreneurs to fundraise without thinking it so seriously.   This is the right time.   Then they should start with Asia as well as Ameba Pico (refer to this Akky’s story).

T: If you can’t dominate Asia with the service, you can’t do so in the world, neither.

M: Thank you so much.

(Applause by audience)

See Also:

• WISH2010 Event Report – 15 Presenters And The Winner
• UPDATE: In English: All 32 Japanese Startups On The Vote List For “WISH 2010″
• Event Wrap-up: 400+ Geeks Applaud Web Innovators At WISH2009
• Live Event: WISH2009 Is Just Ahead

Tags: Event Report, Japan, News // Add Comment »