Welcome to the Year of the Mighty Mobile Mouse..!! Chances are it's been a hell-rush for everyone coming back to work here last week. We hope you had a super holiday season and are ready for what should be a great 2008! We're looking forward to connecting with you for a few sociable drinks - and plenty of networking - on Jan. 28 in Harajuku. This MoMo is an ‘Open-To–All' event - see full details for venue location, etc. below.
Your faithful MoMo Tokyo organizers are working on our event plans for the coming year, feedback on themes, speakers and potential locations is always welcome. We intend to announce upcoming MoMo dates with plenty of notice so members can juggle their busy schedules accordingly. Watch for updates coming soon – and mark MoMo on Feb. 18 in your calendar!
Heads-up to all innovative mobile start-up companies in Japan: While the 3rd annual MobileMonday Global Summit in Helsinki in September 2007 seems like only yesterday, we're already looking forward to the 2008 event, in mid-May. The Global Peer Awards will play a central part in the Malaysia Global Summit, so we are calling for submissions from the local community to present here at the MoMo Tokyo 2008 Peer Awards in late March.
Candidate companies must fall into one of three categories:
* Start-ups: Recently founded with early-stage financing
* Emerging: Operating between Series A & B funding
* Academic: Students in an accredited University program
There is no restriction on the business model, platform or market segment. Whether you have a content, service or application, targeted at B2B or B2C customers and/or running on Java, Brew, Symbian or Flash, you can submit (note, with respect to going global, presentations must be made in English).
Representatives from qualified companies will take the stage to make a three-minute public pitch at the MoMo Tokyo Peer Awards; winners will proceed to the Asia regional show-down with the best-of-the-best headed to the Global Peer Award Finals in Kuala Lumpur on May 18. Interested parties should contact us directly - ASAP - with their company profile. Ganbatte!
Finally, as we are well into our fourth year of running MoMo Tokyo events, we're pulling together a new sponsorship kit with some compelling data. Leading companies are encouraged to reach out and explore how we can work together on this growing and lively project in 2008.
Date: Monday, 28 January 2008
Venue: Pizza Express in Harajuku
18:30 - Doors Open
19:00 - Networking
22:00 - Last Call
22:30 - Close - Nijikai.. 8-)
The mobile browser wars are set to heat up in 2008 so it's a good time for a themed event digging into issues such as user interface and open standards. We have lined-up three really fantastic speakers from W3C and Mozilla.. so Register now and we'll see you on February 18th, please note this is an 'industry only' event, so no recruiters or life insurance sales people need apply. Also, we are starting to get some great companies coming online for the MoMo Tokyo 2008 Peer Awards.
Michael Smith — Agent Provocateur — W3C
W3C Initiative Michael(tm) Smith has been involved in design, development, testing, and deployment of networked information-delivery technologies for more than 10 years from carrier-grade e-mail delivery systems and content-transformation technologies to Web browsers and Ajax-driven Web-based applications. For most of the last seven years, he worked on systems for mobile operators in Japan at Openwave Systems and at Opera Software. He's now with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), where, after starting as the Asia lead for the W3C Mobile Web Initiative, he currently focuses on technical work related to core browser technologies; in particular, working with Microsoft, Apple, Opera, Google, Nokia, Access, Mozilla, dotMobi and others on HTML5, the next version the HTML language.
Christian Sejersen & Jay Sullivan — Mozilla Mobile
Mozilla MobileChristian Sejersen and Jay Sullivan will speak about Mozilla's mobile Firefox browser, Mozilla's strategy around mobile, and how you can contribute to a better mobile browser. Christian Sejersen joined Mozilla in 2007 as Director of Mobile Engineering focused on developing Mobile Firefox. Previous to that he was Director of Engineering at Openwave, responsible for development of next-generation embedded products with prior work including the EZ-web browser for KDDI and the J-Phone (now Softbank Mobile) browser. Earlier, Christian Sejersen was working for CSC and KMD (large Danish ISV). Prior to that, he co-founded a software security company. A native of Denmark, Christian Sejersen holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Copenhagen. Jay Sullivan is Senior Director of Mozilla Labs, working on mobile, online services and other new initiatives. Jay has worked in a variety of engineering, product management and executive roles at Oracle, Firefly Network and PocketThis, where he was a co-founder. Jay has been granted three U.S. patents for his work on mobile applications and collaborative filtering.
