A week in Japan tech
Life Sciences
- Shionogi to cooperate with biotech start-up Oncotherapy Science in locating the genes closely associated with lung, breast and prostate cancers and developing therapeutic drugs with few side effects. Oncotherapy was set up to commercialize the research results of Yusuke Nakamura, a professor at the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Tokyo.
Telecommunications
- NTT group companies to soon begin IP telephony services. NTT Communications's new service will be offered to users of its OCN Internet-access service for $2.52 monthly. The company intends to sign up 100,000 subscribers in the current business year. NTT East and West are considering offering a similar phone service to customers using their Flets broadband services.
Mobile / Wireless
- Cellular phone and PHS services subscribers account for 60.3% of Japan's population, standing at 76.91 million at the end of July, according to the Telecommunications Ministry. Of total cell phone subscriptions, NTT DoCoMo accounted for 58.6%, KDDI's "au" service 17.97% and J-Phone 17.96%.
- NTT DoCoMo secures the top spot in user growth in July for the second month in a row as a series of new camera phones lured users, industry data showed. But DoCoMo's struggle in recruiting subscribers for its strategically important third-generation (3G) services continued, with such users totaling 127,400 at the end of July, less than 10 percent of its target of 1.38 million users by March.
- Mitsui subsidiary and Techno Craft to develop a wireless caddy service that provides information and guidance on each hole to golfers via their Internet-capable cellular phones. Access will initially be free, but as more golfers use the service, the companies plan to charge around Y300 per month. Eventually, they plan the service to cover half the roughly 2,400 golf courses in Japan.
- NTTPC Communications to launch a flat-rate PHS data communications service for businesses. NTTPC will offer the SuperEBN IP-VPN service over Japan Communications's fixed-rate b-mobile wireless data communications network, which offers transmission speeds of up to 128Kbps and operates on lines leased from DDI Pocket.
Software
- NTT develops large-volume, high speed Internet search engine. NTT will work with NTT-X to make the new search engine available on an experimental basis on the goo site. The technology speeds up the search by simultaneously carrying out such operations as data collection, organization and classification, providing results considerably faster than existing consecutive searches.
Internet
- Softbank takes 100% stake in BB Technologies, which manages the infrastructure of the Softbank group's ADSL Internet service. Softbank is aiming to further boost the efficiency of its 'Yahoo! BB' ADSL operations. Softbank bought the 49% stake in BB Technology for Y1.47 billion from six other Softbank group companies. It already held 51% of the shares in the firm.
- NEC, Matsushita Electric Industrial, Japan Telecom and KDDI set up broadband JV. Capitalized at Y100 million and located in Tokyo, the venture is owned 31% by NEC, with the other three partners each holding a 23% stake. The joint venture will seek to commercialize broadband services by the current fiscal year-end.
- Trans Cosmos to begin Internet video advertising distribution service that will include customer analysis. The company will make use of streaming technology and incorporate video advertising like that seen on television into popular content, such as movies. Trans Cosmos will include standard short commercials as well as infomercials.
Media, Entertainment and Gaming
- Digital Adventure service allows PC users to access South Korean online battle games. The content delivery company partnered with Korea Internet Data Center and established a server in South Korea. It now has the hardware in place to accommodate as many as 200,000 to 300,000 players simultaneously. Terra Korea will select and supply South Korean online games for the service.
A week in Korean tech
e-Commerce
- June online sales decline 8.4% to W478.8 billion ($372.5 million) due mainly to World Cup soccer, according to the National Statistical Office (NSO). Sales in the quarter ending in June, however, registered a 9.4% rise to W1.46 trillion ($1.1 billion) from W1.33 trillion in the first three months of the year.
Telecommunications
- Dacom to bid for Powercomm with Canadian pension fund Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, and Softbank Asia Infrastructure Fund, a joint venture of Cisco Systems and Japan's Softbank, as part of efforts to strengthen its broadband network infrastructure, which it hopes will help its sister telecom units, particularly LG Telecom, boost their efficiency.
Mobile / Wireless
- Ministry of Information and Communication to check on SK Telecom preconditions in relation to its controversial merger with SK Shinsegi Telecom. The result of the review could lead to severe punishments, including the suspension of the business license. The ministry imposed 13 preconditions earlier this year before giving a final go-ahead to SKT's application for the merger.
- Samsung Electronics to bring 3G ground station operations to the Japanese market. The South Korean company has with Fujitsu jointly won an order to build the ground station facilities for KDDI's 3G services specializing in high-speed data transmission. KDDI plans to begin offering the CDMA2000 1xEVDO service in the fall of next year.
