Japanese geek uber-blog Netafull now available in English

There is a huge interest in Japanese geek and otaku culture in the west and I feel it is even growing.

Now, one of the most influential and famous geek blogs of this country, Netafull, decided to establish an English version. In my "Top 50 blogs of Japan" ranking from January, Netafull secured an excellent 7th rank (of all blogs - not just Tech). When I accessed the Technorati Japan ranking today, Netafull was even ranked as No. 6 (I am aware that Technorati hitlists are not really reliable).

Netafull centers on various topics such as video games, gadgetry, Japanese web culture, computers, anime, movies etc. The person responsible is Masato Kogure-san.

The Japanese version of the blog is updated daily with LOTS of new posts. As of now, the English Netafull is somewhat "thinner" but there are several interesting articles online already.

Anyway, I think the blog is really cool and you should check it out.

Review: Japan's Web giant Rakuten

Rakuten is one of the biggest fish in the Japanese Web market. In fact the service is a giant even by global standards: Rakuten is the country's largest E-Commerce site (oh, that old word) and Japan is the world's second biggest economy. This alone says a lot.

The company is well known over here for offering the country's largest shopping mall site (Rakuten Ichiba).



I will review Rakuten in the following order:
I) General Info
II) Starting Page
III) Functions and Features
IV) Business Model
V) Opinion

I) General Info
Rakuten was founded by Hiroshi Mikitani in 1997 and went IPO three years later. Mikitani is still CEO. The Tokyo-based company employs almost 4,000 people.

Market capitalization stands at around six billion USD (!) and was even much higher some years ago. Rakuten yields an annual revenue of about two billion dollars.

Last month, the company announced it plans to enter as many as 27 international markets until 2012 (China, Taiwan, Brazil etc.). Rakuten USA is headquartered in Boston.

Here is their company info site in English.

II) Starting Page
As to be expected, the starting page is huge. There are dozens and dozens of sub pages/services which actually come close to being comprehensive sites/companies in themselves!

Please click on the picture for an enlarged and translated version of Rakuten's starting page:


The container on the top left I labeled "Main contents/Links" comprises the following tabs:
Auctions, Group purchases*, Mobile Rakuten, Present Finder, Market*, Rankings, Financial Services, Shopping Cart, Rakuten Travel, Portal*.

"Group purchases" means that prices will fall if more people buy a certain product. Under "Market", users can browse Rakuten through categories to find and buy products. "Portal" links to Rakuten's own search and information portal Infoseek (acquired in 2000).


III) Functions and Features
The company is highly diversified, both horizontally and vertically. Thus their site integrates a wide range of services.

Apart from the services described above on the starting page (financial services, a successful travel site (English version is here) etc.), Rakuten offers
- a flea market
- an online bookstore
- a download service for digital contents
- a ticket sales service and much more.

Rakuten is even involved in the Golf business!

Rakuten's online shopping concept is very user-friendly because of its unified shopping cart approach. This means users can put i.e. a BluRay disc, diet pills and shoes into one basket from different shops and pay in one sum.

All services are being offered under the "Rakuten" brand. So no wonder that some people even speak of an online shopping monopoly when talking about the company.

IV) Business Model
Rakuten's business model is quite simple: Make money through lots and lots of services covering lots and lots of industry sectors.

For example, approximately 60,000 shops are currently registered on the site (Rakuten Ichiba, Travel and business section combined) offering over 20 million different items. The company is earning revenue by charging fees from online mall operators, travel agencies, securities companies etc. (fixed fees/commission model).

Rakuten also offers a magazine, a special credit card, a comprehensive mobile site, and much more. Also, in the past years the company bought a professional baseball team, several financial/consulting/Web companies and a stake in a major Japanese TV network! In 2005 for example, Rakuten acquired LinkShare, an American Web marketing company, for 425 million USD. These guys are not throwing around peanuts.

V) Opinion
Rakuten is ridiculously huge, that's for sure. I can't think of an E-Commerce site with a similar scope in the US or Europe at least. But somehow the company manges to keep everything under one umbrella even though Rakuten and its CEO were regularly in the papers in the past due to a number of scandals.

From a customer's point of view, I personally like the unified shopping cart approach in Rakuten Ichiba even though I never bought anything there. But from I hear, shopping at Rakuten works without any problems. Given the highly critical and strict mentality of Japanese consumers, this is a must anyway.