Date: Monday, 18 February 2008
Venue: KDDI Designing Studio
18:30 - Doors Open
19:00 - Welcome/introduction
19:15 - First presentation
19:45 - Second presentation
20:15 - Q & A
20:30 - Networking in the Wired Cafe
22:00 - Last Call
22:30 - Close
Heads-up to all innovative mobile start-up companies in Japan: While the 3rd annual MoMo Global Summit in Helsinki last September seems like only yesterday, we're already looking forward to Kuala Lumpur, in mid-May. The Global Peer Awards will play a central part in the Malaysia Global Summit, so we are thrilled to announce that representatives from the local mobile community will compete for the MoMo Tokyo Peer Awards - March 24th in the ultra upscale presentation hall of Shinsei Banks HQ. Full details below.
While we have your attention for a moment, a quick congrats going out to everyone involved with the Barcelona Peer Awards and to our MoMo Global team from Helsinki for their recent award from the president of Finland. We would also like to welcome CIAJ aboard as a “Friend of MoMo Tokyo” and note they are running the Digital Contents Business Park pavillion again during CEATEC 2008 event. If you missed our Feb. 18 Mobile Browser event video of the presentations, from W3C Here and Mozilla are now online.
MoMo Tokyo Peer Award
Candidate companies must fall into one of three categories:
* Start-ups: Recently founded with early-stage financing
* Emerging: Operating between Series A & B funding
* Academic: Students in an accredited University program
There is no restriction on the business model, platform or market segment. Whether you have a content, service or application, targeted at B2B or B2C customers and/or running on Java, Brew, Symbian or Flash, you can submit (note, with respect to going global, presentations must be made in English).
Date: Monday, 24 March 2008
Venue: Shinsei Bank Head Office
18:30 - Doors Open
19:00 - Welcome/introduction
19:15 - Presentations
20:15 - Networking & Voting
21:30 - Winners Announcement
22:00 - Last Call
22:30 - Close
This event is possible in part by the kind support of Shinsei Bank
MoMo Tokyo Peer Award 2008 Candidate Companies:
* Academic: Students in an accredited University program
BCmoney MobileTV
The opportunity to present an idea born out of the Mobile Consumber Behavior Lab (MoCoBe) at the International University of Japan in Minami-Uonuma-shi, Niigata-ken. The development team on the project consists of both current and recently graduated alumni students.
Mobile Krishna
Raju Vijay Anand, also a student at the International University of Japan, aims to provide security and information through mobile to tourists in India. It involves hypertags and the creation of a mobile eco-system that includes NGO's and private security services. It is planning to provide a solution to protect the privacy and safety of tourists in India.
* Start-ups: Recently founded with early-stage financing
Choten.tv
We are the first company in the world to offer a fully operational, direct-to-blog via 3G Videocall system. It also works fine from SIP phones - since the backend is basically an IMS application - we are totally compatible with ANY standard SIP client as well as UMTS gateway provider. All you need is a 3G phone and make sure you've set up a mobile profile on YouTube or Ameba.
Starling Software, K.K
Starling Software was founded in early 2006 by Curt Sampson and Bryan Buecking, both experienced software and web developers. Technology developed by Starling is a key component in mobile products developed by a number of Japanese companies. As well as customized solutions ranging from application-specific programming languages to entire web sites, Starling licenses several products it has developed for improving the mobile experience. The star product is RSWF, a system for customizing and recombining existing Flash content and generating new Flash content on the fly. Useful for a wide variety of applications, this particularly gives mobile websites the ability to overcome the limitations of Flash Lite and offer a “Web 2.0″ experience on the phone that can be achieved in no other way.
