jig.jp Acquires Mobatwi Operator, Mindscope / Cnet Japan

jig.jp revealed that it acquired all stocks of Mindscope on May 1st to make the company a subsidiary. The amount is not disclosed, but it is considered to be several hundreds of million of yen.

Mindscope provides Mobatwi which is the first web-based Twitter client for mobile in Japan. A number of users reaches 1.6 million. ...

jig.jp aims to increase user base with the acquisition. The company's core product has been jig browser, browser application for feature phone. It is popular in users with high IT literacy, but lacks reach for average users. ...

Cnet Japan 5/7/2012 [jp]

memo

• jig.jp has been very successful in web browser for feature phone, which conversely seems to make it difficult to adjust its brand image to smartphone application provider. Mobatwi also launched as Twitter client for feature phone, but the users smoothly transition into smartphone. It is expected that the acquisition will help jig.jp change itself to more smartphone oriented company.
• http://jig.jp/