Groupon Slows Down After New Year Osechi Incident In Japan

One month after the Groupon Japan’s New Year celebration food Osechi delivery trouble, Japanese consumers mind seem to be away from daily deal coupon services, even with the Groupon CEO Andrew Mason’s video apology. A vertical coupon search service Coupon-jp issued a research [J]. There, they tracked all coupon sold on Groupon Japan and other… Continue reading Groupon Slows Down After New Year Osechi Incident In Japan

Handwritten iPad: A Birthday Present From A Daughter

iPad 2 is expected to be released soon, and here is a lucky man who received brand-new iPad from his daughter. @harux tweeted that he wants an iPad. His daughter saw his tweet then made a handwritten iPad for his birthday present. He says she drew about 20 screens, and unveiled 4 of them. Handwritten iPad… Continue reading Handwritten iPad: A Birthday Present From A Daughter

Social Translation Service Conyac Integrates Facebook And Badgeville

Tokyo-based tech start-up Anydoor announced today that it had completed the integration of its social translation service Conyac with Facebook and social rewards platform Badgeville, which allows potential users to join the service more easily and to motivate participating users to be engaged. Conyac enables you to request a translation easily.  Users can ask for… Continue reading Social Translation Service Conyac Integrates Facebook And Badgeville

Samurai Incubate Launches 2nd Fund To Invest In 10 New Tech Start-ups

Samurai Incubate, a Tokyo-based seed accelerator aiming to bring up many Japanese tech start-ups, announced today the launch of its second fund which is worth 62 millon yen (=USD755,000). With its first fund launched in 2009, the firm invested in nine tech start-ups including social translation service Conyac (refer to this Asiajin story), smartphone ad-optimizer… Continue reading Samurai Incubate Launches 2nd Fund To Invest In 10 New Tech Start-ups

Online Train Timetable Service Ekitan Goes IPO

An online train timetable service that goes IPO? It may sound ludicrous to people living outside Japan, but Tokyo-based Ekitan is doing exactly that. The company will be listed at the Mothers Market (for high-growth and emerging stocks) of the Tokyo Stock Exchange on March 3 (code 3646). Ekitan started as a Toshiba in-house venture… Continue reading Online Train Timetable Service Ekitan Goes IPO

12 Tech Start-ups Present At NICT’s Annual Business Plan Contest

(Source: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Japan) Earlier this week, NICT, an ICT arm of Japan’s telecommunication authority, held the award-presenting ceremony of their annual contest to choose the best from business plans nominated.   Mr. Takeshi Natsuno, the inventor of NTT DoCoMo’s mobile web service i-Mode, started the ceremony with his keynote speech,… Continue reading 12 Tech Start-ups Present At NICT’s Annual Business Plan Contest

Nifty Uses Its Cloud To Accelerate Social Game App Business In SE Asia

Nifty, a Fujitsu subsidiary and Japan’s 4th largest ISP, announced last week that it would use their own cloud facility and encourage Japanese social game app developers to deliver their services to ASEAN countries.    Japan’s METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) helps the project financially, and several social game apps running on “Nifty… Continue reading Nifty Uses Its Cloud To Accelerate Social Game App Business In SE Asia

Japan’s Mobile Social Gaming Giant GREE Partners With China’s Tencent (QQ)

Big news from Asia’s social gaming world today: Tokyo-based mobile social games juggernaut GREE ($3 billion market cap) just announced it will tie up with China’s biggest web company Tencent ($45 billion market cap), which operates the massive QQ platform. The plan is to “export” GREE’s social apps to the rapidly growing market for mobile… Continue reading Japan’s Mobile Social Gaming Giant GREE Partners With China’s Tencent (QQ)

For Social App Development: Mixi And CyberAgent Launch Joint Venture

Japan’s social apps boom isn’t ending: Today, two of the country’s biggest web companies, namely Mixi and CyberAgent, announced they will launch a joint venture to produce social apps for mixi, Japan’s biggest social network, on February 1. CyberAgent is best known for its massive Ameba blog platform, Japan’s biggest (12.4 million registered users). The… Continue reading For Social App Development: Mixi And CyberAgent Launch Joint Venture