*I was in that room.
March 15, 2011, 1:06 PM
Japanese Tech Execs Share ‘Save Japan’ Strategies at SXSW
By JENNIFER PRESTON
AUSTIN, Tex. — Takahito Iguchi (((CEO Tonchidot))) zipped through his presentation on Japan’s mobile social scene here on Monday until he got to his last slide: SAVE JAPAN.
Gree, a social networks in Japan, set up a way for users to buy virtual goods to donate money to earthquake victims.
Then his voice broke with emotion as he asked members of the audience to think about the people of Japan struggling in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Mr. Iguchi is one of about a dozen technology executives from Japan at South by Southwest, the annual technology, film and music conference that attracts thousands of people from all over the world. He said he learned about the massive earthquake by e-mail from a colleague shortly after he landed at the airport in Austin. He turned to Twitter, Facebook and Mixi, the largest social network in Japan, to check on family and friends and find out what was going on.
He said that, fortunately, his own family was safe. Instead of returning immediately home, Mr. Iguchi said he decided to remain at the conference and join other technology executives here from Japan to help organize support for victims of the catastrophe.
“We decided the best thing we can do is to bring encouragement and assistance from our open-minded friends here at South by Southwest,” said Mr. Iguchi, chief executive officer of Tonchidot, a mobile location-based service.
Other groups have now joined the fundraising effort, SXSW4Japan, which has raised $40,000 in the last few days. The hashtag on Twitter is #savejapan. The money will go to the Red Cross in Japan.
Mr. Iguchi was on a panel with three other executives from Japan’s mobile and social networks. After the one-hour discussion that focused primarily on the huge growth in the use of these services and social gaming in Japan, the executives described in interviews how mobile and social sites became vital when the earthquake struck because landlines went down, as did voice and e-mail services on cellphones.
“We saw an 800 percent spike in traffic,” said Tak Miyata, senior vice president of global business at Mixi, who was on the 19th floor of the company’s headquarters in Tokyo when the earthquake struck. “Mixi is a network for people’s friends and family and so it became a lifeline for our users.”
Keeping data flowing became the top priority for the business, he said. …
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