In a recent interview with the LA Times, Victor Koo, the founder of China’s most popular video sharing service, Youku.com, revealed the roots of his business vision. Born in Hong Kong and schooled in Australia and America, Koo says one of his primary business roles models early on was Apple computer’s Steve Jobs.

As for fighting against the ever widening shadow that is Google and its rival service YouTube.com, Koo is rather matter fact. Regarding Google’s recent threat to exit China due to security and free speech concerns, Koo said, “When dealing with this environment, you have to be ready to work within the rules.”

Via LA Times

Japan’s Consumer Affairs Agency has launched an investigation into a number of fraudulent charges made to the iTunes accounts of Japanese consumers. The strange activity began last year and has reportedly racked up charges as high as several thousand dollars.

So far the fraud cases are at 95 consumers that can be confirmed. In response to the sudden activity Japanese officials plan to question Apple officials regarding the discrepancies sometime this week.

Via AsiaOne

The world of Japanese television just opened up in a major way with the debut of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) television’s new iPhone application. The app allows anyone around the world to watch NHK television live via 3G or WiFi.

Upon launch, the signal is rather choppy and you may be tempted to close the app, but give it a about a 90 seconds or so while the signal locks in. Once the signal is locked in the video quality is actually quite nice, and the audio quality is even better. For non-Japanese speakers, most Japanese speech is accompanied by helpful, easy to read subtitles, or English voice-over narration. Unavailable on standard Japanese digital television domestically (unless you have a special package) this could serve as a viable TV alternative for foreign residents in Japan looking for local English-language TV content, as well as a welcome window into the country for those based outside of Japan.

*Special note to Japan-based English speaking foreigners: For those accustomed to the normal, sometimes boring Japanese television fare, the programming on this channel is very well produced, informative and rather engaging. NHK deserves kudos for this effort.

Considering some of the strict positions taken by Japanese television regarding programs being rebroadcast on video sharing sites like Google’s YouTube, the NHK television app is a rather surprising development and may signal a slight opening up of Japanese media to the Internet and non-Japanese consumers in general. The iPhone app is free of charge and can be downloaded immediately from Apple’s app store here.

via Asiajin

Just one week after Apple unveiled its iPad device, rival Japanese hardware marker Sony has announced plans to release a similar touch screen tablet.

At a press conference to discuss the company’s earnings, Nobuyuki Oneda, Sony’s CFO, said, “That is a market we are also very interested in. We are confident we have the skills to create a product.”

No date or price was revealed, but Sony has proven that it is one of the few brands able to back up such a bold statement. Of course the the real question will be: Can Sony create a mobile software store experience like iTunes or the new iBook store? Answer: Not any time soon.

Computer World

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has weighed in on the recent wave of Toyota auto recalls and says he thinks the software controlling his Toyota Prius is to blame for the vehicle’s sudden accelerations.

Taking the inventor and tech pioneer at his word, Toyota has decided to work with Wozniak by analyzing his car to see if his claims ring true. Meanwhile, Toyota’s image continues to suffer as worldwide recalls hit the company’s bottom line and stock price.

Via LA Times

According to a new report by the U.S.-based Internet analysis firm Akamai Technologies, Asia now rules the Web in terms of offering users the fastest Internet speeds. At number 1 is South Korea, at number 2 is Japan and at number 5 is Hong Kong.

And, despite the fact that the U.S. was the birthplace of the Internet, the country ranks at 12 in terms of access speed, behind countries like Romania and Belgium.

Via Redorbit

Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reports that Docomo is considering selling SIM cards for the new, and more importantly, unlocked iPad when the 3G version is sold in stores in Japan. The paper also reports that the WiFi version of the iPad is scheduled to hit Japan in March, with the wireless 3G version coming in June.

Via Yomiuri Shimbun

Scientists at South Korea’s Seoul National University claim to have made a discovery that may forever change the nature of human aging.

Led by Professor Suh Yoo-hun, the team of researchers say they have identified a new gene therapy that successfully treats Alzheimer’s disease in test subjects. Using animal test subjects, the group of scientists injected small interfering RNA into the test subjects with positive results that offer the promise of a cure to the debilitating disease.

