Japanese-Style Search-By-Blabla Ads Fail Sometime

This is a follow-up post for my monthly column on The Japan Times, Why do Japanese advertisers suggest Internet-search keywords?. There I explained why many of paper/TV ads in Japan are asking people to search by keywords, instead of typing URLs.

Soon after the column was published, I got a question from a reader if I can name a real example the advertiser failed on the search-keyword method, i.e. asking potential customers to type a certain keyword but that resulted not showing their website but competitors' at the first position.

There is a blog run by Aun Consulting, a Japanese SEO consulting firm. On the blog around year 2007, they had a series of posts [J] to check how search on the advertised keyword really ranked on Yahoo! Japan and Google, both on organic search and paid ads.

There are some failed attempts recorded. For example, Nisshin Food asked to search by "Rifiru" ("re-fill in Japanese Katakana") to promote their newly released instant noodle with which you can reuse a plastic bowl with another chunk of noodle, a kind of "Chikyu ni yasashii"("kind for the earth" which ecology-friendly people love to use) product.

Unfortunately, there are many other websites shown both on Y!J and G, most of which are about replacement papers for day planner. Nissin's special site was reportedly ranked at 26th on Yahoo! Japan, 17th on Google. Both were out of the first results page. They did not buy Overture/AdWords ads so even if there were consumers searched on the suggested keyword, it must be difficult to find the related website.

Another failure was done by Coca Cola Japan. In 2007, they gave a Japanese smiley "(^^)" in a box on their paper ads. However, as you know current search engines do not support search by those symbols, their site was not showed at the first page [J].

When people applies protocol without thinking, funny things happen. This train ad suggests to search http://r25.jp/ by "r25.jp" (via Daily Portal Z [J])

Or, it may still work for some people who prefer search than typing URL.

Japanese-Style Search-By-Blabla Ads Fail Sometime

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Presentation: The Web, Social Games And Mobile In Japan

A few weeks ago, I gave a presentation on Japan's web, mobile, and social gaming industries during an event in Tokyo. As I assume a large number of Asiajin readers should be at least a bit interested in the overview , I embedded the presentation (in edited form) below for your reading pleasure.

The presentation centers on search engines, e-commerce, social networks, mobile web usage and the basic structure of the social gaming industry in this country (direct link).

The Web, Social Games And Mobile In Japan

View more presentations from Dr. Serkan Toto

Presentation: The Web, Social Games And Mobile In Japan

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Bharti Beetel Launches Android Tablet For Rs. 9999

Beetel, Bharti’s handset brand has launched its Android tablet,’Magiq’ in India at the price of Rs. 9,999/.

Features/Specification

The tablet has 7 inch capacitive touchscreen with Android 2.2 Froyo OS, and is powered by a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor.

• 2 megapixel back camera
• Front VGA camera,
• 8 GB of built-in storage and
• 2200 mAh battery.
• 3G connectivity and WiFi.
• The tablet will allow consumers to make calls from any SIM card, regardless of the service provider (not just airtel).

Pricing of Bharti Beetel Tablet

At a steep price of Rs. 9999, this competes directly with the recently launched tablet from Reliance (which is priced at Rs. 12,999) and has similar specifications.

Is Android Another Symbian In Making?

Synchronica CEO Carsten Brinkschulte made an interesting statement with respect to Google’s Motorola acquisition:

“This is a bold move by Google which will have massive implications on the global mobile eco-system. Google is gaining a significant patent portfolio protecting the vulnerable IP position of Android. But at the same time, Google will alienate tier-1 device manufacturers by directly competing with them. From a strategic perspective, Android may be on its way to becoming another Symbian – also an open source operating system which had several manufacturers backing it, but went the way of the Dodo because all of the tier-1 licensees turned their back on it when it became wholly-owned by Nokia.”

With companies like Reliance/Beetel launching Android devices, it’d be interesting to see how Microsoft’s patent war (against Android manufacturers) impact the strategy of desi companies, who are joining the bandwagon without much of technology insight.