StarGame's Corporation
StarGame's is a Start-up company which will feature their service called as J2B translator. With this service, CPs can get a BREW application from a Java application full automatically.
UTUTU Co., Ltd.
UTUTU Co., Ltd. is a design engineering company in Tokyo, Japan, which develops mobile aplpications, web applications and physical interactive systems. UTUTU means “REAL” in Japanease and the main concept of our application is to make user prompt communication in real life as well as in virutal. At this presentation, we will release our new mobile appication. This application is a social counter system with which every user can count anything and share the data with other users for communication. We believe that this application is useful not only for entertainment but also business!
* Emerging: Operating between Series A & B funding
Find Tokyo
Find Tokyo is a location-based service that combines paper and Internet to help people navigate around Tokyo. By utilizing PC/mobile map service from GMAP, Find Tokyo will help people find restaurants, atms, and even where maid cafes are in Akihabara! Find Tokyo will help navigate people on what is going around town, when and where.
J-Magic Inc.
J-Magic is the mobile media company based on Image Sensing technology. Within 10 months, the company's mobile service called “Kao-cheki!” was used by over 85million users. “Kao-cheki!” is an entertainment service that tells celebrities who looks similar to you. You can only take a photo with camera phone, send it to “Kao-cheki!” by e-mail(MMS) and get the result. Not only faces but logos, buildings, products and various objects can be recognized by J-Magic's Image Sensing platform. J-Magic is now opening up new way of search!
Mobile Healthcare Inc.
Lifewatcher is a comprehensive, patient-centric, mobile disease self-management system for diabetes, obesity, and other lifestyle-related disease sufferers. It is critical for diabetes sufferers to track key health indicators such as blood sugar, blood pressure, calorie intake, exercise and their weight.
Naviblog Corporation
Naviblog Corporation specializes in Location-based mobile phone B2C/B2B applications and services, Location-based mobile marketing solutions, and Web 2.0-related technology development and services. During the 2008 Peer Awards, we will be introducing our latest technical achievement which centers on Speech-to-Text blogging on the mobile phone, an offering which does not require users to download an application. Working with world renowned academics in speech technology and lexicography, Naviblog Corporation envisions this technology playing a large role in services that rely on user-generated content.
NextNinja Ltd.
NextNinja Ltd. is a mobile service and solution provider. It comes by planning, constructing and operating a unique mobile service for more than 100 sites to date. The combination of excellent project solutions and original site development know-how with enterprise partners is made the best use of to deliver powerful mobile services. Providing business support services for mobile movie delivery, SNS, and face recognition offerings are expected to launch in March, 2008.
Rockbird
The Rockbird Studio content management system is an ASP web authoring environment, with mobile site editor function which can be easily configured using either Windows or Mac OS, for the design and production of mobile-compliant XHTML websites. Additional web hosting services are also available if required. Rockbird Backoffice has work flow / approval management system which allows project user to collaborate with other members. It's convenient user interface increases creator efficiency by approx.3-5 times in comparison to other ASP and 8-10 times XHTML coding.
By all accounts the MoMo Tokyo 2008 Peer Awards held on Monday evening was a fantastic event and we would like to thank everyone involved for making it one of our best gatherings ever. Hearty congrats are in order for the winners and complete respect offered to all of the candidate companies who stepped-up to participate. Honorable mentions for two surprise guest speakers are also in order; Nina Norlund, former biz dev. mgr at HP Bazaar, who helped us get the MoMo Tokyo chapter rolling and Faraz Syed, CEO of Mobile Complete, a past winner at MobileMonday 2007 Global Peer Awards.
Academic: Students in an accredited University program
MoMo Tokyo Peer Award Winner - Mobile Krishna
Raju Vijay Anand is a student at the International University of Japan, and a member of the Mobile Consumer Lab, who aims to provide security and information through mobile to tourists in India. It involves hypertags and the creation of a mobile eco-system that includes NGO's and private security services. It is planning to provide a solution to protect the privacy and safety of tourists in India.
