CyberAgent’s [J] consolidated subsidiary for developing investment and venture capital operations, CyberAgent Ventures, [J] on the date of October 7th, 2011 made an investment into Qrunch Co., [J] developers of “Qrunch,” [J] a social Q&A service which allows you to lightheartedly ask questions to friends.  This company became the chosen enterprise for the business plan contest “Startups2011-spring-” held by CyberAgent Ventures.

Qrunch is a startup venture business with members who have an abundance of experience in web service development and application.  They will develop Qrunch, a Q&A site for lightheartedly asking questions to friends, and they are planning to offer it as a browser version and as a smartphone application.  Presently, they are accepting up to 10,000 advance account registrations for their alpha version, via the url above.  Qrunch is strengthening their develpment system via this recent fundraising, and they are aiming for an early stage business startup.

Translation authorized by VSMedia

Tags: Investment, Japan by Chiho Komoriya
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Continued from (Part 1). Middle part of October news which we did not write as a dedicated article. Continued to (Part 3)

Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated.

• Kagawa Pref. Declares To Rename To Udon (Japanese wheat noodle) Prefecture - Kagawa is known by enthusiastic udon lovers. Official runs extreme tourism promotion
• Kanazawa Local Govn Reproduces Finctional Festival In Anime, 5000 Fans Gather - Anime made up very traditional-looking ritual ceremony, the web assists fans to pilgrim, local government and people realized the ceremony as if it has been held hundreds of years.
• Microsoft Japan Lends PC/Xbox/Windows Phone For College Festivals. named 5 Windows Phone Ambassadors From Miss Uampus
• WordPress Claudia (Microsoft Japan Anime Character For Cloud) Voice Plugin - Claudia explained

  

• Taiwanese PC Game Parodies Chinese Civil War With Historical Figures Feminized via kashikou
• iPhone FAQ By KDDI au
• Development Of Japanese Popular FTP Software FFFTP, once declared its termination by the original author, Resumed By Successor Group
• Tokyo Metro and Yahoo! Japan Experiment Smartphone Location Guide Service In Subway Platform
• Kebyo-Bukuro - 150 Cough Sound Android App For Malingerer Sounds Ill
• Hatsune Miku Panel Event Held At MIT
• Japanese Tried Siri English
• Nikkei's Reporting The First Softbank iPhone 4S Purchaser's Photo Shows "Out of area" in Shibuya, Tokyo - the photo seems taken down. Mirror
• "Big Wave Guy" Appeared On iPhone 4S Line In Omotesando. This guy was a kind of icon at the first iPhone release frenzy in Japan. He comes back!

  

• NHN/Naver Japan and Livedoor Group To Move To A New Building Next To Shibuya Station In 2012 Autumn. They are now in Osaki and Nishi-Shinjyuku. The new building Shibuya Hikarie is under construction.

  

• Shonen Jump Gives Up Paper Magazine Business In US, Moves To Digital Version
• Tokyo's Internet-enabled appliance manufacturer Cerevo introduces LiveShell, the first-ever Ustream-approved product.

  

• DeNA To Integrate 3 Mobile Shopping Sites Into One Brand, Bidders. These services are the one of the reasons they cannot rebrand the whole company with "Mobage".
• Mixi To Establish US Subsidiary For Investement And Business Development
• 1/3 of Japanese Smartphone Users Keeps Their Feature Phone
• Research: Online Video Services Users On PC Web Passes 30 Million In Japan. On it, Hulu Japan's first month visitors are estimated 160K
• Cookpad To Begin Foodstuffs Delivery From November

If you want to know any specific news more, but unable to find them in other English blog/media, please let us know.

Tags: Japan IT Links by Akky Akimoto
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Kayac Inc. [J] has released “THE KING OF FIGHTERS ENCOUNTER,” an iPhone social game application working with location information, which allows you to have battles with characters of people who pass by on the street in real life.  Download is free.

“THE KING OF FIGHTERS ENCOUNTER” is a game app based on the popular title “KING OF FIGHTERS.”  The user chooses their favorite of all 21 fighters and sets their “Skill,” and can then enjoy a “Pass-by Battle” with a user passing by on an actual street.  By defeating bosses and raising levels from repeated battles and training, gradually more characters can be used, and the type of skill that can be set for each character is different.  Also you can send messages to former opponents, get an area ranking, country ranking, and world ranking, and use it in tandem with Facebook by inviting Facebook friends to battle.  At the moment 21 characters are available but this number is planned to increase from here on.

(C) SNK PLAYMORE

Translation authorized by VSMedia

Tags: Japan, Social game by Chiho Komoriya
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Mitsubishi Electric has developed a prototype app for iPhone and Android phones that could make life for the millions of commuters living in Tokyo a bit easier. The so-called "Yamanote Train Net" [JP] app is currently being tested in one train on the famous Yamanote line that circles the center of Tokyo.

Users can expect to get various information (and ads) delivered to their smartphone when they enter the train.

Mitsubishi explains what's needed for the app to work:

"This is a completely closed Wi-Fi environment in a train. Content from a server on the train is basically provided via Wi-Fi, so the service isn't directly connected to the outside world."

The app tells users how crowded the train in question is (in real-time), what the temperature is like, when and where it's best to change trains, which trains are delayed, etc.

There is also a "channel" for advertisements (videos), but it will be also possible to download coupons or "entertainment" content on your iPhone or Android phone.

Downloads (Japanese only, free):
iOS
Android

This video, shot by Diginfo TV, provides more insight (Japanese/English subbed):

Tags: Cellular Phone, Japan, New Service, Video by Serkan Toto
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Last Friday, I was invited to Jakarta to give a keynote presentation at the Sparxup Awards 2011 event for Indonesian startups.

The presentation's topic was "Innovation, Imitation & Hyper-Localization In Asia", and assuming some readers might be interested, I embedded it below.

Here are the slides (direct link):

Tags: Event Report, Indonesia by Serkan Toto
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