Microsoft Advertising reported that a social media usage research conducted by Microsoft in Asia-Pacific(APAC) 11 countries and regions.
According to about 3,000 answering online to the questions (375 of them are Japanese), average APAC users are using 3 social networking services. They think only one-forth of their friends list are their close friends. 51% of Japanese answered none of their social network friends were their close friends.
Another interesting difference between Japanese users and other APAC countries is that the primary purpose of personal e-mail account is to contact with family and friends in most countries, whilst for Japanese it is primarily for receiving news alerts.
Samurai Incubate, a Tokyo-based seed accelerator aiming to bring up many tech start-ups, had the second edition[J] of their annual showcase event in late November, which is called Samurai Venture Summit (for short, SVS) and showed us their investing portfolios and pitch presentations by CEOs of tech start-ups. It was an one-day event using a several-story office building located in the heart of Shibuya, Tokyo, a number of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, media reporters and more came together to see the team's presentations and discuss the future of Japanese start-up scenes.
Picture: Taizo Son(left) (@taizoson[J]), a serial entrepreneur and the chairman of GungHo Online Entertainment[J], making a keynote speech and Kentaro Sakakibara(right), the founder/CEO of Samurai Incubate.
Their pitch presentations, each of which is ruled to be completed in a few minutes, are called "shout", and start-up executives literally present very loudly what they are doing on their businesses and services. It's a funny experience and might look so strange for Westerners, but shouting something in front of a large audience means the expression of presenter's hell-bent determination to make things happen. 35 start-ups pitched their presentations, I cannot cover them all but just pick up three excellent award winners in this story.
For those who are interested in watching the 35 presentations, check out our YouTube channel via this link.
Tokyo-based start-up Granma, named after the yacht that was used to transport the fighters of the Cuban Revolution from Mexico to Cuba in 1956, develops a business for resolving poverty-related issues (causes) in South Asian countries and the rest of the world. They recently launched a lodging facility called "Cause Village[J]" in Tokyo's suburb, where start-up companies can have their brainstorming camps for developing future business plans.
"Sassor" is a Tokyo-based group specializing in interactive and service design. They are working on developing the Energy Literacy Program, ELP for short, that can help control daily electric power consumption of each home appliances. The service consists of modules, receiver and website, and it can visualize the electric power consumption of each home appliances for grasping data easily.
(Sassor also presented at Infinity Venture Summit 2010 Fall in Kyoto as Serkan Toto reported here on Asiajin.)
Aiia is a Tokyo-based company publishing puzzle magazines and managing apparel brands. They introduced their brand new magazine "Chakra[J]", that earns more than USD100,000 ad revenue for an edition and brings readers their peace of mind, dream and happiness. They've got a number of complaints from the readers that it has not helped to be happier. Aiia is currently seeking someone who is good at handling complainers. (Kidding us?)
Samurai Incubate was founded in 2008 by Kentaro Sakakibara (@samurai_ken[J]) who has previously worked with Shibuya-based web service conglomerate EC Navi (previously known as Axiv.com).
And the competition between the two rivals is set to continue beyond their desire to be Japan's leading social network as both companies are seeking another growth possibility — international markets.
Kakeochi(Elopement in Japanese) (URL, only available on Japanese feature phone) is a new social game by Index Corp. on Japan's No.1 social networking service Gree. In the game, you play a female university student, who has a fiance elected by parents. One day you attend a high-school alumni association party, and meet 5 attractive guys, classmates and trainee teacher in your high-school age.
Among those and the fiance, you will be in several situations ruffle your feelings. Your play will be also affected by cooperating and interfering with other game players.
The goal of the game is to reach a happy ending with any of characters.
You go out with, talk and sometimes let your target jealous by talking with other guys, to gain game points, make special events happened. You will also receive e-mail from them.
As always for Gree, the game is "basically free". You will find many paid items to speed up your gaming experience during play.
Index says that the game is targeting "mature women". I wish for them that many of mature women will want to make love affair with virtual boyfriends on cellphone during their train commute.
Groupon Japan, a subsidiary of the international leading flash coupon service Groupon, announced their new alliance with Japan's No.2 cellphone carrier KDDI on 14th.
According to the KDDI's release [J], KDDI will open "au one coupon", coupon-only portal site under its official cellphone portal site "au one", which is available on all KDDI au feature phone internet access service EZweb on December 20th.
Groupon Japan will launch a mobile site "Groupon Mobile" as an EZweb mobile site on 14th. Two sites will work collaboratively.
KDDI au is also planning to pre-set "Groupon for Android" on their coming Android phone. KDDI users will be able to pay to Groupon seamlessly with their cellphone bill, both on feature phone and their Androids.
