Mobile in Japan: Willcom Files for Bankruptcy
► A quick overview on the biggest telecom bankruptcy in Japan’s history.
Mobile in Japan: iPhone Felica Case
► The iPhone finally gets some wireless payment system integration in Japan.
Twitter To Charge Audiences In Japan
Twitter had its first language localization in Japan, its first ads (and profitable ones), its first groups (not exactly lists), and now, the “What’s happening” company is trying out a payment model.
“We are noticing more companies using Twitter and individuals following them. We can identify ways to make this experience even more valuable and charge for commercial accounts.”
This is what Biz Stone apparently said last February. With his pledge to focus on revenue for 2010, it seems that the Japan market is, once more, used as a test market.
DG Mobile, which already introduced twitvideo.jp and subsidiary of Digital Garage, the Joi Ito company responsible for Twitter’s foray in the Land of the Rising Sun, announced the advent of subscription models that will charge users to look at tweets and access links starting January 2010.
It is very interesting to learn that the model seems to have reversed the initial logic, as rumored plans did mention charging companies to tweet, not users to read tweets.
Twitter will remain free to use by everyone—individuals, companies, celebrities, etc. What we’re thinking about is adding value in places where we are already seeing traction, not imposing fees on existing services.
Yes, Biz Stone seems to be true to his words, tweets will remain partially free. The complex model will allow everyone to see partial texts, but links and images and selected texts will be behind a pay wall. Unblocking will come with the payment of a small fee.
The announced but yet to-be-confirmed monthly pricing model will range from JYP 100 to JPY 1,000 (USD 1.15 to USD 11.55 at today’s exchange rates), Twitter pocketing 30% on every transaction. It is however unclear how these amounts will be segmented exactly, either per tweet, per link, per group of images or else.
While the pricing structure is similar to what Apple applies for its App Store, it is evidently less clear how will the audience react to paid content, if, as Chris Anderson advocated it, content wants to be free. The Economist and other news structure have recently rolled back their pricing model to a premium one. They might be the ones first in line interested in activating a paid model for their real-time updates.
Brands who offer coupons -a widely successful model in Japan- and deals through the platform will certainly also look up to the new model as a way to gain more revenue, while hoping the users stick with them.
Kenichi Sugi also hinted at artists and education content as accounts that might be interested in the new system.
Payment will be done either by credit card, mobile billing or pre-paid cards, those already being a widely-used form of billing available through every convenient store in the country.
Here is one of Sugi-san’s slides providing a more visual look into the premium model (image from ITMedia.co.jp)
The question remains: is this model applicable anywhere else than Japan? Or, to put it bluntly, will the world and the USA in particular experience the same model in 2010?
Japan has a somewhat different structure in terms of its internet culture, with Japanese users being accustomed to pay for some content, such as mobile books or game applications through their keitai, the Japanese mobile phones, which is why I believe the system could gain some traction.
I wouldn’t however put my money on such a system elsewhere in the very short-term. While, on paper, it seems like an attractive model for brands willing to offer some business value through Twitter (again, those offering specials deals to the Twitter-only audience come to mind), users have yet to get used to pay for content, especially through mobile billing in many countries.
It is also unclear if the new Retweet API is adapted to these premium tweets and if people outside of Japan will actually be able to see those updates at all or have any way to access them.
Lots of questions, but this is surely an exciting experiment to follow. News organizations, brands and the Twitter competition should keep an eye on the story.
Let’s also see if Facebook, which will finally be opening offices in Tokyo in 2010, will follow suit and experiment different models.
UPDATE:
Media Asia’s take on the story with comments bt Infinita’s CEO Kei Shimada.
The Next Web Asia’s entry.
Interesting article on the future Twitter business model by Daniele Beccari
TechCrunch’s news (thanks for the mention, Robin)
French TV Report on Japan Startup Scene
Early October, I was contacted by Cedric Ingrand, famous news tech anchor of the biggest TV network in France, TF1, about the possibility to do a special report on the Japanese startup/tech scene for Plein Ecran on LCI, a French 24/7 news channel.
Since I’ve regularly witnessed that most people cannot even name one single startup from Japan, as those, more often than not, only operate in the country, this idea seemed like a brilliant one. I dove in.
Here’s the result.
It’s in French and was aired on October 24th.
Oh, one thing. Cedric contacted me on a Wednesday night. I was in Manila. The filming had to take place on the following Monday in Tokyo :-)
So many thanks to the promptness of Cedric to give me the details I needed (even with the timezone difference), my large network of connections and friends in Tokyo and to one man in particular, Nobuyuki Hayashi, a fantastic freelance journalist in Tokyo, for helping me getting the line-up I had in mind:
- a pure Japanese startup, the #2 social networking site in Japan, with the CEO of Gree, Yoshikazu Tanaka
- a Silicon Valley entrepreneur in Japan working exclusively with locals, with the CEO of Bluebridge, Kristopher Tate, and
- an entrepreneur (and otaku icon) based in Tokyo but whose audience is largely international, with the CEO of Mirai, Danny Choo.
