I attended this month’s Mobile Monday Tokyo event, which took place in a bar in Akasaka. Two presentations were given and both were focused on the venture capital industry in Japan. Aki Ohashi, partner at venture capital firm NGI, explained how to get financial support from companies like...
Google Japan Wants To Beat Yahoo Japan Via Search On Cell Phones
Google Japan is only the No. 2 in Japan’s lucrative search market, trailing the country’s biggest website, Yahoo Japan. But it now wants to win in Japan through boosting its mobile search: Google may be the leader in the worldwide search engine market, but in Nippon, it has some...
What Can Explain Yahoo Japan’s Dominance?
Why is Yahoo Japan dominant? It’s not only beating Google Japan in search, but as a portal, it’s the country’s biggest online destination: Yahoo’s stake in Yahoo Japan is often cited as one of its most valuable assets, and indeed Yahoo is considering selling it as a quick fix to...
This month’s Venture Beat event
Yesterday, this month’s Venture Beat Networking Party took place, this time in a new venue near Roppongi. As always, the invitation-only event, backed by CNET Japan, was attended by a number (over 50) of high-profile CEOs, VCs, Tech journalists…and me. For example, I was fortunate to...
Why Japan’s Mobile Web Is Unique In The World
Galapagos: Japan’s mobile web has always been different than in the rest of the world. This primer tries to explain why: Over one billion cell phones have been sold worldwide in the last year, but in the US or Europe, the mobile Internet is still catching on relatively slowly. There even was...
Facebook Japan: Why They Haven’t Beaten Mixi So Far
Facebook Japan has a hard time winning against the country’s No. 1 social network, Mixi, so far. But why? Sized at an estimated $5.6 billion in 2007, Japan boasts one of the biggest online advertising markets in the world – a huge potential just waiting to be tapped by foreign social networks...