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QR Code Blog – Written Only In QR Code


QR Code seems getting popularity in West because of smartphone. There are a lot of interesting ad campaigns utilizing QR Code recently in English.

There was also a news that Google’s URL shortening service goo.gl supported QR code generation, then Bit.ly followed the trend this week.

Some of you might know that QR Code marketing were often quoted with “only in Japan” for years. And this is one of the unique thing you may reproduce in your language when your people want to know more and more about QR Code.

It is the QR Code Blog. It is not a blog about QR Code, but a blog all written in QR Code.

You know that QR Code can convey URL and/or mail address, but in reality, a QR Code can include about 4,300 roman alphabets, or about 1,800 Japanese characters (size of the code will be big, and error correcting capacity makes the maximum number smaller). So this person embed his article on the code(s) and published as “the world most unreadable blog” he said.

The blog started in September 16th, 2004 with this,

If you scan it (by Android/iPhone app for example), that will give you Japanese text, which tells,

I am trying to build a blog using QR Code. Please enjoy this inconvenient blog both for a writer and readers. It will be good if I can post every day.

Two and a half years later, the blog ceased at the end of 2006. Probably because QR code became too common and the blog could not expect further attention. On the last post, the author wrote long article with 5 QR Codes,

I double translate them from Code to Japanese to English,

Long time no see. How have you been doing? Time flied in 2006. Sorry I did not post since September. I apologize.

I began this blog in September 2004. It was the time when I was finally seeing real usage examples of QR Code. Now two years passed since I set up this blog with the motivation to pass on the wonderfulness of QR Code to many people, the situation around QR Code has changed significantly.

Now QR Code is recognized widely, used on food, magazine, outdoor advertising, name card, etc. Now QR Code reader function on cellphone becomes commonplace. Are you seeing much more QR Code recently?

In last two years, this blog has been taken up on a lot of websites, magazines and TV programs. I can not know how much I could contribute on spreading QR Code to be recognized precisely, but if I made some help, that will be my great pleasure.

http://(Akky: seems his encoding mistake)As seeing QR Code widely prevalent, I think this blog has completed its role. I today declare the end of this blog. I really appreciate you all readers who scanned and decode this blog with your cellphone or so. Thank you so much.

2006-12-31

Smartphone Ad-optimizer Nobot Fundraises USD1.3M From JAFCO And Nissay Capital


Tokyo-based smartphone ad-optimizer Nobot announced on Friday they had fundraised approximately USD1.3M from Japan’s largest VC firm JAFCO and Nissay Capital[J] who is an investment arm of Japan’s largest life insurance company.

Nobot was founded in April 2009, and has introduced a smartphone ad-optimization service called Ad-Maker.   They’re currently distributing 100 million impressions per month, and expecting to gain it up to 1 billion impressions per month in the next fiscal year, the company’s CEO Kiyotaka Kobayashi says.

Prior to this round, Nobot has fundraised from Tokyo-based seed investor Samurai Incubate and Internet business-focused VC firm ngi group.  Mr. Kobayashi says, the service is being mainly used by smartphone app developers in the US and European countries, and expecting to spread it out to Asian countries.   They expect their revenue reach USD13M in their fiscal year of 2012.

ノボット、ジャフコから約1億円調達。「アジアを中心に展開してく」
2010/10/15 16:05  by Venture Now 編集部

株式会社ノボット

ノボットは15日、ジャフコ・スーパーV3共有投資事業有限責任組合およびニッセイ・キャピタル4号投資事業有限責任組合を割当先とした第三者割当増資により、総額 約1億円の資金調達をおこなったことを明らかにした。各ファンドからの払込は既に完了している。

調達した資金の半額を資本金に組み入れ、増資後の資本金は、9,000万円。各ファンドからの出資額などの内訳は非開示。

ノボットは、2009年4月1日に設立。スマートフォン向け広告収益最適化サービス「AdMaker」を展開。現在の広告配信数は月間 約1億imp。「来年度には10億impくらいまでにもっていきたい」(ノボット代表小林氏)

同社ではこれまでにエンジェルラウンドでのサムライインキュベートからの投資を経て、2010年3月には ngi group の運営ファンドなどから約3,000万円の資金調達に成功している。

今回調達した資金はおもに同社の事業ドメインである AdMaker の開発と、アジアを中心とした海外展開に充てる。「世界中で使ってもらいたい。今は欧米系が多いが、今後はアジアを中心に展開していく。日本よりも海外の比重を高めたい」(小林氏)

2012年3月期売上高 10億円を目指す。