Rakuten, Japan’s huge online mall, announced on 10th that they are to use Google search on their portal Infoseek Rakuten. Infoseek Rakuten has been using Yahoo! Japan search backend, and requested Japan Fair Trade Commission to investigate if Yahoo! Japan-Google search alliance is antitrust. Naver, Korean-originated search engine running Japanese search site, announced [J] on… Continue reading Rakuten Switches Portal Search Backend To Google
Category: Japan
Kayac Introduces FB-integrated VoIP App For The iPhone
Kanagawa-based funny app developer Kayac introduced Reengo, a VoIP app for the iPhone that allows you to place a call to your Facebook friend without dialing the number. According to TechCrunch Japan[J], the company chose Facebook from available options as an integration platform because they would like to spread the app out globally. As… Continue reading Kayac Introduces FB-integrated VoIP App For The iPhone
Groupon Japan And Recruit Pompare Show Strong Recovery After The Quake
Japanese flash coupon vertical search Coupon-JP has just released an April version of sales estimation of major social coupon services [J, pdf] after March report skipped by the quake. Groupon Japan, which started by US Groupon purchasing a local clone last summer, has been leading the market but got damaged by terrible osechigate at the… Continue reading Groupon Japan And Recruit Pompare Show Strong Recovery After The Quake
30 Months in Prison for Livedoor Founder Horiemon
The Japanese business world lit abuzz yesterday as it was announced that the former head Livedoor, Takafumi Horie, had his appeal rejected by the Japanese Supreme Court, thereby finalizing his conviction for accounting fraud issued 4 years ago. Takafumi Horie, or Horiemon as he is popularly known for his resemblance to the manga character Doraemon,… Continue reading 30 Months in Prison for Livedoor Founder Horiemon
NCC 2011 Spring: How The Net Behaves When The Earthquake Hit Japan?
Digital Garage, Japan’s Internet conglomerate known for operating price comparison portal Kakaku.com and helping Twitter’s business operation, held a semiyearly conference event last week, which is called the New Context Conference 2011 Spring, where Japanese well-known tech investor Joi Ito and the world’s Internet authorities came together, most of whom have expertise in social media,… Continue reading NCC 2011 Spring: How The Net Behaves When The Earthquake Hit Japan?
5,000 Yen($60) To Enable Twitter On Your Smartphone
A cellphone shop in Yokohama offers a service to set up your smartphone for tweeting by 5,000 yen, @poppo1028 reported. Twitter and other social media has been getting more and more attentions on TV, newspaper and magazines after the Eastern Japan earthquake. Both good side and bad side of social media at disasters were reported,… Continue reading 5,000 Yen($60) To Enable Twitter On Your Smartphone
Gree acquires OpenFeint for $104 million as part of global expansion
Gree, Japan’s social gaming giant, announced today that it has acquired social platform OpenFeint for $104 million USD. OpenFeint ‘s social platform for iPhone and Android allows developers to add social elements to existing games with minimal programming. This low barrier to entry has accelerated its growth since its founding in 2009, now boasting a catalogue of over… Continue reading Gree acquires OpenFeint for $104 million as part of global expansion
Twitter Appoints Japan’s Country Manager
On Japanese official blog, Twitter announced that they have had a country manager of Japan, first corporation manager outside of US. The blog is usually written in Japanese, but this one was both in Japanese and in English. A Welcome to Twitter Japan’s Country Manager I couldn’t be happier to announce that James Kondo (@jameskondo)… Continue reading Twitter Appoints Japan’s Country Manager
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%
Facebook Japan Paused Growth By Earthquake, But Gains Back From… China?
At the beginning of April, I was almost writing up an article about how the Eastern Japan earthquake affected social media battle. Since the end of 2010, Japanese traditional media had been in great favor of Facebook as “the next big thing from US”. Their endless coverage was very similar with what was done with… Continue reading Facebook Japan Paused Growth By Earthquake, But Gains Back From… China?