Start-ups: Recently founded with early-stage financing
MoMo Tokyo Peer Award Winner - StarGame's Corporation
StarGame's is a Start-up company which will feature their service called as J2B translator. With this service, CPs can get a BREW application from a Java application full automatically.
Emerging: Operating between Series A & B funding
MoMo Tokyo Peer Award Winner - J-Magic Inc.
J-Magic is the mobile media company based on Image Sensing technology. Within 10 months, the company's mobile service called “Kao-cheki!” was used by over 85million users. “Kao-cheki!” is an entertainment service that tells celebrities who looks similar to you. You can only take a photo with camera phone, send it to “Kao-cheki!” by e-mail(MMS) and get the result. Not only faces but logos, buildings, products and various objects can be recognized by J-Magic's Image Sensing platform. J-Magic is now opening up new way of search!
We would like to pass along a very special thanks to our esteemed judges; Stephan Burke from Mobile Content Networks, Yurie Horita from Impress R&D, Hitomi Murakami from Seikei University, Masaaki Suga from Cybird Ventures and Martyn Williams from IDG News as well as Patrick Bray from GeoVector who served admirably as our MC for the night. We would also like to offer our most sincere gratitude to the great people at Shinsei Bank who provided an awesome venue, the folks at Infinita who built this groovy mobile voting site and finally, of course, everyone who attended. Yoroshiku!
Thank you all for coming out to our MoMo Tokyo 2008 Peer Awards event on March 24 at Shinsei Bank. We had a lot of very cool and innovative products presented! Congrats to the three winning companies and thanks to everyone involved for making it such a great evening. The video is now online Here. Our next MoMo Tokyo event, April 21st, will focus on ‘Solving big problems on small devices - Google's approach to the mobile internet evolution'. We're looking forward to welcome our key mobile industry members for what promises to be an interesting presentation.
Jaehong Lee — Chief Operating Officer — Mikle Inc.
Mikle Inc.Jaehong Lee is resposible for Mikle's day-to-day operations, strategic planning, product management, marketing, international business development. Prior to joining Mikle, Jaehong worked at Yahoo! Japan. He product-managed Yahoo! Japan's web search, image search and video search, and he led product strategy of Yahoo! Japan's search product line. Before Yahoo! Japan, Jaehong was general manager of NeoWiz Japan Corporation, a subsidiary of NeoWiz Corporation which is a Korean leading online community and game company. There, he worked on product management, marketing, and strategy of online community product. Previously, Jaehong was product manager for Yahoo! Korea where he managed broadband content product and content partnership with major content holders.
John Lagerling, Strategic Partner Development Manager, Google
Google JapanJohn Lagerling is responsible for Google's mobile business development activities in Japan. He has forged key partnerships with the major carriers in Japan, including NTT DoCoMo and KDDI as well as the major handset manufacturers. In parallel he is responsible for expanding the mobile ad-network in Japan, including partnerships Mobile SNS sites Mixi and GREE. Before joining Google, John spent five years working at NTT DoCoMo, initially as a manager for regional sales and marketing, and later as executive advisor focusing on business development around i-mode and the wallet phone business. He also has a background in consulting, driving projects related to Internet marketing and Mobile services.
Date: Monday, 21 April 2008
Venue: Google Japan Inc.
18:30 - Doors Open
19:00 - Welcome/introduction
19:15 - Presentations
20:15 - Q & A
20:30 – Networking
21:30 - Last Call
22:00 - Close
Thanks to everyone who attended our last event at Google on April 21st, a great evening was had by all. Now, mark your calendar for our next event on June 23rd at the always fashionable KDDI Designing Studio in Harajuku with a Texting 2.0 theme. We've lined-up an interesting company to demo their touch screen input and translation software and are looking forward to hear from a senior Nuance representative regarding the future roadmap of their T9 predictive text entry product.
