August 12, 2009 For Immediate Release Hatena launches North American website for use with Flipnote Studio application for the Nintendo DSi Hatena and Nintendo Cooperatively Develop User Generated Content Service for the Global Marketplace **Japan’s popular animation/video sharing online service now available for Nintendo DSi™. Hatena Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Kyoto, Japan, President & CEO Junya Kondo) is one of Japan’s leading web service providers with over 1,000,000 users that developed one of Japan’s first online blogging services and operates Japan’s most popular social bookmarking service. Hatena is recognized as a cutting edge developer of the next generation of web services and for its unique ability to quickly develop new technologies, as well as for hiring many of Japan's most talented software engineers. In 2008, Hatena began working with Nintendo Co., Ltd., also based in Kyoto, Japan, to cooperatively develop the concept of Flipnote Hatena, the first Internet based user generated content service for Nintendo DSi (named Ugomemo Hatena for the Japanese market). Flipnote Hatena is an animation/video sharing website for users of the free application Flipnote Studio (called Ugoku Memocho in Japan) exclusively for Nintendo DSi. The Flipnote Hatena service is operated by Hatena and has been enjoying great popularity since its launch on December 24, 2008 in Japan, with over 1,000,000 uploads during the first 6 months of operation. At this time, Hatena and Nintendo are pleased to announce that the expanded and localized Flipnote Hatena service for North America is now available, and will be available for Europe and Australia/New Zealand on August 14, 2009. The website will be accessible in 6 languages including English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. **An online service that works together with Flipnote Studio Flipnote Studio is an application for the Nintendo DSi that can be downloaded at no cost from the Nintendo DSi Shop (Broadband Internet connection required). Flipnote Studio provides users with simple tools that let them draw and save a series of images to create an animation reminiscent of flipping through a notepad called a Flipnote. Users can add sound to their Flipnotes using the built-in microphone of Nintendo DSi or by using sounds they previously recorded in the Nintendo DSi Sound application. Flipnotes can also be created using black and white images imported from user’s Nintendo DSi Camera album. After connecting to the Flipnote Hatena service from within the Flipnote Studio application, users can view and download other people’s Flipnotes, and modify them to create their own works. Once people become registered users of the Flipnote Hatena website (http://flipnote.hatena.com/), users can also upload and share their own completed animations for others to view and download. **Free, easy-to-use and family oriented: Flipnote Hatena Flipnote Hatena is a free and easy-to-use online service that allows users to upload their clips to the Internet to share with friends, family and the whole world. Users of the website can easily flag content for removal which violate the community guidelines or are otherwise socially unacceptable in order to maintain a safe environment for users of all ages. Clips are divided into separate channels organized by themes for easy uploading and viewing, including a Beginner’s Channel. Animated clips uploaded to the service are ranked and listed by their popularity, and users can communicate interactively by adding handwritten comments to clips and “Stars” to show their appreciation of other users’ clips. **About Hatena Co., Ltd. Hatena Co., Ltd. is based in Kyoto, Japan and offers a variety of services such as blogs, photo-sharing, and social bookmarking for the Japanese market. Hatena established a US subsidiary, Hatena Inc. (http://www.hatena.com/) in 2006, which is based in Los Altos, California and has localized their Hatena Haiku service for markets outside of Japan. **Press Contact: Hatena Co., Ltd. Oike Bldg. 9fl., Takamiya-cho 206, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto, 604-0835 Japan Email: hatenapr@hatena.ne.jp Hatena Inc. 5150 El Camino Real Suite A-32 Los Altos, CA 94022-1534 USA Email: pr@hatena.com
