Global Launch by Social Games

　DeNA looks to expand their social gaming platform worldwide and has teamed up with Gurunavi, an online restaurant information site, to start a new promotional service for restaurants on mobile devices.

　”Bistro World” is a social restaurant business game that aims to crown the global culinary king by remembering dishes from around the world and pitting them against each other by presenting them to users. “Gurunavi NEW Touch” is a system that allows users to collect points when using coupons accessible by touching their cellular or smartphone on terminals every time they visit a restaurant. Users can collect “Local Dishes” from the 3,000 restaurants in Japan that have adopted “Gurunavi NEW Touch,” and can use them within “Bistro World.” There are a total of 10 types of “Local Dishes,” and users receive a special dish with benefits if all 10 types are collected.

　Foursquare is a major check-in social application with user growth centered around the US and Europe, and has recently been increasing promotional services with restaurants and shops. Japan is further ahead in the asynchronous social mobile gaming world, and by adding this element, not only does it improve the fun for collectors, but also increases the amount of time spent within the game by game fans – leading to potential business in real life. By working together with the game, owners can also grasp the situation of coupon use at their shop online, and utilize that data for planning effective business strategies.

The Emergence of Many Innovative Social Networking Services

Facebook is the world’s largest community with 750 million active users. Analysts are now saying that the only potential rival is “Google+” and others will not be a match against the Facebook giant. Given the circumstances, many new specialized social networkings have emerged for niche areas. We would like to introduce one of these niche social networking services from Japan.

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Source: Nihon Keizai Shimbun (News Paper)
■ “Cheerz” – An Instant social networking from Japan
“Cheerz” is a new global service released in July by KLab in Japan (Minato Ward, Tokyo; President Tetsuya Sanada). The system allows communication between users viewing the same website or webpage through chat. You could call it a ‘single-use real time’ social network. A new area for communication can be created by adding this social network layer to various websites, and thus KLab calls Cheerz a “Social Layer Service.”

Links to Facebook, Twitter, and mixi can be found embedded on many websites today. However, the problem is that users who use these social networking functions have to leave the website they were viewing and access the social network website. Users want to share material from the website, but the purpose diverges from their original intent. Traffic is seemingly diverted from the website to social networkings and the advantages grow slimmer.

By using Cheerz, users will continue to stay on the website and can communicate with fellow users. Website hosts can extend the amount of time users spend on their websites. Distribution of ads can be targeted for Cheerz users that access certain websites, creating growth potential for new advertisement media.

Cheerz originally had an alpha release in English, now followed by a beta release in Japanese. President Sanada aspires to “expand Cheerz to become a global service by introducing an English interface again in the future.”

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This “single-use real time” social network is an interesting take on the social networking paradigm because the structure actively promotes thin surface-layer relationships.

There are other innovative social networking services popping up overseas as well, with a trend in being purchased by big corporations. Services that aimed to spread only in Japan have come and are now going, while innovative services are emerging overseas to contend on a worldwide scale and hitting gold. We hope the students and youth in Japan will have that kind of ambition as well.

Tags: Cheerz, Facebook, innovative, KLab, Mixi, single-use real time, SNS, social network, Twitter, website

Establishment of D2C China Co., Ltd. in China, and Commencement of Business from August 8th.

On July 19th 2011,  D2 COMMUNICATIONS INC. (hereinafter D2C) established D2C China Co., Ltd., (hereinafter D2C China) in Shanhai, the People’s Republic of China, as a mobile advertising/marketing company with 100% D2C capital, in order to provide optimal marketing methods utilizing wireless devices accurately and flexibly for the marketing needs and challenges faced by advertisers in China. Business operations will begin from August 8th.

3rd generation communication system (3G) mobile phones have become popular in the Chinese market. The number of mobile phone subscribers was over 800 million and it broke through 900 million in June this year, with the number of 3G users also breaking through the 80 million and has become the world’s largest 3G communication market. As the communication environment develops, the number of mobile internet users has also steadily increased. In addition, it is estimated that the sales of smartphones will overtake the sales of feature phones in 2013. The Chinese mobile advertising/marketing market is showing high growth above 170% year-on-year, and it can be seen that the market will continue to expand rapidly.

D2C China is rolling out an extensive mobile advertising/marketing business in the Chinese market, centering on a “planning boutique business” to support the sales of mobile advertising business, and a “solutions business” to create mobile websites and plan/manage campaigns. D2C China provides services aimed at advertisers/advertising companies both local and foreign-affiliated focusing on Japanese firms that are moving into China from Japan, taking advantage of 11 years’ worth of mobile advertising/marketing know-how accumulated by D2C in the Japanese market.
For example, D2C China supports content holders to move into China through a Chinese localization service for smartphone applications.

Link：
http://www.d2c.co.jp/en/company/affiliated/sub_cn.html

Analog Broadcasting Comes to an End: Can the new viewing experience of “mobilecast” bring the new fans?

In Japan, analog broadcasting ended at noon on July 24, 2011, except for Miyagi, Iwata, and Fukushima Prefectures.

Starting April of next year, “mobilecast” a multimedia-broadcast for mobile devices, will use part of this frequency. This release introduced these service concepts by mmbi, Inc.

 Integrating broadcasting with communications

mobilecast can view a Twitter or Facebook timeline on its viewing device while views a program in real time. Friends and acquaintances can watch the same program while communicating about it.

 More than just images will be broadcasted

mobilecast is that it’s not confined to images, but can distribute all sorts of content including games, music, and applications.

 Infrastructure that supports news and information during emergencies

If emergency earthquake information is issued during a program broadcast, mobilecast can respond to viewers’ information needs which change by the minute through distribution of information on evacuation centers, relatives’ safety information, scope of damage, traffic conditions, etc., using store-and-forward broadcasting while the most recent information is broadcasted real-time.

