Koei Tecmo [J] has made a contract with Taiwan’s Cayenne Entertainment Tchnology and have announced that they will develop their currently offered social game “Nobu-nyaga’s Ambition” for Yahoo! Mobage and Mobage in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao.

Koei Tecmo has also until now been developing joint service under management license contract for “Age of Discovery Online” and “Dynasty Warriors Online” with Cayenne in the same regions.  This time Cayenne will handle the management of “Nobu-nyaga’s Ambition” on location.  Already a Teaser Site [C] and a Facebook Page [C] have been opened, and the cat generals appearing in the game and game system are introduced.  Furthermore the Chinese version title of “Nobu-nyaga’s Ambition” has been adapted for language using Chinese characters only as “信猫之野望.”

Nobu-nayaga’s Ambition walkthrough guide Cat Book of Heraldry [J]

Translation authorized by VSmedia

Nobu-nyaga’s Ambition Steps Into Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau

Koei Tecmo Games [J] and GREE [J] have released “Ichiokunin No Sangokushi” (100 Million People’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms), the Chinese version of Koei Tecmo’s social game “Hyaku Mannin No Sangokushi” (1 Million People’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms), for the Chinese Tencent’s feature phone / smartphone open platform “Tencent Wireless Open Platform for Community.”

“100 Million People’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms” is the first title installment for GREE’s Chinese social game market.  Tencent and GREE, since last January’s business partnership, have been undergoing localized business support for both companies’ collaborative resources and development platforms.  With mutual Social Network Services, development partners using “GREE Platform” and those using “Tencent Wireless Open Platform for Community” have opened the possibility for smooth development of social games.  “100 Million People’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms” is “Three Kingdoms” on the world stage; it’s a social game where users become a ruler and, while communicating with numerous other users, aim for unification of the playing field.  Users raise their level by clearing various quests, strengthen their army, and proceed to capture other users’ towns.  By forming partnerships with other users, you can strengthen your own army, so communication over the network acts as one point of capture.

Koei Tecmo Games and Gree will continue to advance their social game development into the Chinese market and into the future.

1 Million People’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms Handy Guide [J]

Translation authorized by VSmedia

Koei Tecmo And GREE Bring Romance Of The Three Kingdoms To Chinese Tencent Platform

GCREST [J] has opened service of their avatar community “Selfy Channel” (USA: Tinier Me) for China’s largest SNS “Sina Weibo” [C] as “Xiaotiandi” [C] (Small World), via development and management by a major Chinese social game developer FiveMinutes Inc.

GCREST’s support base FiveMinutes will oversee development and administration of “Xiaotiandi,” and they will provide service expansion using their Chinese SNS social game management know-how.  In the same way as in the Japanese version “Selfy Channel,” you can decorate your avatar and room and enjoy communication with other users in areas within the game.  They are also planning to provide a Chinese customized version of the restaurant game “Selfy Restaurant” for “Sina Weibo.”

FiveMinutes is already working on a localized Chinese version [J] of CyberAgent’s [J] 2D virtual space “Ameba Pigg.”

＠games official guide book: Selfy Town No Arukikata (How to Get Around in Selfy Town) (Famitsu’s  walkthrough book) [J]

Translation authorized by VSMedia

“Selfy Channel” Makes Its Way To China For #1 SNS Sina Weibo

NTT, or rather NTT West subsidiary NTT Solmare, is planning to sell 100 e-comics from China in its home market of Japan, Asia and the US. NTT Solmare partnered up with Zhejiang Publishing United Group and will initially offer two e-comics each in Japan and the US by the end of this year.

In 2012, the plan is to expand the business to Malaysia and Singapore. According to Japanese business daily The Nikkei, most of the comics will be sports or comedy titles. Zhejiang Publishing will be responsible for handling rights and translation into Japanese and English.

All titles will be delivered to smartphones and tablets only. NTT Solmare plans to ink deals with other Chinese publishers in the future and aims at expanding its international business volume from the current US$1.3 million to US$13 million.

NTT Solmare is currently offering mobile content (manga, e-books, games) in a total of 31 countries.

