By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
Major Japanese publisher Kadokawa and Nico Nico Douga operator Dwango are deepening a business alliance they entered in October 2010. The two companies have announced a capital alliance under which Kadokawa acquired 16,800 shares (8.48%) of Dwango for US$37.1 million. At the same time, Dwango...
GREE has announced it invested in video and social game maker HAND, which has developed a number of games published by major companies in Japan in recent years. Games developed include various Kingdom Hearts titles for the DS (published by Square Enix)or Puyo Puyo 7 for Wii and PSP (published by...
Rakuten proper released their official Android app just last month, and now the company has announced that Rakuten Bank, Japan’s biggest e-bank, gets an Android application as well. Rakuten Bank customers can view their bank account information, track their balance, and send money to other...
Online restaurant service operator Gourmet Navigator has launched a marketing company that helps promote farm products in Japan, The Nikkei is reporting today. The plan is to work together with growers, local governments and others to organize events, advertise and market produce. Gourmet Navigator...
He kind of announced it four weeks ago, and now Rakuten president Hiroshi Mikitani has confirmed his company will enter the UK and Germany by the end of this year. Details are scarce at this point, but Mikitani did say he is looking at possible acquisitions as well as joint ventures in these (and...
Digital Garage, Twitter’s business partner in Japan (among others), has announced it will help LinkedIn enter the Japanese market. Details are scarce at this point (see below), but the partnership was actually announced four years ago. In fact, LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman has been a member of...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry