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.

Remote controller for PC operation and Chinese character input

Typing in Japanese can be a real pain. Whereas using the Roman alphabet to type on a keyboard is a relatively direct and easy issue, typing in Japanese usually involves a lot of converting (i.e. from the Japanese alphabet Hiragana to the Chinese characters called Kanji). Also, there sometimes are multiple Kanji to choose from which is nothing but an additional hassle.

So anything which makes it easier to enter Japanese characters on a PC should be highly welcomed. That is why I decided to blog about a device a friend of mine pointed me to.

New type of remote controller for PCs
The パソコンのリモコン (pasokon no rimokon/PC remote controller) is offered by a company called Tokyo Ergo Corp. and was already introduced at the CEATEC exhibition last year in Chiba. Although I was there, I didn't see the product.

Picture: PC remote controller


Tokyo Ergo says the device makes it possible to use a PC with one hand and claims it can fully substitute both a keyboard and a mouse (I haven't tried it yet)! The remote controller is connected to a PC with a 2 meter cable (USB) and weighs 70 grams.

While mouse movements can be mimicked by just moving the button located on the top of the device, input of Japanese characters is a little trickier. To convert words written in the Roman alphabet or Hiragana to Kanji, it is necessary to observe the screen where a special control switch is displayed. The character which is to be typed in can then be chosen from by moving the button on the screen's control panel (which is possible in 6 different directions).

While this sounds very cumbersome, Tokyo Ergo claims 1.5 Japanese characters can be written per second this way, given the user practiced a bit with the system!

I am not sure if the world needs this piece of hardware but it might be a cool gimmick for some hardcore geeks. The company says its product can be used on a private basis (i.e. for operating a PC while lying down), by handicapped/injurered persons, during business presentations or by sales clerks who don't have to sit down to operate a PC for demonstrating products to customers.

The device is steeply priced at 13,650 Yen (128 USD/85 Euro) and is available through the company's online shop.

IT/Web events in Tokyo: ICA Japan New Year Party & UltraSuperTube v2

I had the pleasure of attending two IT/Web industry-related events in Tokyo on Wednesday.

1) UltraSuperTube Vol. 2
The UltraSuperTube Vol. 2 party was well attended. It was organized by Tokyo-based interactive agency UltraSuperNew.

The company also celebrated its first anniversay (Congratulations, Mike!) on this occasion. I went to the venue (SuperDeluxe in Azabu) at about 11 pm and saw/listened to Vanilla Ice's infamous "Ice Ice Baby" video (amongst others) which was streamed on multiple big screens from Youtube.

The whole event basically centered on the idea of throwing a party for people from the IT, art and media world in Tokyo using Internet videos as a background. The audience was well mixed (gaijin and Japanese).

I thought it was cool but had to leave pretty early. Attendance was free.

2) ICA Japan New Year's Party
The ICA Japan (International Computer Association) party was REALLY packed. The ICA Japan is considered to be one of the most important technology and business-related organizations in Japan.

I can confirm this, judging from the many people I had the pleasure of speaking with. The overwhelming majority of attendees had a business background: IT company owners, Marketing managers, Business development managers, consultants, sales people etc. etc. So the party was particularly interesting for me.

Unfortunately, Japanese people were a little underrepresented in my opinion. It is beyond my understanding why a Japanese IT/Web company would not send someone to attend a party of that scope and importance. The party was an excellent platform to expand a company's network, get new ideas and speak with competitors and potential clients. The same goes for any gaijin-run company from the technology sector.

At the very least, you get to converse with high-profile people, enjoy good food and a bit of entertainment. Many gaijin spoke Japanese very well so that the language barrier shouldn't be considered a problem.

Attendance cost 6,500 Yen. I really liked the venue (Club 57 in Roppongi).

New article at Asiajin (I became editor)

I am happy to announce today that I am new editor at Asiajin (here is my former post about this amibitious blog project in English).

Asiajin's mission is basically the same as Tokyotronic's: To expose the power of the Japanese IT industry to the world. In my view, genuine IT and web services from this country are ridiculously underrepresented in the West. This means less business opportunities for Japanese companies and less chances for an exchange of innovative ideas, thoughts and concepts among IT professionals.

Both Asiajin and Tokyotronic would like to work against this development. Asiajin's scope is broader since it is planned to integrate news from other Asian nations as well. I will keep up the work here at Tokyotronic by the way.

