Sumitomo, one of Japan’s almighty general trading houses (sogo shosha), will buy a 34% stake in Hachette Fujingaho [JP], the Tokyo-based subsidiary from Lagardère Active, a media conglomerate headquarted in Paris. The two companies already signed a basic agreement on January 14 with the deal being worth 5 billion Yen (55 million USD/42 million Euros). Sumitomo… Continue reading Japanese and French giants shake hands in e-commerce deal
Google inflates Search Market Share versus Yahoo! Japan
Google Japan’s year-end announcement on Dec 22nd, 2008 shocked the industry, when they loudly proclaimed that their search market share had reached 41%, which is only 3 points behind the 44% of Japanese portal giant Yahoo! Japan, using data from Nielsen/NetRatings (report on @IT [J]). The news raised some eyebrows because no such indications had… Continue reading Google inflates Search Market Share versus Yahoo! Japan
Rakuten to start PHS service in April
Rakuten[J], Japan’s largest e-commerce player, unveiled that it is planning to start a PHS (personal handy-phone system) service as an MVNO (or mobile virtual network operator) for its corporate users this coming April. Jointly with Fusion Communications, and under a roaming agreement with Japanese PHS operator Willcom, Rakuten intends to provide free mobile phone service… Continue reading Rakuten to start PHS service in April
Akiba mobile app biz plan competition held by Mitsui VC
Mitsui Ventures, the investment arm of Mitsui & Co., Ltd., organized a business plan competition called “i*deal competition“, and the award presentation ceremony was held today in Akihabara, where new Internet subcultures and innovative services are born. The event started with a keynote speech by famous IT journalist Nobuyuki Hayashi, who is well-known as the… Continue reading Akiba mobile app biz plan competition held by Mitsui VC
KAYAC sells their 88 websites
Kayac, a web development and consulting service in Kanagawa, announced that they sell 88 web services they created last year. Kayac, which often addresses themselves as “Omoshiro Houjin Kayac”, which means “Funny Corporation Kayac” in Japanese, is known as an unique web development company. Some of their weird topics are; locating at the old capital… Continue reading KAYAC sells their 88 websites
Gree says net profit is up 500%, expects yearly sales of 123 million USD
Mobile social networking site Gree [JP] said Friday that their net profit will probably increase by a whopping 500% on a year-by-year basis to 3.5 billion Yen (38.6 million USD, 28.7 million Euros) in the current fiscal year (which ends for GREE on June 30). This is 300 million Yen (3.3 million USD, 2.5 million… Continue reading Gree says net profit is up 500%, expects yearly sales of 123 million USD
Users of Kadokawa’s New Video Site Can Add Anime Subtitles Collaboratively
Kadokawa Marketing, a subsidiary of this publishing and film-making conglomerate｢J], has introduced a new web video service called “kadoTV“. Kadokawa’s new service allows its users to collaboratively add synchronized, multilingual subtitles to each anime on the site. The service is based on video retrieval technology developed by Tokyo University’s graduate tech start-up TeamLab, and allows… Continue reading Users of Kadokawa’s New Video Site Can Add Anime Subtitles Collaboratively
Project CodeRepos – All Our Code Are Belong To Us
CodeRepos is a software repository space where many top-level Japanese web programmers contribute and share their source code. Kazuhiro OOSAWA, aka Yappo, is known well by his privately running Japanese search engine iYappo for more than decade, a famous hacker among Japanese Perl community, also called “Shogun” by some geeks. On his blog on August… Continue reading Project CodeRepos – All Our Code Are Belong To Us
TV Asahi Quiz Show cooks up Fake Blogs for Clues
Tokyo-headquartered private TV broadcaster TV-Asahi used fake blog sites on its quiz show, fabricated by the program’s production staff as a real news source for the show’s questions, and as a result, the broadcaster is being heavily criticized by audiences and TV watchdogs. The show was broadcast nationwide in Japan during last weekend’s prime time, and… Continue reading TV Asahi Quiz Show cooks up Fake Blogs for Clues
Surprise Automatic Withdrawal Angers Japanese ISP Kai’s Customers
Tokyo-based ISP and web-hosting provider, Kai Creates Inc. (its services website is called “Linkclub“), recently changed its service rates without notifying its customers. A large number of customer complaints have been reported to several consumer authorities, some sources report. Kai is famous as a time-honored Internet venture, it started business in 1990 before the dawn… Continue reading Surprise Automatic Withdrawal Angers Japanese ISP Kai’s Customers