Ohma Inc., a Tokyo-based tech start-up known for semantic web-based who’s-who app Spysee[J], released a Kickstarter-like crowd fundraising service called “ReadyFor?[J]” this week. The service intends to giving fundraising opportunities to amateur filmmakers, musicians and artists who would like to publish their works. If you invest in someone’s plan to develop his/her work, in return,… Continue reading Ready For: A New Crowd Fundraising Site For Artists Launches
Category: News
TwitVoice Allows You To Leave Instant Voice Messages Via Twitter
Tokyo-based tech start-up Pido[J] unveiled the company’s first iPhone app today, which is called TwitVoice[J] and allows you to leave your voice messages via Twitter. It’s a free app, and you can tweet with your real voice recorded within fifteen seconds. The company expects to add some features in the future to attract the… Continue reading TwitVoice Allows You To Leave Instant Voice Messages Via Twitter
Social Illustration Service Pixiv Hits 3 Million Members
Japan has quite a few “social drawing services” that let users upload self-drawn images and connect with each other. But Pixiv is the biggest of them all. The eponymous company behind the service has announced that Pixiv hit 3 million members on March 29. The number of users doubled since January last year, when we… Continue reading Social Illustration Service Pixiv Hits 3 Million Members
EC Navi Establishes “EC Navi Ventures”, Plans To Invest In Japanese And Asian Startups
Things haven’t been looking good for many Japanese VC firms lately, but that didn’t stop Tokyo-based e-commerce company EC Navi, which today announced the establishment of a VC arm called EC Navi Ventures. EC Navi Ventures is set up as a separate company (also based in Tokyo), which is 100% owned by EC Navi. The… Continue reading EC Navi Establishes “EC Navi Ventures”, Plans To Invest In Japanese And Asian Startups
Tokyo’s Start-ups To Hold A Presentation Night In Seoul
In the beginning of next month, four tech start-ups from Tokyo and two start-ups from Seoul will jointly hold a presentation evening event in South Korea’s capital, which is called Asia Startup Summit, for expanding their presence in Asia and exchanging their perspectives on the region’s start-up community. Presentations are: Revolutionizing Digital Entertainment by advanced… Continue reading Tokyo’s Start-ups To Hold A Presentation Night In Seoul
Indonesia: Exploring Potentials Of Mobile & Tech In The 2nd Largest FB Population
Editor’s note: This is a guest post penned by Ryo Umezawa, Director of J-Seed Ventures, one of tech-oriented venture incubators in Tokyo. He visited Indonesia to attend Jakarta Ventures Night 2011 hosted by East Ventures and have met startups and techpreneurs. He also attended “JIMs on the Plane” (inspired by Dave McClure’s… Continue reading Indonesia: Exploring Potentials Of Mobile & Tech In The 2nd Largest FB Population
Prime Minister’s Office of Japan Launches Facebook Page
The Prime Minister’s Office of Japan has announced the launch of an official Facebook page today. The first update reads: This is the official Facebook page of Prime Minister’s office of Japan. We will provide information focusing on the quake-related issues for the time being. After about 15 hours, the page now has over 4,500… Continue reading Prime Minister’s Office of Japan Launches Facebook Page
After The Quake: Social Apps And Web Trends To Help Disaster Relief Efforts
Here’s a follow-up to my previous posts covering the grassroots movements to relieve the devastated areas. GPS-Enabled Map of Scheduled Blackouts: A team of web app developers Boss Yooann, Kabaken, Kazuhiro Kotsutsumi and Yuki Naotori has released this Google Map mash-up. Without entering your address, it helps you find which hour of the day your… Continue reading After The Quake: Social Apps And Web Trends To Help Disaster Relief Efforts
Acima Provides Hotline Over IM For Non-Japanese Disaster Victims
Japan based international-business consulting company Acima is offering emergency hotline over Skype and MSN Messenger for 24 hours in 15 languages, by using its own resource and forming volunteers from around the world. Acima has set up a hotline for non Japanese speaking Disaster Victims of Tohoku district – off the Pacific Ocean Earthquake. We… Continue reading Acima Provides Hotline Over IM For Non-Japanese Disaster Victims
Roppongi Hills To Offer In-House Generating Electricity To Suffering Tokyo
Mori Buildings announced [J] that Roppongi Hills, office/shopping-mall/residents complex, one of the center of Tokyo and Japan’s web industry, where currently Google Japan and Gree reside, once Yahoo! Japan, Rakuten and Livedoor had their offices, is going to provide electricity from its private gas turbine generator to Tokyo Electric Power Co.(TEPCO) to make up for… Continue reading Roppongi Hills To Offer In-House Generating Electricity To Suffering Tokyo