NTT Solmare To Sell E-Comics From China In Japan, Asia And The US

The Google+ iPhone App's huge but only affected for some countries has been fixed after about 10 days.

As we reported on September 26, Japanese (Chinese and Korean as well) Google+ user who updated the app found that they were unable to put in their native language letters.

The new version 1.0.5.2346 has come on October 4 with changes;

• Fixed bug with Chinese, Japanese and Korean
• Re-enable autocomplete when composing a post

It was quite a show-stopper for East Asians. I hope they will have test item with Asian languages before shipment.

Google+ iPhone App Bug (unable to write Japanese/Chinese/Korean) Fixed

Japan's second biggest telco and mobile carrier KDDI is planning to bring a set of made-in-Japan apps to Android users in China, in cooperation with China Mobile, the country's biggest telco (over 600 mobile subscribers).

Under the deal, KDDI will start offering an initial 22 apps, for example manga or games, in China Mobile's Android market as early as from the end of this month. KDDI uses apps made by a total of five Japan-based companies, i.e. Cybird, Acrodea or G-Mode.

The company says services like billing or fee collection for these app developers will be handled by Hong Kong-based DMX Technologies, a firm KDDI acquired a 51% stake in back in 2009.

The Nikkei is reporting that KDDI is only the 10th company to be given the right to sell apps in China Mobile's Android market (which has 90 million customers).

KDDI To Bring Android Apps To China Mobile Subscribers

Cyber Agent [J] has announced that they will offer “Kids Country” (Shaorengo)” [C] a localized Chinese version of their 2D virtual space “Ameba Pigg” for China’s biggest social networking service, “Kaixin001”. [C]

“Kaixin001” is a popular local Chinese social networks which boasts over 100 million users.  “Kids Country,” based on Ameba Pigg, will be developed and managed by Cyber Agent’s investment partner and major Chinese social game developer FiveMinutes. [C]  From now on, FiveMinutes, as they continue to develop their service which utilizes the knowhow of social game management in Chinese social networking service,  aims to reach 2 million users in the “Kids Country” service within China by December of 2012, even as Chinese social networking platforms other than Kaixin001 continue to be developed.

In addition, this is the second case of Ameba Pigg’s overseas development following the Facebook application AmebaPico.  Presently in August of 2011, the number of AmebaPico users has topped 4 million.

Ameba Pigg Official Guide Book [J]

The Apple of Happiness - The True Story of Ameba Pigg [J]

Translation licensed by VSMedia [J]

Ameba Pigg Localizes “Kids Country” To China On Kaixin001

The Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC), one of the world's largest annual conference featuring mobile and social app trends, took place at China's national convention center, which is located the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, Chinese capital.  The two-day event celebrated its fourth edition this time, and it has been solely organized by Great Wall Club, a team of CEOs and executives of telcos, social network service providers and mobile app developers in Japan and Mainland China.   I had another assignment in Tokyo, and I could make it only on Day 2.

Just in front of the venue, China Telecom's base station van was standing by for burst mobile traffic which might be generated by an enormous number of the event attendees.

The Day 2 started with a keynote speech by Charles Zhang(张朝阳), CEO of Sohu.com(搜狐), where he reviewed what he had done during the last ten years and poured out his regrets including the acquisition of Chinaren[C] or the largest online alumni club in China with over 80 million registered users. (video by Tech163 [C])

G-Startups Competition

Between panels and speeches by Internet business tycoon and celebrities from China, Japan and the rest of the world, there were on-stage live demos by the G-startup competition winners who had been chosen from 20 start-up finalists.  The both winners will won the prizes including participating incubation programs by Innovation Works (Beijing-based incubator founded by Kai-Fu Lee, the ex-president of Google China), China Accelerator (Dalian-based incubator founded by angel investor Cyril Ebersweiler), and Plug and Play Tech Center in Silicon Valley.

The 1st place winner of the seed/early-stage category:

SmarTots (Beijing, China)

SmarTots is a mobile education platform for children aged 2-7. It brings together educators, parents, and developers to create an interactive, fun, and manageable learning experience for kids through mobile apps. The company strives to unlock the true educational value of mobile devices by providing parents with reports, parental tools and personalized recommendations across many hardware and software ecosystems.