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HP webOS workshop and CONNECT for Singapore

HP’s webOS was the system developed by Palm prior to being acquired by HP.  webOS was described as a key asset that motivated the acquisition. In this year alone, HP has released the TouchPad, Pre 3 and Veer webOS devices. HP has also announced that personal computers shipped by the company will be able to run webOS. From a user’s point of view, the operating system provides a sexy combination of true multitasking, unobtrusive notifications and seamless integration with popular cloud services. Feedback from e27′s initial contact with Singaporean-based developer groups garnered positive responses with remarks that the operating system is a “smart and elegant” one.

webOS allure for developers would be the ease in developing for the platform. The operating system is based on standard web technologies which encompasses HTML, Javascript and CSS. HP supports developers on their operating system by giving them various methods of building and delivering apps to choose from based on their preferences. This allows developers to build innovative apps fast and bring them to market with lower costs. Because webOS runs on ubiquitous web technologies, the apps developed for the operating system are able to run on other platforms with minor code modifications.

HP has already implemented developer support programs for the US and European market. Singapore is one of the first Asian country together with Hong Kong to be on their expansion roadmap. From the understanding that developer support requirements differ across regions, HP is looking to connect with local developers through their webOS Workshop and CONNECT events to hear out the concerns of these developers. Some topics that they should be expecting from these developers would be the type of support they would be throwing behind developers in terms of developer tools and marketing support for app visibility.

For developers interested to find out more about this operating system that names like Dreamworks and developers from Sony Pictures Studios are excited about, register for the webOS Workshop and CONNECT which is happening on September 12 now.

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Milaap creates opportunities by being India’s first global lending platform

Milaap is an online microlending platform that was founded in June 2011. The founding members are Sourabh Sharma and Anoj Viswanathan.

Milaap is registered in Singapore and India. Milaap is an online microlending platform which brings in foreign capital from international lenders and allows the working poor of the country access to these funds. The loans that are procured are being used to fund various key areas such as vocational training and skill development, healthcare, sanitation, water, sustainable farming, energy and enterprise development.

Currently in an attempt to reach out to the community, they have a presence on the social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Vimeo and a blog.

e27 managed to engage Anoj in a short email interview.

What is Milaap’s philosophy?

Milaap was founded with a simple mission, to connect with ease the struggling 700 million people of India  living below $2 per day with prosperous Indians and the Diaspora, one based on mutual respect and dignity, creating opportunities that change the playing field for the poor.

How  is Milaap different from Kiva or other similar platforms that engage in micro-lending?

Milaap’s idea was sparked when the founder, Anoj, an ardent Kiva supporter was frustrated that a similar service wasn’t available to the Indian poor, constituting more than  25% of the world’s population living in poverty. While Milaap was built inspired by Kiva, certain characteristics are unique to us.

• First in India to enable global lending : Milaap is the first platform that enables anyone in the world to lend to India’s working poor. Other international players such as Kiva follow similar crowd-sourcing models but haven’t been able to work in India . But Milaap holds the unique advantage of sourcing capital for India’s poor from both foreign and domestic lenders. This opens up a whole new segment of people who can pave the way for bringing essential services to the 700 million who live on $2 a day.
• Cheapest Loans for the poor in the world: Milaap passes on the benefits of low cost loans from individuals to the end borrowers who end up paying interest as low as 6 – 9%. In contrast, the average interest rate on Kiva’s loan is around 34%.
• Self-sustaining business model: while Kiva depends on grants and donations to cover its operating costs and doesn’t have a revenue model, Milaap was built with a vision to be self-sustainable by charging a small interest fee to the borrower to cover its operating costs. This fee is 50% or more cheaper than existing sources of capital for the poor in the country.

To date, what is the reach and impact of Milaap?

Milaap has raised nearly $150,000 in loans, working across three states (eight districts) in India namely Tamil nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and impacting over 1750 lives.

