Gree and Paperboy stocks trade much above IPO prices

Gree (TSE:3632) and Paperboy (JASDAQ:3633) went public on December 17th and 19th respectively as we reported before. Gree’s IPO price is 3,300yen ($33) per share. On 17th, Gree stock opened with 5,000yen ($50), and closed with 4,800yen ($48). Its market capitalization, 107 billion yen ($1B), is larger than Mixi (TSE:2121). Gree issued 1.2 million new… Continue reading Gree and Paperboy stocks trade much above IPO prices

So-net M3 – a community site for doctors

So-net M3 (TSE:2413) is a very profitable and unique company which is providing a community site ‘m3.com’ exclusively for medical doctors. Doctors are restricted by confidentiality, so they cannot use typical community sites to share information about their professional life or skills. M3 provides them with a bulletin board service. M3 has 390,000 registered medical… Continue reading So-net M3 – a community site for doctors

Asiajin’s 1st Anniversary

Our official launch date, when Arai and I announced Asiajin’s existence to the world, was December 12th, 2007. Yes, we have reached our first anniversary! Since the launch, we have welcomed many contributors – writers, proofreaders, advisors, commenters and of course, our great readers. I must give special thanks to Arai, and to Serkan Toto,… Continue reading Asiajin’s 1st Anniversary

Yahoo! Japan launches English version of their auction site

Yahoo! Japan introduced an English version of Yahoo! Japan Auctions on October 10th, 2008. Its target audience is foreign residents in Japan who can communicate in basic Japanese but prefer to use an English interface. Yahoo! Japan Auctions is the biggest Internet auction site in Japan. The major drawback of the English site is that… Continue reading Yahoo! Japan launches English version of their auction site

Google Launched Google Maps in Korea

Google started Google Maps Korea on November 25th. Goole was not providing map service in Korea before. Google’s presence is much lower than their presence in the US or Japanese market. Google Maps Korea will be very helpful for overseas travellers, because they can use the service with their familiar Google Maps interface, even though… Continue reading Google Launched Google Maps in Korea

Japanese No.1 E-Commerce site “Rakuten” started multilingual item search

Rakuten, the largest E-Commerce player in Japan, has started a multilingual item search service in Rakuten Ichiba, the biggest Japanese online shopping mall. Rakuten Ichiba top page[J] / Rakuten Ichiba top page[E] The sales of Rakuten’s E-Commerce division for the year ’07 was 75.5 billion yen( about 800 million US dollars). Rakuten launched E-Commerce service… Continue reading Japanese No.1 E-Commerce site “Rakuten” started multilingual item search

Executives of Tokyo startup SUN arrested

Executives of SUN, a Tokyo-based “Second Life”-related startup company, have been arrested under suspicion of facilitating the escape of another man wanted by police. The suspect, a lawyer and ex-member of Osaka’s prefectural assembly, was allegedly involved in tax evasion [1], and has since been captured in Manila. The CEO of the company was prosecuted… Continue reading Executives of Tokyo startup SUN arrested

Big shake-up at Mixi: Apps possible, no invitations anymore, kids OK

Today Mixi, Japan’s biggest social network, sent out a press release (J), announcing some of the biggest changes the site has seen in recent months. The company of the same name also held a press meeting today. And they are opening up pretty radically for Mixi standards. Here are the details: New age limit –… Continue reading Big shake-up at Mixi: Apps possible, no invitations anymore, kids OK

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Google agrees to pay royalties for Japanese music played in YouTube clips

Google today came to an agreement with the JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers), Japan’s largest music copyright administration body to pay royalties for music protected by local copyright and used in YouTube videos. YouTube members are now free to upload video clips containing JASRAC-protected music (the organization controls over 1.5… Continue reading Google agrees to pay royalties for Japanese music played in YouTube clips