| May 18, 2011

Japan, the Twitter nation

According to Twitter’s official blog (blog.twitter.com), when the clock stuck midnight last New Year’s Eve, Japanese Twitter users went crazy, recording 6,939 tweets per second—a new record at the time. In fact, globally 14 percent of all tweets are in Japanese—second only to English, ...

| Apr 20, 2011

In the battle with smart phones is i-mode dead?

Ever since 1999, when the Web-service/portal known as “i-mode” first appeared on Japanese keitai (cell phones), Japan has been hailed as the world leader in mobile phone technology — until recently that is. For those of you who may not know, i-mode is the ...

| Jan 19, 2011

Japanese Web outlook and predictions for 2011

Last year saw many changes for Japanese Internet users as people began to shift from Japanese social networks to international ones, and from regular cellphones to smart phones. The international influence was felt in other web-based areas too. So what can we expect for ...

| Dec 15, 2010

Social gaming frenzy sees two Godzillas play rough

On Dec. 8, the Tokyo-based Internet company DeNA received an on-site investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) due to suspected unfair trade practices. DeNA had allegedly interfered with their third-party game providers’ development of games for DeNA’s competitor, Gree. DeNA is listed ...