Japanese Government Allows ISPs to Target Ads by Browsing History

A Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (総務省) working group recently published an opinion stating that certain network monitoring technologies (Deep Packet Inspection) can be used by Internet Service Providers to serve targeted advertising to users, but only after the user has been clearly notified of these practices. This news made the top page of Sunday’s… Continue reading Japanese Government Allows ISPs to Target Ads by Browsing History

Sony, KDDI, Asahi And Toppan To Co-launch E-Publisher In July

Sony, Toppan Printing (Japan’s 2nd largest printing company), KDDI(Japan’s 2nd largest telco) and the Asahi Shimbun (newspaper publisher) announced last Thursday that they would launch a joint venture for an e-publication distribution service.   Sony has introduced an e-book reader device called “Reader” in Europe and the U.S., and the company plans to introduce it in… Continue reading Sony, KDDI, Asahi And Toppan To Co-launch E-Publisher In July

iPad Magic At Apple Store Ginza(Tokyo, Japan)

“Communication’s history and future” magic show in front of the Apple’s flagship store in Ginza. [Update 2010-06-03] changed with English subtitled version (via CnnGo) Beacon fire, letter, book, photo in history. Warp, time travel, handy x-ray, encephalograph, trial fitting, cash withdrawal maybe soon. See Also: iPhone Magic by Marco Tempest

Apple And Softbank Mobile Start iPad Sales In Japan On Friday

Apple and Softbank Mobile finally started the sales of the iPad in Japan on Friday. At Apple Store Ginza or one of Apple Japan’s two flagship stores in Tokyo, about 1,200 people were queuing for having the new device. The earliest bird who has been waiting at the store since Wednesday’s 4pm was 19-year-old part-timer… Continue reading Apple And Softbank Mobile Start iPad Sales In Japan On Friday

Iogous – A Display Ad Optimization Tool

A Tokyo-based Internet ad solution company, Fringe81 [JP], revealed their new ad optimization software called Iogous [JP]. Iogous is a specialized tool for optimizing display ad creative. Iogous enables to try numerous combinations of designs, colors, and texts with statistical method. Fringe81 says that the tool achieves few hundreds percent improvement of click-through-rate. It means… Continue reading Iogous – A Display Ad Optimization Tool

Breaking News: Rakuten To Launch E-Commerce Business With Media Giant In Indonesia

Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten just announced today it would launch a joint venture with Indonesian media conglomerate Global Mediacom to run a e-commerce platform service in the country.   Rakuten takes 51% stake in the joint venture which is capitalized at USD4.3M.  The joint venture will start the service in the latter half of this year… Continue reading Breaking News: Rakuten To Launch E-Commerce Business With Media Giant In Indonesia

Uniqlo’s Lucky Line Campaign Makes It To The Twitter Trending Topics

Japanese fashion giant Uniqlo has made it to the Twitter Trending Topics through their latest campaign “Lucky Line”, which celebrates their 26th anniversary. The central campaign website [J] extends to reveal a virtual line of Twitter users who have entered for the chance to win a 1,000 yen coupon to Uniqlo shops. Users join the line by auto-tweeting from… Continue reading Uniqlo’s Lucky Line Campaign Makes It To The Twitter Trending Topics

New Paid Tweet Service Twad Launched By Japan #2 Internet Ads Agency Opt

What a bad timing! Opt, Inc., one of Japan’s largest internet ads agency, Kazeniwa and Overtex launched a new advertising platform on influencers’ tweets, named Twad.jp (pronounced “Tsuado”) on May 24th. On Twad, Twitter user (publisher) can register their region, categories s/he regularly tweets, etc. and how much yen they want for single tweet from… Continue reading New Paid Tweet Service Twad Launched By Japan #2 Internet Ads Agency Opt

Prime Minister Hatoyama Overtakes Japanese Twitter Top Position From Gachapin

Japan’s prime minister Yukio Hatoyama (@hatoyamayukio [J]) has finally gotten more twitter followers than the former top user Gachapin (Wikipedia. @gachapinblog [J]), a five years old dinosaur child. 634,519 followers 628,731 followers Incidentally, there was a battle for overall top position happend yesterday between Britney Spears and Ashton Kutcher. Number of their followers are little… Continue reading Prime Minister Hatoyama Overtakes Japanese Twitter Top Position From Gachapin

RubyConf China 2010 To Be Held In Shanghai On June 26

RubyConf China 2010 will be held on June 26th at Shanghai Television University (228 Guoshun Road, cross Yangpu Road) (上海电视大学,国顺路288号). Last year RubyConf China was held very successfully with 450 attendees. Ruby’s father Matz was treated like a superstar with lots of autograph and photograph requests. This year, some of the talks will be done… Continue reading RubyConf China 2010 To Be Held In Shanghai On June 26