14 DAY TRIAL // People's minds also work in mysterious ways, it seems, as the fortunetelling websites of a Japanese company attract more and more paying visitors by the day. It is amazing to observe what people secretly tend to believe in, although the official statistics and face-to-face declarations prove otherwise. But Internet fortunetelling gaining so much popularity in a country known as a technological heaven is really strange.
Japanese company Zappallas Inc. is specialized in tarot card reading, horoscope predictions (well, that's not new), crystal ball interpretations and even I-ching (a nearly 5-millennia old technique based on a classic text called the "Book of Changes" – a system of symbols providing hints of order amidst chaos; perhaps chaos/butterfly effect theorists may be interested in this). Surprisingly or not, the business seems to be thriving, especially now, as the financial crisis has spread its roots to Japan as well.
The users fear that the ailing economy may be equal to losing their jobs, so they seek reassurance in Zappallas's largest national fortunetelling network (it has 443 sites), which sports site names like "Your Future in Three Months" or "Certain Fate". "Fortune telling is content that has been around for thousands of years," shared Kumiko Wada, Zappallas spokeswoman for Reuters. "We now treat it as a bit of fun, but there's depth and a history there of people turning to it for guidance in tough times."
In only a year, the number of users went up by 21%, reaching an impressive amount of 2.2 million registered persons who pay a monthly fee by late October 2008. This translated into a 61% increase in net first-half profit for the mobile content providing firm, with 70% of the sells being due to these sites. Perhaps your future could change as well if you followed their example while the crisis still looms overhead.