Groupon Japan’s Rival, Ponpare[J] has started to sell a special coupon today. You can get Häagen-Dazs ice cream ticket for 2 mini cups by paying only 100 yen ( about a dollar and quarter).  This means you can get 84% discounts but what makes this coupon drawing attention is the number of sign up required to get the deal.

Häagen-Dazs ice cream 120 ml 2 mini cups for 100 yen[J]

500,000 people need to buy this coupon to get the deal.

At this moment at 20:00 on Nov. 5th, 32400 people had already signed up and about 300 hours (more than 12 days) are remaining until this deal ends.

The question is, will this deal be made or not?

If the deal won’t be made, Ponpare still can acquire many new members without paying for the deal.

Or is this gonna be a successful campaign fulfilling both users joined to this campaign and simultaneously achieve Pompare’s purpose to boost its  growth against Groupon Japan?

Minimum sign ups for the deal is 500,000 but maximum number is 1,000,000. This ticket worth 660 yen so Ponpare needs to pay 660 million yen, about 8.3 million U.S. dollars. However Ponpare may already have good discounts from Häagen-Dazs for promoting their product.

Ponpare is a service operated by Recruit[J], Japanese largest B to C matching service provider based on internet and magazine publication. Groupon Japan, formerly known as Q-pod acquired by Groupon this Summer  is growing faster than other competitors in Japan.

This challenging campaign may change such situation.

But be careful, if you are not living in Japan you can not join to this attractive deal.

Tags: Japan by Hiroumi Mitani
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At the end of last month a rumors had spread that Apple would buy Sony and Sony stocks had moved up.

If Apple buy Sony we might be able to see Sony Pictures’ movies on iTunes, more games on iTunes and Sony Music artists’ songs on Japanese iTunes store ( and Japanese iTunes music store is not rich on song lineup so this might be a great benefit for Japanese iTunes lovers).

It was just a rumor but Google has more reasons to buy Sony than Apple does.

1. Google TV

Sony recently release Google TV and being the best partner to spread Google TV against little Apple TV set top box. Although Sony is not shinning as it was on 80′s, Sony is being a top leading company and known brand for TV.

2. Good partner to spread Android handsets

Sony’s first Android handest Xperia is the second best selling smartphone in Japan. 2.2 million smartphone was shipped in the first half year of 2010 in Japan and while Apple iPhone occupied 60.1 % of the market, Sony covered 20.6%, shipped 460 thousand Xperia handsets.

3.Google is a company good to make software / Sony is a company good to make hardware

Sony can provide hardware for Google, and Google can provide software for Sony. This might be a best combination. Apple is not making hardware by themselves but selling hardware is their main business.

4. Good executive relationship?

Former president of  Google Japan, Koichiro Tsujino was president of Sony’s personal computer division, where he led VAIO PC brand before joining Google.

Of course this is just a speculation but Google might work to buy Sony if Apple is really thinking to buy it.

Tags: Japan, Joke by Hiroumi Mitani
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