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Terrie’s take on Japan’s cyberspace; Japan’s spam blogs

If you don’t regularly follow, Terrie Lloyd’s weekly Terrie’s Take is a newsletter worth reading. This week Terrie focuses on Japan’s web businesses and cyberspace statistics. One number that caught my attention was that Japan’s 47.8 million Internet users viewed an average of 1,730 web pages each in February. These numbers come from NetRatings, and though I haven’t dug into the data to see how many web sites the average person visits, I hope to get time to do that soon. Terrie goes on to look at the top ten companies on the Japanese Web, and to show where SNS giant Mixi fits in. Read it here.

We also think it’s worth mentioning, in the wake of last year’s Technorati report claiming that 37% of blogs are written in Japanese (though Technorati didn’t seem to include Korea in their numbers), that Adam Richards at Mutant Frog Travelogue recently brought our attention to a CNet article reporting that Nifty has discovered that about 40% of blogs written in Japanese are actually spam blogs.

That’s a lot of spam…

Google, DoCoMo to join up on i-mode mobile services

This is a move that promises to be good for NTT DoCoMo, a firm which is currently Japan’s leader in market share for mobile phone services, though is seeing a large number of younger users defect for Japan’s other two service providers, Softbank and AU. According to Tuesday’s Nikkei, from this Spring, DoCoMo users will be able to use Google’s search, email, scheduling and picture storage services.

Why is this big news? Well, it seems as though DoCoMo has finally realized that it cannot control all operations in a vertical structure - to move forward in the future and protect its market share, it will have to reach out to other firms in order to offer appealing top-end services to its users.

Does this mean that DoCoMo’s vertical market strategy is on the outs? Probably not, though the firm will have to look at other ways to attract subscribers and provide services. We’ve been a bit surprised thus far that Softbank has failed to leverage its Yahoo Japan brand as part of a mobile services bundle, though this could be just the motivation they need…

Nissan’s N-Square: The beginnings of social networking at corporate Japan?

According to Business Week, Nissan is busy setting up a social networking system called N-Square to allow its employees to communicate better with one another while reducing the amount of time spent in non-productive meetings:

But lowering costs is not just about trimming waste at factories. For Nissan, developing better, high-tech cars in less time and with fewer resources is just as vital—and harder to do. That requires employees to work with others who might not be sitting in the next cubicle…A social networking site, says Simon Sproule, the Nissan executive in charge of N-Square, gives employees a way to circumvent the formal bureaucratic channels and create unexpected partnerships.

No doubt, this will make an interesting experiment. Will sempai and kohai be able to communicate differently on a social network? One thing’s for sure: should the idea work, there’s going to be a big market for those who specialize in building and consulting on social network intranet projects.

Dentsu’s President on Advertising, Internet Ads, and Google

While we’re on a Dentsu theme, I though I’d share some excerpts from a recent interview the Nikkei held with Dentsu President Tatsuyoshi Takashima.

On the sluggishness of the traditional market for advertising versus the growth of internet advertising:

Online advertising makes it possible to identify the frequency of ad viewing and the age of viewers, something that is not easy to do with paper media. And with corporate ad budgets facing severe cuts, use of media for which the effects of advertising cannot be determined easily is diminishing. Advertisers are growing selective, and the accountability of the media side is greater than ever today.

On the “Google Threat” (ie, Google moving into traditional advertising channels):

There are a large number of local newspapers and regional radio stations in the U.S., and unsold ad slots abound. Google has tapped this niche market, but I do not think it will spread to prime ad space and so do not feel threatened.

I take that to mean something along the lines of, “Google doesn’t stand a chance of tapping into our network in Japan.” It might be true.

On newspaper and news agency being available for free online:

Read more

More on You Tube-Google-Advertising Marketing-Copyright-Dentsu-Japan

In the previous post, I talked a bit about You Tube’s official launch into the Japanese market and the issues it faces in terms of copyright protection. After publishing that, I came across a writeup in the Nikkei that sheds further light on what the Google/You Tube partnership faces in the Japanese market and how advertising dollars (as one might expect) tend to lurk behind everything these days.

