Mobile Subscribers In Japan: The Latest Numbers

The Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA) of Japan has released a set of statistics on Japan’s mobile market today, showing that the country had 122.44 million cell phone subscribers last month (out of a total population of 128 million). According to the organization, Japan’s carriers added 569,200 new customers between July and August. Breaking down the… Continue reading Mobile Subscribers In Japan: The Latest Numbers

KDDI au Lets Subscribers Find Facebook Friends Through Cell Phone Mail History

Back in May, Japan’s second largest mobile carrier KDDI au struck a deal with Facebook under which the social network would be featured prominently on future smartphones, for example in the form of a widget. And now KDDI makes it possible [JP] for users of their proprietary email system EZweb to automatically browse their cell… Continue reading KDDI au Lets Subscribers Find Facebook Friends Through Cell Phone Mail History

Microsoft Dives Into Japan’s Booming Smartphone Market With World’s First Mango Smartphone And Other Key Partnerships

In a joint press conference held this morning, Microsoft, Fujitsu-Toshiba and KDDI unveiled [J] the Fujitsu-Toshiba IS12T smartphone, the world’s very first Windows Phone Mango handset hitting Japan this September only on the KDDI AU mobile network. The phone features a 3.7″ LED display, 1 Ghz Qualcomm MSM8655 CPU,  32GB internal memory, 13.2 Megapixel Camera and is both… Continue reading Microsoft Dives Into Japan’s Booming Smartphone Market With World’s First Mango Smartphone And Other Key Partnerships

For $26 Million: GREE Acquires Mobile Ad Startup Atlantis

M&A-related news are relatively rare in Japan’s startup scene, but today we can report that mobile social gaming juggernaut GREE has acquired Tokyo-based ad exchange service Atlantis for 2.2 billion yen ($26 million). The company will be turned into a GREE subsidiary. Big G says that the acquisition marks their entry into the mobile/smartphone ad… Continue reading For $26 Million: GREE Acquires Mobile Ad Startup Atlantis

English, Please: Social Gaming Giant GREE Seeks To Hire International Staff

Tokyo-based mobile social gaming juggernaut GREE (22 million users, US$3 billion market cap) seems to intensify its international efforts. As announced by CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka back in June last year, big G has recently opened an office in the US after having made an investment in Singapore-based mobile social network mig33. But Tanaka also said… Continue reading English, Please: Social Gaming Giant GREE Seeks To Hire International Staff

How To Play FarmVille Japanese Version “FarmVillage”

Zynga Japan released its flagship social game “FarmVille” in Japan under the name “ファームビレッジ(FarmVillage)” on December 1. Why is it Village not Ville? According to Zynga Japan general manager Shintaro Yamada’s tweet [J], “Because the pronunciation of FarmVille and Biru(Building in Japanese, from English) are the same in Japanese and will confuse people”. SoftBank financed… Continue reading How To Play FarmVille Japanese Version “FarmVillage”

Luna Luna – Mobile Menstruation Care Site, 2.7% Of Japanese Women Pay, Now Goes U.S.

In Japan, paying for contents on cellphone web is so common. That supports unbelievable profit on social gaming networks Gree and Mobage-Town. Over 2% of population purchase weather forecast on cellphone with 105 yen or more, which I recently wrote for The Japan Times, is also a good example. There is another successful, interesting cellphone… Continue reading Luna Luna – Mobile Menstruation Care Site, 2.7% Of Japanese Women Pay, Now Goes U.S.

BREAKING: Facebook Rolls Out Special Mobile Version For Japanese Feature Phones

Facebook, which opened a Tokyo office back in February this year, has just pushed out the long-awaited “optimized” version for Japanese “feature phones”. Well, kind of, as the company itself isn’t too sure about the result and is quite cautious in the wording of the announcement (see screenshot below). The site can be accessed through… Continue reading BREAKING: Facebook Rolls Out Special Mobile Version For Japanese Feature Phones

Index Corp. Helps Foreign Social Game Developers Enter Japan

Mixi, GREE, Mobage-town – Japan’s top three social networking services have either already opened or decided to open their platforms to third-party developers in the last few months. And a handful of foreign application providers, such as RockYou from the US or Rekoo from China, already managed to successfully launch localized social games on Mixi,… Continue reading Index Corp. Helps Foreign Social Game Developers Enter Japan

Japanese Social Network Wars: GREE Overtakes Mobage-town, Is Now Japan’s No. 2

Mobile social gaming platform GREE‘s CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka repeatedly said in the last weeks he wants every Japanese to use GREE eventually (yeah, right). He also said he wants to beat direct rival Mobage-town in terms of user base in six months, and Mixi in twelve months. That was in September. And today, at the… Continue reading Japanese Social Network Wars: GREE Overtakes Mobage-town, Is Now Japan’s No. 2