TV Tokyo To Start A Reality Show, Can You Live Only By Amazon Products

A Japanese television station TV Tokyo announced that they would air a new show featuring online commerce site Amazon Japan, “Kaiteki! Amazon Seikatsu”(It’s nice! Amazon Life) from midnight March 4th. A model and a comedian will live in one-room-mansions next to each other, challenge to set up the houses and live only with things purchasable… Continue reading TV Tokyo To Start A Reality Show, Can You Live Only By Amazon Products

Rakuten To Dissolve Lekutian In China, Joint-Mall With Baidu

Japan’s largest e-mall company Rakuten today announced [J] that they would shut down its Chinese e-mall Lekutian(rakuten.cn) planned in May, 2012. Rakuten jointly established Lekutian with China’s search engine giant Baidu in January 2010, and began the mall in October 2010. The reason is explained as Lekutian did not show the growth they had expected,… Continue reading Rakuten To Dissolve Lekutian In China, Joint-Mall With Baidu

Jeff Bezos Wants Amazon Japan’s Sales To Grow 30%, Bring Kindle Over This Year

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

Mixi And DeNA Launches Social Commerce Platform Mixi Mall

Mixi and DeNA announced today that they launch a new social commerce service Mixi Mall As you might know, the two of Japan’s top three social networking services, Mixi and Mobage are run by these two companies. Mixi is the counterpart of Facebook in Japan, Mobage is like Zynga having its own social networking. Whilst… Continue reading Mixi And DeNA Launches Social Commerce Platform Mixi Mall

Sumitomo To Export Online Pharmacy Soukai Drug To China And Indonesia

Sumitomo Corporation announced on March 7 that their online pharmacy Soukai Drug (soukai = briskness in Japanese) is going to expand into China and Indonesia this year. Their Shanghai and Jakarta subsidiaries are already set up. Trial in Shanghai is planned to begin in late April, Jakarta service will start in late August.

Research: Japanese E-Commerce Sites Expects Twitter The Most For Social Media Promotion

Shibuya-based Mobile web oriented HR agency Sapotant issued a research [J] on what social media buttons Japanese e-commerce websites are displaying to their customers (n=100). 48% of Japanese e-commerce site introduces one or more social media buttons. As shown on the chart, nearly 90% of who do, which is 42% of all, encourages users to… Continue reading Research: Japanese E-Commerce Sites Expects Twitter The Most For Social Media Promotion

Rakuten Enters Indonesia With “Rakuten BELANJA ONLINE”

Rakuten just doesn’t stop internationalizing. In May, we reported about the joint venture the Japanese e-commerce giant (market cap at the Tokyo Stock Exchange: $10 billion) entered with Indonesia’s biggest media company, Global Mediacom. And today, Rakuten announced the result of the deal, an online mall, which will be opened next year and give Indonesian… Continue reading Rakuten Enters Indonesia With “Rakuten BELANJA ONLINE”

Japan’s Itochu Invests In Hong Kong And Taiwanese E-Commerce Sites

Major Japanese trading (and Fortune 500) company Itochu is making a foray into the Asian e-commerce space. According to The Nikkei, Itochu made two investments recently, having bought into Hong Kong-based online shopping company Fortune Link (website is currently down) and Taiwan-based PChome. About 10% of each of these sites have been acquired by Itochu,… Continue reading Japan’s Itochu Invests In Hong Kong And Taiwanese E-Commerce Sites

Rakuten Brings “Super Points” Loyalty Program To Buy.Com

Japan’s biggest e-commerce company Rakuten, which currently boasts a market cap of US$9.7 billion, has been relatively quiet after having acquired US-based Buy.com earlier this year (for US$250 million). Now Buy.com is announcing it has introduced a loyalty program called “Rakuten Super Points” on its site. The way it works is pretty simple: much like… Continue reading Rakuten Brings “Super Points” Loyalty Program To Buy.Com

Report: Rakuten To Link Japan And Taiwan Online Malls

Japan’s biggest business daily, The Nikkei, today reports that the country’s biggest e-commerce company, Rakuten, is planning to links its Japanese and Taiwanese online malls so that customers from these countries can order products from both Japan- and Taiwan-based merchants. According to the paper, the integration will take place by the end of this year.… Continue reading Report: Rakuten To Link Japan And Taiwan Online Malls