Judging design, usability and structure, the site itself is OK given its enormous range of contents.

It will be very interesting to see how Rakuten will change and grow (or maybe collapse which is always possible) in the future. Especially their plans to internationalize rapidly sound really, really ambitious....

Review: Japan's No. 2 social network GREE

Mixi is the quasi-standard when it comes to social network usage in Japan (read more in my Mixi-review).

Japan's second largest social network is called GREE. There is no information in English available about GREE online. That means outside Japan almost no one knows about this Web site even though MILLIONS of people are using it (mobile and Web version). So I decided it is time for a write-up to present this service to Non-Japanese speakers.



I will review GREE in the following order:
I) General Info
II) Starting Page
III) Functions and Features
IV) Business Model
V) Opinion

I) General Info
Gree, Inc. currently employs 74 people in its HQ in Tokyo. The name GREE is derived from a sociological concept named "Six degrees of separation".

The company published a press release last month claiming they have over 3 million users now. Impressive, but still a far cry from Mixi's userbase of well over 12 million. Both services started operations in Japan at about the same time.

GREE's president Yoshikazu Tanaka is 30 years old and founded the company in 2004 (!). Before, he was responsible for operating Rakuten's auctions operations.

Click here for a detailed statistic on details how GREE clearly trails Mixi in the Japanese SN market.

II) Starting Page
GREE's top page is rather minimalistic as you can see from the JPEG below for which I translated key items:


III) Functions and Features
GREE is an invite-only service like Mixi.

In essence, GREE offers the following functions:
- blogs
- photo albums
- video uploads
- messaging system
- forums
- reviews
etc.

What's more interesting is GREE's mobile version. The service is called "au GREE" for KDDI's carrier "au". The company invested 31 million USD in July 2006 to develop a mobile version of the Web site. Softbank and DoCoMo customers know it as "GREE mobile". Mobile GREE is "integrated" into the Web version so that PC-only users are able to interact with handset-only users if necessary.

au GREE in particular proved to be a huge success. Its user base passed one million in July 2007 (information from the latest official press release related to this number).

What's the difference between the mobile and the Web version?
For example, - besides the usual features - au Gree users can send each other html-rich emails (called "decoration-mail"), play games based on flash and get their fortunes told. Click here for screenshots.

However, there is also a mobile version of Mixi which is even more successful. No Japanese Web company would dare to offer a PC-only service!

IV) Business Model
GREE makes money in the following ways:
- advertisements
- affiliate links to online shops
- premium accounts

A GREE premium account costs 315 Yen/month (2.80 USD/1.90 Euros). Premium users get 1 GB of storage for uploading videos and pictures and unlimited Email storage. Moreover, users can keep provisions if the products they reviewed are purchased after clicking an affiliate link.

V) Opinion
GREE can keep up with Mixi as far as basic features and functions are concerned.

The huge marketing pull with which Mixi managed to conquer the Japanese SN market is the decisive reason for GREE being a distant second.

Another reason is to be seen in GREE's design and usability approach. The Web site has a business-like, rather "cold" feel to it. Not exactly like LinkedIn or Xing obviously but Mixi somehow exudes more fun and looks more casual.

GREE doesn't do anything terribly wrong but suffers from the "The winner takes it all"-law pertinent to a lot of Web 2.0 services. That is why in my opinion it will be VERY hard for GREE to enjoy a Mixi-like success in Japan in the near future.

Review: 8 reasons why Yahoo rules Japan

My posting about the Top 50 web sites in Japan featured a winner: Yahoo Japan.

The company not only dominates Internet search in Japan (approx. 65% market share) but the Internet as a whole, offering a wide range of services. Corporate business figures are not too shabby either. From April to September this year for example, Yahoo Japan's profits equaled 29,27 billion Yen (254 million USD/178 million Euros)!



Here are 8 reasons for Yahoo Japan's success so far:

1) Head Start
Yahoo started Internet operations in Japan in 1996 when Google didn't even exist.

2) Tie-up with Japanese communications powerhouse Softbank
Yahoo Japan didn't just translate its service but localized it in cooperation with a strong Japanese joint venture partner (telecommunications giant Softbank). Actually, Softbank owns 41% of Yahoo Japan while Yahoo Inc. only owns 33% of shares. In my view, Yahoo Japan is in fact a very, very Japanese company...

