We bloggedseveraltimes about NHK‘s online efforts in the past few months (NHK is Japan’s national TV and radio network). And today, NHK World, the broadcaster’s international service that’s available worldwide except for Japan, has launched a channel on Ustream.
NHK World, which broadcasts programs on Japan in English, is live-streaming its content for free on their Ustream channel (they should switch off this one though to avoid confusion).
The service has been letting users view some programs directly on its website for quite some time now, but according to The Nikkei, only “several tens of thousands of people” actually used that service (it’s not a nice experience for Mac users like me, for example).
NHK itself was streaming programs on the web (via Ustream) back in March for a limited time, following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
NHK World on TV is currently available in 120 different countries. The network has released a decent iPhone app in February 2010. It’s also available online via Niconico.com, the English website of wildly popular video sharing site Nico Nico Douga.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is known to like to think big, and the announcement he made today is no exception: Son said that he will donate a total of 10 billion yen ($120 million) of his personal money to the victims of the quake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11.
Son made the promise on a program that was livestreamed on Ustream earlier today (Sunday) Japanese time. He also said he is ready to donate the rest of the compensation he receives from his company – every year, until he retires. SoftBank itself will donate 1 billion yen, in addition to many other things to support the victims of the disaster.
Among Japan’s web entrepreneurs, Son is in good company: Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani, for example, pledged to personally donate 1 billion yen earlier – but Son was the most generous of them all so far.
Son founded SoftBank in 1981 and is 53 years old. According to Forbes, he is worth $8.1 billion.
Clwit[J], a Tokyo-based company developing social web services and Internet security countermeasures, announced it would start an e-commerce platform using Ustream in April. It allows you to integrate your website with Ustream and Twitter by just adding a line of iframe tag.
Mr. Yasuhiro Kunimine, the representative director of Clwit says, in their beta test, they confirmed adding the feature to classic e-commerce websites had gained their conversion rate by 10%-15% in average and 28% in the best case. The service is provided on a revenue-sharing model, and no initial fee is required to apply.
Clwit has agreed with Ustream Asia, and you can choose an option of using the ad-free version of Ustream for the informercial video streaming. Mr. Tomotaka Nakagawa, the representative director of Ustream Asia, says, “This is the first e-commerce platform where consumers can buy something after learning it via social media interaction. I hope it will be a new business model using Ustream.”
The company expects to engage 1,000 corporate users by April, 2012.
Tokyo-based Internet-enabled consumer electronics developer Cerevo[J] introduced an encoder box for livecasting on Ustream, and it was started on sale last weekend. The first lot will be shipped in early November.
The new encoder box is named Cerevo Livebox and can be purchased on their website[J] for 50,000 yen each. (It equals to approx. USD610 and includes consumption tax. S&H charges may apply.) Cerevo Livebox weighs 117 grams (4.1 oz), gains Internet access via Ethernet connection or WiFi, and has a rechargeable battery with its lifetime of two hours and two pin jacks for s-video & composite video inputs. You’re required to set up a profile for your programming on Cerevo’s web-based service control panel called Cerevo Life[J] before you start livecasting.
As for Cerevo’s this new product, Ustream Asia CEO Mr. Tomotaka Nakagawa gave them a favorable comment that it was expected to be used in many scenes of daily life, such as broadcasting from live music clubs.
In order to give you an opportunity to find out how the quality is, the company has a Ustream channel bringing you live pictures from Akihabara. (This channel seems to be in service 24/7, but it’s temporarily unavailable as of this writing.)
A Twitter analysis tool by UserLocal, who provides web traffic analysis services (Nakanohito for PC, Ugokuhito for Japanese feature phone and UserInsight for enterprise). (from fan’s vote)
The first and only Japanese CSS3 Webfonts service supports over 250 fonts. All IE/Firefox/Chrome/Safari are available. Freemium model (you will be asked to pay for multiple websites)
A social translation service supports 47 languages by Anydoor (Asiajin). Your requesting texts will be translated by three different users to keep the quality.
A library websites aggregation and search service. Most Japanese libraries (over 5,000) are covered. Alerting when your wishing books are available at libraries you listed.
A recording server to save all teresttrial TV channels for 24 hours over for one month. All recorded programs are tagged by using sub data and you may search and watch them remotely on iPhone/iPad/PC/Android.
A Twitter-based content aggregation site. Many users listed, edited and emphasized public discussion threads from Twitter. About 5 million page views per month. (from fan’s vote)
A community site on where shoppers voice will be reflected to the next products bags and accessaries an online shop for self-designed PC bags and cases
A Possible Foursquare’s Japanese rival by Livedoor. Oriented to non-verbal social communication. Began with iPhone. Just released Japanese feature phones (3 carriers) and Android.
Sponsor’s session – PFU ScanSnap
ScanSnap is a commercial version of their world’s No.1 share enterprise scanner.
Recently many Japanese geeks scan their paper books/mangas, most case their report uses ScanSnap.
@kohmi’s Concert
A popular singer-songwriter Kohmi Hirose, @kohmi, who difinitely spread Twitter to non-geek people since her beginning Twitter last year, came to sing two of her songs for 550 attendees.
Awards
Prizes from contestant judge
AMN Awards – Garapon TV
Open Network Labs Awards – Orihime
TechWave Awards – Togetter
TechCrunch Japan Awards – Conyac
Impress Watch Awards – Cacoo
Mainichi.jp Awards – Paboo
Asahi.com Awards – Calil
Nikkei Digital Version Awards – Cerevo’s new gadget
The WISH 2010 Grand Prix
And the winner is… Paboo!
Gree CEO Tanaka commented that Paboo can be a platform service like Nico Nico Douga, which he values highly, and (of course) Gree.
