Tag | japanese
Augmented Reality App Sekai Camera Goes Multi-Platform. Adds API And Social Gaming.
Tokyo-based Tonchidot has come a long way since the spectacular launch of its augmented reality app Sekai Camera at TechCrunch50 back in 2008. We’ve spent quite a few articles on how the startup did since then, and the bottom line is that it did very well so far. Tonchidot is now offering up a lot more versions and features for its app (available for free on the iPhone with iOS4 support, iPad , and Android ). Here’s a quick rundown of what happened in the past few months and what more we can expect from Sekai Camera in the future. To recap, Sekai Camera makes it possible to create text messages, photos, and audio recordings (dubbed air tags) and “drop” them on the spot in the form of floating bubbles and icons. Other users in the vicinity who open the app and spin the camera around can then click on and interact with those geo-tagged virtual Post-It notes. Sekai Camera is essentially a flashy-looking, location-based, augmented reality-powered social network. Sekai Camera so far Tonchidot’s presentation at TechCrunch 50 in 2008 has since become legend, but at that time, the performance left some people skeptical about the product itself (on stage, Sekai Camera was mainly presented in the form of a video). But Tonchidot CEO Iguchi proved all skeptics wrong by presenting an early version working on an iPhone in February 2009. Sekai Camera eventually became available in the Japanese App Store in September 2009, spreading like wildfire among Japanese iPhone users, before it launched globally in December last year . In the same month, Tonchidot raised a $4 million series A and was nominated as “Best Mobile App” at the Crunchies Awards 2009 , to name just a few things that happened last year. Sekai Camera in 2010 and beyond: API, iPad and Android versions, iPhone update, Sekai Apps Tonchidot currently seems to be in overdrive mode. In March this year, Tonchidot introduced OpenAir , a Sekai Camera API that makes it possible for third parties to deliver content within Sekai Camera. Here’s a list that shows the first batch of content providers (these are Japanese companies only, but the API is available worldwide). According to Tonchidot, Sekai Camera now boasts well over one million users worldwide, and the number is poised to grow soon. In May, Sekai Camera for the iPad came out (yes, augmented reality on the camera-less iPad/screenshot below). The iPad-optimized app (obviously) can’t deliver the full experience but allows you to “visit” cities around the world and view and create air tags that other iPad and iPhone users can interact with. And just a few days ago, Tonchidot released Sekai Camera on the Android Market (screenshot below) That version offers a couple of Android-exclusive features and is available in 47 different countries. ISO 1 , an Android smartbook made by Sharp for the Japanese market , just went on sale and comes with Sekai Camera pre-installed. But Sekai Camera version 2.4.1 for iPhone is probably the most relevant for most existing users. The update, which hit the App Store just today, comes with iOS4 support and push notification. But perhaps most importantly, it features the first game that works within the Sekai Camera ecosystem. Tonchidot says that the title, a casual game called “KA-BOOM” (screenshots below), is just the first in a series of “Sekai Apps” that will be launched in the near future. The basic idea is to roll out games that combine mobile, location, augmented reality and social elements within Sekai Camera. Augmented reality-based gaming is something that has the potential to become huge and that no other company has ventured into on this scale. Tonchidot calls this concept “SoLAR” gaming and has already signed on a number of Japanese gaming firms that will deliver more content in the coming weeks. And Tonchidot is cooking up even more stuff. For example, CEO Iguchi told me that Sekai Camera will go to the web soon (users will be able to see air tags and connect Sekai Camera to other social networks through a web service) a new funding round will likely be announced in the coming weeks Tonchidot is thinking about opening offices in the US and Singapore (the company is currently searching for good candidates) We’ll keep you posted. CrunchBase Information Tonchidot Information provided by CrunchBase CrunchBase Information Takahito Iguchi Information provided by CrunchBase
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Augmented Reality App Sekai Camera Goes Multi-Platform. Adds API And Social Gaming.
