Kristopher Tate is a known entity in the Web 2.0 world. Both he and his startup Zooomr are frequently covered in Techcrunch, Mashable and many, many other blogs. While most articles have focussed on his age (he’s 20 19!), the part which seems to be tossed to the side is he is developing and offering Zooomr to the world COMPLETELY from Japan. Whah?!

I’ve connected with Kristopher here in Japan and unfortunately missed him at our launch in Tokyo. His amazing talent shines through even in our chats on Skype. Here are some excerpts*:

Robert: Sorry I missed you last week during the Web 2.0 conference in Tokyo.

Kristopher: Things have been busy for sure…

Robert: How long will you be staying before heading out from Japan?

Kristopher: Not heading out.

Robert: Oh. Cool.

Kristopher: I’m going to change the web industry here… It’s going to take more than a few months but I’m pretty dedicated.

Robert: I can see that!

Kristopher: Lots of big stuff is about to start happening. It’s hard to get coverage in America about Japan. Nonetheless, Japan is a different beast. For instance, we’re pushing out our first official PR release soon. Web companies in America never do that.

Robert: Through the Japanese media or directly through American ones?

Kristopher: Japanese media.

Robert: Wow!

Kristopher: My goal is simple. I’m going to make Japan the next center of the web!…

I really want to get bloggers excited in Japan. It doesn’t seem like they have much forward voice here. That needs to change. The bottom line is this: Web 2.0 is dead — the brand is. In the valley everyone is scrambling for new ideas. But Google and Facebook have sucked up core talent. There isn’t anything new or exciting happening there. It’s become a bubble. Japan holds the second largest GDP globally. It’s infrastructure is amazing. 3G is here and people know how to use technology.

Robert: True.. but the culture is what takes it in a different direction…

Kristopher: …The revolution has to start here and continue here. There is new lifeblood in Japan. The problem is the way Japanese tend to think about actions… which really isn’t a problem.

Robert: Doesn’t being a foreigner ever prevent you from anything or is it an asset?

Kristopher: No, not at all — I’m becoming a resident here.

Robert: Perhaps I’m thinking you’re permitted to break through walls usual Japanese won’t normally try.

Kristopher: Well, here’s the deal. Japanese people make insanely great hardware but they haven’t really done very well with software. Games are amazing but here’s why - Japanese people are very researched. They think before action. Software doesn’t play that game — you can learn about it. But the best way to make great software is to just start writing. ‘Go action’. Japanese people don’t immediately have ‘Go action’ — only a rare few. Games are different because they are closed systems.

Robert: Right… but little to no risk. Their thinking is VERY LOOOONG term which normally is not the timing required for startups and web technology.. wouldn’t you think?

Kristopher: I think there are two vibes going on here. The very old, very conservative group and the next generation (my generation). We get it — and want to get things going. Thankfully because the older generation put down this amazing infrastructure we can now make amazing applications to ride on top of it all.

Robert: Interesting. But do you think those people you have gathered around you at Zooomr are TYPICAL of the younger generation in Japan.. who normally just go to work after university?

Kristopher: The people I have with me are not regular in the least, but that’s ok for starters. We will lead. People have the power within to make amazing things. Amazing software, even!

I’m not trying to copy what the valley is doing… (just) things that only Japan can do.

Wow. Check out Zooomr. There’s a lot there and a lot more to come!

*Disclosure: Skype excerpts included with permission. Edited for brevity.

Tags: blognation, Japan, blognation Japan, Zooomr, Silicon Valley, startup, photo, photo sharing, photo hosting, hosting, sharing, Kristopher, Tate, Kristopher Tate, CEO, entrepreneur

As reported, the blognation Japan Launch Party on November 16th yielded a prize winner of one free ticket for Le Web 3, happening next week in Paris, France. The winner, Serkan (Tokyo) Toto announced at the event he was very appreciative to win, but probably wouldn’t be able to make the event himself.

Serkan let me know tonight through the blognation Japan Skype Chat Room that he was successful in finding a buyer for his ticket - a gentleman from France very eager to attend the event at a much reduced price.