In my first posting as Asiajin editor I analyze an original Japanese web product: The Japanese blog search engine and blog analyzer kizasi.

Kanji-Fandom converts your name into Chinese characters

Did you ever wonder how your name is spelled in Chinese characters (called Kanji)? Writing it in Katakana (the Japanese alphabet) was yesterday. Now you can "Kanji it" very easily with Kanji-Fandom (website is completely in English).

This nifty and fun new web site (very minimalistic/Google-like) was just released and is still in beta. One of my readers pointed me to this service.


Just type in your name in the text box and the system automatically retrieves multiple Kanji characters which are connected to your gaijin name;).

For the default name "Michael Jordan" the result page looks like that:


You can choose from a list of Kanji and compose your own combination. The Kanji name can then be altered in various ways, commented on, rated etc.

For "Michael Jordan", the automatic recommendation looks like this:


It also explained what the Kanji means. In Jordan's case: Dance, Kick, Length and Group. Aptly named indeed ;).

Company Info
Kanji-Fandom is offered by B3United, a Tokyo based web company actually specialized in mobile solutions. For example, they provide the search engine for Chaku-Uta. Chaku-Uta is the wildly successful music download service from KDDI (Japan's No.2 mobile phone carrier serving over 25 million customers!).

Japan's Top 50 web sites

I recently wondered which the most frequently visited web sites in Japan are. There are a number of services which track popularity of Internet services, i. e. Alexa, Nielsen or Comscore.

I am aware that measuring the popularity of web sites is a highly complicated issue and the results are not reliable to say the least. It is not even clear what popularity means: visits, page views, time spent on a particular site or...? Moreover, there is no agreement on a uniform tracking methodology yet. But this discussion is too technical here.

Alexa is said to be more accurate in territories in which English is the first language. For that reason, I chose Nielsen/Netrating Japan's ranking in the following list. The company released this information in July this year (Japanese only). The Top 50 is based on the time surfers from Japan spend on the site.

To compare and to some extent cross-check the data with more recent information, you can see the rank of the corresponding web site in the Alexa in brackets (accessed yesterday Japanese time). Alexa's traffic measurement method is a combination of page views and visits.

So here are the Top 50 of Japan's most popular web sites:

1. yahoo.co.jp (Alexa ranking: 1, my review)

2. mixi.jp (4, social network: my review)

3. rakuten.co.jp (5, online mall with English site, my review)

4. youtube.com (-)

5. fc2.com (2, online services)

6. 2ch.net (12, online forum)

7. goo.ne.jp (9, search/portal)

8. wikipedia.org (-)

9. biglobe.ne.jp (18, search/portal)

10. infoseek.co.jp (10, search/portal)

11. nifty.com (14, search/portal)

12. google.co.jp (3)

13. amazon.co.jp (11)

14. etrade.ne.jp (-, finance services)

15. msn.com (msn.co.jp is 48th)

16. nicovideo.jp (6, video sharing: my review)

17. jra.go.jp (-, horse racing with English site)

18. geocities.jp (63)

19. sakura.ne.jp (15, Internet provider)

20. qweb.ne.jp (-, currently inaccessible)

21. gyao.jp (49, video site)

22. so-net.ne.jp (40, search/portal)

23. livedoor.jp (-, online services)

24. hangame.co.jp (32, gaming, my review at Asiajin)

25. benesse.ne.jp (-, service corporation with English site)

26. ocn.ne.jp (25, search/portal)

27. google.com (-)

28. microsoft.com (-)

29. teacup.com (42, online services)

30. 2chan.net (-, aka Futaba, Internet Forum)

31. daiwa.co.jp (-, securities brokerage)

32. kakaku.com (44, social shopping/price comparison: my review)

33. ameblo.jp (16, blogging services)

34. fm-p.jp (53, home page maker)

35. livedoor.com (7, online services)

36. cgiboy.com (39, online/graphics services)

37. macromill.com (-, research company)

38. excite.co.jp (35)

39. dion.ne.jp (41, now auone.jp, mobile phone company)

40. ecnavi.jp (-, shopping portal)

41. kabu.co.jp (-, finance services)

42. yomiuri.co.jp (62, online newspaper with English site)

43. home.ne.jp (66, currently inaccessible)