Via Korea Times

Hours ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took to the stage in California and finally unveiled the much anticipated Apple iPad, available for sale in 2 months. Now that the anticipation has passed, the next obvious question is: How will the device fare in technology-forward foreign markets such as Japan, the second largest economy on the planet and a technology innovation leader in its own right? To answer that question, first let’s review what the iPad offers.

Featuring three harddrive configurations (16, 32, and 64 gigabytes) priced at $500, $600 $700 respectively (it costs about $130 each to select a 3G enabled version, not due for 3 months) describing the device’s feature set is simple. Without exaggeration, this is essentially a large-size iPod Touch. Other than the 3G aspect (available in 3 months), if you know what the iPod Touch does, you know what the iPad can do. In terms of software, the only major development here is the device’s iBooks app that allows you to easily purchase and download books from major publishers, a development that may offer a significant challenge to Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader, a black and white device that offers little in the way of multimedia content.

So, is Japan ready, and more importantly, excited about an oversized iPod Touch? The natural inclination is to first look to the iPod Touch’s performance in Japan.

While the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS hold the top slots in Japan’s smart phone sales category, sales figures for the iPod Touch are a bit harder to discern because Apple won’t release the figures. But, just last week, Apple COO, Tim Cook, said, “Asia Pacific is doing an incredible job with the Mac growing 54 percent. It is our highest performing region in terms of growth. The iPhone was up over 500 percent in Asia Pacific.” Still, the company remains mum on iPod Touch numbers.

One way to gauge the relative interest in the iPod Touch in Japan is by using the advertising metrics collected by AdMob. According to the firm, as of December 2008, the U.S. registered around 203,045,892 ad requests originating from iPod Touch users compared to the UK’s 17,185,011 users, Korea’s 2,866,682 users and Japan’s 2,697,126 users. Although nearly a year has passed since those numbers were collected, it gives a general sense that the market for personal media players is significantly more competitive in Japan.

But back to the iPad. Aside from addressing the consumer looking for the standard iPod Touch feature-set, does the iPad offer anything else missing in Japan’s consumer market? Simply put: In Japan, does the iPad offer a solution to a problem, or it is a solution in ’search’ of a problem? Given that very sophisticated, feature-rich ebook readers have been available to Japanese consumers for several years now, without gaining much traction, my answer would be: No.

Although printed magazines and newspapers are on decline in the U.S. and the UK due to the Web format fragmenting the newly digitally enabled readership, the print world in Japan remains largely tethered to traditional print magazines and newspapers. Why? Japanese consumers primarily access the Web from tiny screens on their mobile phones (smart phone or not), thus the notion of printed media being supplanted by the Web in Japan is less of a reality when it comes to consumers looking for a larger format, digital alternative to print. Sure the publishing world in Japan is suffering from declining ad revenues like many publishers around the world, but on a cultural level, despite Japan’s ever-changing, technology forward society, the print format in Japan is not something viewed as an encumbrance, or relic of the past. That’s not to say this dynamic won’t change (and fast) at some point, but as of now, print in Japan still enjoys a healthy readership buttressed by one of the largest elderly (read: comfortable with old formats) populations on the planet. Thus, the iPad’s fortunes in Japan are shaky at best.

The Japanese market simply hasn’t shown any desire for something like the iPad. True, the same could be said of the iPhone. Before its debut, Japan’s mobile market did just fine without a laser focus on smart phones. Apple changed the smart phone game in Japan, and now those that doubted the iPhone’s chances in Japan have been proven wrong by the thousands of salarymen and teenagers alike who regularly pull out their iPhones on their daily train commute. But mobile phones are an integral part of Japanese society, ebook readers, tablets, and over-sized iPod Touch devices are not. Thus, the challenge for Apple in this case is to break open a totally new category that has yet to register as a significant blip on the radar of Japanese consumers. Such a tall order may be beyond even the market-defying abilities of Steve Jobs.

-Adario Strange

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