Software
- Korea's information security firms eager to explore less-developed markets in Japan and China, as domestic business is becoming marginal. Facing fierce domestic competition and a saturated home market, the leading domestic player Ahnlab established a local subsidiary in Japan in February which is engaged in supplying vaccine programs to BIGLOBE, the biggest charging portal site in Japan.
Media, Entertainment and Gaming
- Korea's online game industry is witnessing a shift from 2D to 3D platforms, helped by the successful debuts of subscription-based online games and the PC-based network game Warcraft III. Industry sources said the country's online game industry would post W374.5 billion in revenue this year, up from W298.5 billion in 2001, if the current bullish trend continues.
- Major recording labels - Yedang and Daeyoung AV - moving to take over Soribada, the country's largest MP3 music Web site, raising the possibility that the free-of-charge service might be replaced by a paid one in the near future. Soribada, widely known as Korea's Napster, is drawing keen interest from recording firms as the number of users is estimated at around 8 million.
- Ministry of Information and Communication to investigate 40 paid online game operators including NCSoft, Nexon and Webzen for illegal membership practices by online game providers, as the public concern about minors addicted to the paid games is mounting. Online game operators should secure explicit consent from parents or guardians when minors sign up for paid services.
- The popular South Korean online game Ragnarok will be available for free in Japan, South Korea's entertainment distributor SunnyYNK said. Gravity, which developed the online game, and its Japanese partner GungHo Online Entertainment, signed an agreement to start offering the software via the Internet at www.ragnarokonline.com.
A week in China tech
e-Commerce
- China UnionPay network introduces compact discs embedded with digital certificates in Shanghai as part of an online payment system. Discs the size of credit cards were already being used by the online storefront for Shanghai House Funding, a home mortgage company, and the online gaming site www.mir2.com.cn, to verify identities of users and secure online transactions.
Mobile / Wireless
- China Mobile registers over 1.3 million GPRS users nationwide since the 2.5G technology was introduced on May 17. Services now available include WAP Internet surfing, picture and ring tone downloading, JAVA script. China Mobile will offer MMS in October for the platform of GPRS phones. Sources say that Ericsson and Nokia will by then unveil new models to support the MMS service.
- SMS text messages to more than triple this year, providing a major source of revenue for mobile operators, according to a study by Pyramid Research. The report said SMS volume would increase from 19 billion messages last year to 60 billion this year. The author said the rapid growth resulted from the relatively low cost of sending a text message and the popularity of games and other SMS services.
Software
- Chinese leaders to support Linux as "the mainstream operating system" for server computers. The Beijing Science & Technology Commission says China has concluded that "Linux is the most important chance for China to improve its software industryö and will push Chinese government bodies to consider using Linux when they buy computer systems, and also will encourage private and university software designers to develop Linux and other "open source" software programs.
Internet
- Netease.com becomes ChinaÆs first web portal to report a quarterly net profit. The $4,600 profit figure highlights a broader trend toward profitability by China's surprisingly resilient internet portals. More than 40% of Netease's revenues is derived from services provided to mobile-phone users, such as downloadable ring-tones and text messaging technology.
A week in Taiwan tech
Hardware
- Taiwan companies allocated a record 21% of orders to their overseas factories, mostly in mainland China, during the first half of this year, according to a Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) investigation. The rate climbed to 16.6% in September 1996, 17.5% in 1997 and finally the 21% for the first half of this year.
A week in Singapore / Malaysia tech
Mobile / Wireless
- Singapore Telecommunications mobile subscriber base at 24.8 million in the Asia-Pacific as at 2Q, an increase of 11% from end-March. This comprises subscribers of subsidiary SingTel Mobile (Singapore) and all subscribers of associates Optus Mobile (Australia), Advanced Info Service (Thailand), Bharti Group (India), Globe Telecom (Philippines), and Telkomsel (Indonesia).
Internet
- Pacific Internet launching a commercial Internet business in Malaysia. The firm said the move was part of its strategy of Asian expansion. With a new office in Kuala Lumpur, the company aims to attract Malaysian companies with operations in other parts of the region. The Nasdaq-listed firm also operates in Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, Australia, India and Thailand.
A week in Hong Kong tech
Telecommunications
- Telstra International, now headquartered in Hong Kong, names Asian growth a top priority at a time when financially-stricken European and United States rivals are retreating to their core markets. The company's long-term goal is to boost Telstra International's contribution to its overall business from 9% to about 25%, on revenues of A$23 billion (about HK$96.8 billion) a year.
Mobile / Wireless
- Government gives HK$6 million for academic and industry players to develop a mobile location estimation system (MLES) and related applications. Mobile operators CSL Hong Kong and Peoples Telephone have agreed to take part with airtime and technical help. The MLES, based on existing mobile phone infrastructure, is an alternative to global positioning system (GPS) but more accurate and cost-effective.
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