3) Adoption to Japanese tastes
Yahoo Japan's top page is cluttered (see the screen shot below for a translated version). Google Japan's top page is as minimalistic as its non-Japanese versions which is a good thing in my view. But Yahoo's design is appealing to Japanese people. Users here are used to see a lot of links and text boxes on a top page. In a way, they expect it to be like that!

4) Wildly successful auction site
"Ebay? What's that?" would be the answer the average Japanese Joe would give if asked if they knew a company of that name. There is actually no Ebay Japan (here is why they failed 5 years ago). Yahoo's auction service is absolutely dominant in Japan and makes a LOT of money. There are over 15 million items on sale! They have a popular mobile version, too.

5) Comprehensive online service lineup
While more or less buried in the West, Yahoo Japan is living proof the "Internet portal idea" is very much alive, at least here in Japan. I personally regularly use Yahoo to look up the TV program, weather, news, train information and much more. See the picture below for a translation of the Yahoo Japan top page.

Picture: Top page Yahoo Japan (click to enlarge). This is the brushed-up version which is available after January 1st, 2008.


Let me break down the particularly important "CATEGORIES" column on the right (from top to bottom).

The first part is entitled "Yahoo!サービス" (Yahoo services) and covers 17 items:
Shopping, auctions, travel, news, weather, sports, map, traffic info, real estate, eating out, cars, BBS, blogging, beauty and dating.

The second part (お気に入り, meaning bookmarks) consists of five items:
Movies, music, games, astrology and videos.

The third part is named "ピックアップ" (Pick up) and currently features selected music only.

6) Investments in Japan
Yahoo Japan has a history of investing in the Japanese market signaling serious commitment to the domestic market. The company employs nearly 2.700 people in this country. Its HQ is located in Tokyo's poshest office complex, Roppongi Midtown in Tokyo.

Yahoo is also Japan's biggest broadband operator (Yahoo BB)!

7) Cooperations with Japanese companies
I already blogged about Yahoo Japan's plans to bring the web to HD-TVs (in cooperation with Sharp). The investment in Japanese web company GMO Internet (13.5 million USD two weeks ago) is a second and more recent example for Yahoo's integration in this country's economy.

8) Innovations
One recent example for a new service from Yahoo Japan is "Yahoo Videocast" which is not available in other countries. This subsite makes it possible for users to upload and watch videos from their mobile phones and on the web. Yahoo claims videos can be displayed on any handset. Not a huge thing but it shows they put some resources into fighting Youtube and Nico Nico Doga, at least here in Japan.

Moreover, Yahoo Japan and Ebay America are cooperating now so that Japanese people and Ebay users can trade internationally (background). This new service is called Sekaimon ("door to the world").

Did I forget anything?

Review: KakikoTV lets you modifiy videos and photos online

KakikoTV is the name of a relatively new service which has so far been exclusively marketed in Japan. I listened to the interesting presentation of the maker during the Web 2.0 Expo in Tokyo recently (my short article about the expo is here).

Essentially KakikoTV enables users to modify videos and photos online by integrating a range of visual and sound effects, comments or subtitles.

This is the official KakikoTV demo video (direct link).


There is no information in English about KakikoTV anywhere on the Internet so I decided it is time for a write-up from my side ;). Learn how to use and register for KakikoTV as a non-Japanese speaker in a separate post. Please notice I focus on modifying videos in this review (not pictures).

I will review KakikoTV in the following order:

I) General Info
II) Starting Page
III) Functions and Features
IV) Business Modell
V) Opinion


I) General Info
The site is a product of Eviry Inc. (this and most of the following links are in Japanese only) which was founded October 2006. The company is located in Tokyo.

KakikoTV is Eviry's main service and was introduced in March this year. The presentation at the Web 2.0 expo Tokyo promoted Intra Kakiko however, the company's new product which was released just last month. While KakikoTV is B2C, Intra Kakiko is aimed at the B2B market only. In this review, I focus on KakikoTV since this is more of interest to most of the readers of this blog.

II) Starting Page
Please click on the JPEG below in which I translated the main contents of the starting page into English.


The starting page is very clear and almost self-explanatory. The page's third row features a box in which users can type in a Youtube URL to get the video they want to modify. Alternatively, a search term can be entered. KakikoTV then accesses Youtube's data base and presents related videos in grid format (on their own site).

