Comments on: GeeksOnAPlane: Learnings From Tokyo

By: GeeksOnAPlane Jumps The Pond; But First, A Layover in DC | Talk Update

GeeksOnAPlane Jumps The Pond; But First, A Layover in DC | Talk Update — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:49:21 +0000

[...] such as web, mobile, and gaming (you can read about what I learned in each of those countries here and [...]

By: GeeksOnAPlane Jumps The Pond; But First, A Layover in DC

GeeksOnAPlane Jumps The Pond; But First, A Layover in DC — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:16:28 +0000

[...] such as web, mobile, and gaming (you can read about what I learned in each of those countries here and [...]

By: ed

ed — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:32:51 +0000

“while iphone is generally more advanced than any Japanese cell phones”….. omg….. did you ever use any of Japanese cell phones before?

you even point out in your article that they can do mobile payment / qr code / stream tv etc… how is that not more advanced than the iphone?

By: The Far Edge » Blog Archive » Leave It To Chinese Quarantine To Reinforce The Value Of Social Media

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:36:18 +0000

[...] tour of East Asia with GeeksOnAPlane (see my assessment posts for China and Japan here and here), I’m back in the states and almost fully recovered from a potent bout of jet lag. I’m not [...]

By: Leave It To Chinese Quarantine To Reinforce The Value Of Social Media | Cellphone Ultra

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:15:39 +0000

[...] tour of East Asia with GeeksOnAPlane (see my assessment posts for China and Japan here and here), I’m back in the states and nearly fully recovered from a potent bout of jet lag. I’m [...]

By: Leave It To Chinese Quarantine To Reinforce The Value Of Social Media

Leave It To Chinese Quarantine To Reinforce The Value Of Social Media — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:47:55 +0000

[...] tour of East Asia with GeeksOnAPlane (see my assessment posts for China and Japan here and here), I’m back in the states and almost fully recovered from a potent bout of jet lag. I’m [...]

By: Luis

Luis — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 23:17:30 +0000

Lars, well said. It really annoys the heck out of me when smart people travel to Japan and in less than 48 hrs make uninformed comments or assessments about the mobile ecosystem.

By: Lars Cosh-Ishii

Lars Cosh-Ishii — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:54:02 +0000

Hi Mark:

Happy to hear you enjoyed the visit, seriously would not expect anyone to ‘really’ get it in a matter of 48-hours, it’s interesting to read how outsiders perceive what’s going on at 1st blush.

No sure what apps you tried, but cannot have been any – of the many – really great Flash driven offerings we have seen running here since the ‘evil operators’ adopted that platform as a standard pre-install way back in 2004..?!?

Sorry, I don’t understand your comparison between Jpn mobile web, with it’s ‘Compuserve’ lock-in method, and the current AT&T – iPhone approach? Clearly, iPhone is based on iMode, they are the same suit with a different color tie.. only the starting point in the time-line is some 7-years different..

With over 90% 3G penetration and 1/2 of the Jpn mobile market on flat-rate data plans, pure data usage, therefore revenues and continued innovations, should speak volumes.

A simple case-in-point would be the latest numbers from US and Jpn telcos. The main 3 carriers from each country report almost exactly the same combined gross earnings from voice and data in 2008. If one considers that the US has 2x the subscriber base AND still charges a fairly hefty fee per sms, while messaging is essentially free in Japan, then clearly there is ’something’ going on here!

It was great to meet some of the crazy “Greeks on a Train” here last week and hope you folks manage to sort the apparent flight connection issues now between Beijing and Shanghai..?!?

Cheers,

Lars

By: Hiromi Nakajima

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:28:14 +0000

On a side note, I have to comment on the author’s suggestion that Facebook’s poor translation quality may be one reason that the site hasn’t done well in Japan. I assume he hasn’t verified what the actual quality is like, and hope readers do not automatically accept this as true, when it may be the opinions of a handful of people.

By: Terri MacMillan

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:34:45 +0000

It was great fun seeing the Geeks and Tokyo2Point0 folks together. and this summary is very good, reflects my experience in Japan.

at the risk of being too meta, it feels as if the loose connections between Japan and the Western tech world are going to feed a burst of international entrepreneurism here…it’s really needed.

and in lighter news, I’m so sorry I missed the Cheezburger guy!

By: Paul Papadimitriou

Paul Papadimitriou — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:18:36 +0000

Serkan, I liked not only the question, but the way you asked it. It really showed the GoaP audience that there was something going on.

Looking forward reading your posts.

Had a great time helping the Geeks out here. Can’t wait to read re: Beijing and Shanghai, as Ken says.

By: lazysupper

lazysupper — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:57:16 +0000

You managed to get a solid grasp of things here in your 2.5 days.

Also worth noting is the iPhone is only available through SoftBank, which has brutal reception… not to mention the lack of wi-fi hotspots in Tokyo.

It’s also probably due in great part to Mixi that Japanese is the most blogged language in the world (often via mobile) … and it’s the #4 language overall on the web.

One of the best posts I’ve read on TC. Nice work.

By: Ken Brady

Ken Brady — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:47:33 +0000

It was good having the team of Geeks here in Tokyo. I look forward to the upcoming reports about experiences in Beijing and Shanghai.

By: Ken Brady

Ken Brady — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:46:00 +0000

The reaction from everyone else in the room was priceless.

By: Dave McClure

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:38:12 +0000

… got very interesting after Serkan started grilling him about Gree & Facebook competition

By: GeeksOnAPlane Meet Tokyo 2.0, Learn About The Relation Between The Web & Language

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:45:20 +0000

[...] geeks leaving today for Beijing. Former TechCrunch employee Mark Hendrickson already shared his views on the Japanese tech scene from an American perspective, giving me room to summarize (almost) all presentations the GoaP group [...]

By: BB

BB — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:35:28 +0000

Thanks for this excellent and useful primer! Looking forward to more.

By: Serkan Toto

Serkan Toto — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:33:50 +0000

Please look here:
http://bit.ly/vA8HF
for video material on Japanese web and tech stuff (more to come tomorrow).

By: Serkan Toto

Serkan Toto — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:32:56 +0000

The Mixi CEO the GoaP met said a few interesting things. I will cover that tomorrow.

By: Ashot Iskandarian

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:15:51 +0000

Tc team, this is awesome stuff. really enjoy reading articles like this.

By: Michael Arrington

Michael Arrington — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:17:16 +0000

it seems like there was an interesting story about Mixi.

By: Christine Lu

Christine Lu — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:10:39 +0000

um, jeff …sounds like you have a lot of misdirected emotional issues about the tech world and your place in it.

i’d like to say it would’ve been great to have you join us but on second thought a quick re-read of your comment confirms that it was probably best for all that you and your attitude didn’t come along.

By: Yutaka Hosoai

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:04:18 +0000

This is very good summarized post. They have very unique & closed marketing place in Japan, and alot of people still think Japanese products are the best. With their unique circumstance, that’s true, but I think they should open their eyes to the world.

By: gene tsai

gene tsai — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:16:01 +0000

“they operate in a very closed environment akin to Compuserve that gets reinforced by strong carrier lock-ins and family plans.”

Its all about the vertical monopoly in japan.

But very similar to iphone apps / itunes / iphone hardware / at&t ecosystem, right?

By: Paul Papadimitriou

Paul Papadimitriou — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:47:41 +0000

Thank you Mark for this balanced post about the situation in Japan.

We had a great time having you, Dave and all the Geeks here. Do come back and let the conversation flow between the various countries.

Cheers