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Tudou, the Chinese Potatoes Finally Got IPO, Gary Wang Said He’s Excited and Confident

Opened at $24.41 each on the Nasdaq stock exchange, down 13.4% on their $29 asking price, not a perfect debut, but Tudou, the potatoes finally went public today, with an offering of 6 million American depositary shares at $29, raising ~$146.6 million.  We had a call with Gary Wang, CEO of Tudou.

“It’s been 4 years since we first met, and it’s really been a long way. ” when I asked Gary about his personal feeling after being through such much in past a few months, he said to me, “I am very excited and also very looking forward to the new journey for Tudou. Thanks to our investors who are always confident for us and to the team for their hard work.”

Tudou definitely missed the best time for IPO, and its the market valuation is roughly only 1/3 of its competitor Youku which is listed back in last December. With less money in the pocket to burn, Tudou obviously faces a touch competition. Gary admitted that but he said no one is going to use all the money raised and we just need spent the money on wherever it’s needed. He said the money would be used mainly on the content, the bandwidth and the platform upgrade.

Started with the UGC model, Tudou also follows Hulu’s model and spends large amount of money on buying copyrighted video content, addition to that, it also produced 2 drama movies itself. Tudou and Youku both started like YouTube, but now all become like YouTube+Hulu+HBO. “Chinese online video market is more complicated than the western.” Gary said, “UGC is always important for us as we’ve been doing our Video Festival for over 5 years and we will continue doing that to encourage our users to produce good video content. But in China, producing your own video content is also important given the fact that buying copyrighted content is so expensive.”

“Tudou is to be a platform where everyone can find any type of video content at anytime and anywhere. ” Gary positions Tudou as such.

“We will definitely spend more effort on the mobile market. We have China Mobile as our mobile video distribution platform partners which is definitely the key in our mobile strategy.”

The competition is going to be tough still. Gary believes Tudou can be more competitive because its video content is more entertainment-focus and the user base is younger at the age of 14-32.

Ads will still be main revenue source for Tudou, as Gary said. As for the subscription model, Gary think it may take years to happen still. But he said there might be chance in the mobile space. “Watching copyrighted video clips on mobile by paying monthly subscription fee sounds more realistic”, Gary think.

Personally, I am also excited by Tudou’s IPO as I always think it should be first listed video company. Congrats to Gary Wang, one of few Chinese CEOs who is truly a great entrepreneur with silicon valley style.

Related posts:

1. Rumor: Now It’s Baidu’s Turn to Acquire Tudou
2. Tudou’s 3-Year Birthday Gift, $57 Millions Forth Round Fund Confirmed
3. Chinese Video Sites, Burning To The IPO, With Hope

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Fusion Garage’s second tablet has predictive intelligence

While JooJoo may be dead and buried, Singapore-based Fusion Garage isn’t. They’ve even showed signs of life by recently launching their second tablet — the Grid 10 — in the US.

Granted, the Fusion Garage-TechCrunch fallout generated a lot of controversy (see SGE’s coverage here) and the JooJoo received overwhelmingly negative reviews, but this new tablet has so far gotten a more measured response from the media (see other stories here, here, and here).

Well, we can’t fault them for trying again — the Grid 10 does have some things going for it. The most immediate thing about this tablet that hits you is that apps shortcuts are displayed in clusters on an infinite expanse of grids that you can navigate using your fingers or a mini-map. This is something no other tablets are doing, and it actually looks pretty. I’m not sure how easy it is to use it though, as users may get lost in the sea of grids.

Predictive intelligence is another prominent feature. For instance, suppose you look up an appointment you have on the tablet’s calender. There’s a ‘smart window’ that actually lets you look up the location on a map, or offer recommendations for where you might go for lunch.

Or, say you search ‘Lady Gaga’ in the web browser. The app brings up more than your typical search results, it even provides links to an online album store to purchase the movie, a link to the ‘Lady Gaga’ Wikipedia page, a shortcut that allows you to play any Lady Gaga songs stored on your tablet, and more. While this sounds useful, whether users bite will depend on how relevant the recommendations are.