III) Functions and Features

There are a lot of options to modify videos via Kakiko. Please look at my tuturial for details.

This is the page where you can work on the video you chose:


Mainly, users can integrate sounds, pictures, icons, text and animations into videos. You can use the effects given by the site but also add your own!

Effects can be changed in size, appearance (i.e. angle) and color. Users are free to integrate these elements at any given time into any given Youtube video.

More on this in my tutorial on KakikoTV.

IV) Business Modell
There are no advertisements on the site. Also, there are no premium memberships. The company makes money solely with sales of its B2B solution Intra Kakiko.

Youtube could use a service like this and let users pay for it. I am sure that this would be an idea worth trying out.

V) Opinion
A comparison with Youtube's own editing feature "Remixer" (made by Adobe Premiere Expresss) is impossible since at the time of writing I couldn't get it to work on my PC. It is still in Youtube's "Test Tube" section anyway meaning it's not an official service yet.

Pros:
1)
The whole site is very clear in layout and style

2)
The service is easy to use

3)
No need to download and install software of any kind

4)
Clear focus on a selected service (modification and amplification of online videos and pictures)

5)
As a whole, KakikoTV "makes sense", is fun and a useful tool

Cons:
1)
An English version would be good

2)
More functions/effects are always welcome

I think two things about the Internet are true: Firstly, the game for videos is big already and will grow in the future. Secondly, uploading and viewing videos and pictures online for fun or professional purposes is here to stay. This means potential for services as KakikoTV or IntraKakiko is huge.

What I like best about KakikoTV is its usability. Japanese people love the Kantan-principle (kantan (簡単) means easy). And KakikoTV delivers in this respect. Everything is thought through from the users' point of view.

Make sure to read my 2nd posting about KakikoTV in which I analyze the functions and explain how to register (in English).

Overall: Well done!

Review: Japan's Youtube killer Nico Nico Douga

It's insane. It's very successful. It's very Japanese. It's a cooler video sharing site than Youtube. It's Nico Nico Douga (web site is Japanese only).

In my guest article for German blog zweinull.cc I briefly described the site in Deutsch (I am a German).

In this post, I will extensively review Nico Nico. Click here for my explanation of how to register for Non-Japanese speakers (this post is long enough).



I will review Nico Nico in the following order:

I) General Info
II) Starting Page
III) Functions and Features
IV) Business Modell
V) Opinion

I) General Info
Nico Nico Douga (ニコニコ動画) roughly means Smiling Videos. The site launched in January this year and since then turned into nothing but a huge success story. And no one knows about it outside Japan but that is what this blog is about, right?

Basically the site works like Youtube. People can upload, view, share and comment on videos of any kind. Basic membership is free.

The user base stands at approximately 3 million (data for October 2007, according to Niwango which is the company behind the site). There are almost 600,000 videos uploaded.

II) Starting Page
Please click at the JPEG below for an English description of the key elements of the starting page.


The whole site may look wild and crazy to Western eyes but lots of Japanese people (and me) love the design. Not long ago, Nico Nico even won the prestigious Good Design award (Japanese only).

In contrast to Youtube, you cannot even view videos without an account. That means you have to register to go further than the starting page.

III) Functions and Features
The biggest difference between Youtube and Nico Nico is the way users can communicate with each other. Youtube users usually write private messages to each other or share their opinions via the comment function just below the videos.

With Nico Nico however, people can actually communicate WITHIN the videos themselves! Users can write comments about a particular part of a video. The comments then "float" across the screen from right to left (easier for Japanese people to read) at a time users are free to choose. Now it happens that some videos feature hundreds of comments from hundreds of users overlaying the picture. Please see the video below for an example.


It may sound stupid but Nico Nico users particularly love this feature. It is the point of the service actually. As of November 22nd, almost 600 million comments were made (!).


Now, please click at the JPEG below for an English description of the overview page you see after logging in.

The main categories of videos can be found in two rows (the grey buttons). Categories marked with an "*" are explained separately.

1st row (left to right):
ALL MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT ANIME GAMES SURVEYS* RADIO* SPORTS POLITICS CHAT* SCIENCE HISTORY COOKING NATURE

In the "surveys" category, users can start video surveys. For example, users can ask the Nico Nico community which star they prefer in a 1on1 "duel". See the screen shot below for an example.


