Month: February 2011

Follow Up: myGengo Announces First Round of API Lab Winners

Following up our previous coverage of human translation company myGengo’s API Lab, the company has announced its first round of winners for plug-ins created using the myGengo API. So far 6 developers have won cash prizes for their 18 plug-ins that will allow thousands of users to order human translation services from within mobile, browser,… Continue reading Follow Up: myGengo Announces First Round of API Lab Winners

Japan’s Book Publishers Decide To Go With EPUB Standard

Japan’s book market is said to be worth around $24 billion (it’s the world’s biggest and about 4x the size of the local video game industry), which means it’s not a big surprise that e-publishing is currently one of the “hot” trends in the country’s tech sector. And yesterday, Japan’s biggest business daily The Nikkei… Continue reading Japan’s Book Publishers Decide To Go With EPUB Standard

Echelon 2011: Applications For Asia’s Leading Launchpad Program Closing In Two Weeks

Echelon, Asia’s leading web technology event which is annually organized by Singapore’s tech news media and our friend e27, is scheduled to take place in June at the National University of Singapore.   Its satellite events will be held in Jakarta (Indonesia), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Singapore in April to select the best tech start-up… Continue reading Echelon 2011: Applications For Asia’s Leading Launchpad Program Closing In Two Weeks

“I’m A Russian-Japanese.” – Facebook Beset On Japanese Nickname Judgement

On February 8th, about two weeks ago, Facebook suspended quite a few numbers of Japanese active users who had names which do not sound like Japanese. They asked for the users their real name and copy of ID like passport. It shocked Japanese early adopters who were tasting Facebook backed by media boom, as many… Continue reading “I’m A Russian-Japanese.” – Facebook Beset On Japanese Nickname Judgement

Uniqlo Launches FB-Integrated Photo Community For Sharing Dress Experience

Fast Retailing, also known as its brand name of Uniqlo, launched a Facebook integrated photo sharing community called Uniqlooks (available in seven languages) last Thursday.   It allows users to upload pictures of those wearing at least a piece of Uniqlo’s products and share them with the other users for exchanging ideas on how to coordinate… Continue reading Uniqlo Launches FB-Integrated Photo Community For Sharing Dress Experience

Cerevo Fundraises USD3M From Three Japanese Venture Funds

Tokyo-based Internet-enabled consumer electronics developer Cerevo[J], who is known for having introduced a series of Ustream encoder products for streamcasters, fundraised approximately USD3M (=JPY250M) by allocating new shares to Enova[J], Inspire Corporation and Neostella Capital.   Enova is a venture fund founded by several semiconductor manufacturers/retailers, Inspire is a VC-firm owned by Mr. Makoto Naruke… Continue reading Cerevo Fundraises USD3M From Three Japanese Venture Funds

Radiohead’s Japanese Tweet Gathers Crowd At Shibuya Crossing

At 17th night, British band Radiohead’s official Twitter account tweeted “in Japanese” just with, 渋谷 ハチ公広場 金曜日 １８時５９分 “Shibuya Hachiko-square, Friday 18:59” # The tweet seems removed now. It was quickly and widely retweeted among Japanese rock fans, made them expect the band may be secretly visiting Japan, and may do live performance at Shibuya… Continue reading Radiohead’s Japanese Tweet Gathers Crowd At Shibuya Crossing

NHN Plans To Flood Japan With Smartphone Games

NHN Japan, the local arm of South Korean web giant NHN and operator of online gaming portal Hangame, is planning to seriously step up game development for smartphones, especially on Android. Japan’s biggest business daily, The Nikkei, is reporting that NHN in Korea has set up a 100-people team that’s supposed to create the titles,… Continue reading NHN Plans To Flood Japan With Smartphone Games

Which Foreign Startups Are Doing Well In Japan “Under The Radar”?

It’s no secret that in recent years, quite a few foreign (mostly American) web brands have made it big in Japan: Google, YouTube, Twitter, Wikipedia, Amazon etc. But what about startups that don’t have huge budgets to internationalize, no staff in Japan and – in some cases – not even a Japanese user interface (usually… Continue reading Which Foreign Startups Are Doing Well In Japan “Under The Radar”?