Japanese Programmer Community ‘Qiita’ Passes 10,000 Users
Qiita, an online programmer community for programmers in Japan, has just surpassed the 10,000 registered user milestone.
Qiita was created by Increments Inc., and since it was initially launched back in September of 2011, the site has grown to see more than 150,000 unique visitors each month. The company notes that this total is approximately 40 percent of the total number of programmers in Japan (estimated to be 400,000).
Qiita features close integration with social coding platform Github, allowing users to sign up with their Github or Twitter credentials. Once you have an account, you can share tips or code with others on the platform, or follow the public stream or specific topics (or tagged items) like Python (see below) or JavaScript. Qiita user Juanito Fatas has a great step-by-step annotated explanation of the interface in English for those who don’t read Japanese [1].
As for a business model, Qiita does have some advertising on site, and the company also holds events for programmers like hackathons or coordinates with companies who are looking to connect with programmers in Japan.
ビジネスモデルとしては、Qiitaサイトの広告掲載、hackathons等のイベント主催、日本でプログラマーを探している企業との連携などを行っている。
ビジネスモデルについて述べるならば、Qiitaは同サイトにいくつかの広告を表示しており、さらに同社はハッカソンのようなプログラマーのためのイベントを開催し、あるいは日本においてプログラマーとのつながりを求める企業と調整を行う。
Increments’s other product offering is a relatively new Mac application for programmers called Kobito (with a very cute logo, pictured right), which became available back in April and since then it has been downloaded by over 4,000 developers. The app is described as a note-taking and archiving tool, and included among its features is Markdown previewing, syntax highlighting, and code publishing via Qiita integration. Like Qiita, there isn’t an English version just yet, but I’m told that could possibly come along in the near future.
There used to be an English interface, but it was closed to focus on the Japanese side. English support could return in the future, although I’m told there isn’t yet a concrete plan.
英語のインターフェイスは過去に存在したが、日本サイドに焦点を絞るために閉鎖された。英語のサポートは今後再開されるかもしれないが、まだ具体的なプランはないそうだ。
以前には英語のインタフェースがあったが、日本語に重点的に取り組むため、非公開とされた。英語のサポートを将来、再開する可能性はあるが、具体的なプランはまだない、とのことだ。