Canadian FX firm OANDA has partnered with Japanese technology provider GMO Internet Inc to offer its clients a virtual private server (VPS) service tailored specifically for the Japanese traders.
The new service, launched officially on August 28th, is provided via onamae.com, a subsidiary of GMO, and hosts a raft of advantages for Japanese traders. In particular, traders can make use of a Tokyo-based server, that is – the service is actually domestic, a criteria often very important to FX traders in Japan. In addition, customer support is in Japanese, in order that the broker can now reach a wider range of clients.
The new service has a 60-day free trial, which is enticing not only for its free-of-charge nature, but also for the fact that newbies to Forex trading can make use of VPS and actually learn how to deal with it and not risk any money.
At the same time, OANDA’s Japanese clients can opt for a VPS from BeeksFX, an independent provider of VPS technology, which also serves as a method of reducing latency without traders resorting to highly expensive solutions which would only be viable for institutional trading desks.
Thus far, BeeksFX does not offer a free trial and provides support only in English, which is anathema to many traders in Japan who are often very loyal to domestic firms. To continue with the comparison, OANDA Japan’s clients who use BeeksFX VPS, count on a server based in New York.
Enhancing the VPS service variety makes sense not only in marketing terms and for gaining more clients. A virtual private server is a very helpful and necessary service for many Japanese traders now, as the country has suffered immeasurable damage as a result of recent natural disasters which have resulted in massive power failures and other substantial damage, affecting particularly the southern regions of Japan.
Forex brokers operating in Japan are considering these natural disasters as a serious problem and have implemented extra measures to help their clients. Invast Securities, for instance, has opened extra telephone lines and is responding to traders in areas affected by such conditions.
In order to attempt to gain a foothold such a market which is notoriously profitable but equally hostile to overseas firms, OANDA has taken an interesting step in contending for market share by adopting a region-specific approach with its VPS solution which takes into account trader requirements, provides the confidence of using a well-known domestic carrier, the nature of the market and recent conditions alike.