Tweeted Wishes Are Projected On Public Bath Chimney And Deliver Hopes

Sony has been running an ad campaign to promote their computer product brand Vaio since the beginning of this month, which is titled Vaio Assist Torch Project[J].   In the campaign, the company started to project words of people’s thankfulness and encouragement to a chimney of a public bath in Tokyo.   After the sun sets,… Continue reading Tweeted Wishes Are Projected On Public Bath Chimney And Deliver Hopes

Play Tag, Sharing Tweets Among Train Passengers – Keio Students Unveil Unique Social Apps At Their Showcase Event

Keio University SFC (Shonan Fujisawa Campus), known as a technology hub for Japan’s Internet community in academic field, had a two-day event called Open Research Forum 2010[J] last week, where 142 research teams showcased their development results and works. As one of them, “Densha Now” is a third-party Twitter app that shows you tweets by… Continue reading Play Tag, Sharing Tweets Among Train Passengers – Keio Students Unveil Unique Social Apps At Their Showcase Event

Startup Weekend Tokyo 2010: Picture Crop Tool Kachop Wins 1st Prize Among Nine Teams

It was Global Entrepreneurship Week between November 14 and 21 when a variety of business development events took place in Tokyo and Kyoto.  In time with this opportunity, there was a three-day tech event called Startup Weekend Tokyo last weekend, which was the second edition here in Japan.   At this event, people having a variety… Continue reading Startup Weekend Tokyo 2010: Picture Crop Tool Kachop Wins 1st Prize Among Nine Teams

LTE vs. Extention Of Current Techs: Who Brings Us The World’s Fastest Mobile Broadband?

Japan’s largest mobile operator NTT DoCoMo announced at their seasonal press conference that it would launch an LTE (long-term evolution) service called Xi[J] (pronounced as “crossy”) on Christmas eve of this year in Japan’s highly populated areas of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.   LTE is collectively known as 3.9G mobile technology standard that allows you to… Continue reading LTE vs. Extention Of Current Techs: Who Brings Us The World’s Fastest Mobile Broadband?

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

Tokyo’s P2P Lending Service ExCo Fundraises From Dave McClure’s 500 Startups

Tokyo-based P2P(peer-to-peer) lending service company Exchange Corporation (in short, ExCo) announced today that they had fundraised several hundred thousand US dollars – exact number not disclosed – from Silicon Valley-based fund 500 Startups which is known for being led by venture capitalist Dave McClure.   This is the second case for the fund to invest in… Continue reading Tokyo’s P2P Lending Service ExCo Fundraises From Dave McClure’s 500 Startups

Gree To Take Several Percent Stake In Singapore’s SMS/IM-based Social Network Mig33

Japan’s third largest social network GREE[J] announced today they would invest in Mig33 (by Project Goth, Inc.) who is a SMS and IM text messaging-based social network platform in Singapore.   GREE plans to invest several million US dollars in Mig33’s series C round and to acquire several percent stake.   This will be the first ever… Continue reading Gree To Take Several Percent Stake In Singapore’s SMS/IM-based Social Network Mig33

How Google Shopping Impacts On Kakaku.com’s Pricing Business?

Google launched its price comparison service intended to Japanese market today, that collects product description and price updates from an enormous number of e-commerce retailers and allows you to find the cheapest price at a glance. Google’s new service launch influenced the stock price of Japan’s largest e-commerce price comparison site Kakaku.com[J], it dropped slightly… Continue reading How Google Shopping Impacts On Kakaku.com’s Pricing Business?