The 1st place winner of the growth-stage category:

Word Engine (Tokyo, Japan)

Word Engine is the fastest way to permanently memorize up to 99% of all the vocabulary required for important subjects. Word Engine is fast, inexpensive and mobile. They offer vocabulary courses for test preparation and special business needs.  The app is a proven scientific solution already in use at hundreds of universities and multinational corporations around the world. They very much look forward to entering the China market.

After those demos, Takeshi Natsuno(@tnatsu[J]),  the inventor of Japan's mobile web standard for feature phone i-Mode and the president of GWC (Great Wall Club) Japan, was interviewed on the stage by Plus8Star's Benjamin Joffe(@benjaminjoffe) who is very familiar with the Asian tech scenes.  Mr. Natsuno explained what has been happening on the Japanese mobile industry during the last few years, saying Japanese manufacturers once quit the development of feature phone handsets requiring a bunch of costs, but got back to develop additional features for the global cost-free mobile platforms such as Android.

He emphasized it is very important to have this kind of event in China, furthermore, organized by Chinese and Japanese industry players.   (YouTube Video by Asiajin)

Peter Vesterbacka, Marketing Manager of Rovio Mobile (Maker of Angry Birds) interviewed on stage.

In association with the event organizers, Chinese mobile game portal d.cn[C] presented the Global Mobile Game Awards. The following ten games won the awards. (YouTube Video by Asiajin)   Angry Birds captured an audience's extra attention because they reportedly had earned USD2M in their 1Q.  Beijing's Global Times reported they would partner with a certain local game platform operator to launch their business in Mainland China.

The awards went to:

• Angry Birds
• Assassin’s Creed
• Plants vs Zombies
• Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
• 3KTD
• GunBros
• Gun’n'Glory
• Doodle Jump
• Kingdom Conquest
• The Whole River Red4

DeNA makes a big announcement at GMIC

Isao Moriyasu, the COO of Japan's leading social app platform operator DeNA, unveiled they would partner with Fujian-headquartered Net Dragon (listed on the HK Stock Exchange), running mobile app store 91.com in China, and start co-developing social apps in the both countries. Furthermore, he announced the company would launch a CNY10M (USD15.4M)-worth foundation to encourage Chinese app developers to bring out more social apps to their platform.

After the Event

After the event, Asiajin contributor Hiroumi Mitani and I had a chance to join a dinner party with Japanese businessmen who are actively working with the Chinese mobile industry in Beijing. (Thanks to Jin Uehara(@ueharajin[J]) of MyNet Japan[J])   They insisted that we put our eyes on two emerging Chinese companies - Dianping.com(大众点评网)[C] and Vancl(凡客诚品)[C].  Dianping.com is an Yelp-like local search and reviews online service.   Vancl is China's largest e-commerce retailer that delivers fast fashion clothing to online consumers nationwide, and a noteworthy fact is that they have a distribution network of their own for a better user experience such as the rapid delivery of merchandise.   A number of great internet entrepreneurs were seated around the party table, but I won't tell you who they were because it was a private opportunity for all of them.

In The End

Smartphone handsets are not inexpensive for average Chinese people, I couldn't see a lot of people carrying the iPhone or the Android phone on streets in Beijing where workers get comparatively higher income.   (Regardless to say, everyone at the event had s smartphone of some kind.  That circumstance did not reflect the average of what's going on in the country.)   That's why Chinese and foreign handset manufacturers are competing one another to introduce inexpensive range line-ups of smartphones which can be easily accepted by Chinese consumers.  (But I know "average" makes no sense in the country.)   It's volume zone business that intends to earn the market shares of the average-income workers.

For social app and mobile app developers, to achieve a great success in the country having the world's largest mobile population, their products should fit not only the user interface of typical smartphone handsets but also that of China-made simple but intelligent handsets that are ranged between smartphone and featurephone.