KOH Kyotetsu, Director, Software Dept., KODENSHA Co., Ltd.
KODENSHA Co., LtdMr. KOH has been in charge of software development for Windows Mobile, including machine translation/dictionary software since 2002. KODENSHA's product lineup includes TransWalker j-Beijing V3, a Chinese-Japanese translation software with Shogakukan's dictionaries. It has gained a good reputation among business travelers to China. One of the notable features of the software is that users can input any text they want to be translated, which distinguished itself from other competing products. English-Japanese and Korean-Japanese versions of TransWalker were also released. KODENSHA then launched DictionaryWalker English and DictionaryWalker Chinese, putting more emphasis on dictionaries, coupled with entertaining antonym quiz. They even contain images which help users understand technical terms. These products, which run on Windows Mobile and implement standard functionalities of an electronic dictionary, allowed users to dispense with dedicated handheld dictionaries.
Brad Bargen, VP Product Dev., Nuance Communications
Nuance CommunicationsBrad Bargen is responsible for Nuance's Text Input product development program. T9 Text Input brings faster text messaging and easier access to mobile services to nearly four billion handsets worldwide. His team is currently working to build on the global success of T9 with innovative solutions for mobile devices including XT9 Smart Input and T9 Nav Smart Search. Previous to Nuance, he worked at Tegic Communications Inc. (acquired by Nuance Communications Inc. in 2007), at Wildseed, Ltd, working to develop Wildseed's innovative “SmartSkin” technology for mobile devices, and at Microsoft, where he authored the best selling book Inside DirectX.
Date: Monday, 23 June 2008
Venue: KDDI Designing Studio
18:30 - Doors Open
19:00 - Welcome/introduction
19:15 - First presentation
19:45 - Second presentation
20:15 - Q & A
20:30 - Networking
22:00 - Last Call
22:30 - Close
We hope you all enjoy rainy season now because it's gonna get hot-hot-hot real soon! So, with that in mind, your hard-working MoMo Tokyo team looks forward to chill'in with everyone at Sam and Dave's on July 14th while taking in a couple of super-interesting presentations coming from the good folks at Xtone and Niwango. See ya there!
Sadayuki Matsumoto - Chief Web Director - Xtone Ltd.
trunc.jpSadayuki Matsumoto, co-founder of Xtone Ltd, is Director of Operations at Xtone. Xtone launched “trunc”, an Ajax driven web-based home page, in September 2007 as a first personalized homepage service specialized for Japanese web apps. The initial idea was to create a personalized page in how Japanese users could create and control all the services without visiting websites back and forth. From February 2008, Xtone launched “trunc mobile” in which people could access “trunc” by cell-phones (DoCoMo/au/SoftBank/WILLCOM). “trunc” and “trunc mobile” allow users to check their favorite gadgets from either PC or cell-phone.
Tomohito Kinose - Director - Niwango, Inc.
Nico Nico DougaTomohito Kinose, also Director at Xtone, was in charge of the development of “Niwango”, a mobile web service where users can send questions and obtain information via email correspondence. By providing the service via mobile email, users can be more comitted and feel closer to Niwango, since mobile emails are closer to the daily life than web in Japan. Niwango offers other popular services such as novel games and blog feeds via mobile email.
He also takes part in planning & development of Nico Nico Douga, which is a video sharing community site with many communicative features. While there are many video sharing websites, Nico Nico Douga is known it's original interface where users can comment on the on-going video realtime. This feature lets the users share the emotions and sympathise, and is highly evaluated. There is also a mobile version on Nico Nico Douga which provides unlimited video view, just like the PC version. He's a chief management director for “Nico Nico Ichiba”, a user customizable affiliate program placed below the videos for Nico Nico Douga.
