Are you a woman? Are you easily getting jealous? Does your boyfriend own an Android cell phone? If you answered all of these questions with "yes", then a new Android app called "Karelog" [JP] (Boyfriend Log) might be the right thing for you. In a nutshell, it's a piece of "spyware" that you secretly install on your boyfriend's Android handset and that runs in the background.

The way it works is that after downloading, you install the app on your boyfriend's cell phone and provide an ID and password. After you're done, you can track your boyfriend's whereabouts via a website you can access with the ID and password you provided during the installation process, as seen below:

Karelog itself can be downloaded and used for free for 3 days. After that, membership costs between costs 525 Yen a month (or 840 Yen for 3 months or 1,980 Yen for a year). For that money, you can not only track a person's location via GPS but also check the battery status of the Android phone they use.

Platinum members (1,980Yen/month, 4,980 Yen/3 months or 8,980 Yen/1 year) can also check their boyfriend's call log and what kind of apps he has downloaded (to uncover dating or erotic apps, for example).

Needless to say, Karelog can not only be used to control boyfriends but any kind of Android user (you need Android 2.2 and up by the way). As such, the Japanese blogosphere isn't only abuzz with the appearance of the app itself currently but also sees some users discussing privacy issues (example).

I myself wouldn't be too surprised to see the app getting the axe rather sooner than later.

Update September 2, 2011:
The maker of the app apologizes over privacy problems the app may cause and pulls the app to "redesign" it.

Android App Karelog Lets You Spy On Your Boyfriend Remotely [Update: Pulled]

Takako Kansai[J] (@kansai_takako), a full-time engineer at Tokyo's web service start-up and also the best known tech geek girl in this country, just released her first iPhone app called Zaim on Tuesday.

Zaim, meaning "financial affairs" in the Japanese pronunciation, makes you possible to easily note where you have bought something, what you have bought, and how much you have paid for it, on the iPhone app. You are allowed to share your expense records with other users, that's why the app is subtitled as the social account book, compare the characteristics of using money with those who have a similar demographic profile with you, and find a better way to save your money.

Pic: Mrs. Kansai pitches Zaim at Tokyo's monthly start-up showcase event, Startup Dating[J] (June 2011).

She lives in Yokohama, a Tokyo's adjacent city, and she has been developing the app in her one-hour home-office daily commute, and spent three months to complete it, TechCrunch Japan reports. She has enhanced its functionality that allows users to handle up to 19 currency units both in English and Japanese, and expects it gain user traction from the world.

Mrs. Kansai is currently working with UserLocal[J] (See these stories for more about it), which is known for their visualized website access analysis solutions, and also represents a weekend/after-hours web development group called Tinymonks. She is now working on a third-party API for the app, which is expected to be published later this month, and her group mate is working on the Android app for the service.

Zaim: The Socialized Cashbook App Helps You Find Better Ways To Save Daily Expenses

Facebook Spot Information is becoming popular in Japan after Facebook had started Check-in Coupon (Check-in Deals) in Japan.

Facebook Japan Holds An New Coupon Service Launch Event In Shibuya

The problem arouse when Recruit[E], Japan's largest coupon business player, registered spot information of restaurants on behalf of restaurant owners without enough notification.

Hitoshi Nakamura(twitter id: hitoshi[J]) , one of the most famous restaurant owner who has a deep knowledge on social marketing, reported on his blog that  Recruit registered spot information of his restaurant without getting agreement from him.

He noticed this when his customer requested to use a deal posted by Recruit on Facebook spot information.

( This photo was uploaded by Hitoshi.)

Recruit is operating a service known as Hot Pepper[J], a free paper media distributed in town like "am New York" [En] or "metro [En]" but only includes coupons of restaurants and beauty salons instead of articles. There is also an web site to search restaurants and coupons on Hot Pepper. Shop owners pay fixed fee per month to get their coupons printed on this media.

With those data of restaurants and coupons, Recruit, instead of restaurant owners, started registering spot information with coupon. Recruit sent this announcement to 40,000 restaurants and registered information of restaurants except those replied to not register. That means when there was no response, Recruit also registered shop information, took an opt-out process.

As a result, duplicated shop information had registered for some restaurants already have their shop information on Facebook. Recruit says, they checked restaurant names to prevent to register another shop information for those who already registered them on Facebook. But if there is a slight change on the name of restaurants, spell, big letter or small letter, with or without hyphen , etc., spot information had registered in additional to the original one.

This had caused troubles. Restaurant owners with original spot information could not publish Check-in coupon since Recruit had already published coupons for another spot information with the name of same restaurant, and Facebook judged it as a break of service agreement. So Recruit jacked the spot information and the right to publish coupon.

Recruit de-registered shop information for those requested to do so but not only restaurants, Recruit also had  registered spot information of hotels on their hotel reservation site, Jalan[J].