Daily deal site ads at Beijing Subway: Groupon.cn[C] (upper-left), Lashou.com[C] (upper-right), 24quan.com (lower-left) and Nuomi.com(lower-right)

During my stay in Beijing, I often used the subway to go somewhere, and I found a great number of the daily deal site ads at stations and on trains.   Reportedly there are more than 4,000 Groupon-like daily deal sites in the country.   In addition, it is surprising that a company running "Groupon.cn" site has nothing to do with US-based Groupon.     4,000 deal sites and 800 million mobile users - these numbers have the power to change the global standard, which sometimes badly affects our business and scares us, but they mean the country has a great potential.

Author's note: The event's official media sponsor Tech163 has a great special coverage[C] which are filled with transcripts of keynote speakers and a bunch of interviews with celebrities in the industry.

See Also:

• Chinamode 2010: 45 Finalists Nominated For China’s Best Web Service Awards (1/3)
• Chinamode 2010: 45 Finalists Nominated For China’s Best Web Service Awards (2/3)
• Chinamode 2010: 45 Finalists Nominated For China’s Best Web Service Awards (3/3)

GMIC 2011 Beijing: Where Are Social Media Going In The World’s Largest Mobile Population?

At the beginning of April, I was almost writing up an article about how the Eastern Japan earthquake affected social media battle. Since the end of 2010, Japanese traditional media had been in great favor of Facebook as "the next big thing from US". Their endless coverage was very similar with what was done with Twitter in 2009-2010, and eventually, Twitter's appearance on mass media became rather small.

However, the disaster changed the game. Facebook might have been a good platform with its real-name policy if Japanese Facebook penetration was not about 2% of population. (Although the real victims in the disaster areas could not use any social media by black-out,) Twitter was the cure for tens of millions people who wanted to confirm their friends safety under disconnected phone. Twitter also helped that people who had to walk back to their home at the night of the earthquake in greater Tokyo. Many raw information (, false rumors and corrections as well) were circulated on it for weeks.

A blogger Edgefirst summed up that how Japanese newspaper companies utilized/opened their Twitter accounts to cover up their stopped and delayed distribution. Twitter accounts of some Tohoku region newspapers added 500-700% followers. National paper's official accounts got notable gain, too. Generally speaking, Japanese newspapers are anti-internet with fear for losing their readers, but this disaster seemed to encourage web amiable factions.

Non-Japanese residents' English activities were huge on Facebook. Many support from overseas were discussed on Facebook as well. But in Japanese language, there were less activities happened from Facebook, if you compare them with Twitter and other web services.

Here is the population graph of Facebook Japan users recorded by Socialbakers after the quake. Screenshot on April 4th.

The number of Japanese Facebook users were sharp rising around the release of the movie "The Social Network" in early January, then, March 11th quake completely stopped the trend. The graph above is from April 4th.

Then, on April 5th, something strange was observed on Socialbakers (and Facebook's ad tool, as Socialbakers is only recording numbers from it).

In Japan, as Serkan Toto pointed out on his blog, half a million user joined Facebook in a day. That made over 3 million users, Facebook population increased 20%.

In China, ReadWriteWeb showed that over quarter million Facebook users disappeared on the same April 5th.

I checked other countries in East Asia. South Korea lost 100,000(2.5%).

Taiwan lost one million active users(10%) on the same day!

So it seems as if massive users moved out from Taiwan and China to Japan. If it was opposite way, it could happen as some people evacuated from Japan to other Asian countries. (still the number is unbelievable high, though)

There were no campaigns like "changing your location to Japan on FB (for showing support or something)" as far as I know.

Facebook Japan Paused Growth By Earthquake, But Gains Back From… China?

Here is some recommended reading, probably of value for just about everybody reading Asiajin: in 2007, Students at Singapore Management University have created a wiki called "Digital Media Across Asia", which now covers a total of eleven countries (in English), namely:

• Australia
• China
• Hong Kong
• India
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Malaysia
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Taiwan
• Vietnam

On the site, the wiki is being called the "world's most comprehensive wiki dedicated to digital media throughout Asia", and I think this could well be true.

The wiki is updated 2-3 times per year (only the students themselves and faculty can edit it), and it's a great resource for country-specific information on social networks, mobile, search engines, video sharing platforms, etc. etc.

Wiki Covering 11 Countries: Digital Media Across Asia