Mixi, one of Japan's largest social networks and a direct competitor to Facebook, announced [J] a new alliance on January 20 with German company Vznet Netzwerke.
Mixi says that both companies will standardize their social
application platforms to enable third-party social application
providers to run their applications on both networks.
According to a Mixi press release [J], Vznet is the largest social
network service in Germany, and the Vznet official blog [De] makes the similar claim for Mixi as the largest social network service in Japan.
The accuracy of both these claims could be challenged depending on how you count the size of the respective networks, against Facebook in Germany and Gree/Mobage-Town in Japan.
Railway heavyweight JR (Japan Railway), which was the national railway until privatization in 1987, has begun a new promotion for its high-speed 'shinkansen' (bullet train) network using a GPS location game.
All six of the JR passengers companies, spread from Hokkaido to Kyushu, are involved in “Nihon Rettou Judan, Challenge Shinkansen” [J] (Bullet Train Challenge Around Japan), for which users compete against each other by visiting as many bullet train stations as possible around Japan to collect points.
The game runs from December 15 to March 31, and includes a total of 99 stations on 8 train lines, as well as 47 points of interest around Japan.
Anyone with a GPS-enabled phone (common for Japanese feature phones) can register to compete, and cellphones' GPS technology ensures that competitors have physically visited the required stations and other locations. Users check their points in to acquire virtual stamps and train collections.
Participants are ranked by how fast they visit each location as well as how many virtual stamps they get, and those who check in to all 99 stations receive the honorable title of 'Shinkansen Master'.
The 8 shinkansen lines included in the game can be seen in this map.
Many Japanese children from urban areas enjoy the so-called “Stamp Rally” programs offered by local train networks during school holidays. Kids get to ride on trains and get off at each station along the way to receive that station's stamp.
The high cost of a 'Limited Express' ticket for the shinkansen
essentially prices kids out of playing JR's shinkansen challenge, so it really is like a high-tech adult version of the kids' programs.
JR Kyushu is also offering an augmented reality application for iPhone that lets you see their new shinkansen train virtually. (via The Second Times [J])
It's no secret anymore that Japan loves Twitter, and as such, there's a whole bunch of Twitter-based services coming out of Japan. One of these is a new site called Livlis, which lets users list up stuff they are willing to give away (computers, books, cell phones and other things).
Other users can indicate their interest in items by clicking the "I want this!" or "Like" buttons placed below every offer. It's also possible to indicate which items you own or you would like to get from other Livlis users (who can then contact you about them).
Users log in with their Twitter accounts and (needless to say) can tweet out just about anything they do or find on the site to their followers.
Here are four items currently listed on Livlis:
This screen shot shows a deal that's already over:
As Livlis is created as a barter service, the main bullet point here is the absence of money and the reliance on trust among the members. Much like the remotely similar service Sharemo, Livlis is based on a point system: users "pay" for items by using points (which they can collect by listing up items, inviting other members to join the site, etc.)
Launched last month, Livlis is free to use. The service requires an invitation, but it's possible to browse the (many) items listed without being logged in.
Their blog application Movable Type will be handed over to Six Apart Japan. Six Apart Japan will provide the application and its support to worldwide.
TypePad stays in Say Media and Six Apart Japan becomes the local distributor for TypePad Pro. TypePad Micro is directly served by Say Media to Japanese users.
Six Apart Japan said to have 40 employees at January 2008.
The president Nobuhiro Seki will stay the position, but one of Japan's most influential web engineers/geeks Tatsuhiko Miyagawa leaves his operating officer post and stays at Say Media as he tweeted [En].
[Update] English Six Apart official blog now has an announcement post by Nobuhiro Seki.