The article is Japan TV Broadcasters Losing Opportunity By Shunning YouTube

An excerpt:

Another factor that distances Japanese media from Google is advertising. “While emphasizing synergy with the advertising industry, Google is working to eliminate the middleman,” said an executive at Dentsu Inc. The Internet ads that Google carries are basically uploaded by the advertisers themselves, giving Google discretion on where to place them.

Japanese ad agencies like Dentsu and Hakuhodo Inc., whose businesses are based on their ability to secure favorable ad slots on TV, in newspapers and on Internet portals, are trying to defend themselves from this new threat. “Under strong pressure from Dentsu and Hakuhodo, some private television networks and other media firms have been reluctant to partner with Google,” said a source in the Internet ad industry.

The author’s own opinion is clear, and he argues along the same lines that I do; Firms are losing out on opportunities to be ‘early adopters’ and thus see corresponding improvements in their brand image amongst target markets. Nonetheless, it is the powerful middlemen who stand in the way. As powerful as Dentsu tells itself it actually is, that firm will also have to join the 21st century at some point and begin shifting its value adding focus (or developing a new one) by offering consulting on using Google (or other online) advertising services for smaller firms as they grow more and more vocal in the internet marketplace.

You Tube Japan Officially Launches - With Six Business Partnerships to Go Along

Back in June, You Tube’s entry into the Japanese market was discussed on BizCast Japan over at Trans-Pacific Radio. At that time, You Tube had released a localized version of its site, apparently as a beta test. Today, however, the site’s full Japan release was announced, as well as six You Tube business tieups with Japanese firms.

Included in those business partnerships are satellite broadcaster Sky PerfecTV, social networking giant Mixi, Yoshimoto Kogyo, animator GDH, and Casio. Casio intends to build cameras specially-made for creating content that can be uploaded directly to You Tube.

Of course, not everyone is happy with this development. The Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers stated that Google’s yet-to-be-rolled-out copyright detection software “will not be good enough.”

This debate is going to rage for some time, and Google/You Tube are going to have to be very careful about where they tread legally, but I must say that I am impressed by the six firms thus far that have, if nothing else, realized the marketing and brand synergy that You Tube offers.

Wired published a post on this issue, and I thought the author had one particularly insightful comment:

Although Japan’s “gross national cool” has taken the world by storm, only the most obsessed Western otaku (fans) know Japan’s popular television shows, music and movies. Frankly, the Japanese entertainment industry has recently been eclipsed by the emerging music/movie giant that is South Korea, so a little YouTube publicity is something that, in Japan’s case, should be nurtured as a way to expose the world to the country’s work. The worst thing that could happen to Japanese artists is for their work to disappear from YouTube.

I’m sure it’s not the ‘worst’ thing, but it certainly shows the artists that their management is hell-bent on keeping their collective heads in the sand.

Gyudon PCs: Even better than before

Sofmap is a large electronics retailer in Japan, and their shops are a fixture in the Akihabara landscape. I subscribe to their email newsletters because I build my own PCs and servers, and there’s no way I’m going to miss out on some of their deals. Usually, they send a few emails a week pushing the usual stuff: processors, motherboards, graphics cards, hard drives and the like. Recently I haven’t been paying much attention to their emails since I only need a few items to build my next super PC, and I’m going to get the processors in the US in a few months. Tonight, however, I got an email that really caught my eye:

ソフマップ・オリジナル「牛丼パソコン」「バーガーパソコン」
のラインナップを一新しました!!

ご好評いた� いております、ソフマップオリジナル「牛丼パソコン」
「バーガーパソコン」。本日両シリーズの全ラインナップが新しく
なりました！

Translation:

The lineup of Sofmap’s original Gyudon PC and Hamburger PC has been renewed!

Thanks to you, Sofmap’s original Gyudon and Hambuger PCs are popular! From today, both series have an all-new lineup!

Gyudon, of course, is the famous beef-bowl dish popularized by salarymen on a budget. The computers are priced according to the sizes of the beef bowls one would find at a shop such as Yoshinoya. The lineup includes the regular size (並盛), the large (大盛), the extra-large (特盛), and the super size (極盛), as can be seen on Sofmap’s campaign page for the Gyudon PC lineup.