Chinese Online Game Developer The9 Invests In OpenFeint Maker Aurora Feint
The9 , a Chinese online game developer, has made an undisclosed minority equity investment in Aurora Feint , the company behind OpenFeint , a social gaming network for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad . The news comes a couple of months after The9 announced that it had acquired a majority interest in US-based Red 5 Studios for a total of approx. $20 million . Aurora Feint had previously raised a multimillion-dollar round of funding from DeNA , the largest Japanese operator of mobile social networks and virtual goods platforms. Burlingame, CA-based Aurora Feint develops mobile games and operates OpenFeint, a mobile social platform and application for smartphones that includes a set of online game services such as leaderboards and achievements running in a cloud-based Web environment. OpenFeint’s developer SDK is a toolkit that can be integrated into any iPhone based game. OpenFeint also recently announced OpenFeint X , a virtual goods management system that enables developers to build free-to-play social games for mobile phones. The company claims over 28 million active users and 2,200 games, which it says makes OpenFeint the standard for social gaming on Apple devices. The9 Chairman and CEO commented on the acquisition, “We are confident of the prospect for this mobile platform and believe it will play an important role in the future development of global mobile internet. The investment in Aurora Feint is an important step of The9′s establishment of a mobile gaming platform and is also an integral part of our global strategy.” CrunchBase Information Aurora Feint The9 Information provided by CrunchBase
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Chinese Online Game Developer The9 Invests In OpenFeint Maker Aurora Feint
Forex trends: yen advances on drop in most European and Asian …
Forex trends : yen advances on drop in most European and Asian equities. In early European session Wednesday, the Japanese unit gained across the board on drop in most Asian and European stocks as global economic concern promoted …
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Forex trends: yen advances on drop in most European and Asian …
New Quick Charger For Electric Cars Is Really Quick
One of the biggest hurdles on the road to make electric vehicles attractive for the mass market is the long time it usually takes to charge batteries. But a Japanese company called JFE Engineering now claims it has found a solution for that problem. According to JFE, even so-called “quick battery chargers” often take 30 minutes to charge a car’s battery to 80% of its capacity. Read more…
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New Quick Charger For Electric Cars Is Really Quick
The Top 10 Swatch Watches
In honor of the passing of Nicolas Hayek , CEO of the Swatch Group, we decided to wax a little nostalgic about his most breathtaking – and lucrative – product: the Swatch watch. Swatch was the brainchild of Elmar Mock and Jacques Müller, two engineers who were attempting to make the thinnest wristwatch in the world. Instead, they created a simple plastic quartz watch with a movement that contained only about sixty pieces instead of the 100 plus found in Japanese quartz movements at the time. Hayek saw this as an excellent opportunity to create a “throwaway” watch that could be worn for a season and then swapped with another model. Artists and designers bedecked the watches in odd patterns and the company brought the nascent Swatch Group, formed by Hayek in the early 1980s, to the forefront of Swiss watch manufacturing. At $20 or so, these watches were amazingly cheap and many collectors bought two at a time, one to wear and one to keep hidden away. The watches married high tech with high design and, given their fashion-forward nature, are the precursors to many of the design decisions made today by CE manufacturers. The iPod as an object of desire couldn’t have existed without the Swatch paving the way for inexpensive but highly designed objects to woo the consumer into regular upgrades. Here are ten of our favorite Swatch innovations: Read more…
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The Top 10 Swatch Watches
Rakuten Buys PriceMinister, Enters The European E-Commerce Market With A $250M Bang
Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten this morning announced that it is buying France’s e-commerce website operator PriceMinister for about €200 million (roughly $250 million), reports the Wall Street Journal . The news comes less than a month after word got out that Rakuten moved to acquire US-based Buy.com for about the same price.
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Rakuten Buys PriceMinister, Enters The European E-Commerce Market With A $250M Bang
Confirmed: Zynga Raises $150 Million More From Softbank
News broke yesterday evening that social gaming giant Zynga has raised $150 million from Japanese firm Softbank Capital, bringing the company’s total funding up to a whopping $366 million. We’ve confirmed the funding from sources close to Zynga. The investment from Asia will likely pave the way for Zynga’s expansion into the Japanese market. Zynga already has interests in the Asian market. The company just bought Chinese gaming company XPD Media and opened up an office in Beijing. And earlier this year, Zynga set up shop in Bangalore, India. According to a report by VentureBeat in April, this latest investment is likely part of a larger partnership with Softbank in Japan. The social gaming market in Asia has potential both in terms of a massive user base and talent. But as Zynga expands its footprint to these areas, the company will also encounter a number of worthy competitors in the region, including Japan’s DeNa group and China’s Tencent and Shanda. Last fall, Zynga raised $180 million in funding from DST and others. More recently, the company’s valuation was estimated around $4 billion. CrunchBase Information Zynga Information provided by CrunchBase
