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Index Corp. Helps Foreign Social Game Developers Enter Japan

Mixi, GREE, Mobage-town – Japan’s top three social networking services have either already opened or decided to open their platforms to third-party developers in the last few months. And a handful of foreign application providers, such as RockYou from the US or Rekoo from China, already managed to successfully launch localized social games on Mixi,… Continue reading Index Corp. Helps Foreign Social Game Developers Enter Japan

Social Application Forum: Made-in-Japan apps for the world

The recession, almost no IPOs, structural shortcomings, not enough hot startups to invest in: The Japanese venture capital industry is in a critical situation. The current state of affairs forces companies that have money to pump into promising ventures to go new ways, and one of these is a joint initiative by a total of… Continue reading Social Application Forum: Made-in-Japan apps for the world

[UPDATE] NHK World TV iPhone app: English TV programs on Japan in your pocket

UPDATE: Over 3G, make sure to wait 30-60 seconds for the stream data to get cached. After that, you’ll notice a significant jump in picture and audio quality. Japan has a plethora of TV channels, but the biggest battleship is NHK [JP], the country’s national public broadcasting organization. NHK itself operates a number of different… Continue reading [UPDATE] NHK World TV iPhone app: English TV programs on Japan in your pocket

Spysee’s web campaign: Collect 1 million Yen for Japan’s Paralympics ski team

Here’s a news item of a different kind: The next Winter Paralympics, basically the Winter Olympics for athletes with physical and visual disabilities, will be held in Vancouver between March 12 to March 21, 2010. Japan is sending a few different teams, and one of them, the cross-country ski team, is now counting on the… Continue reading Spysee’s web campaign: Collect 1 million Yen for Japan’s Paralympics ski team

Social illustration network Pixiv now has 1.5 million members, racks up 1 billion PVs monthly

Japanese “social illustration site” Pixiv continues to amaze. The site, which lets users present self-made drawings to other users and offers a number of basic social networking functionalities, now counts a whopping 1.5 million members [JP]. Not bad for a completely domestic site that’s only available in Japanese (although some foreigners exhibit their works on… Continue reading Social illustration network Pixiv now has 1.5 million members, racks up 1 billion PVs monthly

Japan’s Index Corp. To Launch (Apparently Gigantic) Virtual Mall In China

Tokyo-based (and JASDAQ-listed) Index Corp. has decided to shake hands with Chinese retail giant Hualian to launch and run a large virtual shopping mall. Somehow surprisingly, Index, a leading mobile contents provider, will develop the site for China’s fixed web and not the country’s rapidly growing mobile web. The main idea is to offer an… Continue reading Japan’s Index Corp. To Launch (Apparently Gigantic) Virtual Mall In China

Japan’s IVP Invests $1.5 million In Chinese Social Gaming Company Rekoo

One of Japan’s most famous independent venture capital firms, Infinity Venture Partners (IVP), seems to have a big interest in the social gaming space and China. IVP already has a number of startups with this profile in their portfolio, and today it came to light they’ll intensify the relationship with one of them through a… Continue reading Japan’s IVP Invests $1.5 million In Chinese Social Gaming Company Rekoo

Japan’s CyberAgent Sets Up $22.7 Million Fund For Startups In East Asia

The more you talk with Japanese VCs and entrepreneurs these days, the more you hear “China” as the next target for investing money or establishing a subsidiary. Now Japanese web behemoth CyberAgent (listed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange) says it has set up a fund exclusively focused on web startups in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan… Continue reading Japan’s CyberAgent Sets Up $22.7 Million Fund For Startups In East Asia