Report: Tokyo Venture Beat Networking Event

I was invited to take part in the so-called "Venture Beat Monthly Networking" party in Harajuku/Tokyo on this past Wednesday. The event is organized by a couple of influential IT organizations such as CNET Japan or IBM Japan. Hisashi "Sam" Katsuya from the latter company hosted the event. By the way, IBM employs over 25,000 people in Japan!

Although the entrance fee was a whopping 6,000 Yen, I was positively surprised by the high "quality" of the party. So this was my first but certainly not last time attending it.

I found the following points very interesting:
- the venue was filled with "high-profile" people such as CEOs, presidents
- as expected, I haven't met any people with "just" a technical background (some of the company big men were engineers though)
- the atmosphere was very relaxed, casual and inviting
- Japanese entrepreneurship in the IT sector is very much alive
- it was very easy to network so the party does deserve its name

From a foreigner's perpective, I found it remarkable that I was joined only by two more of my kind during the event.

Below you can find some pictures I made during the party. You can find the "official" blog article on the report written in Japanese here (and I am mentioned in it ;)).

Pictures: Venture Beat Networking Event March 2008

Japanese company releases new tool for use in Second Life

I personally believe the basic concept behind the idea of Second Life (the existence of "virtual worlds" in 3D populated by avatars) will be here to stay in the web world forever.

In Japan, people took a liking to Second Life particularly after Linden Lab decided to translate the site into Japanese last year. In November, major TV network Nihon TV broadcasted the world's first show recorded in the virtual world (as reported). And the show is still on.

Japanese company offers Second Life services
There are quite a few companies which exist only because there is Second Life. MagSL (Magazine Second Life) for example is a Tokyo-based provider for various services related to Second Life. The company offers auction tools, construction, advertising and other services tailored for that virtual world.

Since late February, MagSL added an ASP solution to analyze behavior of avatars in 3D environment to their product range. In the corresponding press release, the company says it distinguishes user behavior on 2D web pages from the way people act in 3D worlds. According to MagSL, this difference justifies specialized behavior analysis software. Well, that makes sense.

MagSL is (naturally) marketing their new product as a pure B2B solution. Companies represented in Second Life can use the software to find out how avatars in Second Life react to their Marketing efforts, i. e. to promoting events.

I think more and more software focused on "virtual worlds" on the web will be released in the future. And interestingly, Japanese companies in particular seem to be pioneering this field.

Sony is soon offering "Playstation Home" for their Playstation 3 video game system while Japanese web powerhouse Transcosmos views its self-developed virtual world "meet-me" as a potential Second Life-Killer.

Mixi goes berserk

Japan's biggest social network and blogging platform Mixi (boasting a user network of over 13 million people, my review) caused a huge stir some days ago when it announced a shocking move. The company of the same name plans to take away all content to be found on its website from its users. Who is the beneficiary? Mixi itself!

Effective April 1st, Mixi members will have to comply with completely revamped Terms of Use.

In detail, the measure includes the following consequences:
- there is no compensation for users in any form
- the measure will be implemented with retrospective effect, meaning all content generated by users before April 1st, 2008 will also become property of Mixi (!)
- Mixi takes full control of all contents (the users lose all rights)
- the measure involves content such as blog articles, comments, BBS postings and even private messages sent within the Mixi system (!)
- not only textual content is affected, but also pictures and images
- all contents can be modified, distributed, sold and translated by Mixi

In addition, members remain legally responsible for any content generated on the platform!

Outcry in the Japanese public
This audacious move is probably unparalleled in the web world anywhere and demonstrates totalitarian tendencies. As Mixi is not only Japan's biggest SN but also a wildly popular blog platform, it is no exaggeration to say it became almost a part of life of many Japanese people. Consequently, Mixi aims at exploiting a huge treasure trove full of content!

Japanese bloggers and media have identified one major motive for Mixi's announcement which is -of course- money. As Mixi is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the company is obviously under pressure to improve financial numbers, the level of monetization and growth. This also explains Mixi's recent decision to expand into China which will most likely fail (as did Cyworld's try to tap the European market from Korea this week).

As a reaction to the flood of complaints, Mixi already announced it considers revising the original plan to change the Terms of Use. If they push through their announcement, I will delete my account even though I am not really a hard user of the service.

In the light of this, Facebook's botched Beacon initiative is dwarfed in terms of arrogance. One can only hope that no other social network will have the guts to treat member data, sensitive information and user-generated content in such a ludicrous manner.

Note:
This posting is a modified version of a guest article I wrote for German web industry blog zweinull. You can read my article here.