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Confirmed: Zynga Raises $150 Million More From Softbank
Infinity Ventures Summit In Sapporo: 11 Demos From Japanese Startups (GeeksOnAPlane Final Stop)
Just a handful of the 30+ Geeks On A Plane (GOAP) who started their Asian field trip in Shanghai , and then moved on to Beijing , Seoul , and Singapore , made it to Japan , the final stop of the tour. The highlight of the Japan leg was the Infinity Ventures Summit (IVS) in Sapporo [this and many of the following links are in Japanese], a two-day, invitation-only event that takes place twice a year. Organized by VC firm Infinity Venture Partners , the IVS attracted over 400 people from the domestic web industry and a number of international attendees this time. The agenda was filled with panel discussions and presentations on the hot topic in Japan’s web industry today, social gaming. The other current hot topic, the launch of the iPad in this country late last month, was reflected in the launchpad, which gave a total of 11 Japanese startups the chance to demo their products. In the end, V-Sido For Smartphones , a piece of real-time control system software for humanoid robots, won the title of best demo. But here are short profiles of all the 11 products that were shown on-stage. (Please note some of the companies have yet to launch homepages in English.) The winner and runners-up of the IVS launchpad V-Sido For Smartphones by Wataru Yoshizaki Best of show went to robot fanatic Wataru Yoshizaki who already made it to second at the last IVS launchpad . V-Sido For Smartphones is a real-time control system for humanoids that turns smartphones into multi-touch remote controls for those robots. For example, if the user draws the shape of a star on the phone’s screen, the humanoid in question does the same in the real world (and in real-time). Move your fingers faster, and the robot will move its arms faster, too. Yamazaki said his future plans include developing a solution of life-sized robots and commercializing V-Sido by year-end. Skip to 3.08 in this (Japanese) clip for a short demo: AQUSH by Exchange Corporation (first runner-up) Much like Zopa in the UK, AQUSH is a peer-to-peer lending service that connects people with extra money with those who want to borrow money. Launched in December last year, the site allows lenders to set their desired investment amount and interest rates from 4% to 15% for 5 classes of borrower credit risk, as denoted by AQUSH itself. Loan applicants are screened by AQUSH based on their credit histories, financial situation and FICO scores. AQUSH says borrowers borrow at 11.6% on average (6.5% cheaper than traditional lenders), while lenders can expect a return on investment of 7.8% on loans (compared to 3 year time deposits that pay 0.15%). The goal is to unlock some of the more than $7 trillion of retail cash and bank deposits by offering individual investors access to the $300 billion Japanese consumer loan market. iogous by Fringe81 (second runner-up) iogous is a patent-pending display ad optimization solution. The tool breaks down each display ad into six components: main visual (for example, a picture), catch phrase, logo, “action button” (for example, “Click here”), format, and background color. iougous can then create thousands of “optimized” banner ads by combining these elements (see some examples in the image below). Fringe81, the startup behind the service, claims customers can expect up to 80% increase in CTR when compared to using traditional, static banner ads (more info in English here ). PartyGames by KLab (third runner-up) PartyGames is a series of multi-player games developed for the iPad and iPhone. The main idea is to use an iPad as the main screen and then have a group of players use their iPhones as individual game screens, for example to play poker in the real world (the devices are linked via Bluetooth). KLab has so far brought PartyPoker to the Japanese AppStore . “PartyCoupleMatching” (game for group dates) and others (PartyDarts, PartyBowling etc.) are on the way. Here’s a video showing how PartyPoker works ( here ‘s the PartyCoupleMatching video): Lifelog system L+ by Ryo Koshino (fourth runner-up) L+ is a lifelog tool for Android that makes use of four hardware elements: GPS, Bluetooth, accelerometer, and microphone. The tool aims at answering the question what you did at which location, at which time and possibly together with whom. L+ helps you to keep track of how many steps you took at a given day (via the accelerometer), how you moved around the city (via GPS and Wi-Fi), and whom of your friends you met or who’s around (via Bluetooth connection). Activity is recorded for future reference through Google Maps, calendars, and various stats L+ creates while in use. The best of the rest of the IVS launchpad Here’s a list of the six other products that didn’t make the cut: Zeptopad Planner Note , a note and whiteboard app for the iPad that lets you easily create vector images and comes with a ton of features ( iTunes ) Cerevo Cam Live! , a 9MP “social camera” that uploads pictures to the web (via Wi-Fi or 3G) and livestreams video over Ustream directly from the device GQ iPad version , an app that focuses on monetization through digital ads from luxury brands and features in-app movie clips (for example, movie trailers) Fastweet Live HD, a Twitter client for the iPad that helps users keep track of “hot” hash tags and displays relevant tweets in matrix format (not yet released/iPhone versions in iTunes ) Motion Dive .Cast , a feature-rich application that lets users remix and create videos with their iPad TweetBubbles , an Adobe AIR Twitter app that allows participants of presentations to overlay comments or questions (as tweets) in bubbles on top of the presentation Japanese tech blog Tech Wave offers video recordings of all 11 demos on its Ustream channel (all presentations were held in Japanese). CrunchBase Information AQUSH Information provided by CrunchBase