Many thanks to technology specialist and Tokyo live blogger Steve Nagata for his always invaluable help.
I really had lots of fun being with these cool and acute journalists (Danny had fun too). I appreciated how kind, professional and fun Cedric was throughout the whole process. How Guillaume Delalande, LCI Journalist, had to suffer to film such a tall guy like me (he got to see Astro Boy in Tokyo as a reward) –and make no mistake, he knows a lot about tech!
How knowledgeable Olivier Levard, the MUJI fan, LCI blogger and author of a future book in French about social networks, was about cultural differences over the use of the social web, a passion of mine.
Don’t hesitate to work with them. Really.
JapanTechTalk #3
Yesterday saw the third episode in the revamped JapanTechTalk podcast. Since it happened at the same time as my sayonara party, Robert Sanzalone got a big surprise as Andrew Shuttleworth, Steve Nagata, Joseph Tame, Rob Cawte and myself crashed the podcast after 15 minutes!
Only Kristopher Tate was too busy winning his UNO game to attend!
Before that, the talk centered around the iPhone and its adoption in Japan. We talked about Tokyo Beer and Blog, the new event series from Ken Brady that most of us attended last week, but also about Joseph’s live stream of his run on the Tokyo’s marathon. Robert kept on with a talk about Twitter and its network ability for people not located in Tokyo, where everything seem to happen, more often than not (he’s located in Nagoya).
Seems I will be one to test this after my relocation in Manila next week. I probably won’t be able to attend the podcast next Sunday, but be sure to tune in and to listen to the past episodes, since the podcast is now listed on iTunes.
Interview on Podcast on Demand #3
I recently participated in a podcast with Robert Sanzalone in Nagoya. We’ve talked mostly about MobileinJapan.com, the community I’ve created with Andrew Shuttleworth about everything mobile in the keitai country.
It was made via an iPhone with a newest (and great) TalkShoe offering.
It’s called Podcast on Demand. I was on episode #3.
The show will soon be renamed JapanTechTalk, since Robert and I are working on a bigger format.
- Twitter To Charge Audiences In Japan
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November 27th, 2009
Twitter had its first language localization in Japan, its first ads (and profitable ones), its first groups (not exactly lists), and now, the “What’s happening” company is trying out a payment model.
- French TV Report on Japan Startup Scene
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November 10th, 2009
How I ended up on French TV talking about Japan. And linking the TV journalists with entrepreneurs on the ground in less than three days for a full show.
- Twitter And The Race To Zero Or The Rebirth Of Context
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August 18th, 2009
Twitter has become a link machine. For the better. The focus is back on the context and creating trust. My view on the need for a self-definition of a social architecture.
- The TEDxTokyo Journey
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May 25th, 2009
What a day it was. What a week it was.
Last Friday, the launch event of TEDxTokyo was held in the Japanese capital. The independently organized TED talks was months in the making, by a great team of highly-dedicated people that wanted to add new voices to the Ideas Worth Spreading.
Andrew and I were contacted in [...] - Extreme Hanami
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April 1st, 2009
Today, I’ll try a new viral experiment with Andrew Shuttleworth: Extreme Hanami.
We decided to greenlight that idea we’ve had for a week and set up a StoryTlr website: www.extremehanami.com
The idea is to do 5 Hanami spots (what’s a Hanami?) in 5 hours this afternoon and live casting the event using Qik for video, Flickr for [...] - JapanTechTalk #3
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March 30th, 2009
Yesterday saw the third episode in the revamped JapanTechTalk podcast. Since it happened at the same time as my sayonara party, Robert Sanzalone got a big surprise as Andrew Shuttleworth, Steve Nagata, Joseph Tame, Rob Cawte and myself crashed the podcast after 15 minutes!
Only Kristopher Tate was too busy winning his UNO game to attend!
Before that, the [...] - Interview on Podcast on Demand #3
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January 31st, 2009
I recently participated in a podcast with Robert Sanzalone in Nagoya. We’ve talked mostly about MobileinJapan.com, the community I’ve created with Andrew Shuttleworth about everything mobile in the keitai country.
It was made via an iPhone with a newest (and great) TalkShoe offering.
It’s called Podcast on Demand. I was on episode #3.
The show will soon be [...] - Facebook and Privacy
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January 19th, 2009
I was reading this Slate article today, and it struck me once more: people love Facebook, yet they tend to find the service “creepy”. Pardon me, but it’s just naive.
