There can be no doubt that with a US$15 billion market cap, 75 million user accounts in Japan alone, and over 10,000 employees worldwide, the 800-pound gorilla in Japan’s e-commerce sector is Rakuten. Amazon Japan however, launched as early as 2000 (3 years later than Rakuten) continues to be a formidable opponent for the country’s… Continue reading Jeff Bezos Wants Amazon Japan’s Sales To Grow 30%, Bring Kindle Over This Year
Disaster Prevention App “AR Tsunami Camera” Released
Nabla-Zero [J] has released “AR Tsunami Camera,” an iPhone application for disaster prevention education. Download is free. “AR Tsunami Camera” is an application which layers a display using Augmented Reality over the actual scenery as seen through the iPhone camera, indicating “How far will it flood?” in case a tsunami hits. At the request of… Continue reading Disaster Prevention App “AR Tsunami Camera” Released
AKB48 Girls In Augmented Reality Campaign For Hewlett Packard Japan
Hewlett Packard Japan [J] has announced the development of “Love PC, Love HP AR,” a series of augmented reality advertisements with smartphone support to appear in 7 comics, and the “Love PC, Love HP Trailer,” which will be going all around Japan until the beginning of February, as part of their “Love PC, Love HP”… Continue reading AKB48 Girls In Augmented Reality Campaign For Hewlett Packard Japan
Hulu Japan Cuts Price 2/3 To 980 Yen
Hulu Japan lowered its subscription fee from monthly 1,480 yen (US$18.3) to 980 yen (US$12.1) . 2 weeks ago, Hulu Japan succeeded to receive contents first from major national broadcast network’s key station, TV Tokyo, though the network is the weakest one among 5 private networks. At the launch, it was essentially an online video… Continue reading Hulu Japan Cuts Price 2/3 To 980 Yen
FxCamera: Tokyo-Based Bitcellar Buys Popular Android Photo App
Tokyo-based photo storage service startup Bitcellar today announced it has acquired FxCamera, the biggest camera app on Android phones at the moment: according to the company, FxCamera currently boasts 15 million registered users around the world. Details of the deal weren’t disclosed. Morifumi Yamashita, who single-handedly developed the app, has joined Bitcellar’s board and plans… Continue reading FxCamera: Tokyo-Based Bitcellar Buys Popular Android Photo App
Location Game Shirotsuku Ties It Up With Job Offer Site
Cave Inc. [J] has announced the commencement of “Predict Job Luck With Lucky Prospects 47 Fortune,” [J] a tie-up campaign with “47Kyujin.com (47 prefectures job offer site)” [J] managed by F47Kyujin Site Joint Committee, [J] via “Shirotsuku,” [J] Cave’s location based game for GREE and Mobage. The term period will be until April 26th. In… Continue reading Location Game Shirotsuku Ties It Up With Job Offer Site
Twitter Japan Starts Brand Page With Docomo, Lawson and Warner
Twitter Japan official blog announced [J] that the brand page for promotion launched in Japanese Twitter. The new advertising program on Japan’s (probably) most popular social networking service is introduced 4 month after its US launch. The first three companies use the brand page are the largest telco NTT Docomo, convenience chain store Lawson and… Continue reading Twitter Japan Starts Brand Page With Docomo, Lawson and Warner
Japan’s Web News Week 14
This week’s Japanese Web/IT related news which we did not write as a dedicated article. Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated. Last Day Of Docomo 2G Cellphone Used 16 Years Cookpad Appoints ex-Kakaku.com Head As A New President. Current president Akimitsu Sano to concentrate on globalization and R&D Face Romanizer App By… Continue reading Japan’s Web News Week 14
NHK Starts News Program Interacts With Twitter Messages By Watchers
In Japan, April is the start of school year, and many TV programs also begin this season. Japan’s public broadcasting network NHK began weekday midnight news program News Web 24 [J] works with the popular Internet service, Twitter. # The 24 in “News Web 24” means 24 o’clock, means 00:00, which is often used in… Continue reading NHK Starts News Program Interacts With Twitter Messages By Watchers
Photozou: Zynga Japan Sells Photo Sharing Site To Digital Garage
Back in 2010, when Zynga acquired Tokyo-based Unoh (and turned the company into its Japan HQ), the main targets of the Americans were game-related assets and the team. But Zynga also acquired a pretty successful photo sharing service that was developed by Unoh: Photozou,which went live in 2005 and can probably be best described as… Continue reading Photozou: Zynga Japan Sells Photo Sharing Site To Digital Garage