Motoko’s weblog

Japan’s leading product review and pricing site, Kakaku.com, announced the results of their Smartphone survey done in Japan. (6,149 samples, Male:88.4% / Female:11.6%)

The report shows that more than 20% have Smartphone, and more than 25% of people under 39 have Smartphone. I was surprised to see that more than 28% of teens responded that they had Smartphone. Note that 14.5% of teens said that they didn’t have any cell phones.

Smartphone users in Japan

Continue Reading »

Today, Microsoft and Yahoo made it official announcing a 10 year search deal.  According to Microsoft’s press release, the key terms of the agreement are as follows:

• The term of the agreement is 10 years;
• Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!’s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing web search platforms;
• Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology. Continue Reading »
  

One of the latest news items in Japan’s mobile market is that the iPhone will be available through Softbank in July, which means that Yahoo is set as the official search engine for iPhone in Japan. Yahoo’s search team has developed iPhone/iPod Touch search services, which has functions to switch between iPhone/iPod Touch screen and PC screen. The functions on iPhone/iPod Touch screen have been adjusted to provide better usability and the search experiences. It also has image search function.

The mobile Internet and mobile search started back in the ’90s in Japan when Japan’s NTT DoCoMo created “i-Mode” service, which was to provide a mobile Internet browser and the connection to view mobile websites from DoCoMo’s cell phone. The mobile Internet market has grown rapidly in Japan since then, and now the stats show that there are more access to Internet from mobile than from PC in Japan. Many Japanese conduct all of their Internet activities from mobile! Continue Reading »