First half of July news which we did not write as a dedicated article. Continued to (Part 2) Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated. Groupon Clone Q:pod Occupies Yamanote-Line Train. Q:pod Is A Joint Venture By Pakureserve And Infinit Ventures Rakuten Releases Rakuten-IE8 Tokyo Metropolitan Police Introduces The First Surveillance Camera Car… Continue reading July 2010 Japan IT Links (Part 1)
Category: News
Japan’s Mobile Web Market Now Worth $17 billion. Virtual Items: $500 million.
Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications published an interesting report [PDF] about the country’s market for mobile content and services this week. According to the ministry, that market grew by 12% to hit 1.52 trillion yen ($17.3 billion) last year, including mobile advertising. The $17.3 billion breaks down into mobile commerce, which was worth… Continue reading Japan’s Mobile Web Market Now Worth $17 billion. Virtual Items: $500 million.
Japan’s First Daily Deal Service Piku Raises USD7.3M VC Round
Japan’s first start-up operating deal-of-the-day website Piku Media[J] announced today that they completed the allocation of new shares worth USD7.3M to Germany-based VC fund Rebate Networks GmbH (co-founded by the owners of Germany’s largest social network service studi.vz[G]), Global Venture Capital, DIT Partners and an undisclosed investor. This fundraising was arranged by Tokyo-based tech start-up… Continue reading Japan’s First Daily Deal Service Piku Raises USD7.3M VC Round
GREE’s operating profit jumps 130% to $222 million in last fiscal
Japan’s mobile social gaming giant GREE is becoming so successful, it’s scary. According to Japanese daily The Nikkei, the Tokyo-based company’s operating profit ballooned to 19.5 billion yen ($222 million) in the fiscal year that ended in June. That’s $17 million more than the company expected and a whopping 130% more than in the year… Continue reading GREE’s operating profit jumps 130% to $222 million in last fiscal
Japan Sec Dealers’ Assc Postpones Banning Individual Investments On Pre-IPO Start-ups
Japan Security Dealers Association proposed banning IPO of companies who have been fundraised by individual investors except the companies’ employees and founder’s family, and that news caused a sensation in this country’s tech start-up community. The association aimed at preventing fraud over unlisted shares, but the banning would make start-ups harder to go IPO if… Continue reading Japan Sec Dealers’ Assc Postpones Banning Individual Investments On Pre-IPO Start-ups
June 2010 Japan IT Links (Part 2)
Continued from (Part 1) Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated. Gree Employee Got Support 90% of Smartphone Purchase Cost Tweetmeme Adds Japanese Localization [En] – awful Japanese though Fujitsu-Toshiba Cellphone Alliance Officially Acknowledged Writers and editors jointly to release an e-book without publisher and dealer. Sakura Internet To Open Stadium Sized Data… Continue reading June 2010 Japan IT Links (Part 2)
Japan’s First Banana Vending Machine Debuts In Shibuya
The Japanese local subsidiary of international leading banana distributor Dole put the country’s first banana vending machine at an underground shopping mall in Shibuya last week, which draws people’s attention. The vending machine has a fridge and maintains stored bananas at 13 degrees Celsius (=55.4 degrees Fahrenheit) which is the best temperature to keep them… Continue reading Japan’s First Banana Vending Machine Debuts In Shibuya
Pankaku Welcomes i-mode’s Father As New Adviser
Tokyo-based smartphone app developer Pankaku[J] announced Mr. Takeshi Natsuno became the company’s adviser today. He started his career in this industry as the vice president for Japan’s first ad-based free ISP HyperNet, then joined NTT DoCoMo and invented the country’s first cellphone web-browsing platform i-mode. He is currently serving managing director for cellphone ringtone distributor… Continue reading Pankaku Welcomes i-mode’s Father As New Adviser
GREE Opens Its Platform, Attracts 30 Game Companies From The Start
Major Japanese mobile gaming social network GREE has taken a significant step yesterday: it’s now possible [PDF] for third parties to release games on the site (the move was announced back in January). Before, GREE offered its almost 20 million users self-developed titles only, meaning the company doubled as a platform and content provider. It… Continue reading GREE Opens Its Platform, Attracts 30 Game Companies From The Start
Mixi Introduces New Function To Find And Connect With Colleagues
Japan’s biggest social network Mixi (which crossed the 20 million member mark in April) may have just found yet another way to expand its user base and boost engagement. Mixi yesterday introduced a new function that makes it possible to find colleagues from your company on the site and befriend them. Background: Unlike Facebook and… Continue reading Mixi Introduces New Function To Find And Connect With Colleagues