livedoor office

February 28, 2008 11:33 PM

I visited livedoor with Ichiru-san of Kotori-piyopiyo after visiting Cybozu Labs. Ichiru-san had an appointment with Mr. Sasaki of livedoor.

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Mr. Sasaki is the person who is in charge of the RSS reader "livedoor reader" which I have been a user. Thank you always, Mr. Sasaki.

Cybozu Labs and livedoor are both located in Akasaka Twin Tower (main tower and east tower). So they are kind of neighbors.

We went down the stairs to the ground floor where Mr. Sasaki was waiting for us. He led us to their floor.

"Could you wait for me here for a second? I go and see if my boss is available" said Mr. Sasaki. "He said OK. Please come in."

We were ushered into their office and guess who were greeting us. President!

Mr. Idesawa, the president, has his desk in a corner of the office (it's nothing like a "President’s Office").

We exchanged business cards. I was kind of upset because I had no expectation of meeting the president. I hope I was not behaving strangely (I need some time to prepare my mind, you know.)

I got permission to take some pictures. Here's one.

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From left to right: Mr. Sasaki, Mr. Idesawa, President, and Mr. Tabata, Media division.

According to Mr. Sasaki, they are focusing on the "livedoor blog" this year. It seems they are very serious about it.

Actually, their blog business has been going well. As reported in the Nikkei Business Daily:

- Their blog business turned profitable for the first time in August 2007 on a monthly basis.
- Their blog business recorded operating loss in 2007, but they are expecting the business to turn profitable in 2008.

As you see, their blog business is now making profit. I guess their steady efforts to increase user-base are paid off. Fee-based plans are also contributing to the revenue growth.

I am looking forward to seeing the future projects that Mr. Sasaki has to offer.

(original post)