Gree Opens English Corporate Site – How About Others?

Gree has launched its company site in English today. It is a recent trend for big three social networking services to show their interest in international market. All of Gree, Mobage-Town and Mixi want more third party game/app development companies, and when competition is tough in Japan, of course it is a good option to… Continue reading Gree Opens English Corporate Site – How About Others?

How To Play FarmVille Japanese Version “FarmVillage”

Zynga Japan released its flagship social game “FarmVille” in Japan under the name “ファームビレッジ(FarmVillage)” on December 1. Why is it Village not Ville? According to Zynga Japan general manager Shintaro Yamada’s tweet [J], “Because the pronunciation of FarmVille and Biru(Building in Japanese, from English) are the same in Japanese and will confuse people”. SoftBank financed… Continue reading How To Play FarmVille Japanese Version “FarmVillage”

First Social Game Magazine Appli-Style On Sale

On December 2nd, Japan’s first (maybe the world first? do you know?) cellphone social game application magazine “Appli Style” has been released in Japan. The magazine, costs 680 yen (US$8), published by a publisher Eastpress, are sold at bookstores and convenience stores around the nation. (->

Track The International Space Station(ISS) From PC, Facebook And Smartphone

SightSpaceStation by Tokyo-based Tori Ningen [J] is a site gives you full experience and knowledge on the International Space Station(ISS) watch. The English/Japanese/Spanish-trilingual web site tells you that the earliest date and time when you will be able to watch the ISS flies over your town next time. Google Maps, Google Street View and Google… Continue reading Track The International Space Station(ISS) From PC, Facebook And Smartphone

Mixi Gives Up New “Search Friends By E-mail Address” Feature After Harsh Rejection

On November 30th, Mixi, Japanese counterpart of Facebook, one of the three biggest Japanese social network service, introduced a new feature [J, requires Mixi log-in], which allows you to search your friend on Mixi from his/her e-mail address, which makes Mixi step into real life networks side. Before the change, you could invite your friend… Continue reading Mixi Gives Up New “Search Friends By E-mail Address” Feature After Harsh Rejection

Mixi Unveils SocialPhone For Softbank’s Androids

Mixi, one of Japan’s biggest social networking services, which is the most similar with Facebook among three, announced their new smartphone application plan with the third largest cellphone carrier Softbank Mobile. The trademarked “SocialPhone” is an Android application service which utilizes phone data like phone number data with Mixi’s social graphs. The service is planned… Continue reading Mixi Unveils SocialPhone For Softbank’s Androids

Japanese Social Network Update With Quarterly Reports

The ranking by registered users keeps the same. Or, maybe DeNA is passing Mixi by population as Mixi’s number has October adding included. Gree: 22.46 million (at 2010-09-30, by 1Q report [pdf, J]) Mixi: 21.90 million (at 2010-10-31, mentioned on Socialphone release [J]) DeNA(Mobage Town): 21.67 million (at 2010-09-30, by 2Q report [pdf, J]) See… Continue reading Japanese Social Network Update With Quarterly Reports

Nikkei Reporting Facebook-Mixi “Alliance” Lets Mixi Stock Up 6%

Thursday evening we reported that Facebook released a new application to put your updates on Facebook into its local rival Mixi. 2 hours later, 9:15 p.m. 28th (Japan Time), Nikkei reported [J] the news with a title “US Facebook allied(Teikei, in Japanese) with Mixi, shares information on social sites”. Nikkei said that Facebook announced their… Continue reading Nikkei Reporting Facebook-Mixi “Alliance” Lets Mixi Stock Up 6%

Facebook Adds Mixi Connector For Japanese

Facebook has just released a new export tool to connect itself with Japanese competitor social networking service, Mixi. The tool on Facebook, named “Facebook to Mixi wo Rinku”(Link Facebook and Mixi), will take you to Mixi API’s approval page. Which asks the following permissions you allow to the Facebook connector to do on Mixi data,… Continue reading Facebook Adds Mixi Connector For Japanese

New Location-Based Service: Mixi Sees 2 Million “Check Ins” In First Month

Mixi, Japan’s Facebook, last month introduced a new function, “Check-In”. As the name suggests, Check-In works much like Facebook Places does: press the “Check In” button on Mixi Mobile (the site’s cell phone version) to broadcast your current location to let your friends know where you are or share info on certain points of interests… Continue reading New Location-Based Service: Mixi Sees 2 Million “Check Ins” In First Month