Big shake-up at Mixi: Apps possible, no invitations anymore, kids OK

Today Mixi, Japan’s biggest social network, sent out a press release (J), announcing some of the biggest changes the site has seen in recent months. The company of the same name also held a press meeting today. And they are opening up pretty radically for Mixi standards. Here are the details: New age limit –… Continue reading Big shake-up at Mixi: Apps possible, no invitations anymore, kids OK

Published
Categorized as Japan Tagged

Google agrees to pay royalties for Japanese music played in YouTube clips

Google today came to an agreement with the JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers), Japan’s largest music copyright administration body to pay royalties for music protected by local copyright and used in YouTube videos. YouTube members are now free to upload video clips containing JASRAC-protected music (the organization controls over 1.5… Continue reading Google agrees to pay royalties for Japanese music played in YouTube clips

Suginami Ward Proposes Removing Google Street View Images

A ward in the residential area of the Tokyo Metropolitan Special District, Suginami Ward Authority started introduce on the ward’s newsletter and the website how to request the deletion of Google Street View images to Google. Google Street View started last August here in Japan, it is convenient to find the route to the destination, but some… Continue reading Suginami Ward Proposes Removing Google Street View Images

Branding social networks the Japanese way: Put ’em on juice bottles and noodle cups

After having drawn 15 million members to the site (or approximately 1 in 6 Internet users in Japan), Nippon’s biggest social network Mixi now thinks the time has come for some offline cross-promotion. What you can see above is Mix Fruits & Calpis, a special version of Calpis, a popular Japanese soft drink that normally… Continue reading Branding social networks the Japanese way: Put ’em on juice bottles and noodle cups

Paperboy & co. goes public

18th November 2008, Japanese web hosting company Paperboy (J) (JASDAQ:3633) announced that the company will be listed to JASDAQ stock market on December 19th. Paperboy runs services like Lolipop (J), Heteml (J), and Jugem (J). Kazuma Ieiri started the business in October 2001 in Fukuoka. Paperboy is providing hosting services for consumers with very low… Continue reading Paperboy & co. goes public

Livedoor Starts Video Search Service

        Livedoor started a video search service[J] on its portal, in association with Tokyo-based tech-venture Accessport Inc.   Livedoor adopted Accessport’s video search engine called “Woopie“, and it allows keyword-searching of more than 300 million videos indexed from more than 300 video-sharing sites worldwide.   The service’s search results reflect new videos uploaded to these sites within as little as… Continue reading Livedoor Starts Video Search Service

EmoHeart: Japanese universities develop solution to visualize “human” emotions in virtual worlds

One major problem that leads to a low level of identification with avatars in virtual worlds is the lack of visualization of emotions carried in typed messages (through which users usually communicate). In Second Life, for example, users can choose between a number of emotions to be displayed but have to time them manually, disconnecting… Continue reading EmoHeart: Japanese universities develop solution to visualize “human” emotions in virtual worlds

Jason Calacanis meets Japanese Bloggers in Tokyo

Jason Calacanis, a big name in Silicon Valley (founder of Weblogs and Mahalo, legendary blogger,VC etc.) visited Japan last week for the first time. We had dinner with him and with other famous Japanese bloggers. Japan’s best-known bloggers attended this dinner meeting, including Dan Kogai (who is also the ex-CTO of Livedoor), Masato Kogure from… Continue reading Jason Calacanis meets Japanese Bloggers in Tokyo

Summary of Gree’s financial statements

Yoshikazu Tanaka founded Gree (JP) in 2004. At first, Gree‘s SNS services were aimed at PC users, but Mixi had greater success in the PC market. So, Gree partnered with mobile phone operator KDDI in November 2006, and entered the mobile market. KDDI holds 7.58 percent of Gree’s shares. Now, 99% of Gree’s 8.3 billion monthly page… Continue reading Summary of Gree’s financial statements

Breaking News: Gree goes IPO

Gree Inc. Japanese Social Network Service (SNS) company which has been chasing Mixi in PC web, and Mobage-Town/DeNA in mobile web, seems to be listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers (Tosho Mothers) around December 17th. No mentioned on Gree’s company site yet. Both Gree and Mixi launched in February 2004, seeing orkut’s success which… Continue reading Breaking News: Gree goes IPO