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Infinity Ventures Summit In Sapporo: 11 Demos From Japanese Startups (GeeksOnAPlane Final Stop)
Google Switches On Maps Navigation, Voice Search For More Countries
Google Maps Navigation for Android now works outside the US or UK as the free turn-by-turn navigation system has been switched on for users in Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, and Belgium ( update: and Portugal ). In addition, Google Search by voice is now available for French, German, Italian, and Spanish speakers. English, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese were already supported. Google also detailed how it goes about adding new languages for Voice Search: Our goal is to bring Google Search by voice to speakers of all languages. We follow a rigorous process to add each new language or dialect. Working directly with native speakers in each country, we spend weeks collecting spoken utterances to create the specific models which power the service. Our helpers are asked to read popular queries in their native tongue, in a variety of acoustic conditions such as in restaurants, out on busy streets, and inside cars. We also construct, for each language, a vocabulary of over one million recognizable words. It’s no small feat, but we love doing it. A side-effect of this approach, Google says, is that if you’re a Spanish speaker in Mexico you may find that the service doesn’t work as advertised because of the difference in accents. Voice Search works on the iPhone, Blackberry and Nokia S60 devices. Obviously, it also works on Android devices, although you best check the blog post announcing the addition of the newly supported languages to know how you can active it. Also, the application is only available in the Android Markets for France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Google Maps Navigation is available in version 4.2 of Google Maps, on Android devices 1.6 and higher. CrunchBase Information Google Information provided by CrunchBase
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Google Switches On Maps Navigation, Voice Search For More Countries
Why Japan Matters: iPad Mania, Cloud Computing, And Social Intelligence
Editor’s note : Marc Benioff , chairman and CEO of salesforce.com , really loves Japan. And if you are a startup founder or tech executive, he thinks you should too. He explains why in this guest post, culled from observations from his most recent visit. Thousands of people lined up last week to buy iPads. And, if you didn’t notice them, it’s because they were in Tokyo. I’ve been living in Japan for the past three weeks and couldn’t miss the madness around the introduction of the iPad here. I couldn’t believe the demand for this new “magical” computer. After all, this is the country that developed and built some of the world’s most popular PCs—and now the iPad, which was designed somewhere else, is revered. It’s bowed to. (Reportedly, about half of Japanese business and technology magazines are featuring the iPad on their covers.) I expect that out of the 10 million iPads sold this year, at least 500,000 to one million will be sold in Japan. Something else amazing in Apple-mania happened last week. Apple’s market cap passed Microsoft . I suggested in a post last April, “The end of Microsoft. A door opens to a new cloud” , that this seminal event was about to happen. Steve Jobs described it as being “Surreal”. I agree. It is surreal—both unbelievable and fantastic. This is a milestone that signifies a dramatic change of computing: Windows is on the decline, and new technologies such as iPads and iPhones, Android and Google Search, and Cloud Computing are on the way up. I have to admit, I love Japan. I love the people, the culture, the language, the architecture, the food—everything. I love walking through the temples and gardens in Kyoto. And, I love the philosophy of “Zen.” I love working in Tokyo, which runs at a frenetic charge that’s even higher than New York City. The reason I’ve been spending so much time in Japan is because it has become salesforce.com’s second largest market. We’ve found that the Japanese love Cloud Computing because it gives them great software that is eco-friendly, equal for all businesses, and upgrade-free. When I was at Oracle, Japanese customers were always waiting for our special “J” products (the port of our English versions), or the bug fix of a “J” port. It was often a long and painful wait. Cloud Computing solves all of these problems, and Japanese customers receive new software on day one, as well as bug fixes as they happen. Instant gratification. One of the things that captivated my attention in Japan was how utterly swept the country is with social networking—there is a Japanese Facebook Imperative underway. Japan is already one of Twitter’s largest markets, and local social vendors like Mixi are pervasive. Japanese customers have easily and rapidly adopted social networking as it is highly compatible with their community-based culture. Japan, more than any other country, is ready to accelerate social networking with mobile. The wide penetration of 3G will be an engine for this movement. In fact, Japan has the highest percentage market penetration of 3G of any country, according to InfoCom . The combination of dominant social market share and broadband wireless is a powerful catalyst for Japan’s IT industry. In my own personal experience here, I’ve seen this willingness to embrace social communications firsthand. Over the past few weeks of demonstrating Salesforce Chatter, salesforce.com’s new enterprise