44. monex.co.jp (-, online bank with English site)

45. exblog.jp (33, blogging services)

46. asahi.com (77, online newspaper with English site)

47. jal.co.jp (-, airline)

48. matsui.co.jp (-, securities brokerage with English site)

49. xmbs.jp (19, currently inaccessible)

50. nikkei.co.jp (57, online business newspaper with English site)


It is obvious that the Alexa ranking can't really match with the Nielsen results due to different tracking approaches and times of my accessing the information. It is striking that some popular sites in the Nielsen ranking, i. e. Youtube (!), don't appear in the Alexa hit list at all. However, Alexa says dell.com is 8th but the Dell address is missing in Nielsen's list.

The Top 50 should at least be a good estimate of the most popular web sites in Japan nevertheless!

Technical trouble in my "Japan's IT industry vs the world" posting: My apologies

I am very sorry to hear that some of my readers had trouble with my posting "Japan's IT industry vs the world".

Apparently Blogger messed up some links and formatting within the posting. I apologize for the inconvenience. After publishing the posting I checked it as usual and it was fine.

Sorry for the trouble. Please check out the posting again. Everything should be in order now.

Japan's IT industry vs the world

I regularly speak with a lot of Japanese IT experts and insiders personally: software developers, programmers, IT company owners, web designers, bloggers etc.

Regardless of the size of the companies they are working for (some are self-employed) I am constantly impressed about their openness when they talk to me. Usually, they have very critical views on the Japanese IT (software) industry as a whole.

The bottom line is usually this:
From a global perspective, Japan's software industry is weaker than it has to be. For example, there is no web service coming from Japan which people worldwide use.

Basically I agree with this diagnosis. Especially the second statement is true.

You could probably multiple dissertations about this topic. However, a couple of very interesting articles about the current status quo of the Japanese IT industry I stumbled upon sum up major critical points I have heard over the last months.

I believe these articles are worth a read for my Japanese readership as well. The emphasis lies on the factor that counts the most: the professionals working in the IT industry.

1) Newsweek (December 10, 2007 issue)
"Why Apple Isn’t Japanese" is the title of an article in a recent issue of Newsweek International edition. Worth a read although the author puts emphasis on the hardware side.

Essentially the author argues that Japan is falling behind in the global technology race because of out-dated corporate administration systems, lack of innovation, political incompetence and a disconnect of universities and the industry.

He cites Docomo's failure to globally launch its proprietary mobile Internet technology i-mode as an example.

2) JapanInc (Spring 2007 issue)
James Mok, a graduate of Stanford University, is writing an interesting piece on why the Japanese enterprise IT sector can be regarded as relatively weak in his eyes: "My struggle at the Frontline of Japanese Enterprise IT".

Mok's main question:
"Why have Japan’s strengths and its competitiveness in manufacturing not been extended to the Enterprise IT industry?"

His analysis is very deep and deserves special attention because of his working in this very industry in Japan himself.

3) JapanInc (November/December 2007 issue)
In his second article for JapanInc, James Mok asks "How the Japanese IT Industry Destroys Talent".

This is a huge problem for Japan's IT industry. Mok cites a Nikkei Computer survey according to which 70% of all IT people in this country think negatively about their working conditions.

Again, Mok delivers a thought-provoking analysis of the industry and points out why in the current situation even the most skilled Japanese IT engineers can't fully put their potential to good use.

4) Various articles written in Japanese
A reader of my blog (an IT industry insider) pointed me to a couple of articles written by Japanese IT engineers working in this country (sorry, Japanese only).

In these articles/survey results (1,2) and blog postings (1,2) which are (relatively) new some harsh criticism comes to light. The blog postings and surveys are partly connected and refer to each other content-wise.

The surveys reveal that (web) software developers are getting significantly lower salaries than other professional categories. They also have lower chances of getting into highly-paid positions.

One of the bloggers begins his article by writing "日本のIT業界は救いようがない。: Nihon no IT gyoukai wa sukui you ga nai." which translates to "The Japanese IT industry cannot be saved." However, the writer stresses he specifically refers to the system integrator industry (system integrators or "SIer" as an abbreviation in Japanese-English).

Multi-layered topic

Indeed, there is not only ONE software industry but many layers and sub sectors existing within that field. The situation in Japan's game industry is vastly different from the one producing enterprise software, for example.

