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article [japantoday.com]
Telecom carrier Poweredcom Inc said Monday it and Daum Communications Corp, a major South Korean Internet concern, have agreed to set up a portal-business joint venture in August.
There are quite a few portal sites in Japan already. None of them are exceptionally popular outside Yahoo. If Daum can take the Korean model and successfully export it over here things should get interesting.
There aren't too many details in this release, but I guess we'll hear more about it soon. I'm sure they've seen what happened to the Naver portal in Japan and will not make those mistakes again.
There are quite a few portal sites in Japan already. None of them are exceptionally popular outside Yahoo. If Daum can take the Korean model and successfully export it over here things should get interesting
I heard somethings about that. I'm very interested to see how successful they will be, especially in comparison to NHN's venture.
Sometimes I get so focused in this market that its easy to miss some events right next door. Make sure to keep us posted. ^^
Anyway, there are other moves in Japan....
"To head off strong challenges and remain ahead of the curve, Daum and Naver are looking to expand their horizons to Japan where broadband Internet gains steam on an increasing basis.
Earlier this week, Daum announced it would invest 8.71 billion won to snap up a 65-percent stake of Taon Corp, a Japanese online venture, which will operate Japan’s top community site, Cafesta.
NHN, which extended its reach into Japan earlier in 2000, beefs up its foothold in the nation by deploying 54 new games this year alone, becoming a top player in the Web game market."
(Korea Times)
Well...here's the result of the Daum investment with Poweredcom. It's a community portal called CafeSta. I guess this is what Grendel has been talking about with the avatar chat. I can see the visual appeal toward the Asian market in the site's design. It's cuetsy and loud with a manga flair. I guess we'll have to wait and see whether this takes off.
lol. man, that cafe is SSSSSOOOOOOOO korean style! (actually, I'm surprised they don't already have lots of cafe stuff like that already in Japan.)
the REAL interesting question is whether anything like that will take off in the US like we ponder about here [webmasterworld.com](sheesh, I hope they know enough to at least change the look of the avatars before they do. ugh! ^^) lol
I could see the appeal to the younger crowd. It's almost like stepping into a RPG (role playing game). It's like IRC chat with pictures. This version seems a whole lot more sophisticated and customizable.
Yikes!
Now that's a lot of little hats for little cartoon things next to your ID. LOL ^^ (and I'm pretty sure that doesn't include figures for the "gaming item" market, which I believe is even bigger---ie: go to independent sites to buy an upgrade for Level 23 Elf sword in Lineage or something. yup. process that one. heh). ;)
