Archives for the month of: September, 2008

where Google is not leading

2008/09/18 //

The FT has a good overview of some markets where Google is not leading search including China, Korea, Japan, Russia, Czech Rep. In addition to these, you can add Taiwan too. If there are other markets where Google isn’t leading, please leave a comment.

Yandex, which handles 46 per cent of search queries in Russia, has been preparing since the spring for a listing on the US stock market. Seznam, which controls 63 per cent of Czech searches, has been the subject of a number of buy-out approaches, according to two internet industry insiders.
Along with just three others, these represent the only local companies that have prevented the global search business from turning into “Planet Google.”
Baidu in China and Naver in South Korea each handle about 60 per cent of internet searches in their respective countries, while Yahoo Japan claims slightly more than half of its local search market.

Google still struggling to conquer outposts

Categories China, Internet, Japan, Korea, News, Search

Sukiyaki Western Django

2008/09/17 //

Sukiyaki Western Django now has a nice HD trailer at Apple.

Famed Japanese auteur Takashi Miike, who is best known for cult classics such as Audition, Ichi: the Killer, and Children of Lost Souls, brings a fresh new look at the beloved spaghetti Western genre in Sukiyaki Western Django. Two clans, Genji, the white clan led by Yoshitsune, and Heike, the red clan led by Kiyomori, battle for a legendary treasure hidden in a poor mountain town. One day a lone gunman, burdened with deep emotional scars but blessed with incredible shooting skills, drifts into town. Expectations reach a boiling point as everyone wonders which gang the gunman will finally decide to join. Dirty tricks, betrayal, desire, and love collide as the situation erupts into a final, explosive showdown.

Categories Japan

A discussion about the crisis on Wall Street

2008/09/17 //

Skip the Larry Summers monologue. Go right to the table discussion with Rosner, Roubini and Sorkin. Excellent coverage.

Scary Roubini quote: “Right now there is a meaningful risk of a global recession. When 50% of the global GDP is falling and it is in the advanced economies, the idea that Russia, China, India, Brazil, emerging markets in Latin America, Africa, Asia, are going to be happily de-coupled from this contraction is nonsense.“

Very scary Roubini quote: “In our country [the US] when there is a recession, people lose jobs. In other countries, when there is a severe recession, people starve.“

A discussion about the crisis on Wall Street

Categories News

Japan – The Recession is Here

2008/09/17 //

Claus Vistesen writes convincingly that Japan is in a recession.
Japan – The Recession is Here

It has been a while since I last had Japan under the spotlight where and where I noted that Japan almost certainly would be tumbling into or very close to recession. Since then, data have been pointing only one way really and with the recent downward revision of an already quite awful Q2 GDP reading Japan now seems certain to be flirting with a recession.

Categories Japan, News

iPhone not selling in Japan

2008/09/15 //

Yukari Kane of the WSJ pops the bubble of the iPhone in Japan.

Apple’s Latest iPhone Sees Slow Japan Sales – WSJ.com

According to market-research firm MM Research Institute, Apple sold about 200,000 phones in Japan in the first two months. Since then, however, demand has been falling steadily, and analysts now widely believe sales are unlikely to reach a total of 500,000 units. That is half the one million units that they previously thought Apple could sell.

…

“Japanese users don’t know what to do with an iPhone,” he said. “Sales could grow if Apple provides specific examples of how it can be used.”

It’s interesting to think that Japanese users don’t know what to do with an iPhone. I suspect that is true because Japanese users are accustomed to being inside the walled garden of their carrier, so to have the full Internet is not appreciated or understood. Japanese mobile phones have browsers but they’re basically only used for the walled garden of the carrier. I have the option of using a “full-browser” on my phone, but it would cost me 1500 yen/mo. or 18000 yen/yr. which I am certainly not willing to pay.

I believe that Roy Amara‘s quote is appropriate here: “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.” I think that the effect of the iPhone on the global mobile market in the long run, specifically providing a real browser on a mobile phone (note that full-browsers are coming on Android as well as Mobile Firefox), will be the most important legacy of the iPhone.

Categories Gizmo, Internet, Japan, mobile, News