By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry
In my opinion, a lot of Japanese startups fail on a global level because most of those that try aren’t serious enough about going global. And why should they be, at least initially? Japan has 100 million web/mobile users with high purchasing power, world-class technical infrastructure...
Here is the link to a column I wrote on augmented reality for the journal for the American Chamber Of Commerce in Japan. Excerpt: In the 1990s, computer-generated worlds in which people could completely immerse themselves were believed to be the next big thing in technology. But the concept of...
There have been various attempts at establishing a business social networking service in Japan in the past years, but none of these have taken off. In September 2007, LinkedIn inked a deal with Tokyo-based web company Digital Garage to bring the service to Japan, but that never happened (LinkedIn...
Currently, it’s 1.5 million people: ;. Facebook translated its UI into Japanese in 2008. For Facebook, Japan is one of the few remaining white spaces on the world map, next to South Korea, Russia, and China (where it’s blocked). By way of comparison: Japan’s homegrown social...
Inception and general approach: You can broadly say that Facebook first copied Friendster (the CEO openly admits this) before going over to Facebook on a regular basis (apps, share function, like function, LBS, real-time elements, feed system, Mixi Connect etc.). Mixi today is Japan’s only...
Rakuten has finally launched its online mall in China. After having inked a partnership with Google’s China, Baidu, “Lekutian” went live online in China today: Rakuten, Japan’s biggest e-commerce company ($10 billion market cap), and Chinese search leader Baidu have today opened a...
By Dr. Serkan Toto – On Japan's Game Industry