And there is a high number of talented and powerful programmers in Japan as well of course. For example, the programming language Ruby (on which Ruby on Rails is based) was invented in Japan by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto.

Moreover, some star entrepreneurs do exist in Japan, most notably the members of the 76ers generation (nanaroku sedai: ナナロク世代). All of them are born in or around 1976. These IT-savvy turned company owners include "celebrities" like
- Kasahara Kenji (31, billionaire and President of Japan's No. 1 SNS Mixi)
- Naito Yuki (29, President of web service company Drecom)
- Tanaka Yoshikazu (30, President of SNS GREE)
- Kondo Junya (31, President of web service company and geek heaven Hatena)
and a few others.

As said above, I could write on and on about this very complicated topic. Please keep in mind within the scope of this posting I can only provide my readers with a very rough (and surely incomplete) overview of selected mega trends in the Japanese IT industry.

New blog "Asiajin" launched - definitely recommended reading

Japan is the second biggest economy in the world, has a population of 128 million and can be proud of its vibrant and innovative Internet market.

However, there is not even a handful of blogs in English covering the Japanese Internet scene.

Just a couple of days before I set up Tokyotronic, Blognation Japan started with my friend Robert Sanzalone as editor. Also, there is Chris Salzberg who together with Hanako Tokita takes care of the "Japan section" at Global Voices, regularly covering the VERY active blogosphere in this country. Robert Cawte's NextWeb Japan and venture capitalist Shin Fukushige's from the inside, looking in are other recommended blogs.

New blog "Asiajin"
However now, Asiajin joined the mission of bringing the latest developments on the Japanese Internet to the public. Asiajin means "Asian people" in Japanese. This blog actually follows a broader approach by covering Asia as a whole and not only Japan - a very good idea!

Asiajin is run by Japanese star programmers Shunichi Arai of Mellowtone (his impressive CV in English can be found here) and Akky Akimoto who is active over at Cyboze. Information on Akky (in English) can be found here. More editors are expected to join in the near future.

Although the blog is officially launched today there is a lot of information to be found already. So please make sure to check it out.

Japan develops software against pirated movies

We all know how it works: Somebody smuggles a video camera into a movie theater, tapes it off the screen and uploads it on a torrent site, Emule, Winny (a Japanese P2P system) or wherever and anybody can download the file later.

In my opinion, Japanese people tend to refrain from illegal downloading. That doesn't mean it isn't happening but I feel the problem is bigger in the US and Europe.

Yesterday, Japanese TV network and relentless innovator NHK and Mitsubishi Electric presented a new system to prevent distribution of counterfeit video material over the Internet. The companies hope their jointly developed watermark technology will enable movie producers to trace illegal copies of their products on the Internet.

If someone copies moving pictures, the camera will tape watermarks embedded in the source material at the same time. Those signals are invisible to the human eye but allow copyright holders to identify their stolen works online by using specially designed software.

NHK and Mitsubishi said stolen material can even be traced even if a part of an image is put on the web! Moreover the system makes it even possible to trace at which cinema and at which time the illegal copy was made. Not bad!

This is not the first time some company claims it has the ultimate weapon to combat online piracy.

However, especially NHK is a power not to be underestimated. NHK is not only Japan's public TV station but also a pioneer in broadcasting technology.

For example, NHK is currently developing "Super-Hi-Vision" which is supposed to succeed HD-TV in 2025. The Super-Hi-Vision format with a resolution of 7,680 × 4,320 pixels is four times as wide and four times as high (!) as HD-TV...

So one can expect this new technology to work in one way or the other.

The latest Japanese Internet news and business briefs

Some noteworty (business) news from the Japanese Internet scene in the last days:

1)
The Japanese equivalent to NASDAQ, the JASDAQ opened its NEO market last week. Click here for the English press release (PDF).

NEO is aimed at start-ups featuring cutting-edge technology only. JASDAQ also accepts companies operating at a loss if they think the technology behind them is appropriate.

Ubiquitous Corp., a maker of communications software for Nintendo's wildly successful portable game system DS (amongst others), is the first company listed on NEO. Their shares soared from 100,000 Yen to 400,000 Yen on the first day!

2)
Skype collaborates with Excite Japan (website is Japanese only). Yes, Excite is very much alive over here!