And where did Serkan find his buyer? Ebay? Another famous or local auction site? No - FACEBOOK! Wow! I thought Facebook was declared dead! Guess not.

Serkan: Congratulations again for the win and receiving the prize you truly won. You may not be able to schmooze with all the tech elite arriving in Paris , but at least that cash can buy a nice tasting bottle of true French Champaign bought at a fine local Tokyo wine store. Enjoy!

Tags: blognation, Japan, blognation Japan, LeWeb3, Le Web, Le Web 3, launchparty, launch party, Paris, France, winner, prize, Serkan, Tokyo, Toto, Serkan Toto, Serkan Tokyo, Serkan Tokyo Toto, Tokyotronics, champaigne, French, win

The Madrid company FON has done a great job distributing their product. Recently they celebrated their first birthday since their introduction to Japan on December 4, 2006. As of October 2007, FON Japan has become the NUMBER ONE country to provide access points with over 24,000 routers plugged in and beaming out a free Internet connection.

FON Japan released a statement this week claiming there are 207,460 routers plugged in, making it the largest Wi-Fi community in the world. Worldwide, there are 587,661 members (with or without a router) and 43,745 of those are in Japan (including me!).

I’m a big fan of the FON system and the wireless router, selling for only 2,000 yen (about US$20). It truly is the best deal in town. The tiny device produces both a private channel and a public channel to securely share your Internet connection with neighbors. You can even adjust the settings to the amount you give out just in case your neighbor decides to REALLY take advantage of your generosity.

The real determiner of success will be how it becomes accepted and distributed in the North America. So far it has been so-so. With competing projects such as FreeTheNet.ca (which uses the controversially priced Meraki mesh system), it may be a while before it becomes an easily recognized name world wide.

Tags: blognation, Japan, blognation Japan, FON, wifi, Wi-Fi, network, Japanese, Madrid, router, wireless, internet

Could you write a best selling novel with your thumbs on a telephone touch-tone dial pad? That’s the latest online meme about Japan circulating the Internet.

The Meme

The story began earlier today when Justine Norrie of the Sydney Morning Herald released “In Japan, cellular storytelling is all the rage”. The article describes the phenomenon of keitai (mobile) shousetsu (short story or novel) and how advanced the practice and this “industry” has become in Japan. It follows how 21 year old “Rin”, a college student, turned her hobby of writing short stories on her mobile to creating a novel reaching over 400,000 readers.

Duncan Riley picked up the story from Australia and wrote the ambiguous heading “Half the top selling books are WRITTEN ON mobile phones“. The ON aspect was particularly alarming for most. Do the Japanese have some special skill to allow them to write great doctrines from only two opposable thumbs?

The question was enough to create a discussion in Techmeme which either meandered between the aspect of how advanced the Japanese mobile industry is to how Japanese were just different from the rest of the world.

The Reality

At this point we really aren’t too sure where the sources for these stories are. We were able to find the story of Rin in Japanese from last February and the facts seems to be reported accurately about her by the SMH.

We also are aware that the phenomenon of keitai shousetsu is true (especially given the commuter lifestyle of Japanese) and there has been a dramatic increase in the number of authors choosing to use the keitai as their form of input (still not fully known whether the keitai have full keyboards or just the dial pad). Regardless, it should be remembered the industry uses this primarily as 1) a way to inexpensively self-publish and/or 2) test market a transcript before taking it to press.

If anyone could provide further information about this meme, we really appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

Note: The above graphic describes various titles sold by keitai shousetsu. The highest selling title, “Love Sky” (a collection of short poetry) has sold over 124,000 copies.

Tags: blognation, Japan, blognation Japan, techmeme, techcrunch, duncan riley, australia, keitai, shousetsu, novel, short story, story, manga, Love Sky, thumb, thumbs, author, thumbing, mobile, phone, mobile phone, cell, cellular, cell phone, cellular phone, text, message, messaging, Japanese, title, titles

Back in October 2005 I came across a service called Winksite. It promised to provide a “site” optimized for mobile viewing. I signed up, played a bit, and left it on the floor with my other 5 minute toys. I had no real use for a whole mobile site idea because the appeal was too limited. That all changed today… and who would have thought it all to do with QR codes.