In the "radio" section, one can listen to and comment on radio programs recorded and shared by Nico Nico users! It sounds weird to have a function like that on a video site but people seem to like it.

Videos uploaded in the "chat" section give users the opportunity to communicate more easily. The videos here usually just serve as a background.

2nd row (left to right):
VLOG ME DANCING* ME SINGING* ME PLAYING AN INSTRUMENT* NICO NICO TIPS* PREMIUM USER AREA TAIWAN* MISCELLANEOUS TEST VIDEOS RESTRICTED-18* COMPANY VIDEOS*


In the "Me dancing/singing/playing an instrument" sections Nico Nico users can show how they can do just that. There is a lot of fun stuff to be found here.

In the "Nico Nico tips" section users can provide other users with hints on using the service.

For some strange reason Nico Nico is popular in Taiwan. This is the reason for setting up this special category.

The "Restricted 18" section is particularly interesting. Things get steamier here but there is no really "hard" stuff if you know what I mean.

The "company videos" category features commercial material. At the moment, especially music companies use Nico Nico to present the latest mucic clips from their artists.

IV) Business Modell
There are various ways Nico Nico makes money.

Firstly, there are advertisements on the site.

Secondly, Nico Nico aggressively promotes its premium accounts. The upgrade costs 525 Yen (4,85 USD/3,26 Euro) a month. Premium members get more bandwith, access to Nico Nico on their mobile phones, 2 GB more storage (4 GB total), additional comment colors etc. In October 2007, there were 86,000 premium account holders.

Thirdly, there is the Nico Nico market. Users can choose products from Amazon related to a certain video and put the corresponding links below it. Nico Nico gets the commission.

There are no advertisements embedded in the videos.

V) Opinion
Pros:
1)
Cool design (mangaesque characters, crazy appearance, I love that)

2)
Very good usability (good interface, clear selection of categories, simple navigation etc.)

3)
Videos load really fast

4)
No time restriction on the videos

5)
Very good selection of high quality, crazy and "exclusive" videos

6)
New and fresh concept (comments streaming over the screen leading to a new and direct way of communication between users)

Cons:
1)
Limitation of access at certain times for Non-premium members

2)
I want an English version really fast ;)

3)
Amount of videos still limited compared to Youtube

If Youtube is the king of quantity then (at least for me!) Nico Nico is king of quality and fun. Actually, one can't compare the sites. I wouldn't necessarily put family videos on Nico Nico. That's what Youtube is there for. Nico Nico is meant to be crazy and entertaining (for the most part). And I think they really achieve that goal.

Nico Nico is not worse or better than Youtube but -as I said above- certainly cooler.

Here is my explanation in English of how to register.

PS
There is a Taiwanese version of Nico Nico available already. Maybe there will be an English Nico Nico soon?

Review: Japan's Uber-social network MIXI

I think we can all agree Facebook and Myspace are the world's leading social networks. However, both sites play a negligible role here in Japan. Ususally only Japanese people having a lot of international friends are registered.

Over here, there is only one social network that matters: Mixi. Nothing else.

I could write novels about Mixi but I keep it short. I will review the site in the following order:

I) General Info
II) Starting Page
III) Functions and Features
IV) Business Model
V) Opinion

I) General Info
Mixi is by far Japan's biggest social network. It boasts the biggest user base and excellent corporate development. More than 10 million people (over 99% are Japanese, there is no international/English version) are currently registered. Japan has a population of 125 million.

Mixi is also the first Web 2.0 company in the world which did an IPO. In September 2006, the company managed to raise 1.9 billion USD on the Tokyo stock exchange. Mixi's founder Kenji Kasahara* became a billionaire at the tender age of 30. The company started operations in February 2004.

ALL of my Japanese friends and acquaintances use it ALL the time: In the university, in the office, in the train, in their free time. The mobile version is almost as often used as the "normal" one. Mixi's popularity in this country is really insane. The main target group consists of Japanese people aged 15 to 35.

A few days ago, Mixi officially announced it will take part in Google's "Open Social" system.

II) Starting Page
The starting page is as simplistic as it can get. Check out the screenshot below.


