At the beginning of February, two of Japanese social networking giants, Gree and DeNA(Mobage Town company) released quarterly financial reports. Gree’s 2011-2Q report [J] showed its sales record, 14.32 billion yen(US$175 mil), 83% of which is from virtual items. It is the historic high. DeNA 2011-3Q [J] also recorded their highest 29.49 billion yen(US$361 mil)… Continue reading Japan’s No.1 Social Network – Gree And Mobage Town Competes
Category: News
Groupon Slows Down After New Year Osechi Incident In Japan
One month after the Groupon Japan’s New Year celebration food Osechi delivery trouble, Japanese consumers mind seem to be away from daily deal coupon services, even with the Groupon CEO Andrew Mason’s video apology. A vertical coupon search service Coupon-jp issued a research [J]. There, they tracked all coupon sold on Groupon Japan and other… Continue reading Groupon Slows Down After New Year Osechi Incident In Japan
Social Translation Service Conyac Integrates Facebook And Badgeville
Tokyo-based tech start-up Anydoor announced today that it had completed the integration of its social translation service Conyac with Facebook and social rewards platform Badgeville, which allows potential users to join the service more easily and to motivate participating users to be engaged. Conyac enables you to request a translation easily. Users can ask for… Continue reading Social Translation Service Conyac Integrates Facebook And Badgeville
Samurai Incubate Launches 2nd Fund To Invest In 10 New Tech Start-ups
Samurai Incubate, a Tokyo-based seed accelerator aiming to bring up many Japanese tech start-ups, announced today the launch of its second fund which is worth 62 millon yen (=USD755,000). With its first fund launched in 2009, the firm invested in nine tech start-ups including social translation service Conyac (refer to this Asiajin story), smartphone ad-optimizer… Continue reading Samurai Incubate Launches 2nd Fund To Invest In 10 New Tech Start-ups
Online Train Timetable Service Ekitan Goes IPO
An online train timetable service that goes IPO? It may sound ludicrous to people living outside Japan, but Tokyo-based Ekitan is doing exactly that. The company will be listed at the Mothers Market (for high-growth and emerging stocks) of the Tokyo Stock Exchange on March 3 (code 3646). Ekitan started as a Toshiba in-house venture… Continue reading Online Train Timetable Service Ekitan Goes IPO
Nifty Uses Its Cloud To Accelerate Social Game App Business In SE Asia
Nifty, a Fujitsu subsidiary and Japan’s 4th largest ISP, announced last week that it would use their own cloud facility and encourage Japanese social game app developers to deliver their services to ASEAN countries. Japan’s METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) helps the project financially, and several social game apps running on “Nifty… Continue reading Nifty Uses Its Cloud To Accelerate Social Game App Business In SE Asia
Japan’s Mobile Social Gaming Giant GREE Partners With China’s Tencent (QQ)
Big news from Asia’s social gaming world today: Tokyo-based mobile social games juggernaut GREE ($3 billion market cap) just announced it will tie up with China’s biggest web company Tencent ($45 billion market cap), which operates the massive QQ platform. The plan is to “export” GREE’s social apps to the rapidly growing market for mobile… Continue reading Japan’s Mobile Social Gaming Giant GREE Partners With China’s Tencent (QQ)
Mixi Partners With German Social Network VZ
Mixi, one of Japan’s largest social networks and a direct competitor to Facebook, announced [J] a new alliance on January 20 with German company Vznet Netzwerke. Mixi says that both companies will standardize their social application platforms to enable third-party social application providers to run their applications on both networks. Mixi announced the same type… Continue reading Mixi Partners With German Social Network VZ
Say Media To Sell Six Apart Japan And The Brand To Infocom
Six Apart Japan, a 100% subsidiary of Say Media, who bought a blog service company Six Apart (U.S.) in September 2010, announced [J] that the whole stock of the company will be sold from Say Media to a Japanese company Infocom soon. According to the announcement, Six Apart Japan takes the “Six Apart” trademark, keeps… Continue reading Say Media To Sell Six Apart Japan And The Brand To Infocom
For $26 Million: GREE Acquires Mobile Ad Startup Atlantis
M&A-related news are relatively rare in Japan’s startup scene, but today we can report that mobile social gaming juggernaut GREE has acquired Tokyo-based ad exchange service Atlantis for 2.2 billion yen ($26 million). The company will be turned into a GREE subsidiary. Big G says that the acquisition marks their entry into the mobile/smartphone ad… Continue reading For $26 Million: GREE Acquires Mobile Ad Startup Atlantis