Cybozu Aims At Business-oriented Social Network, And Something Different From Facebook

Cybozu Inc., a Tokyo-based package vendor having developed a web-based groupware intended to Japanese SMEs for more than a decade, introduced their brand new SaaS edition of the groupware last November, which is called Cybozu Live[J]. This week, Mr. Yoshihisa Aono, the CEO of Cybozu Inc., unveiled the plan on how the service goes from… Continue reading Cybozu Aims At Business-oriented Social Network, And Something Different From Facebook

IncubateFund To Hold A Boot Camp For Encouraging Entrepreneurs In Their 20s

IncubateFund[J], an investment team backed by DeNA and it’s known for having invested in Pokelabo and Istpika (both are social app providers), will have a two-day camp for encouraging potential entrepreneurs to develop and launch their Internet businesses. Those who want to join the camp have the following requirements: He/she was born in 1980s. He/she… Continue reading IncubateFund To Hold A Boot Camp For Encouraging Entrepreneurs In Their 20s

Rakuten Opposes Yahoo Japan-Google Tie-up

As we reported here, Yahoo! Japan is transitioning its search engine platform from what they’ve originally developed to Google’s technology.   In opposition to that move, some news sources reported Japan’s largest e-commerce giant Rakuten had requested Japan’s fair trade commission to investigate a possible violation of the antitrust act over the Yahoo! Japan – Google… Continue reading Rakuten Opposes Yahoo Japan-Google Tie-up

Cerevo’s New Encoder Box No Longer Requires PC For Ustream Livecasting

Tokyo-based Internet-enabled consumer electronics developer Cerevo[J] introduced an encoder box for livecasting on Ustream, and it was started on sale last weekend.   The first lot will be shipped in early November. The new encoder box is named Cerevo Livebox and can be purchased on their website[J] for 50,000 yen each. (It equals to approx. USD610… Continue reading Cerevo’s New Encoder Box No Longer Requires PC For Ustream Livecasting

Smartphone Ad-optimizer Nobot Fundraises USD1.3M From JAFCO And Nissay Capital

Tokyo-based smartphone ad-optimizer Nobot announced on Friday they had fundraised approximately USD1.3M from Japan’s largest VC firm JAFCO and Nissay Capital[J] who is an investment arm of Japan’s largest life insurance company. Nobot was founded in April 2009, and has introduced a smartphone ad-optimization service called Ad-Maker.   They’re currently distributing 100 million impressions per month,… Continue reading Smartphone Ad-optimizer Nobot Fundraises USD1.3M From JAFCO And Nissay Capital

Live: Six Japanese Tech Start-ups Present At SF NewTech Japan Night

As Shunichi Arai introduced here last month, San Francisco-based digital consulting agency btrax, Inc. organizes an event featuring six Japanese tech start-ups today.   Without being at the venue in San Francisco, you’ll be able to watch it live on Ustream from all around the world. The live starts today at 11:30am JST, 7:30pm PDT and… Continue reading Live: Six Japanese Tech Start-ups Present At SF NewTech Japan Night

Event Wrap-up: Asiajin Readers Meet-up in Akihabara, Tokyo

On Saturday at Ustream Studio Akiba[J], a livecast facility in an Internet cafe in Akihabara, we had a readers meet-up in Tokyo for the first time in approx. 2.5 years. The meet-up started with Asiajin co-founder Akky’s presentation about our current state.   It described Asiajin contributors are always shortstaffed to cover what are happening in… Continue reading Event Wrap-up: Asiajin Readers Meet-up in Akihabara, Tokyo

Event Wrap-up: Asiajin Readers Meet-up in Singapore

I was visiting Singapore in late-September for attending Accelerate 2010 and meeting with great techpreneurs.   Thanks to Bernard Leong from Chalkboard, a Singapore-based start-up providing retail promotion solutions for several smartphone platforms, and Justin Lee from Tech 65, a Singapore-based gadget-focused tech blog, we could have a readers meet-up at the country’s geek hub, Hackerspace.SG,… Continue reading Event Wrap-up: Asiajin Readers Meet-up in Singapore

Sharp Ties Up With Japan’s Largest Video Rental Chain For Content Distribution To Android Tablets

Galapagos, the name of the South American islands where English naturalist Charles Darwin discovered rare species of creatures, is used as an adjective to describe the isolation of Japanese mobile industry from the world standard. But Sharp dared to name their brand new digital tablet product “Galapagos[J]“, in spite of the word’s negative meaning, which… Continue reading Sharp Ties Up With Japan’s Largest Video Rental Chain For Content Distribution To Android Tablets

Evernote CEO: A Half Of The Third Party Developers Are Japanese

Silicon valley-based tech start-up Evernote, which has introduced services for note-taking and archiving for PCs and smartphone devices, announced new partnerships with seven Japanese companies on Wednesday. Evernote CEO Phil Libin is now visiting Japan, and he says, “Our Japanese users share almost 18% of our total user accounts, which is the second place in… Continue reading Evernote CEO: A Half Of The Third Party Developers Are Japanese