III) Functions and Features
The main functions are depicted in the screenshots below. This is how Mixi looks like directly after login. Please click on the shots to enlarge them, otherwise it could be hard to read my translation of main links in the top rows.



Let me briefly cover the functions:
1) Diary lets you access the latest blog entries from people in the community. Actually Mixi offers the most popular blogging platform in Japan!

2) Community in Mixi basically means forums. There are tens of thousands of discussion forums here: sports, relationships, politics, music, movies etc. A lot of Mixi members also use these forums to sell and buy stuff. So we have a bit of a Japanese Craigslist here as well ;).

3) Mixi allows its users to upload videos and photos. Naturally they can be tagged and commented on as well. Linking to Youtube is also possible.

4) In the music section, users can view the current the community's most popular songs and artists.

5) Mixi users can also review different products and services in a number of categories. For example, it is possible to post personal opionions on the newest CDs, restaurants, toys, movies etc.

6) The news section covers, well, news from all over the world and Japan itself. Like Google News, Mixi does not edit articles but uses outside sources (mainly Japanese newspapers). Unlike Google News however, the articles are integrated into Mixi. That means there are no outbound links and members can directly comment on news and easily integrate them into their Mixi blogs.

7) Mikly is Mixi's weekly Web magazine. Topics usually include music, news from the community, the latest events etc.

In the second row (see screenshot above) the major functions can be found again. There are some additional functions though.

1) Message means private messaging between Mixi users. Nothing special here.

2) The Favorites section lets users bookmark specific Mixi members or communities (=forums).

3) The ashi-ato function basically means tracking who accessed one's personal Mixi profile.

I could write on and on about these and more features on Mixi but for now this summary should be enough to give you a good picture.

IV) Business Model
As to be expected, Mixi makes approximately 80% of its money with advertisements.

However, there are more ways for the company to monetarize their site.

For example, in the "music" section, Mixi users can not only view the community's most popular titles but also buy them. Moreover, Mixi set up categories of its own (Hip Hop, Jazz, Rock, J-Pop) in this section of the site. Users then can decide which songs are the most popular in those categories and (of course) they can buy music here as well, i.e. via iTunes.

Mixi applies a similar approach in the "review" section. If a user reviews a random DVD for example, Mixi earns money from Amazon or other shops by using affiliate links. This is not really a new idea. However, there are tens of thousands of items reviewed so they must make a handsome amount of revenue with this method as well.

Mixi also offers premium accounts. For 315 Yen a month (2.75 USD/1.95 Euros) members can upload more videos, more photos etc.

V) Opinion
What is the big buzz about? To put it bluntly: There is absolutely nothing spectacular about Mixi. This may be one of the reasons the site is so successful. There are no shiny shiny functions anyone needs. I would say this social network is a very Japanese mix of MySpace's chaos and Facebook's lucidity.

Personally, I like Mixi a lot just because it offers great usability through a simplistic design. Also Japanese acquaintences and friends are usually all registered which makes it easy to keep track of them. I really hate having to log into MySpace and Facebook separately, meddling with features no one needs and going through ordeals with chaotic interfaces (MySpace is still terrible in that respect).

An interesting final fact to be mentioned is Mixi's "invite system". You cannot just register but must be invited by a Mixi member. This approach is very, very Japanese.

Thus Mixi sees to it that trolls, vandals and other annoying people cannot access the site without them having anyone to hold responsible. Neither a new nor spectacular idea but very welcome nonetheless.

*
In December 2007, CNN conducted a quite interesting interview with Kenji Kasahara (English language, 8.33 min.). Watch it here.

Review: Japan's biggest Social Shopping community Kakaku

This review features a web site that I myself use excessively and which every Japanese knows of: Kakaku.com (the whole site is Japanese only). Kakaku (価格) roughly means "price", so what may sound cool to Westerners sounds kind of bland to Japanese ears. It is one of the most famous shopping sites in the country.

Kakaku is nothing less but Japan's biggest web site for price comparison. However, it is not a mere directory -which would be useful enough, given the tremendous amount of items listed- but a social shopping site. And every product listed on Kakaku can be rated and discussed by registered users: Very useful!

