Consumer Affairs Agency, Government of Japan(CAA) [J] made public their administrative order [J, pdf] against 5 Japanese penny auction web services on March 31. Violation against “Keihin Hyouji Hou”(Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations) is notified to DMM, Agito and Zerooku.
GMO-VP Launches “F-Commerce” Fund And Invests In Platform Developer
On Friday, GMO Venture Partners[J], an investment arm of Shibuya-based web juggernaut GMO Internet Group, launched a private equity fund specializing in investing in start-ups who are developing e-commerce and ad services to be provided on the Facebook platform (a.k.a. F-commerce), which is called Social Ad & Commerce Technology Fund. It has a JPY57M(=USD670,000) volume… Continue reading GMO-VP Launches “F-Commerce” Fund And Invests In Platform Developer
February 2011 Japan IT Links (Part 3)
February? Yes. I am sorry for big delay. The earthquake made me forgot this. March version will come late, too. Continued from (Part 2). Last part of February news which we did not write as a dedicated article. Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated. Taisho, a Taiyaki (Japanese fish-shape cake) shop in… Continue reading February 2011 Japan IT Links (Part 3)
Hatena Launces World Shortest 3 Letters Microblog Hatena Now
On April 1, Kyoto-based web service company Hatena released a new microblog service Hatena Now, which restrict users’ message at most 3 characters. Hatena called it “The world smallest nano blog” [J]. In 2009, we reported a nano blog chuitter.jp, which limits message by 14 letters, 1/10 of Twitter. However, Chuitter ceased after one year… Continue reading Hatena Launces World Shortest 3 Letters Microblog Hatena Now
Ready For: A New Crowd Fundraising Site For Artists Launches
Ohma Inc., a Tokyo-based tech start-up known for semantic web-based who’s-who app Spysee[J], released a Kickstarter-like crowd fundraising service called “ReadyFor?[J]” this week. The service intends to giving fundraising opportunities to amateur filmmakers, musicians and artists who would like to publish their works. If you invest in someone’s plan to develop his/her work, in return,… Continue reading Ready For: A New Crowd Fundraising Site For Artists Launches
TwitVoice Allows You To Leave Instant Voice Messages Via Twitter
Tokyo-based tech start-up Pido[J] unveiled the company’s first iPhone app today, which is called TwitVoice[J] and allows you to leave your voice messages via Twitter. It’s a free app, and you can tweet with your real voice recorded within fifteen seconds. The company expects to add some features in the future to attract the… Continue reading TwitVoice Allows You To Leave Instant Voice Messages Via Twitter
Social Illustration Service Pixiv Hits 3 Million Members
Japan has quite a few “social drawing services” that let users upload self-drawn images and connect with each other. But Pixiv is the biggest of them all. The eponymous company behind the service has announced that Pixiv hit 3 million members on March 29. The number of users doubled since January last year, when we… Continue reading Social Illustration Service Pixiv Hits 3 Million Members
Kinect Driven “Ghost in the Shell” Cyberspace
Kamakura based web/app company Kayac reproduced a cyber space in a popular anime series “Ghost in the Shell – Stand Alone Complex(S.A.C.)” at Parco Part 1 department store, Shibuya, Tokyo. By using kinect input device with big screens, visitors can experience to chase and catch out Tachikoma, an AI tank (Wikipedia) in the virtual space.… Continue reading Kinect Driven “Ghost in the Shell” Cyberspace
Weekly Comics Shonen Jump Makes One Issue Free Online By Quake
Shoeisha made a 2011’s 15th issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, the most popular Japanese manga(comic) magazine which is sold 3 million copies every week, online for free on Yahoo! Japan [J] and Nico Nico Seiga [J]. “Seiga” means static image, opposite to “douga”(movie). Nico Nico Seiga is a service to share images run by Nico… Continue reading Weekly Comics Shonen Jump Makes One Issue Free Online By Quake
2channel Founder’s 10 Million Yen Donation Rejected By Groupon Japan
Groupon Japan, local operator of successful digital coupon company Groupon, which drew cold stares by the new year’s trouble, was one of the fast web companies who started the earthquake victims saving program. Their “matching gift” donation collected 100 million yen by March 20th, and Groupon Japan added their own 100 million yen on top… Continue reading 2channel Founder’s 10 Million Yen Donation Rejected By Groupon Japan