This case implies that anyone can register shop information to get more exposure on Facebook Check-in. Yelp, Expedia, or any other player can do similar thing. Although they can not connect directly to their services at least you can get more awareness for your service.

So how Facebook will respond?

Is this going to be another battle field to get a better position on the list of web page like we do for Google search results?

Facebook Spot Information Is Jacked By A Giant Japanese Coupon Business Player

Tokyo-based tech start-up Mind Palette[J], who was chosen as one of the five projects that Cyber Agent support in their incubation program, released the iPhone app called Snapeee this week.   It is a picture-based social network platform that has a feature of decorating user's snapshots, that is deeply inspired by the Japanese subculture fashion that teenage girls would prefer to get their own snapshots decorated with glitter and animated clip arts.

The company's CEO and founder Yuji Kobayashi says, they're expecting to engage potential users not only in Japan but in the world.  The app became available as short as several days ago, but it is getting large endorsements from the web community in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where the J-pop culture attracts the younger generation.

See Also:

• Startups 2010: CyberAgent Ventures Announces To Invest In Five Tech Start-ups
• Taiwan's iApp: [免費下載] Snapeee 超可愛隨身拍貼機的小小社群 [C]
  (Download it for free.  Snapee is a Kawaii snapshot-based social community.)

Snapeee: Can Teen Taste Snapshot Sharing Win Hearts Of The Young In Asia?

Kanagawa-based funny app developer Kayac introduced Reengo, a VoIP app for the iPhone that allows you to place a call to your Facebook friend without dialing the number.   According to TechCrunch Japan[J], the company chose Facebook from available options as an integration platform because they would like to spread the app out globally.

As of this writing, the app is available only on the Japanese AppStore, however, it will be released internationally as soon as their server-side environment stands by for possible heavy load.   That will be happening in a couple of days, they say.   They're planning to introduce the app for the Android handsets in late-May.

Kayac Introduces FB-integrated VoIP App For The iPhone

It's no secret that in recent years, quite a few foreign (mostly American) web brands have made it big in Japan: Google, YouTube, Twitter, Wikipedia, Amazon etc.

But what about startups that don't have huge budgets to internationalize, no staff in Japan and - in some cases - not even a Japanese user interface (usually a dealbreaker for most local web users).

Here's a recent (yet surely incomplete) list:

• Instagram (we just recently reported about the silly printed how-to-use-Instagram book available in Japan)
• Foursquare (KDDI wants to help Foursquare to become bigger in this country)
• Bump
• Hootsuite
• Jimdo
• Tweetdeck
• Tumblr (official data submitted from Tumblr to Quantcast shows Japan is their No. 5 market worldwide)
• Seesmic

In 2010, Evernote established an office in Japan, the company's No. 2 market worldwide, so it can't really be part of this list - even though the app was already very popular before that.

Which foreign web and mobile startups flying under the radar in Japan have we forgotten?

Which Foreign Startups Are Doing Well In Japan “Under The Radar”?

Mobile TV is often cited as being a dream of the future in most markets, but it has been around in Japan, the world's most advanced mobile nation, for years.

The majority of the 100+ handsets Japan gets every year comes equipped with a 1Seg digital TV tuner (some even have 2 tuners to watch one TV program and record another simultaneously). 1Seg as a standard was established as early as 2006.

And in May 2009, Japan's biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo and major media content company Avex have established BeeTV to capitalize on the wide distribution of mobile TV tuners in Japan. For a monthly fee of 315 Yen/$3.80, BeeTV subscribers can view original content on their cell phones: dramas, cartoons, music videos etc. (provided they are i-mode users).

A few days ago, Avex issued a report [PDF] according to which the number of users has hit the 1.5 million mark in December 2010. BeeTV has grown from 0 to 560,000 users in just two months in 2009, but growth has slowed down significantly, especially in the last six months of 2010.

Here's the chart from the report:

When BeeTV launched, the plan was to attract 3.5 million users by March 2013.

BeeTV: Docomo’s Mobile TV Service Hits 1.5 Million User Mark

Are Japanese people using different websites than users in other countries? Back in July 2008 and 2009, we made two lists that showed some similarities and differences in usage, and now it's time for a reboot.

Note:
We know that this list is highly subjective. We know that some sites are not identical in nature (but just similar) in some cases (Netflix-Posren, for example). Leave a comment if you want to know more or think one of these attributions is off.

I linked to the English versions whenever possible (see the [ENG] mark).

Here's the list (in no particular order):

What is the Japanese equivalent of Tripadvisor?
4Travel.

Google?
Yahoo! Japan.
-> Since our first list in 2008, Google caught up in terms of search engine-related traffic and is now cooperating with Yahoo in Japan.

Wikipedia?
Wikipedia Japan.

Facebook?
Mixi.

