Rakuten just doesn’t stop internationalizing. In May, we reported about the joint venture the Japanese e-commerce giant (market cap at the Tokyo Stock Exchange: $10 billion) entered with Indonesia’s biggest media company, Global Mediacom. And today, Rakuten announced the result of the deal, an online mall, which will be opened next year and give Indonesian… Continue reading Rakuten Enters Indonesia With “Rakuten BELANJA ONLINE”
Breaking: Japan FTC Conducts Investigation On DeNA(Mobage-Town)
Kyodo reports [J] (11:08) that DeNA, who runs one of Japan’s largest mobile social networking Mobage-Town, is subjected to an on-site investigation by Japan Fair Trade Commission(JFTC). DeNA was rumored to ask their third-party game application providers not to provide games for Gree. [Update] Nikkei follows [J] (11:13) with more detail. It says that the… Continue reading Breaking: Japan FTC Conducts Investigation On DeNA(Mobage-Town)
Ask Asiajin Authors
We have just switched to Disqus comment system from another comments service. So this post also serves as new comment system test. All registered users and Disqus users can write comments. Tentatively, now guest users can post comments, too. Please help our test by leaving any general questions, requests, suggestions, applauds, complaints, whining, etc. for… Continue reading Ask Asiajin Authors
Japanese Love Song In The Motif Of MS Excel, And Anti-Virus
“My Excel Story – watashi no kokoro no naka no kansuu(functions in my mind)” “Functions in my mind filters memories with you.” “I can find tiny memories even between 1 and 0, you taught me to take away ROUNDDOWN” “You can count by AVERAGE. ISTEXT, feel words.” c/w “Ai no Uirusu Taisaku”(Love Anti-Virus) Released November… Continue reading Japanese Love Song In The Motif Of MS Excel, And Anti-Virus
myGengo Opens $45,000 API Lab To Support Third Party Developers
Having raised $585,000 in angel investments this summer, Tokyo-based human translation start-up myGengo has set aside $45,000 to support third-party developers with their new API Lab. The API Lab is a place for developers to experiment with the myGengo API, build plug-ins for third-party platforms, and win cash prizes. While myGengo has offered crowd-sourced translation through their homepage – the… Continue reading myGengo Opens $45,000 API Lab To Support Third Party Developers
Mashup Awards 6: Doting Father Develops Social Web For Recording His Daughter’s Growth
The award-presenting ceremony of the Mashup Awards 6[J], an annual web service development contest organized by a bunch of Japanese web companies, took place in Tokyo yesterday, where the venue was packed with hundreds of presenters and an audience. This contest literally aims at letting participants compete their skills in developing a web service… Continue reading Mashup Awards 6: Doting Father Develops Social Web For Recording His Daughter’s Growth
CyberAgent Rumored To Buy Off Tokyo-Based Baseball Team Yakult Swallows
Japanese sports newspaper Nikkan Sports reported [J] on December 4th, Saturday morning that Tokyo Yakult Swallows, one of 12 professional baseball team in Japan’s top league Nippon Professional Baseball(NPB), is planning to sell itself to web service company CyberAgent (Asiajin), which runs Ameba blog, Pigu(Japan)/Pico(US), etc. Yakult, a beverage company who owns and has been… Continue reading CyberAgent Rumored To Buy Off Tokyo-Based Baseball Team Yakult Swallows
Docomo To Unveil Feature Phone-Only App Store On Monday
Japan’s biggest business daily The Nikkei is reporting that the country’s leading mobile carrier, NTT Docomo, is to unveil a a new app store of sorts on Monday, December 6. The portal will offer 1,200 apps from the get-go, in addition to 1 million music titles and a total of 30,000 e-books – exclusively for… Continue reading Docomo To Unveil Feature Phone-Only App Store On Monday
Yahoo! Japan Begins Its Own Application Platform YAP
Yahoo! Japan announced [J] their entering application platform competition with new Yahoo! Application Platform (Yahoo! Appli). The release was done on November 25th and it launched on the same day with 10 third-party applications. You might already know that Yahoo! Japan, No.1 website in Japan, is not really identical with U.S. Yahoo!, who has been… Continue reading Yahoo! Japan Begins Its Own Application Platform YAP
First Social Game Magazine Appli-Style On Sale
On December 2nd, Japan’s first (maybe the world first? do you know?) cellphone social game application magazine “Appli Style” has been released in Japan. The magazine, costs 680 yen (US$8), published by a publisher Eastpress, are sold at bookstores and convenience stores around the nation. (->