Montpellier, France – Aquafadas, innovative developer of digital publishing solutions, has joined forces with e-commerce giant, Rakuten, to help Japanese print publishers successfully expand distribution into digital. The business partnership, which falls under the Aquafadas Global Partner Network program, provides publishers expert professional services that support all aspects of digital publishing including production, distribution and marketing. “As an e-commerce leader, Rakuten is ideally suited to assist publishers in their print-to-digital migration. Working hand-in-hand with Aquafadas, we can offer Japanese publishers a deep understanding of both the digital publishing technology and distribution landscape, providing best-in-class consultative services to achieve their digital publishing strategy,” states Makoto Katayama, manager for content promotion division & eBook Japan business, Rakuten.

Aquafadas’ digital publishing technology is designed to dovetail the print publishing workflow, allowing publishers to easily incorporate digital distribution into their current plans. Purpose-built tools support every publishing scenario, from replicating existing print material into simple eBooks and eZines to creating visually rich, non-linear, interactive digital content that features fluid text, sound and video. Back office database integration along with analytics, targeted push notifications and more advanced capabilities offer all of the necessary marketing tools a publisher needs to be successful. Combined with the sound guidance of partner Rakuten, Japanese publishers can create and deploy a plan that best serves their strategic digital distribution needs.

Aquafadas and Rakuten Help Shueisha Make the Leap:
Leveraging the Aquafadas automatic conversion tool, Rakuten has already converted popular Shueisha magazines, including Marisol, non-no, MAQUIA and SPUR, into visually rich and engaging digital eZines that are distributed across smartphones and tablets. “With our customers wanting to read their favorite magazine on a tablet or smartphone, we needed a solution that would allow us to quickly make the leap to digital without sacrificing the quality of the reader experience. Aquafadas and Rakuten provided us the ideal solution with a phased approach that allows us to expand quickly with options to grow,” says Atushi Shizawa, digital magazine editorial office manager of Shueisha. “More than having their favorite magazine available in digital form, our readers are looking for an experience that transports them. Aquafadas gives us the tool to create a digital atmosphere that engages our readers on a much deeper level, while Rakuten provides the expert services to leverage the full capabilities of the technology with guidance on best distribution practices. With their help, we look forward to adding rich, interactive content to future Shueisha titles, providing an even more immersive connection between the reader and the content.”

About the Aquafadas Global Partner Network:
A member of Aquafadas’ expanding Global Partner Network, partners such as Rakuten work closely with Aquafadas to help publishers achieve their digital publishing strategy. “Aquafadas partners with leading technology integrators all over the world to provide publishers everywhere both state-of-the-art technology and best business practices. We’re proud to be teaming up with Rakuten, an expert in e-commerce, to bring these exceptional services to Japan,” explains Achile Coenegracht, international business development director at Aquafadas. “Aquafadas’ comprehensive technology offering combined with the expertise of its business partners supports just about every market, whether it is Hurriyet Gazetecilik making its exclusive content available digitally for Turkish consumers or Shueisha digitalizing Japan’s most popular magazines. The Aquafadas Global Partner Network is here to help publishers maximize the potential of their digital strategy and deliver high quality content to new media of the 21st century – tablets and smartphones.”

For more information on how your company can join the Aquafadas Global Partner Network, please visit the Aquafadas website.

About the Aquafadas Digital Publishing System:
Aquafadas’ Digital Publishing System provides an end-to-end workflow for digital publishing, facilitating content design, App creation and distribution. It combines the most advanced tools with a versatile library of ready-to-use Apps, ePUB 3 export and the new WebReader. Using the latest version of the Aquafadas Digital Publishing Solution, publishers can:

* Create and publish custom iOS and Android apps without writing a single line of code
* Export in optimized ePUB formats for Kobo Arc and Glo, the Amazon Kindle Fire, and the Apple iBooks Store
* Create digital publications that can be embedded into a WebReader and displayed on a website
* Easily browse through and purchase publishing solutions in the brand new web store
* Create really interactive content thanks to unique enrichments like to add real-world properties to elements of the app, using the tablet’s accelerometer

The Aquafadas Digital Publishing System also provides powerful marketing tools, including the ability to integrate advertising campaigns and offer one-click in-App purchases. Sales and reader behavior analysis, now a crucial part of digital publishing, can be done using analytical tools such as Google Analytics which integrates directly with the Aquafadas Digital Publishing System.

About Rakuten:
Rakuten, Inc. (4755:Tokyo), is one of the world’s leading Internet service companies, providing a variety of services for consumers and businesses, including in the areas of e-commerce, eReading, travel, banking, securities, credit cards, e-money, logistics, portal and media, online marketing and professional sports. In both 2012 and 2013, Rakuten was ranked among the world’s Top 10 most innovative companies in Forbes magazine’s annual list. Rakuten is expanding worldwide and currently operates throughout Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania. The headquarters of the company was founded in 1997 with over 10,000 employees and partner staff worldwide. For more information, visit the Rakuten website.

Aquafadas
Rakuten
Aquafadas Digital Publishing Overview
Aquafadas Global Partner Network

Aquafadas, a pioneer in digital publishing technology, enables the creation and mass distribution of graphics rich, interactive digital content such as books, comics, corporate documents, magazines, and newspapers, across all major platforms including smartphones, tablets and the web. Businesses all over the world rely on Aquafadas’ purpose-built content creation and distribution solutions to achieve their digital publishing strategies, significantly expanding content reach while lowering overhead costs. Some of Aquafadas prestigious customers include Bayard, Gakken, Carrefour, Egmont International, Kelby Media Group, Lagardere, Mondadori, Reader’s Digest, Sanoma, Standard & Poors and Vodafone. In addition to the Aquafadas Digital Publishing Solution, the company’s line of award-winning creative software is utilized daily by thousands of graphic designers, web developers, photographers and video editors from the avid enthusiast to the seasoned professional. A Rakuten group business, Aquafadas also provides its technological expertise to Kobo, the world’s fastest growing e-reader provider.