Flickr?
Photozou.
-> Photozou, now a Zynga Japan property, plays in the same league as Flickr in Japan.

delicio.us?
Hatena Bookmark. [ENG]

MySpace?
MySpace Japan.

Digg?
Hatena Hot Entry.
-> Hatena lists up the "hottest" bookmarks by their users here.

LinkedIn?
No equivalent (many business social networks failed in Japan - look here for a list).

Twitter?
Twitter Japan.

Youtube?
YouTube Japan and Nico Nico Douga.

Amazon?
Amazon Japan.
-> Online mall Rakuten is actually Japan's biggest e-commerce player.

dooyoo (price comparison engine)?
Kakaku.com.

Netflix?
Posren.

Quora?
No equivalent.

Youporn?
DMM.

Craigslist?
No equivalent (there is no culture for classifieds in Japan, which means an instant success for a "Japanese Craigslist" is next to impossible to achieve).

Yelp?
Tabelog and Gourmet Navigator.

Groupon?
Groupon Japan.

IMDb (Internet Movie Database)?
Nihon Eiga Database (Japan Movie Database).

Wall Street Journal Online?
Nikkei Online. [ENG]

monster.com?
Rikunavi.

Ebay?
Yahoo! Japan Auctions.

Alexa?
No equivalent.

Match.com?
Rakuten O-net.

Hulu?
acTVila. BeeTV from NTT Docomo on cell phones.

4chan?
Futaba (the original).

last.fm?
No equivalent.

Technorati?
Kizasi.

Yahoo! Answers?
Oshiete!goo, OKWave, and Yahoo! Chiebukuro.
-> OKWave is powering Oshiete!goo and a host of other Q&A sites in Japan.

Zynga?
Zynga Japan.

Deviantart?
Pixiv.

The Onion?
Kyoko Shimbun.

Allrecipes.com?
Cookpad.

Hotels.com?
Jalan.

Miniclip?
Yahoo Mobage. GREE and Mobage-town on cell phones.

Techcrunch?
TechCrunch Japan.

Huffington Post?
Agora.

tmz.com?
Zakzak.

Boing Boing?
Zaeega.

Gizmodo?
Gizmodo Japan.

Engadget?
Engadget Japanese.

In case you want to know more, please add a comment.

Q&A: What’s The Japanese Equivalent Of [enter foreign web service here]?

The world's largest ad agency Dentsu announced it had partnered with Apple for the sales of smartphone ad network iAd in Japan.   Dentsu will start the sales in early 2011, and their subsidiary Cyber Communications Inc. provides ad content production services including media planning.

iAd is installed on iOS4, which is the latest edition of the iPhone platform, and allows the iPhone users to purchase goods, apps and content advertised while playing another apps.   The iPhone app developer participating in the ad network can receive a reward, which is 60% of the entire revenue earned through ads placed on his/her apps.

Apple took over Quattro Wireless last January for launching the iAd network in North America, and is expecting Dentsu will play the same role that Quattro does for launching their new business in Japan through the partnership.

Apple Partners With Dentsu To Boost Smartphone Ad Business In Japan

Google launched its price comparison service intended to Japanese market today, that collects product description and price updates from an enormous number of e-commerce retailers and allows you to find the cheapest price at a glance.

Google's new service launch influenced the stock price of Japan's largest e-commerce price comparison site Kakaku.com[J], it dropped slightly down to 380,000 yen which is lower by 55,000 yen compared to yesterday's closing price and equal to that recorded in December 2007.

The following chart shows you the daily movement of Kakaku.com's stock price during the last three months.

(Source: MSN MoneyCentral)

Japanese stock market considers Google Shopping might be a threat for Kakaku.com.  However, is the new service so influential as to press down Kakaku's stock price?   The followings may be considered as threats for Kakaku.com.

• Unlike Kakaku.com, Google Shopping allows e-commerce sites to update their price listing for free.
• When a consumer makes a search on Google to buy something, Google Shopping search results will be answered prior to other sites' results, which may cause the decreased induction to Kakaku.com.

However, Google Shopping lacks the following features (in comparison with Kakaku.com)

• No ranking of retailers dealing with the product you've specified.
• No specification nor details about the product you've specified.
• No other user's comment/review on the product you've specified.
• No category menu

The Japanese love ranking things.   Without it, they can't make their minds on which product should be purchased from which e-commerce site.

But Google Shopping gives you benefit if you've already decided what you would buy.   Because...

• Some of retailers listed on Google Shopping are not participating Kakaku.com.   There's some cases that Google Shopping show you a list of lower prices than Kakaku.com
• Google Shopping collects price quotes only from e-commerce sites.  No quote of real store's sticker prices is included in the results, which makes you easier to pick the cheapest one only from the options that you can buy online.

How Google Shopping will affect the Japanese e-commerce industry?

Via: Tech Seven[J]

How Google Shopping Impacts On Kakaku.com’s Pricing Business?