Smartphone app CocoPPa takes a custom approach to overseas sales
Although very few smartphone apps made in Japan have managed to take the world by storm, one that has is CocoPPa. Made by Japanese company United, Inc., the app allows users to customize the design of not only their smartphone wallpaper but also the ...
Well-bitten consumers shy of Japan's disappearing e-books
Although it has now been surpassed by the United States, Japan was once the world's largest market for e-books, thanks to the early success of the cellphone-content business. But in today's competitive market, e-book sellers disappear every few months, leaving consumers to wonder whether ...
Hack your way into a computerized cocktail
While some bars have live music to bring in customers, newly opened Hackers Bar in Tokyo's Roppongi district holds live computer coding events to bring in the programmers. The bar's owner and founder, Akihiro Nakao, is an entrepreneur who had dabbled in programming since he ...
Apps take new lead from social games
On Japanese TV, you may notice that a lot of commercials for smartphone social games emphasize the word muryō (free). Consumers have been purchasing digital content on their phones for years, even since the clam-shell cellphone days. Now, more and more Japanese people are ...
