Following yesterday’s news that Japan’s mobile social gaming giant GREE now hit 21.25 million users, our very own Akky Akimoto has done some research and created the graph you can see above for his Japanese blog. And as you can see, in Japan’s “social services” realm, Mixi (“Japan’s Facebook”), GREE and Mobage-town (another huge mobile… Continue reading What Are Japan’s Top 5 Social Services? Here’s A Quick Overview.
Category: News
BREAKING: GREE’s Financial Report Suggests It’s Japan’s Biggest Social Network Now
Japan’s mobile gaming giant GREE just released [PDF] their financial report for the April-June quarter, and it seems the company is running from one record to the next. Year-on-year, all relevant financial numbers have gone up, as did the number of page views and, more importantly, registered members. Here’s a summary of GREE’s financial report,… Continue reading BREAKING: GREE’s Financial Report Suggests It’s Japan’s Biggest Social Network Now
Vending Machines Get More Intelligent, They Recommend You What To Drink
Wherever you go in Japan, vending machines are serving drinks and beverages at every corner of the country. We’re experiencing the hottest summer for the first time in a long time, which devotes to almost 50% increase in beverage sales at vending machines compared to their average sales revenue. A subsidiary of a public transport… Continue reading Vending Machines Get More Intelligent, They Recommend You What To Drink
[Update 2] First Offline, Now Unstable: Japan’s No. 1 Social Network Mixi In Trouble
Update: August 12, 11.30am: Mixi just issued a press release saying the service is back up. Apparently, Mixi had serious Memcached server trouble. Update: Mixi seems to have serious problems. As of August 11, 7.15pm Japanese time, the site is still down after it was accessible again for a few hours (as reported below). Here’s… Continue reading [Update 2] First Offline, Now Unstable: Japan’s No. 1 Social Network Mixi In Trouble
BREAKING: Facebook Rolls Out Special Mobile Version For Japanese Feature Phones
Facebook, which opened a Tokyo office back in February this year, has just pushed out the long-awaited “optimized” version for Japanese “feature phones”. Well, kind of, as the company itself isn’t too sure about the result and is quite cautious in the wording of the announcement (see screenshot below). The site can be accessed through… Continue reading BREAKING: Facebook Rolls Out Special Mobile Version For Japanese Feature Phones
Mixi To Enter Asia, The US And Europe
Earlier this week, I read a quite interesting interview Fumiaki Koizumi, the CFO of Japan’s biggest social network Mixi, gave to the Nikkei (the country’s leading business daily). In the interview, Koizumi touches upon a few interesting points on how Mixi wants to internationalize after all these years. Here’s a summary: Mixi now has over… Continue reading Mixi To Enter Asia, The US And Europe
NICT Introduces iPhone App Interpreting What You Speak Or Type
NICT, Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, introduced the iPhone app called VoiceTra which interprets what you speak. It allows voice input (original) in five languages of Japanese, English, Mandarin, Indonesian and Vietnamese, voice output (interpreted result) in these five languages and text output (interpreted result) in 16 languages of Arabic, Brazilian… Continue reading NICT Introduces iPhone App Interpreting What You Speak Or Type
KDDI To Acquire Stake In AR Start-up Tonchidot
The Nikkei, or Japan’s economic journal, reported today that Japan’s second largest telecom giant KDDI announced it would invest in Tonchidot, the Tokyo-based tech start-up who is well known for augmented-reality(AR) smartphone app Sekai Camera. Tonchidot plans to allocate new shares to KDDI to raise approximately USD530,000 in order to develop social games using Sekai… Continue reading KDDI To Acquire Stake In AR Start-up Tonchidot
NTT DoCoMo And DNP To Start E-Book Delivery Service This Fall
Japan’s biggest mobile operator NTT DoCoMo and major printing company Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) announced they would jointly start an e-book delivery service intended for feature phones, smartphones and tablet terminals this fall. The two companies will arrange the entire process of the e-book delivery service including content collecting, online book store management and overseas… Continue reading NTT DoCoMo And DNP To Start E-Book Delivery Service This Fall
China-made “Apple Peel” Turns Your iPod Touch To The iPhone
In Zhongguancun(中关村) or the technology hub of Mainland China’s capital, a plastic cover especially designed for the iPod Touch is now getting a high sensation among gadget geeks, Beijing Daily reports[C]. This cover is named “Apple Peel(苹果皮)” and can enclose a SIM card, a battery and a microphone which is not embedded with the iPod… Continue reading China-made “Apple Peel” Turns Your iPod Touch To The iPhone