Fujitsu Revamps Social Network Service for Raku-Raku Smartphone Users

Tokyo, July 31, 2013

Fujitsu Limited today announced the revamping of its Raku-Raku Community, an Internet service that lets members enjoy discussing their interests and popular topics. The launch coincides with the release of the Raku-Raku Smartphone 2 F-08E (scheduled for release in mid-August, 2013), part of NTT DOCOMO's Raku-Raku phone series.

Raku-Raku Community now offers expanded opportunities for communications, including two new features that let members participate in private groups with friends or in open groups for anyone to join, as well as the ability of members to exchange messages within the application. It provides a new way to use smartphones that lets friends with a shared interest discuss it, post photos, and post comments to their friends.

In offering a service that supports new ways to create ties between people using smartphones, Fujitsu is creating new ways for customers to enjoy their lifestyles.

Customers have enjoyed using the Raku-Raku Community bulletin-board service since it began in August 2012, and since then Fujitsu has received numerous customer comments, such as "communicating using only nicknames isn't very fulfilling" and "I want to be able to interact on a more personal level." In response, Fujitsu has now revamped the service to make it a place where people can gather and communicate on a friendlier basis.

Remaining free to use⁽¹⁾, the service retains specialist staff to conduct checks 24 hours a day in order to find and delete any commercial sales comments and scams so that people can use it with confidence.

The service will continue to be accessible from mobile phones other than Raku-Raku Smartphones. There are also plans to have a dedicated website that will allow access from tablets and desktop computers.

Features of the New Raku-Raku Community

New "Circle Hiroba"

Two new group features have been added, allowing friends or people with a shared interest to come together. Users can search the "Circle Hiroba," space where groups are listed, to find new groups to join.

1. Personal Groups
   Members can form their own private groups to facilitate communication among a collection of friends. These, for example, can be used by family members and close friends to communicate, or by former classmates and neighbors to stay in touch.
2. Raku-Raku Community Groups
   These are public groups, set up by Raku-Raku Community, which anyone can join. More than just places to comment on the topics of the day, members can take part in photo contests and other events, making them vibrant venues for discussion.

Improved direct communication with friends

Members can set up a list of friends within Raku-Raku Community and can communicate with those friends directly by exchanging messages. In addition, having a list of friends lets members see all their friends' posts in one place.

Bulletin-boards let members communicate with multiple users all at once

These are forums where members can discuss any kind of topic, such as travel, food, health, or pets. They can liven up their postings with preloaded illustrations (about 150 designs in total) to further express themselves. Friends can convey their enthusiasm for a posting just by clicking the "applaud!" button. Illustrations and the "applaud!" button are also available when posting messages within groups.