Japan’s market for daily coupon services is heating up. It has been pretty much a two-horse race for months now, with Groupon Japan as the top player in the market and Recruit’s Ponpare as a close second.

In April, for example, Groupon Japan was estimated to have racked up $18.6 million in sales, while Ponpare is said to have generated $14.5 million in the same month.

But according to coupon search service CP4U, Ponpare has made about as much money as Groupon Japan last month. In fact, the difference between the two sites has never been smaller, after Ponpare doubled it sales from 858 million yen to 1.64 billion yen from May to June.

Groupon, however, still sits on the No. 1 position in Japan daily coupon market (sales in June: 1.65 billion yen). Compared to Groupon and Ponpare, other players barely play a role:

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Serkan Toto

Dr. Serkan Toto is a German based in Tokyo. Like us, he is passionate about introducing Japanese IT to the rest of the world. Full-time, Serkan works as an independent web industry consultant for hedge funds, venture capital companies and start-ups worldwide. He is also a writer for mega tech blog network TechCrunch, covering Japan-related technology and web trends. This is Serkan's website. Follow Serkan on Twitter here.

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