150 millions users, apparently logging in at least once a day. Yes, Facebook is a runaway success. It has made a long way since it’s college-alumni [...] - A Call for a Unified Retweet Acronym
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January 15th, 2009
Look at your Twitter feed. Retweet is the new Twitter trend, but there’s no cohesion on how it’s done.
Until Twitter decides to implement the feature directly, the developers are having a innovation field day on how to do it:
Retweet @, RT @, via @, etc.
Since we get only 140 characters to get a message through [...] - Where is iRovr going?
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January 9th, 2009
iRovr.com, a social media experiment launched on the iPhone/iPod Touch only, is having lots of trouble lately. It goes without saying that competition is hard these days in the social media sphere.
Legacy gone
The founder recently sent a message to all the iRovr users, both on the service and by e-mail, explaining that financial difficulties were [...] - The Social Journal v. What Are You Doing
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January 9th, 2009
I stumbled upon an interesting read today, comparing Twitter and Plurk.
Ed Rowan mentions in his latest blog post that Plurk in content-centric while Twitter is user-centric.
While true to a point and besides the technical difficulties that Ed relates, I won’t be going to Plurk for my daily interaction. Here’s why.
Audience
In all certainty, Plurk is a [...] - A Dignifed Retweet
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January 9th, 2009
There’s no dignified retreat to the retweet frenzy these days. As of late, I’ve been retweeting a lot. Is that a sign that I’ve got nothing to say? You cannot afford to think so. The retweet is one of the most powerful tool in the Twitter-world.
Re-what?
What’s a retweet? It’s simply repeating an entry you’ve seen [...] - Rejaw, What Now?
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December 11th, 2008
Updated December 13, 2008 11:14am | In the ever-competing world of micro-blogging site, there is one I hold dear to my heart, Rejaw.
This service, launched in August 2008, has had some great features from the start. Will them help it survive against Twitter?
Company
Rejaw is a creation of Infoteria, the Japanese company behind the nifty live-chat [...] - The Twitter Economy: SocialToo
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December 9th, 2008
SocialToo is the another entry to the Twitter Economy series. Since it’s a direct Qwitter competitor, it naturally follows the first entry that was dedicated to this service.
What’s SocialToo anyway
SocialToo is working to compliment your social experience by providing you with all the tools you need to get the most you can from those you [...] - Twittetiquette
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December 9th, 2008
As Twitter becomes widely adopted -almost 5 million and counting-, it is maybe time to ask the following question: Is there such a thing as a Twittetiquette?
Interacting
If you are a user of Twitter, there are chances you’ve sometimes asked yourself the question on how to use the tool, how to exactly interact with other users.
There’s certainly [...] - Chief Marketing Officers not yet interested in Social Media
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December 9th, 2008
According to a recent study by Epsilon, it appears that despite the impressive growth that both Facebook and MySpave have seen since 2003, chief marketing officers (CMO) at leading brands are not too interested in using social media in their marketing mix.
The numbers
Epsilon’s survey shows that 22% of CMO were not too interested, while a [...] - The Twitter Economy: Qwitter
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December 8th, 2008
Qwitter is my first entry to the Twitter Economy, the expanded world around Twitter.
What’s Qwitter anyway
As their motto says it, it’s about “Catching Twitter Quitters”: a simple tool that automatically sends you an e-mail update whenever one of your followers un-follows you.
The email recevied not only tells you who quit on you, but also after [...] - The Twitter Economy
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December 8th, 2008
Some of you probably remember the days when Google emerged as the leader in search. Overnight, a whole new breed of services emerged and used it a their main growth engine.
From SEO advisers to meta-searchers to browser add-ons, you name it.
Today, with Twitter, there’s a similar burgeoning breed of tools created around the micro-blogging leader.
That’s [...] - The Attention Level
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December 8th, 2008
If, as a brand or a individual, you’ve ever been using recent social networking tools and older ones like RSS feeds, Google Alerts and the grandfather of social networking, the email, you’ve certainly reached a point where you were wondering how you’d be able to follow all the chatter that was happening in front of [...]
- Pownce Wasn’t Different Enough
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December 2nd, 2008
We really appreciate your continued support and understanding. Thanks so much for being part of the Pownce community.
With these words, the Pownce team announced today that the micro-blogging service will be gone by December 15th.
The technology was acquired by Six Apart, the company behind TypePad and Movable Type.
Leah and Mike will be joining the team [...] - Business Model: Twitter as a Name Registrar
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November 27th, 2008
Twitter is the fastest-growing social community, according to the latest Nielsen statistics. The unique audience is reaching 2.4 million with visitors almost at 5.6 million, according to ComScore.
Still, it’s not mainstream. Yet, in the current economic downturn, finding the right revenue model is becoming more important than ever.
Ads and… ?
The company wants to add ads. [...]
