Report of RubyConf China 2009

May 21st, the father of Ruby, Yukihiro Matsumoto aka Matz, visited Shanghai to attend RubyConf China 2009, the first large Ruby conference in China. The conference was an astonishing success. 450 people attended the event. All talks except keynote were given in Chinese. Matz gave a keynote which reveals design concept and characteristics of the… Continue reading Report of RubyConf China 2009

Recipe Sharing Site Cookpad Goes IPO

Cookpad [JP], Japan’s biggest cooking site, announced today that they will be listed to Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers section on July 17th. CEO, Akimitsu Sano, started the service on 1998. Cookpad is a recipe sharing site with 558,939 registered recipes. The site has 6.8 million unique users and 351 million page views per month. Cookpad… Continue reading Recipe Sharing Site Cookpad Goes IPO

Mixi Appli Conference 2009

Mixi [JP] (TSE:2121) held a conference to introduce their new service “Mixi Appli”. Mixi Appli provides an OpenSocial-based application platform for developers. Mixi Appli is one of the three services provided on “Mixi Platform”. Mixi Platform provides Mixi Appli, Mixi Connect (OAuth) and Mixi OpenID. CEO, Kenji Kasahara briefly introduced Mixi and Mixi Appli. And… Continue reading Mixi Appli Conference 2009

Sony Transfers Their Video Sharing Site Eyevio To A Startup

Sony will transfer their video sharing site ‘eyeVio‘ [JP] to a Tokyo-based startup company called Sprasia on May 29th. Eyevio is a video sharing site which can connect to Sony hardware products. Eyevio has 1 million unique visitors and 10 million page views per month. The site was started in April 2007. Sony stated that… Continue reading Sony Transfers Their Video Sharing Site Eyevio To A Startup

Agile Media Network raises $1M

Agile Media Network raised a $1M investment from Ant Capital Partners on March 31st. They use the investment to develop new software systems. Agile Media Network is a Japanese ad-network / blog marketing company for blogs and social media which was established in February 2007. They sell ads of many Japanese top blogs such as… Continue reading Agile Media Network raises $1M

NTT Com Buys Digital Forest For $24M

NTT Communications annouced yesterday to acquire 100% shares of Digital Forest for 2.46 billion yen ($24M). Digital Forest is a company which focuses on Web marketing technology and solutions. They sell an access log analysis tool Visionalist for high-end customers, and also provide web / search engine consulting and solutions service too. NTT Communications is… Continue reading NTT Com Buys Digital Forest For $24M

Mixi holds “mixi Appli Conference” on April 23rd

Mixi holds “mixi Appli Conference 2009” [JP] to promote their new app service on April 23rd in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Speakers are: Kenji Kasahara, CEO of Mixi Inc. Akinori Harada, VP, Mixi Division, of Mixi Inc. Koichiro Tsujino, President of Google Japan. Makoto Asanuma, VP of Namco Bandai Games Inc. Minoru Kimura, Head of Media Technology… Continue reading Mixi holds “mixi Appli Conference” on April 23rd

Mixi Bans Their Users From Dating

Social network service Mixi banned users from dating. Mixi changed their terms of policy on December 1st, in accordance with the “Dating site regulation act”. They are now prohibiting users from “using Mixi mainly to meet with strangers of the other sex”. Recently, Mixi has deleted many groups which hold group dating or offline meetings.… Continue reading Mixi Bans Their Users From Dating

RubyKaigi2009 Conference CFP Closes Soon

RubyKaigi2009 now calls for presentations. Deadline is March 15th. RubyKaigi2009 is the Japan’s annual Ruby conference. Previously, Dave Thomas and David Heinemeier Hansson gave key notes at the conference. Ofcourse Ruby’s father Matz talks every year. This year, the conference will be held from July 17th to 19th in Tokyo. Don’t miss the opportunity to… Continue reading RubyKaigi2009 Conference CFP Closes Soon

Lang-8 Raises Angel Round Just Under 10M Yen

Lang-8, a multi-lingual social network / language-learning site, has raised 9,570,000 yen ($100K) from prominent angel investors: * Kiyoshi Nishikawa, a founder of ngi group * Takashi Yoshida, ex-CTO of Rakuten * Masahide Nakamura [JP], CEO of Allied Architects * Shuichi Takenaga, CEO of Aucfan [JP] CEO, Youyou Ki, is going to use the investment… Continue reading Lang-8 Raises Angel Round Just Under 10M Yen