Blogging, then, seems to be an industry on the cusp of maturity. Nick Carr compares its evolution to that of ham radio in the early twentieth century. Out of the amateur hubbub emerged self-made stars, who were then hired by fledgling networks that eventually grew into CBS, NBC and ABC. In much the same way, blogging celebrities have been snatched up by old and new conglomerates, while a sudden heart attack in the old-media world has put commercial blogging enterprises into a startlingly advantageous position. To wit, in the midst of a major downturn in advertising profits across most media, revenue to Gawker’s network of eight blogs jumped 45% in the first half of this year.

In theory, many Japanese could easily make the leap into a cashless world. The country has six main competing cashless payment systems, many of them embedded into mobile phones. Including Oyster-type cards issued by public transport companies, industry sources estimate that there are about 120 million cashless payment chips sitting in Japan’s wallets and handbags, waiting to be swiped.