Year: 2010

Google Japan Makes Comic Of Japanese Input Method Development

Google Japan publicized their “Google Japanese Imput Method (Beta) Comic” online, following to its paper version, which was presented to their developer’s event recently. This 42 pages comic by Yutanpo Shirane features some star developers in Google Japan. There are 8 chapters and each chapter has the following topic; Why Google developed and released its… Continue reading Google Japan Makes Comic Of Japanese Input Method Development

Nico Nico Douga Turns In The Black In Full-year Result And Plans New Office In Harajuku

Dwango[J], the parent of the company running Japan’s largest video sharing site Nico Nico Douga[J], announced its full-year consolidated financial statements (Oct. 2009 thru Sep. 2010) last week, which showed us Nico Nico Douga had turned in the black for the first time in their full-year result.   (In their monthly earnings, it already turned in… Continue reading Nico Nico Douga Turns In The Black In Full-year Result And Plans New Office In Harajuku

Kadokawa To Launch E-Book Distribution Platform; Some Novelists Can’t Wait And Launch Their Own

Kadokawa Shoten Publishing[J] and its subsidiaries, which are known for having published many comic titles and magazines, announced on Friday that they would launch an e-book distribution platform called Book Walker next month. Approximately 100 titles will be available for the iPhone and the iPad users at the launch of the platform, and 20 titles… Continue reading Kadokawa To Launch E-Book Distribution Platform; Some Novelists Can’t Wait And Launch Their Own

Apple Partners With Dentsu To Boost Smartphone Ad Business In Japan

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… Continue reading Apple Partners With Dentsu To Boost Smartphone Ad Business In Japan

Idol Event In Ameba Pigg Gathers 15,000 Users Online

An idol unit “Team Pigg Mint” held a gig in Japanese virtual world “Ameba Pigg” [J] on November 3rd. Team Pigg Mint is an unit selected from members of popular girls group “AKB48” [J], who has been running long-term promotion in Ameba Pigg. The above are virtual goods to reproduce the same fashion with their… Continue reading Idol Event In Ameba Pigg Gathers 15,000 Users Online

Mixi Unveils SocialPhone For Softbank’s Androids

Mixi, one of Japan’s biggest social networking services, which is the most similar with Facebook among three, announced their new smartphone application plan with the third largest cellphone carrier Softbank Mobile. The trademarked “SocialPhone” is an Android application service which utilizes phone data like phone number data with Mixi’s social graphs. The service is planned… Continue reading Mixi Unveils SocialPhone For Softbank’s Androids

Japanese Social Network Update With Quarterly Reports

The ranking by registered users keeps the same. Or, maybe DeNA is passing Mixi by population as Mixi’s number has October adding included. Gree: 22.46 million (at 2010-09-30, by 1Q report [pdf, J]) Mixi: 21.90 million (at 2010-10-31, mentioned on Socialphone release [J]) DeNA(Mobage Town): 21.67 million (at 2010-09-30, by 2Q report [pdf, J]) See… Continue reading Japanese Social Network Update With Quarterly Reports

500,000 People Needed To Get The Deal; Pompare Is Selling A Challenging Coupon

Groupon Japan’s Rival, Ponpare[J] has started to sell a special coupon today. You can get Häagen-Dazs ice cream ticket for 2 mini cups by paying only 100 yen ( about a dollar and quarter).  This means you can get 84% discounts but what makes this coupon drawing attention is the number of sign up required… Continue reading 500,000 People Needed To Get The Deal; Pompare Is Selling A Challenging Coupon