Following a tip from a reader regarding a review of another QR code generating site (they seem to be coming out of the woodwork lately), I stumbled over Winksite again. Hold on, I remember they DID have QR codes which meant absolutely nothing to me in 2005. I decided to go back in and play around one more time to see if anything had changed over the years. Yes, it certainly had! The interface was cleaner, meaner and ready for the social networking generation! I was pleasantly surprised. As I started to build a blognation Japan mobile site to land from the QR code I have been distributing around on my business card, up popped David Harper, CEO of Winksite, on one of my public Skype chat rooms. He had noticed I was poking around and we started chatting about where Winksite has been over the past few years and where he hopes to take it. To my surprise, things were still as “fresh” as they were in 2005. In fact, there seemed to be a new enthusiasm and fire about the product. Did David now see the “tipping point” for his product finally arrive? Here are some excerpts:

I guess you saw we generate a QR code for a site as well. We just did a conference here in New York on QR codes - 200 plus people… all day on a Saturday… planning another one a bit larger for next year.

We started Winksite in the wrong year (2001 - WAP was declared dead), on the wrong continent (North America - What’s the mobile web?) and on the wrong coast (New York - money appears to be on west coast for this type of thing) but I think the early timing did give us insight and an active community that we learned from and now need to translate to additional innovations.

Until a year and a half ago we were a R&D project. The goal was to help the person in the street gain benefit of the mobile web by enabling them to publish. We also worked with Creative Commons to publish books to mobile phones for those without access to computers and where their phone was their main onramp to the Internet and the knowledge it contains.

We weren’t about making money or building a “business”. We’re still self-funded and still want to enable the individual, small business, indie artist, film maker, shop owner, blogger, etc. But to build upon our experience we now need to ramp things up a bit.

We also saw the need to bring awareness of the depth of mobile activity to broadband users - hence the new web site. This is leading us to also embedding sites on social networks and other sharing tools.

Much of past US mobile and web 2.0 development activity has been from the perspective that the mobile Web is an ancillary bolt on service to an existing Internet service.  Rather we see it from the perspective that the mobile Web should provide rich, mobile-specific services for those who’s main (or only) onramp to the Internet is a mobile device.

There’s no way we’re giving up since we never “hit” , rather the market never “hit” - the mobile space is only now coming into its own. We’re still “fresh”.

A very cool guy and a very cool service. Check it out.

[Disclosure: Quotes provided with permission. Edited for brevity.]

Tags: blognation, Japan, blognation Japan, Winksite, mobile, site, strategy, David, Harper, David Harper, QR, Code, Cods, QRCode, QRCodes, WAP

Cool technology alert from NTT DoCoMo, the leading mobile provider in Japan. Earlier this month they released their “905i” series of phones domestically with an interesting new feature… Japanese <–> English translation from voice recognition. It is a first for ANY mobile provider in the world that I’m aware of (with the usual caveat.. if you are aware of anything similar, please share in the comments).

The service is packaged with the phone but requires activation since it is an added service billed each month. The way it works is simply navigate to the interface (which is online) and speak the word or phrase into the phone (in either language). The system will then recognize the phrase, translate it, then display the translated text on the screen. Cool. Couple this with the on-board Voice Recognition GPS service (another add-on) and you’re one step closer to being Captain Kirk or C3PO (and you thought they were only shows and movies!).

Let’s see how long it will take the other mobile providers in Japan (and the world) to catch up.

Tags: blognation, Japan, blognation Japan, mobile, cell, cellular, phone, speech, recognition, translation, Japanese, English, to, from, text, GPS, Navi, first

Over the past few days I’ve taken some time to study the Japanese blogging scene. One curious observation is while US bloggers are on the geeky side such as Scoble or even iJustine, Japanese popular bloggers are more entertainment personalities. One particular blogger who is at the top of the ranks is a bikini babe who enjoys being cute, naughty and very tenacious.

