On Friday, GMO Venture Partners[J], an investment arm of Shibuya-based web juggernaut GMO Internet Group, launched a private equity fund specializing in investing in start-ups who are developing e-commerce and ad services to be provided on the Facebook platform (a.k.a. F-commerce), which is called Social Ad & Commerce Technology Fund. It has a JPY57M(=USD670,000) volume as of its launch and can be grown up to JPY2B(=USD23.8M) in the future.
As their first portfolio, they invested in Aratana, a tech start-up based in Miyazaki, a southern coastal city of the Kyushu Island. The company has introduced an easy-to-use shopping cart system integrated for Facebook, which is called Social Gateway, and has installed more than 1,000 on-Facebook commerce pages for Japanese SMEs in partnership with social commerce integrators such as Sakuragaoka Works Inc. (previously known as Arcarna)
Example: A “F-commerce” page developed by Aratana for Rice-made cosmetic manufacturer Rice Force.
Ohma Inc., a Tokyo-based tech start-up known for semantic web-based who’s-who app Spysee[J], released a Kickstarter-like crowd fundraising service called “ReadyFor?[J]” this week.
The service intends to giving fundraising opportunities to amateur filmmakers, musicians and artists who would like to publish their works. If you invest in someone’s plan to develop his/her work, in return, you can get benefits like putting your names on it and seeing him/her face-to-face.
The company is currently running a campaign for helping the earthquake victims in the Tohoku area, for the time being, all the revenues earned from their services will be donated for the disaster relief efforts.
The following is a video clip shooting Miss Mera from Ohma has presented the app at Startup Dating‘s lightening talk session.
Tokyo-based tech start-up Pido[J] unveiled the company’s first iPhone app today, which is called TwitVoice[J] and allows you to leave your voice messages via Twitter. It’s a free app, and you can tweet with your real voice recorded within fifteen seconds. The company expects to add some features in the future to attract the users more.
Pido was a tech start-up specializing in mobile business and co-founded in 2010 by Yusuke Tanaka, previously serving as the managing director for Fractalist[J], and Ryo Umezawa, the managing director of J-Seed Ventures.
The following is a video clip shooting Mr. Umezawa has presented the app at TechWave‘s 1000 English Speakers.
In the beginning of next month, four tech start-ups from Tokyo and two start-ups from Seoul will jointly hold a presentation evening event in South Korea’s capital, which is called Asia Startup Summit, for expanding their presence in Asia and exchanging their perspectives on the region’s start-up community.
Presentations are:
Revolutionizing Digital Entertainment by advanced video search technology by Jonnpyo Lee (이준표), Enswers Inc.
Big trends in Japan – Optimization and Personalization Technology by Takashi Uemura(上村崇), ALBERT Inc.
Information to collective intelligence LastSupper – spot to intelligent map / mironi – listen, share, enjoy
by Jongil Yoon (윤정일), Revilx
Japanese mobile market and Global mobile ads by Kiyotaka Kobayashi(小林清剛), Nobot Inc. (see these Asiajin stories for more details)
Social Monitoring “@hentaiAlert” by Yusuke Takahashi(高橋雄介), Individual Company
Social translation “Conyac” by Naoki Yamada(山田尚貴), Anydoor Co-founder (see these Asiajin stories for more details)
The organizers are currently inviting techpreneurs and geeks to the event, if you are interested in attending, please contact them from their Facebook page. According to Mr. Kobayashi, one of the organizers, their entire presentation will be livestreamed.
A team of web app developers Boss Yooann, Kabaken, Kazuhiro Kotsutsumi and Yuki Naotori has released this Google Map mash-up. Without entering your address, it helps you find which hour of the day your area will lose power. Available on PC, the Android and the iPhone.
In Tokyo, households are suffering from shortages of daily supplies because they buy too much to prepare for possible aftershocks and multiple disasters. Tokyo-based ad designer Takamasa Matsumoto[J] introduced this poster to encourage people to refrain from hoarding goods. Supermarkets and shopping arcades in the city appreciate his effort and print his poster to put on walls.
A vending machine that allows you to donate to Japan Red Cross
In Namba, Osaka, there is a vending machine that allows you to donate to Japanese Red Cross for their disaster relief efforts. (via Gigazine)
A team of nearly 30 web app developers has developed this website called Todoke. Currently individual donations of goods are not accepted by any local governments due to extra sorting and distribution costs and thus limited to collective, large-scale delivery by public organizations and companies. The website lists companies that would like to have supports from and their products. You can purchase one of such goods near you. The team will gather your purchase records and deliver them to the company as a sign of collective request.
A system engineer in Tokyo[J] has developed these web apps, which shows you statistics of what relief goods are in need in each part of the stricken regions.
A team of Keio University SFC students Itsuki Sakitsu and Kohei Fukuzaki has developed this Twitter-integrated website for match-making those who can provide temporary homes with the victims who have lost their homes in the disaster.
Meanwhile, roommate finder sites such as Roommate Cafe[J] and Roomshare Japan[J] are also appealing their users for giving free rent houses for the victims. (Thank Akky and Serkan for the info)
Don’t be sad, Japan (日本不悲傷): A rooter’s song from the Chinese Websphere
The Internet community in Mainland China has composed this song and uploaded it on Youku, the Chinese version of YouTube. It causes a high sensation.