 High quality images to mobile device

mobilecast can distribute much higher quality images. Compared to the one-segment resolution of 320×240 (QVGA), it uses the higher 720×480 resolution (VGA) yielding a greater image size. Furthermore, in store-and-forward broadcasting, high-definition images of 1920×1080 can be broadcast at 60 fps.

 * Added bonus

The broadcast tower for the Kanto area, Tokyo Sky Tree, for the service beginning on April 1 of next year will reach 16 million homes in the area. Looking to the future, we also expect to see digital broadcasting via other devices such as car navigations, digital signage, portable music players and other devices.

 ”Tokyo Sky Tree” will appear in the Narihirabashi/Oshiage area of Sumida Ward, Tokyo in 2012. Boasting a height of 634m, the tower will be one of the world’s tallest.

http://www.tokyo-skytree.jp/english/

The 2011 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity: NTTdocomo’s “Xylophone” Advertisement Wins 2 Gold Prizes!

At France’s 2011 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, one of the 3 biggest award festivals for advertising in the world, NTTdocomo’s “Xylophone” advertisement won a gold prize in the Film Craft Lions as well as the Cyber Lions categories.

The winning advertisement is for one of NTTdocomo’s cell-phone models, the SH-08C. Parts of timber were used in the middle of a forest in Kyuushuu to create a 44 meter-long xylophone staircase, and then a ball was rolled down it to create the sound of Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.”

The advertisement is quickly gaining worldwide attention on YouTube. Please enjoy the clip of music made from the giant wooden xylophone inside the serene forest!

(URL – Japanese)

http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/corporate/ad/tvcm/110520_01.html

JR Kyushu, “Today’s Saigodoon” chosen as the grand prize winner of this year’s Mobile Ad Awards!

As the grand prize winner of the 10th Mobile Ad Awards (*1) held since 2002, Today’s Saigou-Don (*3) has been selected. Today’s Saigou-Don is a virtual character ad that was used in the Kyushu Bullet Train Line Opening Countdown Project for the Kyushu Bullet Train Line (*2) fully opened in March 2011.

This ad was part of a countdown campaign accompanying the full opening of the Kyushu Bullet Train Line in March 2011, consisting of a giant 50-meter virtual character named Today’s Saigou-Don traveling across Kyushu. In preparation for full opening of the Kyushu Bullet Train Line in March 2011, the giant Saigou-Don made his way up from Kagoshima Chuo Station to Hakata Station. In this ad story, Saigou-Don travels up to Hakata Station where his dog Tsun is waiting while stopping at the Bullet Train Line stations and local sights along the way. When the iPhone was activated at the tourist spots and stations visited by Saigou-Don, the AR (augmented reality) is displayed on the iPhone as below.

The ad was most highly evaluated for all categories thanks to its story, entertainment, locality, and expressiveness.

*1: The Mobile Ad Awards were started in 2002 as awards for mobile ads and mobile marketing coming from Japan (the awards are run by D2C).

*2: The Kyushu Bullet Train Line connects the North and South of Kyushu, one of the four main islands that make up Japan. Kyushu is the third largest and most western island in Japan.

*3: Saigou-Don is based on Saigou Takamori, a famous Japanese historical figure that lived from 1828 to 1877 and was born in Satsuma Province (currently Kagoshima Prefecture).

Other award winners included the BE Originals campaign (adidas Japan K.K.), a user participation campaign that links fashion and music through mobile phones, and “Domino’s App” (Domino’s Pizza Japan Inc.), which is the world’s first food-delivery application that utilized the GPS function on a smart phone.

The 10th Mobile Ad Awards were characterized by the fact that more than half of all creatives utilized smart phones, including the award-winners. As the use of smart phones becomes more widespread, methods using new technologies such as AR, GPS and twitter to build connections with users have increased. The selection committee commented that the 10th Awards reflected the recent trend in advertising and marketing industry in widespread use of these evolving technologies.

Comparison of mixi, GREE, mobage, and Ameba based on the latest earnings

Quarterly results for January to March 2011 have been announced by mixi, GREE, mobage, and Ameba, the four largest social media platforms in Japan. Currently, the external business environment for these four companies is facing a period of drastic change, with the maturation of feature phones, the rapid growth of smartphones, and the increase of foreign platforms in the Japanese market, such as Facebook and Twitter. The advertising revenues and past trends for each of these four platforms are examined as below.

 Compared to the previous quarter (October to December 2010), advertising revenues have decreased for mixi, remained level for mobage, and steadily increased for both GREE and Ameba. Compared to the corresponding period of the previous year (January to March 2010), revenues for Ameba and GREE steadily increased by 49.3% and 36.1% respectively, while revenues for mixi grew by just 3.5% and dropped by 11.7% for mobage (*Refer to Graph 1).

 The following factors are believed to have contributed to the lag in the growth of advertising revenue for mixi and mobage.

1. Low growth in the number of page views:

One of the factors contributing to mixi’s stagnation is the low growth in mobile page views, which act as the source of advertising inventories. Though it varies by month, page views have remained at around 25 billion page views per month since January 2010 (*Refer to Graph 2).

2. Strong performance of paid services:

The strong performance of paid services has been a factor contributing to the poor performance of advertising revenues for mobage. If paid services are used and effectively profit from them, there is no strong need to accept excessive discounts in the advertising which outlink users away from its own site. As a result, DeNA enjoyed the record breaking revenues and operating income during the quarter from January to March 2011.

 In terms of user trends, many are expected to switch from feature phones to smartphones in 2011 and 2012. How smoothly each company can manage this switch of existing members and how they arrange for advertising products will be essential to their success.