Date: Monday, 14 July 2008
Venue: Sam and Daves in Akasaka
18:30 - Doors Open
19:00 - Welcome/introduction
19:15 - First presentation
19:45 - Second presentation
20:15 - Q & A
20:30 - Networking
21:30 - Last Call
22:00 - Close
Thanks to everyone who made it our for Nico Nico Night on the 14th and then the 4th annual NetTokyo fund-raiser last weekend, it was a great way to kick-off the summer! Our next MoMo Tokyo is August 25th and we have tapped a couple of savvy VC's for a ‘money meets the talent' evening. Be sure to register now and try to stay cool in the meantime.. 8-)
Aki Ohashi - Partner - ngi group
ngi groupAki Ohashi, an American born Japanese, is a partner with the investment division ngi group, inc. The division specializes in early stage Internet and mobile phone investments, including mixi, Inc., the largest social network in Japan, (currently about US$1.5B on TSE Mothers Board). Prior to ngi capital, Aki was a director and COO for Tilefile, K.K. , a multimedia based social networking service in Japan. Before Tilefile, Aki was a consultant at L.E.K. Consulting (Japan) leading strategy engagements for multinational companies. His other experiences in the information technology industry include Mediaplex (US), an Internet advertising technology company (a ValueClick, Inc. company), and Cognizant Technology Solutions (US), an IT consultancy. Aki holds dual Bachelor's Degrees from the University of Texas and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University.
Keisuke Ide - Senior Associate - Globis Capital Partners
Globis Capital PartnersKeisuke (Keis) Ide started his career as an engineer at KLA-Tencor Corporation in San Jose, California, working on semiconductor capital equipment. He moved onto strategy consulting, working at the McKenna Group in Palo Alto, California, where he focused on high-tech marketing. After moving to Tokyo in 2002, he worked for a Japanese fabless semiconductor startup company as an international business development director. His activities included business development, marketing, and sales. He joined Globis Capital Partners, an independent, hands-on venture capital firm in 2007. His investement focus is products and services leveraging technology, that are scalable internationally. Keis received a BS in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia, and an MS in Management Science and Engineering (MSE) from Stanford University.
Date: Monday, 25 August 2008
Venue: Sam and Dave in Akasaka
18:30 - Doors Open
19:00 - Welcome/introduction
19:15 - First presentation
19:45 - Second presentation
20:15 - Q & A
20:30 - Networking
21:30 - Last Call
22:00 - Close
A big thank-you to all who braved the weather to attend MoMo Aug. 25th, you're real troopers one and all. As noted our next gathering is Sept. 22nd at the Canadian embassy. Since all eyes are looking at the americas for potential growth, we've gathered - from both sides of the equator - a couple of industry insiders to share their insights. As always it promises to be a fantastic evening in a swank venue and we are thrilled to count that as the 4th anniversary of the MoMo Tokyo chapter launch!
Diego Singer - Commercial Manager - Homenajear
Homenajear Homenajear is an Argentinian B2B company specialized in content development and distribution for mobile networks. Singer is in charge of commercial strategies, deployment of international activities and strategic partnerships. His previous experience comprises more than 10 years of entrepreneurial work in the technology and advertising industry. Prior to Homenajear Singer performed as the CEO in Looppa, a start-up web based social network. He studied philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires. Homenajear has more than 5 years of experience in the Latin American mobile market. A recent development in the region is that important companies are willing to invest in mobile advertising. Homenajear has taken the lead with Bluetooth marketing proximity actions, as well as custom made Java developments for brands.