Skype has 5 million users in Japan and is apparently not happy with that number. By this cobranding deal, the company said on Tuesday this week it hopes to double the number of customers.

Skype worked with Japanese web heavyweight Livedoor (Japanese only) and chose Excite as their next Japanese partner because of their impressive user base of 24 million (!).

3)
Disney will launch cell phone services in Japan beginning spring 2008. Although Japan has its own anime and manga culture, Disney is VERY popular over here. The company will lease telecommunications networks from Softbank Mobile which is the No. 3 in the Japanese cell phone market.

Moreover, Disney said it wants to design their own handsets based on their popular characters. Also, Disney cartoons will be available for download exclusively for subscribers. The company seems to be bullish about Japan: It hopes to attract 1 million subscribers!

3G cell phones are standard in Japan but not in the US. This reason was cited by Disney when the company gave up similar plans in their home country in September this year.

Japanese online game market grows rapidly

I just stumbled upon a fairly interesting article from Japanese news agency Kyodo.

As an Ex-Videogame-Otaku (I still love Sega, Konami and Capcom) I found it pretty interesting.

Maybe you agree. The article from last month is very short and not really deep but a quick read.

As Japan is the No. 1 country in the world as far as producing high quality game content is concerned, there should be lots of chances for Japanese online game companies to make money by internationalizing fast.

Hmmm, maybe I can help some of those companies since I both love games and have a deep knowledge of the gaming culture and business.

Get the LebWeb3 admission code I won at Blognation Japan's Web 2.0 party

Just yesterday I blogged about Blognation Japan's launch party to be held in Tokyo after the Web 2.0 Expo's 2nd and final day.

And I won the big prize: An admission code for Europe's biggest Web exhibition, the LeWeb3 which takes place in Paris, France on December 11 and 12, 2007! Value: 1,000 USD! That's quite cool, isn't it?

Here is your chance: I cannot make it to Paris although I would really, really like to. So grab the code for a mere 500 USD. Just write me an email: serkantoto (at) gmail com.

The party itself was great fun. I got to know lots of interesting people, for example Naotori-san who is CEO of brandnew Japanese web start-up 7ns.

Naotori-san won the Mash-Up award from Sun Microsystems Japan (both links are Japanese only) a couple of weeks ago. Check out his cool and useful application here. The service (designed and programmed by him alone!) is also available in English!

The party lasted 4 hours (although only 2 hours were planned) and Robert did a great job hosting it although he had to entertain approximately 25 people ;).

Web 2.0 Expo in Tokyo: My opinion

Today, I took part in the Web 2.0 Expo in Shibuya, Tokyo (other locations include San Francisco and Berlin).

Well, what can I say. It was full but not awfully good.

Pros:
- the event is well organized
- the food is good ;)
- the people attending the Expo were really nice

Cons:
- not enough exhibitors
- no spectacular news (maybe that would be asking too much)
- VERY low level of internationalization

Especially the last point made me a little angry. I can read Japanese so it is not really my problem. But I think it is just disrespectful not to give any kind of information in English to visitors. No English guide books, no English texts on the booth displays, almost no staff capable of giving information to foreigners.

That means people coming from Europe and the US go to Tokyo and the exhibition part of the Expo is totally useless for them. The conferences/speeches etc. were translated of course.

Another thing:
Some of the presentations - especially from companies from abroad - were serious catastrophies. It is not my intention to nag here but I was really puzzled how companies can throw out money out of the window like that. People were standing at the podium and speaking English with heavy accents about products nobody understood due to poor presentation skills.

That was a shame, really, because some of the products who were marketed that way are really good.

Also, tomorrow I will attend the official Launch Party of Blognation Japan. I will report if I won a prize tomorrow ;).

Usage of Mobile TV in Japan on the rise

Nowadays, it is quite hard to get a cell phone in Japan without a TV tuner built in. The first phones able to make use of the Japan-only "1seg"-system (broadcasting of digital audio and video signals) came out as early as 2005 (!).

Yesterday, Sharp -the king of the ring concerning TV displays- announced sales of cell phones equipped with its TV systems topped the 5 million mark since they were introduced in May this year! The JEITA (Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association) said the total number of phones with a TV function built in totaled 13,2 million units until August this year.

