NHK Broadcasts Lunch Time TV Program For Cellphone

1-seg (one-seg) is a mobile terrestrial digital audio/video and data broadcasting service in Japan.   Usually it airs the same programs simultaneously with the land-based TV channels do. In March, Japan’s state-run TV/radio broadcaster NHK started broadcasting the 1-seg programs in weekday’s lunch time, specifically designed for office workers having their lunch break.   The programming is… Continue reading NHK Broadcasts Lunch Time TV Program For Cellphone

Now eBay Acts To Capture The Flag In The Far East

On Wednesday, eBay announced it had agreed to take over Gmarket, a South Korea’s e-commerce marketplace.   The company’s shareholders, Yahoo U.S. and Korea’s Interpark[K] also reportedly agreed to sell their Gmarket shares to eBay. By merging Gmarket with eBay’s Korean local subsidiary called Auction (IAC)[K], e-Bay expects to get ahead and to keep aggressive position… Continue reading Now eBay Acts To Capture The Flag In The Far East

Uniqlo Starts Online Sales in Mainland China

   Japan-based casual clothing retailer First Retailing(its brandname, Uniqlo) started its online sales in Mainland China[C], in tie-up with Taobao[C].   Taobao is China’s largest online shopping mall by the e-commerce giant Alibaba, and it engages more than 100 million frantic shoppers in the country.   This is the first independent entry by a Japanese large retailer to China’s… Continue reading Uniqlo Starts Online Sales in Mainland China

Sony Transfers Their Video Sharing Site Eyevio To A Startup

Sony will transfer their video sharing site ‘eyeVio‘ [JP] to a Tokyo-based startup company called Sprasia on May 29th. Eyevio is a video sharing site which can connect to Sony hardware products. Eyevio has 1 million unique visitors and 10 million page views per month. The site was started in April 2007. Sony stated that… Continue reading Sony Transfers Their Video Sharing Site Eyevio To A Startup

Pu-pe Girl/Poupeegirl – Online Dress-up-doll Community

Pu-pe Girl is a fast-rising Japanese social community site targeting females, currently 99% of its users are women. The social network is for a certain speciality, having barbie-like dress-up avatar of your own. Pu-pe Girl is a 100% subsidiary of CyberAgent, one of the biggest Japanese web conglomerates. Luckily, and exceptional for a web service… Continue reading Pu-pe Girl/Poupeegirl – Online Dress-up-doll Community

Ex-school Sites Are On Sale For The First Time In Japan’s Internet Auction History

A rural town located on the south coast of Hokkaido Island, Niikappu, put four of the town’s unused municipal elementary school sites on sale on Yahoo Auction[J].    The sites consist of school buildings, swimming pools and teachers’ dormitories.   The bid started in the USD21M to USD67M price range. Because of the declining number of applicants for schools… Continue reading Ex-school Sites Are On Sale For The First Time In Japan’s Internet Auction History

Tezuka Manga Works Come To Your Palm Every Week

Tokyo-based mobile app developer Yappa started distributing the manga works of Tezuka Osamu, with a content distribution technology that the company also used to develop the Sankei Newspaper’s iPhone/iPod app also uses (I mentioned the app a bit in this article). The company publishes a new issue online every week, and each issue takes a… Continue reading Tezuka Manga Works Come To Your Palm Every Week

Lotte’s $10,000 Dance Contest on YouTube

Fit’s Dance Contest is a contest being held by Lotte, one of the biggest sweets seller in Japan, utilizing YouTube as a platform. An example dance is provided featuring Takeru Satou and Nozomi Sasaki, a popular actress and one of the most beloved icons on Japanese Tumblr. Rather than asking for original dances, both the… Continue reading Lotte’s $10,000 Dance Contest on YouTube

The RSS-based Service Developer Adds A Twitter-like Business Solution To Line-up

The Tokyo-based tech venture company Modiphi[J] started a twitter-like micro blog service for enterprise use[J] today. The company introduced the same series for consumer use[J] last month, which allows you to post a short message and share it with your friends, as well as RSS feeds aggregation and social bookmarking feature. The service is also… Continue reading The RSS-based Service Developer Adds A Twitter-like Business Solution To Line-up