Japan’s venture capital industry is in a very difficult situation. That’s, in a nutshell, the result of a recent Nikkei survey. According to the paper, investments from the nation’s top 20 VC firms dropped a whopping 40% in fiscal 2009 to $711 million. Compared to 2007, that’s even 50% less. To be more concrete, the… Continue reading Japanese Venture Capital Investments Take Nosedive in 2009
Author: Serkan Toto
Join The Open Web Asia Conference In Malaysia On July 13-14 (Discount For Asiajin Readers)
It’s about time that South East Asia, home to 600 million people, gets its own web industry event. The Open Web Asia conference, which is going to be held in Kuala Lumpur on July 13-14, is the region’s first of its size: no less than 350 attendees are expected – I myself will be at… Continue reading Join The Open Web Asia Conference In Malaysia On July 13-14 (Discount For Asiajin Readers)
Japanese recipe site Cookpad in overdrive, doubles sales and profits
In case you didn’t know: Japan is the only country in the world that has a listed recipe site, Cookpad. After going IPO at the “Mothers” section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange last July, its current market cap stands at a staggering $370 million. Over the weekend, the eponymous company behind the site reported [PDF]… Continue reading Japanese recipe site Cookpad in overdrive, doubles sales and profits
Japanese mobile gaming startup GREE to open US and China offices within a year
Japan’s social networks seem to be hitting a ceiling growth-wise, and apparently they increasingly feel the need to go abroad in order to grow. “Japan’s Facebook” Mixi, which now counts 20 million members, is operating “Mixiu” in China. DeNA, the company behind mobile gaming platform Mobage-town (19.4 million members), has always been more aggressive in… Continue reading Japanese mobile gaming startup GREE to open US and China offices within a year
English, Please: Rakuten Bans Japanese As Corporate Language From Internal Meetings
I know we’re a tad late on this, but Japan’s No. 1 e-commerce company Rakuten announced earlier this week that all internal meetings will be held in English from now on. To say this is rare move for a Japanese web company (or any kind of company) would be a big understatement. Rakuten has ramped… Continue reading English, Please: Rakuten Bans Japanese As Corporate Language From Internal Meetings
CyberAgent Acquires 20% Stake In Chinese Android Development Firm mAPPn
The Japanese and Chinese web industries keep getting closer together. Yesterday Tokyo-based Internet behemoth CyberAgent (currently listed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange with a $1 billion market cap) announced it will take a 20% stake in mAPPn, an Android development firm with offices in China, Taiwan and the US (the press release in Japanese is… Continue reading CyberAgent Acquires 20% Stake In Chinese Android Development Firm mAPPn
Mobile Content Provider Voltage To List On Tokyo Stock Exchange Next Month
It’s time for another tech IPO in Japan. Voltage, a Tokyo-based mobile contents provider, has received approval to list on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Mothers market on June 11 (code: 3639). The company plans to issue 200,000 new shares to the public, next to 220,000 shares coming from its existing shareholders. If demand is bigger… Continue reading Mobile Content Provider Voltage To List On Tokyo Stock Exchange Next Month
Amazon Envy II: Rakuten now wants to produce hardware (a barcode scanner)
Another case of Amazon envy from Rakuten, Japan’s biggest online shopping “mall”? It seems so. According to various reports, Rakuten is currently pondering the development of a barcode scanner. One of the reason for Rakuten to get into the hardware business – according to a company representative quoted by The Nikkei (“Japan’s Wall Street Journal”)… Continue reading Amazon Envy II: Rakuten now wants to produce hardware (a barcode scanner)
Foodlog, Rapeko, EatNow: 3 Japanese food picture posting services
One major difference between Japanese bloggers and those elsewhere is that not too few Japanese writers seem to be obsessed with food, filling their blogs with pictures of their dinner, lunch boxes, favorite snacks etc. shot from all angles. Here‘s a Japanese blog that even solely focuses on lunch boxes (and this is just one… Continue reading Foodlog, Rapeko, EatNow: 3 Japanese food picture posting services
Amazon Envy: Rakuten Builds Own Distribution Centers
Big shake-up in Japan’s $70 billion e-commerce market: Rakuten, Japan’s leading virtual mall (over 30,000 merchants, over 50 million customer accounts), is about to launch an attack against its biggest (yet indirect) rival), Amazon Japan. The biggest difference between the two sites is that Rakuten is a B2B2C platform without a warehousing function. But that’s… Continue reading Amazon Envy: Rakuten Builds Own Distribution Centers