Mixi, GREE, Mobage-town – Japan’s top three social networking services have either already opened or decided to open their platforms to third-party developers in the last few months. And a handful of foreign application providers, such as RockYou from the US or Rekoo from China, already managed to successfully launch localized social games on Mixi,… Continue reading Index Corp. Helps Foreign Social Game Developers Enter Japan
ex-Livedoor CEO Takafumi Horie Got Compulsory Seizure Of 3,600 USD
On March 10th, Tokyo District Court broke into a flat of ex-Livedoor CEO Takafumi Horie, a fallen IT entrepreneur star whose arrest caused so-called “Livedoor Shock” in 2006, distrain upon his golf bag, wine cellar appliance, television and shamisen(Japanese guiter) by valued them as 330,000 yen ($3646) in total. Horie is appealing his alleged securities… Continue reading ex-Livedoor CEO Takafumi Horie Got Compulsory Seizure Of 3,600 USD
Naver Japan Starts Another Microblogging Service “Pick”
Naver Japan, a bridgehead of Korean search giant Naver, who is challenging Japanese market second time since 2009, released their new (Tumblr-like) multimedia clipping microblog “Pick” [J]. On Pick, user can post text, image, movie and geolocation. It also encourages users to clip others’ post by 1-click “pick” button so “anyone can join the pick… Continue reading Naver Japan Starts Another Microblogging Service “Pick”
CyberAgent Exports Social Avatar Community To English, Ameba Pico
As pre-announced last November, CyberAgent Inc., a Japanese big web media/advertising company, launched their popular social avatar community, constructed on Flash technology, Ameba Pigu‘s English version Ameba Pico. Based on Ameba Pigu’s avatar cloths-changing, communication chatrooms and casual games, English Pico provided more avatar items for oversea cultures, adds gift and message boards features which… Continue reading CyberAgent Exports Social Avatar Community To English, Ameba Pico
Cellphone Checks If Employees Goofing Off
KDDI R&D Laboratory, a subsidiary of Japan’s No.2 phone company KDDI Corporation, developed a technology to know cellphone holder’s actions remotely, by using data from acceleration sensor embedded on cellphones. photo by Daily Portal Z – “How to sleep at office” Until now, cellphone motion sensor could only detect holder’s repetitive movement like walking or… Continue reading Cellphone Checks If Employees Goofing Off
February 2010 Japan-IT Links (Part 2)
Latter half of February news which we did not write as a dedicated article. (Part 1) Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated. Keeping Household Accounts By Taking Receipt With Cellphone Camera For New Sharp/Softbank Mobile Phone Dentsu Tech Launches Cellphone 3D AR App For 3 Major Carriers Performance Marketing Starts Consulting To… Continue reading February 2010 Japan-IT Links (Part 2)
20.5% Of Japanese Owns 2 Or More Cellphones
On an article “Half Of Japanese Male iPhone Users Keep Their Japanese Cellphone” comments I got a good question from @seanohagan, It would be interesting to see how this number compares to an average Japanese male. What percentage of Japanese men have 2 cellphones? Did the research mention anything about that? He is right. Without… Continue reading 20.5% Of Japanese Owns 2 Or More Cellphones
Anti-Pollen-Allegy Nostril Cleansing Ringtone
Index Corporation announced that its cellphone ringtone site Sokuho Music Search (Sokuho = breaking news) provides a new version of ringtone collections “Hana Sukkiri Melody” (Hana Sukkiri = cleared up nostril). “The ringtone will make a nose has resonant frequency with pollens adherent inside your nasal cavity, so eventually pollens fall down. ” Improved from… Continue reading Anti-Pollen-Allegy Nostril Cleansing Ringtone
Yahoo! Auction Releases iPhone App
Yahoo! Auction, Japan No.1 auction website who had defeated eBay in 2002 (eBay now collaborates with Yahoo! Auction), expands [J] its frontend into growing smartphone segment with a free iPhone application which name is “Yahuoku”. “Yahuoku” is Japanese abbreviation form of Yahoo! Auction (such like “Super Mario” becomes “Su-mari” and “Pocket Monster” to “Pokemon”) and… Continue reading Yahoo! Auction Releases iPhone App
Half Of Japanese Male iPhone Users Keep Their Japanese Cellphone
Nikkei BP Consulting and AdMob ran an online research to 1,000 Japanese iPhone users. The result [J] tells that 49.4% of Japanese Male iPhone Users have two or more cellphones. On the same research, male:female ratio is 72.3%:27.7%. Web-tan Forum [J] who reported excerpt of this paid research did not mention how much of female… Continue reading Half Of Japanese Male iPhone Users Keep Their Japanese Cellphone