Yahoo! Japan to Open Silicon Valley Branch

The Jpaan’s largest web company Yahoo! Japan announced [J] that it is to have a new oversea branch in Silicon Valley “to research the cutting edge technologies”. The release does not tell much details, except that it will send three staffs from its Data & Science solution department.

Japanese Restaurant Review Service Tabelog Opens English/New York Version

Popular restaurant review site Tabelog by Kakaku.com launched English site for New York City on March 28. US version tabelog has en accent mark on ‘e’, under .us domain. Its design is totally different and in Western-way design. We’re incredibly excited to announce the official launch of the Tabélog New York website! The new site… Continue reading Japanese Restaurant Review Service Tabelog Opens English/New York Version

What’s So Exciting? Amazon’s Seattle Delivery-To-Locker Experiment At Convenience Store

Geekwire has been reporting (1, 2) US Amazon’s locker experiment in Seven-Eleven in Seattle, USA. With the locker, US Amazon customers will be able to receive their items not at home but at store. I noticed that this news may be big as many other popular English blogs referred it. For me it is interesting… Continue reading What’s So Exciting? Amazon’s Seattle Delivery-To-Locker Experiment At Convenience Store

Cyber Agent Establishes Overseas Smartphone Marketing Division

Cyber Agent has announced that it will establish an “Overseas Smartphone Marketing Division,” a specialized station for assistance in the undertaking of overseas marketing for smartphone, aimed particularly at America. “Overseas Smartphone Marketing Division” is geared towards offering smartphone promotion of their Japanese business into the overseas market. Cyber Agent’s operations include starting the overseas… Continue reading Cyber Agent Establishes Overseas Smartphone Marketing Division

Hatsune Miku’s L.A. Performance To Be Sold On Blu-ray/DVD/CD

MIKUNOPOLIS in LOS ANGELES “Nice To Meet You, I’m Hatsune Miku” [Blu-ray] [J] Sega [J] is releasing a Blu-ray/DVD as well as a Live CD of “MIKUNOPOLIS in LOS ANGELES `Nice To Meet You, I’m Hatsune Miku,`” in which Hatsuon Miku makes her first overseas performance held on July 2nd, 2011 at Nokia Theater in… Continue reading Hatsune Miku’s L.A. Performance To Be Sold On Blu-ray/DVD/CD

Luna Luna – Mobile Menstruation Care Site, 2.7% Of Japanese Women Pay, Now Goes U.S.

In Japan, paying for contents on cellphone web is so common. That supports unbelievable profit on social gaming networks Gree and Mobage-Town. Over 2% of population purchase weather forecast on cellphone with 105 yen or more, which I recently wrote for The Japan Times, is also a good example. There is another successful, interesting cellphone… Continue reading Luna Luna – Mobile Menstruation Care Site, 2.7% Of Japanese Women Pay, Now Goes U.S.

President Thrown Shoes Ads by Alibaba China

China’s largest e-commerce company Alibaba.com seems to have a good sense of humour and doing viral marketing there in the secret Chinese web. Chinese film creator Hu Ge(胡戈) makes a parody movie of the former US president Bush’s dodging thrown shoes at a press conference in Iraq. In the movie the president was less patient… Continue reading President Thrown Shoes Ads by Alibaba China

Flipnote Hatena Strikes Back To USA, Plus Europe Assisted By Nintendo Fame

Hatena, known by a million geekiest loyal users and the most popular social bookmarks service in Japanese [J], announced that their joint project with console game giant Nintendo “Flipnote Hatena” launches in North America on 12th, in Europe on 14th August (both in local time). Flipnote Hatena is a CGM service on where users draw… Continue reading Flipnote Hatena Strikes Back To USA, Plus Europe Assisted By Nintendo Fame

jsmap – US States selection library

New Javascript library jsmap is released on cognitom.com , which enables a new way of choosing regions from diagram map. Its Japan version seems welcomed favorably by Japanese web developers, as the Japan’s prefecture selection is always an usability headache. There are Japanese websites provides region selection by drilling down by links, usually implemented on… Continue reading jsmap – US States selection library

Mobage goes to the US

January 18th, Tokyo – DeNA, a company which runs Mobage town, will establish a subsidiary in the states. “DeNA Global,Inc.” will be located in California, supposedly San Francisco Bayarea. They will launch a US version of their very profitable mobile business there. Also they revised upward their net profit forecast from 4.5 billion to 6.3… Continue reading Mobage goes to the US