Thanks for coming: The Tokyo TechCrunch meetup was awesome

I know I am a tad late (cough, cough) but better late than never: Many thanks again from my side and in the name of Peter Ha for coming to the TechCrunch/CrunchGear Tokyo meetup on February 3 (Japanese version of the meetup notes is here).

Thanks also to Umihiko Namekawa and Nob Takahashi from TechCrunch Japan for being of great help during the meetup (TechCrunch Japan wasn't directly involved in the event though).

The "casual event" turned out to be much bigger than expected with over 100 guests coming in on very, very short notice. Sorry that not everyone could get on the guest list. I will try my bestest to make sure that in the future, we announce events like this earlier!

Here are some pictures (Flickr'd, I didn't have time to take pics or eat!).

10 things I learnt and saw during this year's TechCrunch50 conference

Yesterday, I came back to Tokyo from the TechCrunch50 conference that took place in San Francisco.



Here are 10 things I found particularly interesting about the event (in no particular order):

1)
The three days of the conference began with a professional singer who sang the Star-Spangled Banner. Speak about culture shocks!

2)
At the afterparty (held by Seesmic) of the last day, Michael Arrington stood in line for 10 minutes in the cold to enter the venue. And Michael is a) the organizer of TC50 and b) an investor in Seesmic.

3)
This was a highly international event with Israel and Japan being particularly strong. But Europe was VERY weak this year. I think my home country of Germany (Europe's biggest Internet market) was represented by one company only (Plista).

4)
TechCrunch has a reputation of being sometimes too "commercial" but gave dozens and dozens of students 149 USD-tickets for the whole conference (which I think is awesome).

5)
The selection of the winner of the conference, Yammer, was heavily criticized by the blogosphere. I liked FitBit best.

6)
90% of people in the American web industry don't have the slightest clue of how to pitch a blogger (about the same in Japan, I would say). Learn it here, here and here, for example. A very simple Google search will get you hundreds of similar results.

7)
I always thought launching a web service in the course of a conference is a somewhat ambiguous thing: Too many companies trying to attract attention, too much "noise" in the background (panels, speeches, networking etc.) and not enough time to bring the idea across. But TechCrunch50 changed my mind (I would try it elsewhere if I couldn't make it to TC50).

8)
I had the chance to chat with MC Hammer. Kevin Rose from Digg told me he loves reading Asiajin.

9)
While browsing through all companies that made it as TC50 finalists and to the DemoPit, I found a big number of participants that were too lazy/disrespectful/stupid to provide TechCrunch readers and CrunchBase with information about their companies and products. Here is an example of what I mean. This is beyond my understanding (this company gets it).

10)
The quality of some companies taking part in the DemoPit was really, really HIGH. Some of them should have made it as finalists in my view. IAMNEWS has a terrible name but is (as the DemoPit winner) only one of many examples.

I am currently at TechCrunch50 in San Francisco

I am at TechCrunch50 in San Francisco now, the web industry conference/contest organized by mega Tech blog TechCrunch - which I happen to write for ;). Today (Wednesday) is the last day of the conference.



TechCrunch50 is much better than I expected actually: A positive vibe, perfectly organized (OK, the Internet connection was an issue but is solved now), tons of VIPs, VCs, "technical people", entrepreneurs etc. etc.

Please check out my Twitter, my articles on Asiajin and of course TechCrunch (my articles only) itself for more of my personal impressions of the conference, especially on the three Japanese companies presenting here: Opentrace, Tonchidot and Gazopa.

Here are some photos from TechCrunch50 (partly courtesy of TechCrunch and Satomi Ichimura, a US-based writer for Nikkei and other Tech publications):

My 3rd Techcrunch article+USA trip to TC 50

My 3rd article on Techcrunch is now online, this time I blogged Mixi. The Japanese version can be found here on Techcrunch Japan, the French version on Techcrunch France. A blogger published an unofficial Chinese translation.

Although the company is worth $1 billion, almost no one outside Japan knows about it (my earlier reports). I am hoping the coverage on Techcrunch will improve that situation to some extent.



The Washington Post also put it up.

Please digg the article here - only if you like it, obviously ;).

On a (slightly) similar note, I will be attending the Techcrunch 50 conference in San Francisco this year. The event takes place from September 8-10 (tickets are still available here). Please contact me in case you would like to meet up for some Japanese Tech talk ;).

As always, please make sure to also follow my articles on Crunchgear (on Japanese technology, gadgets and subculture) and - last not least Asiajin - (on the Japanese web industry).

Thank you for your support!

I just met with MobileCrunch boss Greg Kumparak

My colleague Greg Kumparak is in Japan for a few weeks and -of course- I had to meet him here in Tokyo, which I did today (on very short notice!).



Greg is the editor-in chief of MobileCrunch, a relatively new -yet very successful- blog belonging to the Techcrunch network. MobileCrunch covers everything related to mobile devices: hardware, phones, gadgets, business-related news, rates and prices, rumors, technology, you name it.

Gotta say he is a cool guy (typical Californian) and pretty good in playing Half-Life 2 as well ;). This is Greg:

My second article on Techcrunch (TC USA and Japan)

Following the story about Quillpill (a microblogging tool for writers and readers of fiction), my second article on Techcrunch is online now. The Japanese translation of the second TC article is here.



Topic: Nico Nico Douga, Japan's answer to Youtube!

Please remember to take a look at my CrunchGear articles as well ;).

My first article on Techcrunch is online!

You can read my first article on Techcrunch here.



The Japanese version (on Techcrunch Japan) can be read here.

Please sphere, digg and bookmark it by the thousands ;).

Techcrunch 50 competition: Call for Japanese web companies

My friend Umihiko Namekawa from Techcrunch Japan just posted an article in his blog about the upcoming Techcrunch 50 competition (organized by Techcrunch USA and to be held in September in San Francisco).



Following the abscence of Japanese web companies in last year's Techcrunch 40 event, potential participants from this country are encouraged to take part this year.

The time schedule is pretty tight but professional support will be provided by the organizers.

More information (in Japanese) can be found here on the official site.