Accessport (web service developer known for its video search service Woopie), Seesaa[J] (blog service provider), G.Plan[J] (reward point exchange), Chance IT[J] (reward portal), Chobi Rich[J] (reward point exchange), NetMile[J] (a reward program that allows you to earn and use points on Japanese major commerce sites), Unitcom[J] (known for selling built-to-order PCs online), Runsystem[J] (Internet cafe franchiser) and NEC Biglobe[J] (giant ISP) jointly announced on Wednesday that they would launch a common social app platform called Aima[J] which is named after Alliance of Internet Media for Applications.
In opposition to Japan’s top three social networking services, Mixi[J], Gree[J] and DeNA, having succeeded with their own social app platforms, Aima is OpenSocial-compatible and enables a common interface including the in-app purchase function, which allows social app providers(SAPs) to publish their works on multiple social app platforms having a large number of users by a single development process. The alliance expects the first app to debut on the platform in early September, and more than 20 apps are expected to be available by the end of this year.
In addition to the companies described above, NTT Navispace[J] (running a word-of-mouth marketing portal that allows users to earn reward points), Open Smile[J] (running a word-of-mouth marketing portal, Across[J](Internet cafe franchiser), Media Create[J](Internet cafe franchiser), Tay Two[J](second-hand book store chain) and Freaks Core[J](Internet cafe franchiser) will also join the alliance soon, which allows the platform to reach more than 40 million users.
The alliance will also encourage U.S. and Chinese SAPs to publish their apps on the platform, and they’re also working on arranging partnerships with oversea social app platforms for assisting non-Japan-made social apps to spread out among Japanese users.
Masaru IKEDA