The tablet runs on the Grid OS, which is actually based on the Android kernal. This means that you can use your favorite Android apps with this device, but you can’t download them directly from the Android Market, at least not yet. You can, however, download apps from Amazon’s Appstore and other places. We’re not sure if any compatability issues will crop up though.

For now, Grid 10 is only available in the US via the online store. A smartphone version, called the Grid 4, will be available soon. The WiFi + 3G version debuts at US$599, while the WiFi version costs US$499.

We’re not sure if this product is enough to reverse Fusion Garage’s fortunes, so we’ll see.

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Let’s Do Lunch with Jeffrey Paine: From Pencil to Pixel – 23 Aug

Next week, iAxil will organize “Let’s Do Lunch” with Jeffrey Paine of Battle Ventures. It is a series of cozy-casual lunchtime talks with 20 seats per session for all to share ideas, experience and other concepts.

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About the Speaker

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Jeffrey Paine, Managing Partner of Battle Ventures
He loves ideas and entrepreneurship, assists founders in honing business strategies and partnering with larger players, customers and gain exposure to prospective early stage investors and acquirers. Amongst his experience, as executive director and Board member of Rediffusion, he transformed the 60 year old radio broadcaster into the first subscription digital audio broadcaster. He was also the advisor and Principal of Culter Venture Partners LLC, Investment Manager for MPH Ventures, Risk Advisory Services (Technology Assurance) for KPMG LLP. He is also running the Founder Institute program in Singapore.

 

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Event Details

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When: Tue, Aug 23
Time: starts from 1130am
Where: The Franklin, Singapore Science Park 1, #02-12/25 (Map)
Interested participants can email to enquiry@iaxil.net by 18th Aug for RSVP the event.

 

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JustDial Finally Files For An IPO – Raising Rs.360Cr

Local search major, JustDial has finally filed its DRHP with SEBI for an IPO. JustDial is looking to raise Rs.360Cr. through issue of 10.6Mn fresh shares. Few promoters are also offloading their stake.

Last year around the same time, there was speculation of a possible of IPO of Rs.700Cr. JustDial last announced a funding of $10Mn from SAP Ventures and Sequoia Capital back in June.

JustDial is already strong in Indian market with virtually no competition on voice dial. Last year it also launched the human supported voice search services in USA, at the time when Google shut down its 1-800-GOOG-411 service.

What do you think about web/tech companies looking to raise from Indian markets? Is this a good time?

Insight: Facts & Myths in Indian Local Search Space [Insights from an Insider]

Related Read: Times of India Launches Justdial Competitor, Times Infoline

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East Ventures is investor-in-residence at FounderHQ

The folks at FounderHQ have just announced that East Ventures, a Singapore and Indonesia based venture capital firm, is their first investor-in-residence.

FounderHQ is a just-launched co-working space in Singapore for founders of early stage startups. Affiliated to Founder Institute Singapore, the organisation also holds entrepreneurial workshops and activities for participants, and offers opportunities to interact with investors. Tenants would have to pay a fee of S$180 per desk per month (see earlier story), and not all applicants are picked.

East Ventures have also announced their own 100-day startup accelerator program, which opens for registration in August 2011.The first run will last from September to November in South Jakarta, Indonesia, although this initiative is not just restricted to startups from that area.

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What are Teeth

What are Teeth? Teeth are a part of the mouth and are used for chewing, tearing, biting and grinding the food we eat. Teeth are attached to the jawbone from the inside and protrude beyond the gums to the surface to form chewing surfaces. Tooth Composition. If you look at a tooth picture, you will know that a tooth is made up of a root that goes down into the gums, an outer harder surface that is in contact with the surrounding gums, an inner softer core and an enamel coating around the teeth that forms the outer most layer. What are Teeth made of? Now, you must be wondering ‘what are teeth made out of?’ Actually, teeth are made up of a number of different tissues like pulp, dentin, enamel and cementum. These form different layers in the teeth structure. They also vary in thickness and density and perform different functions.