Quality issues
Now, I have to say the quality of the 1seg-system is just great: The video is crystal clear and the audio is of superb quality, too. This means the Japanese really have a technological edge here. By the way, Sharp also announced they will produce TV cell phones with a thickness of just 1,8 cm, making the hardware even cooler (they reduced thickness by 5 millimeters).

However, there is one big problem: As of now, watching TV on a Japanese cell phone (even if it is digital and all that) is crap. Can you do it in a train? No. Can you do it in the metro? No. Can you do it in a car? No. Can you do it in a building? It depends (!). That is right, sometimes watching TV in a normal house is just impossible because there is no signal....

But I am sure Japanese companies will solve these problems someday. And: It is free to use for us consumers.

In the future, mobile TV could also be linked to mobile Internet meaning lots of opportunities for new applications, advertising models, marketing approaches, etc. etc.

Japan airs world's first show recorded in Second Life

It is 1.30 AM in Japan now and I stayed awake to witness the world's first TV show recorded in Second Life. Second Life is available in Japanese since summer and since that time registration from users from over here increased significantly.

I personally don't like the idea of being represented by ugly avatars and living in virtual worlds (including clubbing/dancing - now that's particularly stupid in my opinion).

Anyway, the show is not officially from Linden Lab and titled デジタルの根性 (Dejitaru no Konjou: Digital Spirit). It is made by Nihon TV (web site is Japanese only). Nihon TV is a major network based here in Tokyo.

The show runs 30 minutes and for a person who is as indifferent as me, it is of no value, really. This is the show's official home page (Japanese only).

Three Japanese celebrities are the hosts for the show - represented by avatars of course. They are talking about future events taking place in Second Life and promoting some movies the TV station produced. Some trash-talking and comedy is also thrown in.

Check out the screenshots taken below (I apologize for the size and poor quality):

Yahoo makes a lot of money in Japan

Yesterday, Yahoo Japan (Japanese only) released a press release basically stating that earnings in this country skyrocketed from April to September 2007.

According to Yahoo, sales went up 17,2 percent to 117,74 billion yen (compared to the same time frame in 2006). That is 1 billion USD (720 million Euros)! Sales from advertising alone soared 27 percent to 54 billion Yen (473 million USD/332 million Euros)

Yahoo said that compared to the same time frame last year their net profit rose 9,2 percent to 29,27 billion Yen (254 million USD/178 million Euros).

Read a little more about Yahoo Japan in this post (please scroll down).

Web 2.0 Expo in Tokyo takes place next month

I just sent out my registration for the Web 2.0 Expo in Tokyo (other locations include San Francisco and Berlin).

The organizers expect no less than 4,000 attendees for the event which takes place on November 15th/16th in Shibuya. This district in Tokyo is also known as the "Japanese Silicon Valley" since a lot of IT firms and Web companies are located there. Speakers include people like Tim O'Reilly and Joichi Ito.

I am sure the Expo will be super-interesting. Expect a full coverage on Tokyotronic from the perspective of a future web entrepreneur ;)!

Techcrunch Japan author's opinion on CEATEC 2007

As blogged earlier, I met some authors from the Techcrunch empire at this year's CEATEC, Asia's biggest exhibition for IT and electronics.

If you know Japanese, please read Japanese Web 2.0 guru Umihiko Namekawa's san opinion about the show and our get-together with John Biggs from Techcrunch (another article is here).

Amongst others, Namekawa-san is an editor for Techcrunch Japan. Both of his blogs (Japanese only) are excellent.

Techcrunch, myself and the CEATEC

I went to CEATEC yesterday, Asia's biggest exhibition for IT and electronics.

Hmm, what should I say: It was cool, but not really that exciting. Sony's OLED TV was the biggest sensation: 2,88 mm (MILLIMETERS) thin. But the prototype is very small and reminded me of a car navigation system screen. I am sure Sony will make something of this in the future though.

The aftermath
After the exhibition closed, I was invited by John Biggs to a reception at a near-by hotel. John is writing for the almighty Techcrunch imperium (he is also editor-in-chief for CrunchGear).

We were joined by Umihiko Namekawa, the Japanese Web 2.0 guru. Namekawa-san is a blogger, author and also responsible for Techcrunch Japan. I also met Tadashi-san, senior editor at Gihyo, a publishing company (web, software, technology etc.).

We all went to Tokyo City after the reception and had fun in Quentin Tarantino's favorite Japanese bar. For a picture and details, go to CrunchGear.