I will briefly review the site in the following order:

I) Starting Page
II) Product search
III) Web 2.0/Community aspects
IV) Business Modell
V) Opinion


I) STARTING PAGE

The starting page is HUGE (typically Japanese). It is actually full of ads and looks like this (parts A-D):

Starting page (parts A+B):




Here you can find: A search box, different categories, new products, company news, rankings etc. Please notice my FF plug-in blocks some of the spaces used for ads (I didn't turn it off).

The categories feature every consumer product you can think of: Food, electronics, sports etc. However, restaurants, appartment buildings (mainly in Tokyo), funeral services (!), schools (!) etc. are included as well.

Starting page (part C):


In the community box, you can find featured discussion topics from Kakaku users as well as selected reviews.

The box on the bottom left features "news" from participating companies and shops. However, those companies (in a more subtle way) advertise their products here.

Kakaku research is a side product. The company uses its site to conduct surveys and compile reports about different product related topics. The newest research report for example centers on Japan's mobile market. 2,404 users contributed to the survey which lead to that report. The aim of this section is to find popular products and concepts in a certain field.

Campaign is actually another way of advertising. For example, if you subscribe to a mail magazine, chances are you receive a coupon from Amazon (through a sweepstakes).

Starting page (part D):

Kakaku.com magazine is a bimonthly online, well, magazine. Actually, it is just another way of advertising and then selling stuff. The value of the information given is not really high.

News from Akihabara is for the nerds. In the "Cosplay" section for example, users can inform themselves about how the girls at the Tokyo Game Show booths were dressed this year.


II) PRODUCT SEARCH
Now, if you click on one the first entry (music instruments/gakki: 楽器) in the "hobbies" -category (highlighted in starting page, part A above), you will see the following page:

Product search (part A):


Some of the latest comments in the section for musical instruments are displayed , along with some reviews. Kakaku itself adds news articles which fit the category here.

Product search (part B):


The discussion forums are particularly popular. The featured ranking on screen B is on electric pianos/denchi piano: 電子ピアノ. Kakaku does NOT decide which pianos appear on the ranking. Only the users do: Web 2.0, there you go.

After clicking on the No. 1 product (the Privia piano), the following page appears.

Product detail page (part A):


In part A, the diagram in the rating box features details of the product like design, usability etc. The maximum amount of stars users can distribute to each of these factors is 5.

Product detail page (part B):


The box highlighted in red in part B has the following contents: price in Yen, shipping fees, availability, shop ranking, shop name, location and date of entry/comments.

After clicking on the cheapest offer, you get to the "final" page where you can see user satisfaction on the corresponding shop (100% would buy again in this case) and other details.


Clicking on the red button brings you to the shop's page where you can finally buy the product.


III) WEB 2.0 / COMMUNITY ASPECT
Kakaku would lose much of its appeal without user contribution. Important community aspects on the site include:
- Users are welcome to write reviews on the site.
- Users can rate every product offered by Kakaku partner shops. It is also possible to rate other people's reviews.
- The shops themselves register their products to the site.
- Users can introduce themselves to the community with personal profiles. Reviewers can be subscribed to.
- Kakaku also offers a BBS for its users which is heavily used.

IV) BUSINESS MODEL
The business model is quite simple: ads, ads, ads and even more ads. They simply put ads mainly in banner form and "disguised" as news/information/campaigns ALL over the place!

There is not a single page on Kakaku without ads. However, they do not seem to be too annoying since they are partly product-related. And one maybe subconsciously expects a lot of this stuff on a product comparison site.

The company also runs a lot of side businesses!
For example, Kakaku offers a loan comparison service. That means not only do they offer price information but users can also apply for loans, credit cards etc. via the web site. You can actually search for the offer which fulfills your needs best. So Kakaku applies their principal method of price research for consumer products and more or less taps into Japan's multi billion dollar loan market. Smart move and they really mean it. The loan section is quite comprehensive and detailed.

They also collaborate with a travel web site, a movie portal and a hotel reservation site amongst others. Also, they are also engaged in real estate!

The business model alone would be worth 2 blog posts!

V) OPINION
In my opinion, Kakaku is not perfect but the site comes close. It is a very useful Web 2.0-product which just makes sense from a user's and business point of view. A great mash-up of shopping, social network, discussion forum and information.

What impresses me most is the site's usability even though there are hundreds of thousands of products listed in dozens of categories. No hassle, no frustration in finding the information you look for. I can accept the ad load for that.

