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
Author: Masaru IKEDA
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
AKB360: Experience The Town On Your Desktop Anywhere
AKB360[J], is it a new group derived from popular J-pop girl band AKB48? Consisting of so many as 360 teen girls? Not at all. That’s the name of a web-based virtual metaverse that Akihabara-based web development company DON[J] (pronounced as “De-Oh-En”) has introduced last week, and it focuses on allowing you to experience the town… Continue reading AKB360: Experience The Town On Your Desktop Anywhere
Clwit Develops Interactive Infomercial Widget That Will Never Bore E-Shoppers
Clwit[J], a Tokyo-based company developing social web services and Internet security countermeasures, announced it would start an e-commerce platform using Ustream in April. It allows you to integrate your website with Ustream and Twitter by just adding a line of iframe tag. Mr. Yasuhiro Kunimine, the representative director of Clwit says, in their beta… Continue reading Clwit Develops Interactive Infomercial Widget That Will Never Bore E-Shoppers
Toyota’s Marketing Arm To Hold Social App Contest And Cheer Motor Industry
Toyota Marketing Japan(TMJ)[J], a 100% subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, announced it would have a contest on ideas of new apps integrating social network platforms which especially intend to make people interested in motor vehicles, in association with NHN Japan, GREE, DeNA, Mixi and Yahoo. Presidents of those companies will serve as the judges of the contest.… Continue reading Toyota’s Marketing Arm To Hold Social App Contest And Cheer Motor Industry
Social Translation Service Conyac Integrates Facebook And Badgeville
Tokyo-based tech start-up Anydoor announced today that it had completed the integration of its social translation service Conyac with Facebook and social rewards platform Badgeville, which allows potential users to join the service more easily and to motivate participating users to be engaged. Conyac enables you to request a translation easily. Users can ask for… Continue reading Social Translation Service Conyac Integrates Facebook And Badgeville
Samurai Incubate Launches 2nd Fund To Invest In 10 New Tech Start-ups
Samurai Incubate, a Tokyo-based seed accelerator aiming to bring up many Japanese tech start-ups, announced today the launch of its second fund which is worth 62 millon yen (=USD755,000). With its first fund launched in 2009, the firm invested in nine tech start-ups including social translation service Conyac (refer to this Asiajin story), smartphone ad-optimizer… Continue reading Samurai Incubate Launches 2nd Fund To Invest In 10 New Tech Start-ups
12 Tech Start-ups Present At NICT’s Annual Business Plan Contest
(Source: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan) Earlier this week, NICT, an ICT arm of Japan’s telecommunication authority, held the award-presenting ceremony of their annual contest to choose the best from business plans nominated. Mr. Takeshi Natsuno, the inventor of NTT DoCoMo’s mobile web service i-Mode, started the ceremony with his keynote speech,… Continue reading 12 Tech Start-ups Present At NICT’s Annual Business Plan Contest
Nifty Uses Its Cloud To Accelerate Social Game App Business In SE Asia
Nifty, a Fujitsu subsidiary and Japan’s 4th largest ISP, announced last week that it would use their own cloud facility and encourage Japanese social game app developers to deliver their services to ASEAN countries. Japan’s METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) helps the project financially, and several social game apps running on “Nifty… Continue reading Nifty Uses Its Cloud To Accelerate Social Game App Business In SE Asia