Certain American startups do pretty well in Japan, if a report issued today by Nielsen Japan (NetRatings) is to be believed (as with all web statistics providers, take the following numbers with a grain of salt). The company investigated the traffic Dropbox and Evernote have seen in the past 12 months, and it appears the… Continue reading Nielsen: Evernote And Dropbox See Significant User Growth In Japan
Author: Serkan Toto
Amazon Japan To Hire Japanese College Graduates For The 1st Time Next Spring
Rakuten is still the 800-pound gorilla in Japan’s e-commerce arena (70 million accounts are hard to beat), but Amazon Japan is doing pretty well, too, it seems (here’s a case study comparing the two companies). According to a recent report in business daily The Nikkei, big A plans to hire Japanese graduates coming straight out… Continue reading Amazon Japan To Hire Japanese College Graduates For The 1st Time Next Spring
KDDI Buys 5% Stake In GPS Game Provider Colopl For US$6.2 Million
Launched in Japan as early as 2005, “Colopl”, a simulation in which cell phone users manage a virtual colony, is probably one of the earliest geo-aware games out there. The namesake company made “Coloni-na Seikatsu Plus” (Colony-like Life) available to subscribers of NTT Docomo, SoftBank Mobile, and KDDI au. In the game, players collect a… Continue reading KDDI Buys 5% Stake In GPS Game Provider Colopl For US$6.2 Million
Groupon Japan Gives Away $50 PC Game For New Members
The market for daily coupon services in Japan has developed into a a two-horse race in the last few months: Groupon Japan is leading the market with an estimated $18.6 million in sales in April this year against Recruit’s Ponpare, which racked up $14.5 million in the same month (according to daily coupon search service… Continue reading Groupon Japan Gives Away $50 PC Game For New Members
Japan’s Foreign Ministry Opens Twitter And Facebook Accounts
Back in March, right after the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, the Prime Minister’s Office opened a Twitter account first before launching a Facebook page just a few days later. And yesterday, the country’s Ministry Of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) decided it’s time to do the same. According to Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto, the move to… Continue reading Japan’s Foreign Ministry Opens Twitter And Facebook Accounts
Japanese Girl Band AKB48 Gets Android And iPhone Applications
If you still doubt that Japan is in the middle of a smartphone revolution, here is another news item that serves as a good piece of evidence for it: Japanese pop sensation AKB48 released apps for the iPhone and Android today – in both English and Japanese (iTunes, Android market link). Fans of the country’s… Continue reading Japanese Girl Band AKB48 Gets Android And iPhone Applications
enchant.js: New HTML5/JavaScript Game Engine For Smartphones
Tokyo-based Ubiquitous Entertainment (UEI) announced [JP] “enchant.js” yesterday, an HTML5/JavaScript game engine for smartphones (and PCs). The engine is available in beta, it’s open source (dual license MIT or GPL on github), and entirely free to use. UEI says their aim with the release of the engine is to motivate young people in particular to… Continue reading enchant.js: New HTML5/JavaScript Game Engine For Smartphones
Study: Post-Quake Sales Of Japanese Group-Buying Sites Down 36%
What’s the overall size of Japan’s market for online group-buying sites? Tokyo-based Luxa (which runs one of these sites/more info here) regularly issues reports on the domestic industry as a whole. And according to their latest study, the quake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 had a rather large negative effect on the… Continue reading Study: Post-Quake Sales Of Japanese Group-Buying Sites Down 36%
9leap: D2C And UEI Launch Program For Young Smartphone Game Creators
Do you know a student in Japan who is under 25 years of age and who can create cool smartphone games? If yes, 9leap, a new program that just launched, might be of interest to you. 9leap is the brain child of Tokyo-based D2 Communications (D2C) – a joint venture between Dentsu and NTT Docomo… Continue reading 9leap: D2C And UEI Launch Program For Young Smartphone Game Creators
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son Donates $120 million In Quake Aid, Live On Ustream
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is known to like to think big, and the announcement he made today is no exception: Son said that he will donate a total of 10 billion yen ($120 million) of his personal money to the victims of the quake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11. Son made the… Continue reading SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son Donates $120 million In Quake Aid, Live On Ustream