Chinatsu Wakatsuki began her career as a typical bikini model and later became a talk show personality because of her audacious behaviour. She eventually started a tell-all blog which not only chronicled her own “bad-girl” adventures but shared the secrets of her famous colleagues as well. Now DON’T confuse this with a Paris Hilton or other bad-girl story. Remember, in Japan it’s REALLY BAD for someone to fake sickness to their employer then go on a cool vacation and brag about it on their blog. Oooooh. That’s baaaaad! Well, maybe not for the rest of the world, but in Japan this type of online entertainment is just too exciting. MUST log in tomorrow to see what kind of craziness she’ll do next.

This adventurous odyssey continued for the past year and even peaked in May with one blog entry gathering over 7,500 comments… IN ONE DAY. Strange? Not really. This week she simply announced she wanted to take a bit of a break from blogging and asked her fans for their understanding and patience. No nervous breakdown. No shaving her head bald. Just a quiet note saying she wants to take it easy for a bit and will decide at some point if and when she will continue blogging. Already over 4,500 comments have flooded the post with readers asking her if she was alright and yes, they would sit and wait for as long as it takes until she came back. Now don’t you wish YOUR BLOG readers did the same?

I don’t know how this all works out on the Internet for SEO or monetizing the value of traffic for her site. All I do know is you don’t have to be geeky to be big in the Japanese blogosphere - you just need a bikini.

Are you listening Scoble?

Update (Nov. 28, 2007): Looks like Chinatsu is back to blogging again. Stunt or brief rest? We’ll let her readers decide.

[via GB]

Tags: blognation, Japan, blognation Japan, blog, blogging, blogger, bloggers, Japanese, blogosphere, Wakatsuki Chinatsu, model, tv personality, Robert Scoble, Scoble, iJustine

Here’s a nifty little mashup one of my Japanese readers pointed me too. Places neatly on a single page all the API information to see how services are running from your blog including feedburner stats, technorati linkbacks, Digg and del.icio.us links, etc. The service, available in English, is called Full Feed Alliance.

It has a very clean interface with all the information linked to a nice permalink to show your stats (see the blognation Japan stat page here).

Find out how others are doing as too!

Naturally available in Japanese as well.

Tags: blognation, Japan, blognation Japan, API, stats, Feed Alliance, Japanese, mashup

“QR Codes are coming! QR Codes are coming!” Or so the modern day US Paul Revere tech geek may herald. Those funny little blocky scan codes on Japanese McDonald’s hamburger wrappers have started to appear in American daily newspapers via Google Print Ads.

Last week Google announced as part of their AdWords campaign they would offer Print Ads placed in US daily newspapers. While this might normally be ho-hum, the exciting part is the addition of the curious little Japanese QR code as part of the ad. Google is giving it an American spin by calling it a “2D Barcode” and has already used it in ads including Blue Nile Jewelers in the San Jose Mercury.

Think about it. This could make a huge inroad for the standard on American soil.

Consumer scanning is not new. In the late 90s Radio Shack made an attempt at making the practice mainstream by giving away a quirky little product called a “cuecat” which plugged into your computer and theoretically would scan a printed code and show the product on your computer screen (not quite to the mobile side of things yet). The initiative turned into a fiasco when consumers discovered personal information was being tracked with each scan. The product was scrapped, catalogs and publications dumped the idea, and people tried to come up with “creative” things to do with their cuecat.

The QR code just hasn’t had the same bad history, especially in Japan. Consumers have their “equipment” already installed on most phones so no need for a computer. Most vendors so far have stayed away from gathering ANY information. The codes are strictly perceived as a means to bring a mobile device to a page to provide information - not grab as much information from the consumer as possible and give as little as they can. I would say this is the one of the most important pieces most American companies seem to miss when trying out this type of technology.

The most essential part in all of this, which I mentioned in my last post about QR codes is the hardware. How many consumers in the San Jose area have a mobile phone equipped with a QR reader? It’s truly amazing Google would take this initiative. It’s almost like putting up a YouTube or Flickr site BEFORE anyone has a digital camera.

I’m hopeful more American companies will allow the codes to appear in their ads and have more consumers ask what it’s all about. The system works extremely well and, if properly deployed, a huge asset to any advertising campaign.