social networking service, I was amazed to find that Japanese customers made unusually quick decisions to pursue it. Customers in other parts of the world (including the U.S.) have required a great deal of testing and evaluation. But in Japan there was an innate understanding of our app to be a Twitter or Mixi for the enterprise, which translated seamlessly—and drove adoption. This experience inspired me to think about what I call “Social Intelligence,” an idea I believe will launch us past business intelligence as the next major theme in enterprise computing. In Tokyo I enjoyed dinner with one of my friends, John Hinshaw, the global CIO of Boeing. I already knew Boeing is preparing to release the Dreamliner, the most advanced airplane in the world. But, I didn’t know that 35% of the Dreamliner is manufactured in Japan. In fact, the entire all-composite wing—the first of its size and sure to set the standard for how commercial airplanes will be made—is made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Nagoya. Each 98-foot long wing is then airlifted to Washington for assembly in Boeing’s special cargo plane, “the Dreamlifter”. If you aren’t sold on Japan’s abilities for the complex yet, consider that Japan also leads the world in energy and environmental patents and it is also the global leader in energy research and development expenditure and efficiency. I can certainly understand why Boeing is also focused on Japan. When you get an iPad, the new iPhone 4, or iPod you can’t miss seeing “designed by Apple in California”—the tagline that has generated heat from critics who get upset because the device is assembled in China. But what most people don’t recognize is that the parts are made all over the world, with some of the most important components being produced in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Take the iPod Nano. The flash memory is made by Toshiba, the Li-Ion battery is made by Sanyo and Sony, and the color LCD is made by Sharp, Toshiba, and Matsushita—making the total of the Japanese share in terms of cost 81%. The reality is the iPod is made possible by some of the most important technology in the world—and a lot of it is from Japan. Even 10% of the iPad comes from Japan (the rest is made by Taiwanese and Korean manufacturers). Japan is one of the countries doing some of the most exciting research and development in the most complex components, which is what drives the most compelling products. While in Japan I learned that Japan’s political and technology leaders recognize that embracing new technology and developing fundamental infrastructure are at the core of this country. Anyone who has experienced the bullet train, driven on Japan’s highways, or made a cell phone call in Tokyo, knows Japan fully commits to these two tenets. Cloud Computing is viewed as a critical next step for Japan, and it is the fastest growing part of Japan’s IT industry. Japan is always focused on getting the next big thing right. (And it usually does. I think the energy around the iPad last week demonstrates that they’re ready for Cloud 2 —the next transformation in computing being defined by cloud + social + iPad. One of the greatest surprises during my trip was that then-Prime Minister Hatoyama requested a meeting with me. I spent almost an hour with him demonstrating the power of Cloud Computing in Japan. Then he had a final meeting with the Chinese President. And, then he resigned. Why would he care so much about the Cloud to spend some of his final moments in office with me? I think he realized that he needed to send a clear signal that this new technology is pivotal to the future of Japan. Right before I left Tokyo for home I met with John Roos, the new United States Ambassador to Japan. John is the former CEO of Wilson Sonsini, and is a Bay Area native. Interestingly, he had never been to Japan before being nominated to his position. He asked me why more entrepreneurs in the U.S. weren’t focused on the amazing markets in Japan. I told him that although the Japanese IT market is the second largest in the world, it’s notoriously difficult for many Americans to navigate. I am grateful to my Japan guru, Larry Ellison, with whom I was fortunate enough to experience many trips to this country while I worked at Oracle for 13 years. If it wasn’t for that direct education, I don’t think salesforce.com would be as successful as it is here. Japan is accessible through several non-stop flights from San Francisco every day. And while the Japanese market and Japanese customers wait for the arrival of the next great thing, most entrepreneurs, and even VC firms, focus instead on China and India. I have never understood why, as China and India represent a market that is an order of magnitude smaller than Japan when it comes to key technologies, like software. Sure, India and China are fast-growing markets, but the current buyers are in Japan. The way I see it: If you are overlooking Japan you might as well overlook the West Coast of the U.S. The Japanese city of Osaka has a bigger economy than the state of California. As the second largest IT market outside of the US, the reality is Japan still matters. The world is changing profoundly (just look at my favorite Apple vs. Microsoft market cap chart ), but there are some traditional and established entities that retain a significant influence. Entrepreneurs should take note that 85% of all enterprise software is still essentially bought in three core markets: the U.S., Japan, and the U.K. Ignoring Japan means ignoring one of the most important opportunities. And, if you need a hand in this market, come with me on my next trip. I can’t wait to get back. CrunchBase Information Marc Benioff Salesforce Information provided by CrunchBase
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Why Japan Matters: iPad Mania, Cloud Computing, And Social Intelligence