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Online Luxury Store Xiu.com Raising $ 100 million in Series B

Xiu.com, Chinese ecommerce site focusing on luxury and fashion goods, announced raising US$ 100 million in series B. The round was led by American private equity Warburg Pincus, with previous backers Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers participating. KPCB invested over 20 million in its series A earlier this year.

 

Founded in Oct, 2007, the Shenzhen-based company offers its customer with luxury goods (including LV, Prada, Burberry, HERMES and so on, account for 15% of its inventory), famous overseas brands (account for 25% of its stock) and well-known home-grown brands (60%). The company has set up fashion buyers’ office in New York, LA, Australia, Paris, London, Italy, etc..

 

The largest series B funding in China’s ecommerce front highlights investors’ belief in the online market size for luxury goods. According to the Beijing-based market research firm Analysys international, the market size for online luxury items is expected to surpass RMB 16 billion (US$ 2.5 billion). While according to a research by World Luxury Association, China is set to replace Japan as the largest consumer of luxury goods. That’s a sizable and tempting market.

Xiu.com has some serious competitors in China, including ihush.com, Shangpin.com and VIPStore.com, which separately raised US$ 43 million (from CapitalToday and Matrix China), over 50 million (series C) and tens of millions dollars (series C).

 

Although well-funded, some long-lasting problems concerning them are (a) counterfeits are all over the internet, made some consumers have a preference over offline purchasing; (b) range of items is not as comprehensive as offline distributors. Online luxury stores still have a long way to go to win over offline customers.

 

Related posts:

1. Chinese Online Luxury Market, Expected to Hit 16 Billion Yuan in 2011
2. VIPShop raised $50 million in Series B from DCM and Sequoia
3. 163 Made Further Step Into E-Commerce Market, Launched Online Luxury Shop

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Japanese Castle-town Building Game Shirotsuku Moves To Trading Cards

From August 2nd, Cave is beginning sales of “Shirotsuku Collection Card Shiro CA Part I” [J] (Shiro CA) as part of their castle town development social game “Shirostuku,” at Don Quijote, major family restaurants such as Gusto and 3F, and other major chains.

“Shiro CA,” coupled with “Shirotsuku” trading cards, contain a serial ID number.  By entering this ID number into the game, users are able to acquire limited rare items from within the game.  Among the cards are all 39 military officer type cards (with 6 secret card types included), with two cards in one pack.  With tax included the price is 315 yen.  From now the company plans to expand sales of “Shiro CA” cards.

Shirotsuku Official Fan Page [J]

Translation licensed by VSMedia [J]

Japanese Castle-town Building Game Shirotsuku Moves To Trading Cards

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Deal For Startups: Get Your Design Work Done @ 20% Discount(On Price Quoted By You)

Want to get your site logo done? Have a design project (website/brochures/ads) in mind? Get your marketing creative work crowdsourced and delivered at JadeMagnet at 20% discount (on price quoted by you).

JadeMagnet, a technology enabled crowdsourcing platform for creative services (has a provider base of about 4,000 designers and developers and has executed close to 850 projects in the last 15 months) has a sweet deal for companies who need to get their design work done.

Pluggd.in Deal/Fine Print

Register at jademagnet.com and post your project requirement for a logo, website, brochure or an ad. YOU decide the price and JadeMagnet will give a further 20% discount!

OR

Click here and let us know what you requirement is. Use the Referral code JMPI2011 in your Project description. We will call you back in less than 30 minutes and take it from there!

That is, You can get your marketing creative work crowdsourced and delivered at 20% of price quoted by you.

Game? Hop to Jademagnet site (T&C/more details here.)

Key contacts:

Manik manik@jademagnet.com, +91 99860 49185
Sitash sitash@jademagnet.com, +91 99024 33688

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If you are a company that provides services to startups, do reach out to Pi team for putting up your deal (deals@pluggd.in).

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