Two Big Japanese Affiliate Service Providers To Merge To Japan No.1

Two Japanese web affiliate service provider(ASP) LinkShare Japan and Traffic Gate announced [J] to unite on May 1st, 2010. They will be the largest ASP in Japan. Behind LinkShare Japan, there is a parent company MITSUI & CO.,LTD., aka Mitsui Bussan, zaibatsu-type sogo shosha (general trading companies) who jointly established LinkShare Japan with US LinkShare.… Continue reading Two Big Japanese Affiliate Service Providers To Merge To Japan No.1

Virtual Dating Game Love Plus Is Introduced For iPhone

Konami Digital Entertainment released virtual dating simulation game Love Plus[J] for the iPhone/iPod touch on Monday.   There is a series of  three apps corresponding to three heroines starring in the game, which are Love Plus iM (Aika Takamine), Love Plus iR (Rinko Kobayakawa) and Love Plus iN (Nene Anegasaki). Left: An composite picture demo using… Continue reading Virtual Dating Game Love Plus Is Introduced For iPhone

Utweet Makes Stylish Movie With Your Tweets

A Japan based apparel chain store Uniqlo opened a new Flash site which let you create a Flash movie featuring your tweets and Twitter icons. You can set your Twitter account name or any keyword. When running with a Twitter ID, you will also get the red and white modified icon. Uniqlo is known by… Continue reading Utweet Makes Stylish Movie With Your Tweets

New Nikkei’s “Online Newspaper” Bans Deeplinks

Nikkei Web-kan [J], a new online news media started last month by Nikkei, one of the most influential industrial newspaper in Japan, turned out to claim possible damage compensation on its link policy page [J] to people who link individual news page, Slashdot Japan [J] reported. The policy also requires you advanced consent if you… Continue reading New Nikkei’s “Online Newspaper” Bans Deeplinks

CyberAgent Investment Takes 3% Stake In Vietnam’s Top Mobile Content Provider

Shibuya-based CyberAgent Investment acquired 3% of share capital in Vietnam’s largest mobile content service provider VMG Media on Tuesday. In Vietnam, the under 30 generation shares almost a half of the country’s whole population (85mil.), which is expected to consume a high volume of mobile content.   Currently the country’s mobile content market volume is worth… Continue reading CyberAgent Investment Takes 3% Stake In Vietnam’s Top Mobile Content Provider

Livedoor To Be Acquired By Korea’s Largest Search Portal Site

Several news sources report, LDH[J] (Livedoor Holdings, ex-Livedoor) is now in the final phase to be acquired by NHN, South Korea’s largest provider in the Internet portal service.   The sales value of LDH’s capitalization is considered between USD75M and 85M, which will be fixed mid-April. NHN shares 60% of user access to all search portal… Continue reading Livedoor To Be Acquired By Korea’s Largest Search Portal Site

Japanese April Fools’ Day Is 3D! 3D! 3D!

Blame Avatar’s hit on screen. Many of Japanese big portal showed great originality on April Fools’ Day. Half a day ahead to 3D services launch in USA. The No.1 Yahoo! Japan announced their migration to 3D top page on Microsoft Silverlight technology. No.4 portal (by visitors, according to the NetRatings 2007 research [J]) Nifty No.… Continue reading Japanese April Fools’ Day Is 3D! 3D! 3D!

TV Agony Aunt Based On Popular Female Online Forum Starts

Hatsugen Komachi, another huge anonymous online forum, popular to women, run by the world largest newspaper company Yomiuri Shimbun, will become a satellite TV program “Komachi TV” in advice-column-on-television style since April 2nd. # “Komachi” is a synonym for beautiful women in Japanese, which came from 9th century poet Ono no Komachi. In the 30… Continue reading TV Agony Aunt Based On Popular Female Online Forum Starts

Yahoo! Japan And Taobao To Connect Their Shopping Networks This Summer

Nikkei reported [J, subscription required] that Yahoo! Japan and Taobao are discussing to interconnect their shopping services between Japan and China in summer. Yahoo! Japan holds Yahoo! Shopping, No.2 online shopping service after Rakuten Ichiba. Taobao is China’s largest shopping site in Alibaba group. Yahoo! Japan and Alibaba are related via the common investor Softbank.… Continue reading Yahoo! Japan And Taobao To Connect Their Shopping Networks This Summer

Japan e-Business Assc. Blames Court For Rejecting Online Drag Sales

Online drag retailers Kenko.com in Tokyo and Wellnet[J] in Yokohama have sued Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for seeking to lift the ban on online drag sales, and Tokyo District Court[J] dismissed the suit on Tuesday.   Japan e-Business Association[J], consisting of e-commerce giants such as Rakuten and Yahoo Japan, announced a comment blaming… Continue reading Japan e-Business Assc. Blames Court For Rejecting Online Drag Sales