Hat tip to David J. Hinson and Roger.

By the way, here is the code for THIS article:

Tags: blognation, Japan, blognation Japan, QR Code, QR Codes, QR, Code, Codes, barcode, 2Dbarcode, 2D Barcode, 2D, Google, AdWord, Adwords, Print, print ads, newspaper, blue nile, placement, cuecat

No really. I’m NOT a social butterfly. But given the opportunity to be able to bring talented, passionate people together from Tokyo in the same room to meet each other and chat about.. oh, Web2.0, blogging, podcasting, mashups, online collaboration.. well that is just TOO exciting - especially for us geeks!

Following the Web2.0 Expo presented by Tim O’Reilly, we decided to take the opportunity of being in Tokyo to do the following:

1. Bring everyone together for an after conference event
2. Officially present the introduction of blognation to Japan
3. Create forums and vehicles to allow the participants to not only communicate and share news and “buzz” with blognation Japan, but to share with each other in a online community which simply does not exist at the moment.

I’m happy to report we exceeded our expectations in successfully achieving all three and more.

As we made our way to Outback Restaurant in the VERY busy but fashionably hip district of Shibuya (yes, we got lost and were slightly late!), we were wonderfully surprised to see Yuki Naotori and his Mashup posse were waiting and anxious to get things going. As we scrambled with business cards and greeting the next to arrive, we were satisfied with a great turn out. The guests included:

• Shinya Ichinohe
• Rich Pav, HerroflomJapan
• Chika Fukuda, GOGA Inc
• John Breslin, Digital Enterprise Research Institute
• June Watanabe, Sun Microsystems
• Andrew Shuttleworth, CVP
• Junya Ishihara, Champierre
• Keichi Furuta
• Kenji Ohta, CRE8SYSTEM
• Motohiko Tokuriki, Agile Media Network
• Serkan Toto, Japan’s Internet Scene Blog
• Yukako “Tajee” Tajima, VOICE-BANK Inc.
• Yusuke Kawasaki, Recruit Co.
• Rob Cawte, NextWeb Japan
• Eyal Oren

One of the first shocking questions of the night was, “So what will blognation be selling me?” Wow! I had to correct that one real fast. I stood up and introduced myself and the blognation Japan team (my wife!) and explained the above three objectives as best I could. No, I really wasn’t selling anything. Just looking for their support and trust as I entered their community. Everyone seemed to think that was fine, raised their glasses in a “Kampai!” toast to blognation, and the party began!

While conversations went back and forth, one of the interesting highlights of the evening was the give away of the ticket for LeWeb, in Paris next month. The winner was Serkan who seemed pleased with the win, though due to the lack of time before the conference, chose to sell his ticket online the next day (which was perfectly OK with me).

Suffice to say the 2 hour “shindig”, as podcaster Rich Pav called it, ended 4 hours later. Once the last guest left the table, the REAL work started in somehow keeping track of everyone, both in our databases and online.

The vehicle of choice we decided to try was Facebook. This was actually quite a bold move since Facebook is NOT yet established in Japan (most Japanese are mostlye familiar with Mixi). I decided to use the blognation Japan Facebook Page as the meeting spot for the participants - both English and Japanese speaking. As each participant blogged about the event, rather than just bookmark or link their comments, I accumulated them on the Page, regardless of language. I admit Facebook held up to the challenge and aggregated the comments well as posts.

The final step in the “building community” part was the establishment of TWO new public Skype chat rooms. I have quite a bit of experience creating and moderating my own group at pacificIT so I knew the ingredients required to start making this an attractive place for people to hang out and share their thoughts and experiences about technology in Japan.. even if they didn’t attend the event. Again very pleased with the high quality of discussion in both the Japanese and English forums (and my jealousy to those who can participate well in both!).

Thanks again to everyone for making this blognation Japan Launch such a success. You truly made us feel part of the family and we certainly will do everything we can on our side to support you as a community.

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

Tags: blognation, Japan, blognation+Japan, launch, Tokyo, Web2.0, party, community