The image on that campaign page (click on it below to see a full size version) suspiciously resembles Yoshinoya’s colors and style…

I’m not sure about a Gyudon (or Hamburger) PC, but this is one of the more unique marketing angles I’ve seen in a bit.

Daiwa Securities to Adopt Risk Management Strategy Against Data Leaks

Over the past few years, data leaks have been plaguing Japanese corporations and government bodies. From police in Okayama, Kyoto and Tokyo (where the personal information of some 12,000 people involved in ongoing criminal investigations was leaked onto the internet), to nuclear power plant information, and the hugely embarrassing leak of classified Aegis information by an officer of the Maritime Self-Defense Forces, the use of peer-to-peer file sharing software has led to one disaster after another in Japan. Company and government policies don’t seem to be doing anything; each week we hear of another problem with information being sucked out of a PC and onto the internet due to violations in rules concerning usage.

Although corporate leaks have generally been reported at lower levels than those related to government employees, it hardly seems surprising that companies should start to move away from allowing employees to install software on internal PCs, or download sensitive information for use when working at home over the weekend.

Daiwa Securities has taken a large step in this direction, apparently deciding to replace all of its existing internal PCs in favor of flat machines, which do not have independent internal storage. According to the Nikkei, this would be the first time that a firm in Japan adopts blanket usage of network-driven storage for internal use.

There was no word on whether or not solitaire (or its oh-so-popular cousin in Japan, Spider Solitaire) would be installed on Daiwa’s networked drives.

Former Sony CEO Idei Making Big Moves

On the train this afternoon I was reading a Japan Times article focusing on Nobuyuki Idei, the former CEO of Sony. The piece came via Kyodo News, and the original reporter had spoken with Idei on Monday of this week. Idei had much to say concerning the current state of innovation in Japan’s technology sectors. Here are some bits:

Sadly, Japan was unable to lead the information technology industry…At present, there is no world-class brand from Japan that does Net business. There is no new Sony on the Net…By using IT more and more, I hope one day there will be a new world-class company from Japan.

We’ve lamented this situation before, as have many others. But that’s not what we’re here to dwell on. What he said next in the interview struck me: According to Idei, Japanese Internet companies have not shown enough innovation and remain “localized” because they are overly dependent on imitating US-style business models. He then asserted that he has seen more promising innovation amongst Internet firms happening in China and other parts of Asia.

In 2006, in order to provide a “value creation catalyst” for young Internet workers in Japan, Idei set up a consultancy called Quantum Leaps.

Then, when I got home tonight, this headline was waiting for me: Aiming For Japan, Baidu Names Ex-Sony CEO To Board

The first two paragraphs:

Chinese Web search leader Baidu.com Inc., which is seeking to expand into the Japanese Web search market, said Tuesday it had named ex-Sony Chief Executive Nobuyuki Idei as a company director.

Idei, one of Japan’s most famous corporate executives, is widely blamed for missteps at Sony, the world’s largest consumer electronics company, where he was forced out as leader in 2005. He is the founder and chief executive of Quantum Leaps Corp., a technology consulting practice he currently runs.

I’m not sure how I missed the story before, but I’m glad I got them in reverse order, since the Japan Times/Kyodo piece makes no mention of Idei’s new post at Baidu. Isn’t context refreshing?

What to make of Spinshell?

It seems as though spinshell.tv has put together a marketing budget and are now paying for items that might appear in that space over to the left.

What to make of their site? No user-generated content? No video embeds for sharing content on blogs? A standard Flash 8 player with no branding or customization? No corporate info on who’s running it or who’s involved? No commenting or other interactive Web 2.0 elements? A table-based layout in HTML 4.01 - not XHTML and CSS?

At the same time, the video content itself looks like there’s some talent behind it, and we all know that content is king - anything that stinks of being just ‘white space for marketers’ won’t last long. Nonetheless, it still seems like a fusion of the latest video player with a Web 1.0 platform. Let’s hope there’s more ’something’ in the works…

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