Brown, Cony and the gang are coming to a credit card near you in Japan. Line, the messaging app company behind the cute sticker characters, announced today that it is bringing its payment service to plastic through a tie-in with Visa. Line is Japan’s largest chat app with an estimated 50 million registered users. The cards […]
View More Chat app Line’s mobile payment service is getting its own Visa cardCategory: Japan
Digital Garage teams up with Blockstream to develop blockchain financial services in Japan
The global crypto market may have tanked last year, but notable names have joined forces to develop Bitcoin and blockchain financial services in Japan, which has emerged as one of the world’s most crypto-friendly markets. Blockstream, a blockchain startup founded by Bitcoin contributors, announced this week that it has launched a joint venture in Japan […]
View More Digital Garage teams up with Blockstream to develop blockchain financial services in JapanAmerican Express acquires Japan-based restaurant booking service Pocket Concierge
American Express has made an acquisition in Japan after it picked up restaurant booking service Pocket Concierge in an undisclosed deal. The acquisition was announced in Japanese and in English by James Riney, the head of 500 Startups Japan which invested in Pocket Concierge as one of its first deals in the country. The service was launched in […]
View More American Express acquires Japan-based restaurant booking service Pocket ConciergePresident Bolsonaro should boost Brazil’s entrepreneurial ecosystem
Romero Rodrigues Contributor Romero Rodrigues is a managing partner at Redpoint eVentures, the Brazilian-focused arm of the Silicon Valley venture firm Redpoint. More posts by this contributor Brazil’s fintech boom offers new vertical opportunities for investors Brazil’s tech-sector bright spots beckon as it begins to emerge from long economic crisis In late October following a significant […]
View More President Bolsonaro should boost Brazil’s entrepreneurial ecosystemWorld’s most valuable AI startup SenseTime unveils self-driving center in Japan
The world’s highest-valued artificial intelligence startup SenseTime has set foot in Japan. The Beijing-based firm announced on Friday that it just opened a self-driving facility in Joso, a historic city 50 kilometers away from Tokyo where it plans to conduct R&D and road test driverless vehicles. The initiative follows its agreement with Japanese auto giant Honda in […]
View More World’s most valuable AI startup SenseTime unveils self-driving center in JapanNissan’s new Leaf e+ is packing more than just 226 miles of range
Electric vehicle competition is heating up and it’s pushing some of the first entrants to add range and other features in hopes of keeping up with automakers that are just bringing EVs to the market. Nissan has been in this EV game for nearly nine years now. The company has sold more than 380,000 Leaf […]
View More Nissan’s new Leaf e+ is packing more than just 226 miles of rangeHuawei reportedly punishes staff for New Year’s Eve tweet sent from an iPhone
As predicted, Twitter’s subtle new feature showing which clients tweets are sent from is already embarrassing brands. Following on from a Korean boyband sponsored by LG and Apple’s own Music staff, Huawei is the latest to be embarrassed after it sent a New Year’s Eve message using an iPhone. A since-deleted message included the embarrassing tell-tale […]
View More Huawei reportedly punishes staff for New Year’s Eve tweet sent from an iPhoneNexon founder hints at plan to sell his $9B majority share in gaming giant
The founder of Korea’s Nexon, one of the biggest gaming companies on the planet, today appeared to acknowledge his intention to sell his controlling interest for around $9 billion. The divestment has been a hot rumor after a report from newspaper Korea Economic Daily this week [via Reuters] suggested that Jung-Ju Kim, who founded Nexon back in 1989, is moving to […]
View More Nexon founder hints at plan to sell his $9B majority share in gaming giantFirst buses, now Shenzhen has turned its taxis electric in green push
Roads in a Chinese city have gotten much quieter in recent years. Shenzhen, widely called the Silicon Valley of hardware, has been pouring resources to phase out rattling diesel vehicles chugging through the city of 12 million people. All public buses in the city went electric by the end of 2017. Taxis soon followed suit. […]
View More First buses, now Shenzhen has turned its taxis electric in green pushThe strangeness of Japan’s decision to start openly hunting whales
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Each year, Japanese whalers haul hundreds of harpooned whales aboard their giant 8,145-ton vessel, the Nisshin Maru. And for decades, they’ve killed most of these whales in the open Antarctic seas, under the guise of performing scientific “research.”
But now Japan is changing course, in a curious way.
On Wednesday Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced that the nation will retreat from killing whales in the Antarctic waters. Instead, the Japanese have dropped the pretense of hunting whales for research and say they will strictly hunt whales in waters around Japan — mostly for the whales’ meat. Read more…
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View More The strangeness of Japan’s decision to start openly hunting whalesThe GPS wars have begun
Where are you? That’s not just a metaphysical question, but increasingly a geopolitical challenge that is putting tech giants like Apple and Alphabet in a tough position. Countries around the world, including China, Japan, India and the United Kingdom plus the European Union are exploring, testing and deploying satellites to build out their own positioning […]
View More The GPS wars have begunSoftBank Corp shares drop 14% on their first day of trading, but it’s still one of the largest IPOs ever
SoftBank Corp’s initial public offering today started with a bang before trailing off into a whimper, with the stock falling 14.5 percent during its first day of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company is the mobile unit of conglomerate SoftBank Group, whose holdings also include Sprint and the $100 billion Vision Fund. Shares […]
View More SoftBank Corp shares drop 14% on their first day of trading, but it’s still one of the largest IPOs ever