Handol Kim - Senior Director - Intrinsyc
IntrinsycIntrinsyc provides wireless software solutions that enable next-generation handheld products, including mobile handsets, smart phones, and converged devices. The company is a Microsoft Windows Embedded Gold Partner, and winner of Windows Embedded Excellence Awards in 2007 and 2008, a Symbian Competence Center and Symbian Platinum Partner. Handol Kim is Senior Director, Worldwide Strategic Account Development, where he has responsibility for strategic sales to tier-1 mobile device/handset OEMs. Prior to Intrinsyc, Handol led APAC + Japan business development at Redknee Inc, a leading software vendor selling to mobile network operators. Handol has also held executive sales, marketing, and business development roles at a number of networking, optoelectronics and high-performance computing companies in Silicon Valley and Canada. He started his career as a Trade Commissioner in the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
Date: Monday, 22 September 2008
Venue: Canadian Embassy
18:30 - Doors Open
19:00 - Welcome/introduction
19:15 - First presentation
19:45 - Second presentation
20:15 - Q & A
20:30 - Networking
21:30 - Last Call
Thanks to all who made it out for our 4th birthday event at the Canadian embassy, we look forward to see you at Sam and Dave - October 20th for the iPhone Extravaganza. It should be a very interesting evening considering the speakers on tap so be sure to mark your calendar for that..!!
Yasushi Nakamura - VP Business Dev. APAC - Ideaworks3D Ltd.
Ideaworks3D Ltd. Yasushi has been involved in game technologies development and licensing for the past 9 years. Prior to joining Ideaworks3D in December 2007, He pioneered games middleware business in Japan for Criterion Software in 1999, which was later acquired by Electronic Arts. He then continued to manage collaborative next-gen game technology development projects within EA, working with the studios worldwide. With Ideaworks3D's “Airplay” – multi-platform native (C/C++) application development environment and deployment technology, he aims to solve “platform fragmentation” problem, which currently plagues the mobile industry, and build healthy eco-system for mobile application proposition, enabling customers worldwide deployment of mobile contents. He received MSc in Control Systems Engineering from University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.
Ryo Shimizu - Representative Dir. - Ubiquitous Entertainment Inc.
Ubiquitous Entertainment Inc.Ryo Shimizu managed the technical development of operating systems for the next-generation Microsoft game console while he was at the University of Electro-Communications. He joined DWANGO Co., Ltd. at the end of 1998 and launched its mobile phone business in 1999. After he quit his job at DWANGO in 2002, he worked for DWANGO North America Inc. as Content Development Vice President and then founded Ubiquitous Entertainment Inc. in 2003. He was conferred by IPA (Information-Technology Promotion Agency, Japan) with the title of Super Creator/Genius Programmer in 2005.
Makoto Kondo - iPhone Dev Team - Ubiquitous Entertainment Inc.
At present Kondo-san is in his third year at Keio University, Faculty of Science and Technology. He has practically developed games for "i appli" since high school. After entering University, he has worked with UEI as researcher. In the past, he had developed the technology demo such as SiteSneaker2007, UESurface and iPong.
Date: Monday, 20 October 2008
Venue: Sam and Dave in Akasaka
18:30 - Doors Open
19:00 - Welcome/introduction
19:15 - First presentation
19:45 - Second presentation
20:15 - Q & A
20:30 - Networking
21:30 - Last Call
22:00 - Close
Our iphone Extravaganza, with all those scary monsters on-hand playing trick or treat, was a real blast! Thanks to everyone who made it out last nite and we certainly look forward to see you again on November 10th for our next event with Fractilist and eMobile - profiles below - stepping up to the stage.
Meanwhile, we have a couple of extra announcements. First, as mentioned on Monday night, we have an open call out to all local developers for pitch to make our new MoMo Tokyo mobile website. Get the Details Here and we'll let the community decide on the winning proposal in November. Also, we have updated the registration form to capture a bit more data in an effort to streamline the sign-up and check-in at the door going forward. For those of you using Linkedin, we have started new groups there for both MoMo Tokyo and MoMo Asia so be sure to sign-up for those. Finally, we have managed to get MoMo discounts for a few upcoming industry events including 30% off for the Mobile Asia Congress in Macau. Looking forward to see you there!
Yusuke Tanaka - Founder & Director - Fractalist inc.