PS
The site was heavily revamped (and improved!) just today, October 1st, 2007. By the way, in the top left you can see that Kakaku became 10 years old this year (Kakaku.com 10 歳).

Review: Japanese Fashion Social Network "Stylewalker"

As in many countries around the world, a lot of girls in this country are obsessed with shopping and particularly brand shopping ( I hope I am not being too sexist here). People in Japan especially love Italian and French brands like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Dolce and Gabbana and so forth.

In March this year, Square Enix (a large videogame company known for the hit RPG series "Final Fantasy) and Xavel Media Group partnered to form "Stylewalker Inc." (Japanese only). All companies are located in Tokyo and try to benefit from that Japanese "brand craziness".

Stylewalker is also the name of the joint venture's main product which is essentially a mashup of a social network, fashion portal and social commerce site.

The main target of Stylewalker are Japanese girls in their Twenties. Registration to the site is free. The company makes money in various ways I explain below.

The main site looks like this (for a larger view, please click):


The header is almost self-explanatory. It is as fixed as the left column (the links in that column lead to pages explaining the site).

Let me explain the links on the header from left to right:
I) Shopping
II) Doll Store
III) Style
IV) Group
V) Blog

I)
After clicking "Shopping" you get to the online shop segment of the site which looks like this:

The column on the right features different categories like Outerware (625 items), One-pieces (1135 items) and so forth.

Actually the items are sold directly on Stylewalker. That means they do not use any affiliate links. There is a shopping cart and a check out. This is one way they generate revenue.

II)
The "Doll Store" is quite a unique feature. On Stylewalker, users are able to create avatars which are called dolls. This sounds cuter and more appealing to Japanese women. Anyway, Square Enix programmed the avatar engine which must have been a piece of cake for them.

The dolls can be dressed in various ways and shown to other Stylewalker members for discussion. For dressing the avatars, members can use actual fashion items sold on the store so it becomes easier for them to decide what fits or not.

That is not free however.

Check the screenshot below:


On the right column, you can again choose items from various categories (just as in the Shopping section explained above). However, these are only virtual. The black dress on the left for example costs 320 stm. "stm" is the site's virtual currency. 10 stm cost 100 Yen (87 US cent) - you get 1000 stm free for registering. So here is the second way Stylewalker makes money.

III)
In the "Style" section pictured below), users can present their avatars. Again, the column on the right changes. Here, dolls are categorized into various styles like feminine (826 dolls), natural (1,112 dolls) and so forth.



If you click on an avatar, you can rate or comment on it in the next screen pictured below.


IV)
The "Group" section pictured below features various, well, groups in which users can discuss topics like manga, fashion (of course) etc. There is even a group for "Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie" (only 1 member is registered here though!).



V)
Blogging is huge in Japan. All kinds of people blog on all kinds of machines about all kinds of topics. Around the clock. Seriously, it is that big. So no wonder, there is a separate blog section on Stylewalker (see the pic below).


On the right column, you can see that diaries (3,481 postings) are most popular, followed by fashion.

A typical Stylewalker blog looks like this:



Opinion
All in all, I think the site is quite OK but nothing sensational. Design is too bland while usability is acceptable. To my knowledge, there is no site like this in the US or Europe. Especially the "doll idea" is unique for a site targeting grown ups. That feature reminds me of Mattel's enormously popular Barbie web site.

At least, we can see a sensible business model here. Stylewalker can make money with its shop and selling of virtual items. Moreover, it makes sense for fashion companies to advertise on this site as it easy for them to pinpoint their target group.

And companies do advertise their brands, products, events etc. (as you can see on the right column on the starting page). So here we have the third way the site can generate revenue. Here is the list of brands featured on Stylewalker. The site only features products from these companies!

Also, Xavel is running the hugely popular fashion portals Girlswalker and Fashionwalker amongst others (both sites are Japanese only). It is not hard to predict they will attract at least a portion of Stylewalker users to those sites and vice versa.

Business-wise Stylewalker is developed well but as indicated above, it might not be flashy enough to attract Japanese girls. Will dressing up avatars really help them evaluating if a certain piece of clothing fits them? Why not go directly to a shop (OK, not everyone lives in Tokyo)?

Success so far is so-so. Square Enix and Xavel announced they expect 50,000 users to register by the end of this year. There are no official numbers but judging from the current activity on the site this might be hard to achieve.