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 here. He turned to Twitter, Facebook and Mixi, the largest social network in Japan, to check on family and friends and to 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 fund-raising 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. “It sounds very simple but it is most important.” He said the service had also focused on helping people locate loved ones, provide information about resources and help raise aid money.
Eiji Araki, vice president of Gree International, one of the first social networks in Japan, said the company quickly set up a way for people to buy “virtual goods,” like a flower, using its micropayment system, to help raise money for the people affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Gree has raised more than $1.7 million this way so far.
He said people were using the site to continue to exchange information about family and friends. They were also using it to share concerns about the nuclear crisis and the rolling power failures.
Serkan Toto, a technology consultant in Japan and moderator of the panel, said that the information exchanged on social sites was highly valued because people had small personal networks of close family and friends. “In Japan, because all three mobile social networks are closed, the level of trust is very high, so the information that you get is very intimate, very direct” said Mr. Toto, who is also a blogger for TechCrunch, the blog about technology.
Twitter is also very popular in Japan. About 10 percent of Japan’s 100 million Internet users are active on Twitter.
While Twitter has been a useful source of information, Mr. Toto said that it presented risks during these difficult times. “Twitter is an easy way for people to spread rumors and spread unverified information,” he said. “I personally saw a couple of tweets about radiation in Tokyo. This could create panic. Social media is great but not without its faults.”
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