Fractalist inc.Yusuke Tanaka is one of the leading pioneers among Japanese mobile internet entrepreneurs. He established Dennotai in 1996 and collaborated with Unwired Planet (now OPENWAVE inc) to support and promote mobile internet services during the emerging market in Japan. Tanaka-san established Fractalist inc. in 2000 after Dennotai was acquired by Yahoo Japan. Fractalist inc went to public in 2006 and is now one of the major mobile marketing & solution providers in Japan. In a global perspective, he focused on China market and launched Fractalist China inc. in 2003 with Chinese colleagues. Fractalist China is now a partner of China Mobile in the mobile marketing area. His vision of Fractalist is to transfer successful Japanese mobile business models into global markets.
Ichiro Kato - Mgr, Product Planning Corp. Strategy - EMOBILE
EMOBILE Ltd.Ichiro Kato started his career at eAccess, ADSL service provider founded in 1999, as first new graduate employee. After he worked on Customer Service, Sales Planning of ADSL and Marketing of AOL(acquired by eAccess in 2004), he was appointed as Executive Assistant to Dr. Sachio Semmoto, Founder & Chairman of eAccess and EMOBILE. He is currently responsible for product planning and marketing for mobile terminals. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Commercial Science from Keio University. EMOBILE was awarded a 3G spectrum license in the 1.7GHz band in November 2005. EMOBILE launched data service in March 2007 and started voice service in March 2008.
Date: Monday, 10 November 2008
Venue: Sam and Dave in Akasaka
18:30 - Doors Open
19:00 - Welcome/introduction
19:15 - First presentation
19:45 - Second presentation
20:15 - Q & A
20:30 - Networking
21:30 - Last Call
22:00 - Close
Thanks to all who came down for our event last night - always great to see you! We're right back on the campaign trail with notice that December 8th will be our last gathering in 2008, so be sure to register soon and save that date in your hyper-busy Bonenkai Season calendar.. 8-)
Note: we'll be back at the KDDI Designing Studio, with a focus on Advance Search Tools. It's set to be another interesting evening, speaker profiles below, we look forward to see you there.
Yoon Kim - CEO - Novauris Technologies Ltd.
Novauris TechnologiesYoon has been involved in the academic and commercial development of speech technology and multimodal interfaces for the past 15 years, and has published several papers, patents, and international standards-related documents on advanced speech technology for mobile applications. Prior to joining Novauris, a UK-based company that develops core technologies for mobile voice search, he co-founded NeoSpeech Inc., a speech technology startup in the Silicon Valley. He was with the Speech Technology and Research (STAR) Laboratory at SRI International, and Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University. Yoon has also served as a member of the ETSI STQ Aurora DSR Standards Workgroup. He currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Speech Technology Magazine. Yoon holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
Ryosuke Esaki - Assistant Director - CyberMap Japan Corp.
CyberMap JapanRyosuke Esaki started his career at CyberMap Japan Corp., known for their map service, as a new graduate. After joining the mobile marketing division, he currently engages in the Business Development Division, and has also become a member of the lunch Ke-tai Kunitori Kassen, which received a mobile project award at Wireless Japan in 2008. He received a Bachelor's Degree in International Business and a Master's Degree in Geographic Information System at the University at Buffalo in New York, U.S.A.
Tadayasu Sasada - Producer & Director - CyberMap Japan Corp.
Tadayasu Sasada has been a major player in projects related to the launching of web sites for PC and mobile. Also, he launched a laboratory site for Mapion at CyberMap Japan Corp, currently one of the most popular Japanese mapping services. His creed is “make a product first, and then express images”. Due to the impressive and exciting interface of the iPhone and iPod touch, he started developing apps for the public's use with these devices. “DGRadar” is his product; a radar app for location-based contents launched in October, which recorded the top among rated free apps in AppStore.
Date: Monday, 8 December 2008
Venue: KDDI Designing Studio
18:30 - Doors Open
19:00 - Welcome/introduction
19:15 - First presentation
19:45 - Second presentation
20:15 - Q & A
20:30 - Networking
21:30 - Last Call
22:00 - Close