Japan

Gizmoz scores $6.5 million in Series B

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:59:55 -0400

Social expression and user-generated media service Gizmoz announced the completion of a $6.5 million Series B financing round led by DoCoMo Capital, with additional funding from ngi capital, Benchmark Capital and Columbia Capital. Gizmoz said the funding is earmarked to extend its expansion into the Asian market, beginning with Japan. The Gizmoz service enables consumers to create, customize, animate and share photorealistic 3D talking characters and videos for communication across social networking platforms--partners include AOL.

For more on the Gizmoz financing:
- read this release

SPOTLIGHT: Minor threat?

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 06:59:54 -0500

How Japan's proposed mobile content filtering legislation may derail social networking and off-deck services. Article

SPOTLIGHT: A novel idea

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 06:59:54 -0400

Inside Japan's 'keitai shosetsu' books-on-mobile phenomenon. Article

Napster Mobile goes live on KDDI

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 19:01:36 -0500

Digital music download service provider Napster Mobile announced a partnership with Japan's second largest mobile network operator KDDI. Napster Mobile will make available over-the-air full-track downloads and ringtones as well as personalized recommendations, exclusive content and chart information. In November 2006 Napster Mobile launched service via Japan's leading mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo; between the two operators, the service now reaches 60 million Japanese subscribers.

For more on the Napster/KDDI deal:
- read this release

Metric: Japan, Korea lead in multimedia phones

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 20:01:38 -0400

Mobile users in Japan and South Korea lead the world in the adoption of multimedia-capable phones, according to an ABI Research report. About 14 percent of phones in the Korean market today support Digital Mobile Broadcast TV, while 75 percent of phones in Japan and 52 percent of those in Korea are camera phones--some with auto zoom and more than 2 megapixels of resolution. The region is also taking a cutting-edge approach to innovative display screen technology.

For more on what's happening on Korean and Japanese mobile phones:
- read the ABI report

Japan's mobile music market slowing?

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 20:01:36 -0400

Full song music downloads via mobile was a shining star in Japan when KDDI launched the oft-quoted Chaku-Uta Full Service, but data from the Recording Industry of Japan shows the growth rate may be slowing. To be fair, the growth of both Internet and mobile downloads is slowing in the country and mobile is shouldering the majority of the growth. Whether this slowdown is a result of user apathy or a sign of a maturing market is still up for debate.

For full figures, stats and revenue overviews of the Japanese digital music market:
- check out the Billboard Magazine article

Related Articles:
Japan has more mobile Internet users that PC. Report
DoCoMo teams with Microsoft for mobile music. Report

Japanese m-content sector doubles

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 20:01:36 -0400

A report from Japanese business site Tech On claims that Japan's mobile industry has grown to €4.9 billion over the past year, a 39 percent increase. The report claims the increase was mostly because of mobile content sales, which rose by 21 percent to hit €2.1 billion. Sales of ringtones accounted for €1.91 billion while the mobile-gaming industry in the country has more than doubled in the past few years to reach a value of €4 million.

For more on Japan's mobile-content growth:
- take a look at this article from mobileindustry.biz

Report: Japan, US to lead mobile TV

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 20:01:35 -0400

According to a recent report from Juniper Research, Japan will generate $2.9 billion of the predicted $11.7 billion worldwide mobile TV market in 2010, while the U.S. will pull in a hefty $1.8 billion from mobile TV. Juniper says the U.K. will be the next biggest mobile TV market with a predicted $989 million in revenue in 2010.

For more on Juniper's mobile TV report:
- see this article from VNUnet

Japan: More mobile Internet users than PC

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 20:01:39 -0400

According to a recent government report, Japan claims it had 69.2 million people accessing the Internet from mobile devices compared to 66 million conventional PC users in 2005. An estimated 48.6 million used both a mobile device and a PC to access the Internet, which puts the country's Internet population at 85.3 million users, or two-thirds of Japan's population. While the report didn't break out different mobile content sectors, the total mobile Internet commerce market reached $6.3 billion last year, with a large proportion of that coming from wallpapers and ringtones. Last year was also the first year that sales of conventional goods sold from mobile Internet sites exceeded sales of mobile content.

The report's findings seem to counter claims Japan's Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son made last week: "Users are not satisfied with the small, limited content of current DoCoMo, i-mode or au EZweb services... I want to bring the broad world of the Internet, with Yahoo as the center, to the mobile world." While a move to a more comprehensive Internet experience is sure to come to the mobile platform, it seems Japan's users have adapted to it in its present form quite well.

For more on Japan's mobile Internet usage:
- check out this article from Digital World Tokyo

ALSO NOTED: Bacardi launches mobile content; Motorola studies impact of 3G; and much more...

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 12:34:56 -0400

> Bacardi is set to launch an online and mobile radio station in May that it will fund entirely. Release

> Motorola commissioned a study on the global use of 3G. Teenagers use their mobiles to access community services in Japan and Sweden, but it also found Japanese grandparents who keep two 3G phones--one for themselves and the other for recording and sharing pictures and videos of their grandchildren. Release

> Disney plans to make much of its newest and most popular programming on ABC and other channels free on the Web. Article (Wall Street Journal sub. req.)

> Blue Coat unveils SG series and AV series Web filtering for mobile operators looking to prevent minors from accessing adult content. Release

> Player X inks a deal with Zone Mobile to distribute mobile clips from its Reality TV channel. Release

And Finally... An x-ray telescope 30 years in the making is nearing completion. What took so long? It's modeled after the eyes of a lobster and can take in sweeping 180 degree panoramic views of space. Article