Google, Jimdo, KDDI get Japanese businesses online

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Germany’s Jimdo and its partner in Japan, KDDI, have launched http://www.minbiz.jp with Google Japan and other industry leaders. Their goal: to get small businesses in Japan onto the web.

The project helps Japanese small and medium-sized companies create a successful Internet presence. Despite a high Internet use rate of 78% in Japan, according to Google Japan, only 24% of small and medium-sized enterprises have their own website. In a recent survey, 36% of Japanese small business owners believed that getting their business online would be expensive: 26% cited lack of knowledge, and 25% believe that setting up their own website would be too difficult and time-consuming.

The project partners are changing all that: with the help of Jimdo Japan, businesses participating in the project can create their own website (including a top level domain) for free in just a few minutes. Google Japan will support the project participants with several offerings, including AdWords packages for advertising the websites.

“We’re very happy to be chosen as a partner for Google Japan’s project,” said Jimdo co-founder Fridtjof Detzner. “Our teams in Japan, Hamburg, and San Francisco worked together very closely on the initiative. Now we’re excited for the launch and looking forward to many more Japanese users with successful websites.”

The project partners expect about 150,000 businesses to build websites in the first year.