Japanese carrier NTT Docomo (NYSE:DCM) has just announced that it has surpassed 10 million LTE subscriber milestone. This comes after the company topped the five million subscriber mark back in August of 2012.
Docomo initially launched its ‘Xi’ LTE service back in December of 2010, much earlier than its rivals Softbank and KDDI, both of which launched their own LTE services in September of last year respectively.
However, according to a recent global LTE report from OpenSignal.com, Docomo’s LTE network lags behind its competitors in terms of speed. Softbank boasts 16.2 Mbps, and KDDI is close behind at 14.8 Mbps — but the report says that Docomo’s speeds were by far the slowest at 5.5 Mbps.
Nevertheless, Docomo appears to be collecting customers at a reasonable enough speed, as you can see in our interactive chart below.
See the Japanese version of this article It has been a while since I last spoke to the folks from Rovio, the Finnish company behind the wildly popular Angry Birds mobile game. But I recently had a chance to catch up with a few members of their flock in Tokyo, as the company gears up to open a new office in the Japanese capital, likely this spring. And while it might make for a more dramatic story to say that the company is making a furious push for Japan, that’s not the case. In fact quite the opposite. They are taking it slow, and that’s how they want it. I would argue that Rovio’s Angry Birds has achieved the kind of pop culture icon status not really seen since the days when Mario Bros revolutionized gaming. But the company realizes that if it wants to permeate uber-cute Japan, which has a culture of firmly established brand icons like Hello Kitty, Anpanman, and yes, Nintendo’s Mario Bros, they need a long term game plan. Peter Vesterbacka, ‘Mighty Eagle’ [1] at Rovio explains: We want to figure out how to build a proper presence that lasts – not just for the next…
Right to left: Peter Vesterbacka, Antti Sonninen, Henri Holm
It has been a while since I last spoke to the folks from Rovio, the Finnish company behind the wildly popular Angry Birds mobile game. But I recently had a chance to catch up with a few members of their flock in Tokyo, as the company gears up to open a new office in the Japanese capital, likely this spring. And while it might make for a more dramatic story to say that the company is making a furious push for Japan, that’s not the case. In fact quite the opposite. They are taking it slow, and that’s how they want it.
I would argue that Rovio’s Angry Birds has achieved the kind of pop culture icon status not really seen since the days when Mario Bros revolutionized gaming. But the company realizes that if it wants to permeate uber-cute Japan, which has a culture of firmly established brand icons like Hello Kitty, Anpanman, and yes, Nintendo’s Mario Bros, they need a long term game plan. Peter Vesterbacka, ‘Mighty Eagle’ [1] at Rovio explains:
We want to figure out how to build a proper presence that lasts – not just for the next year or two. We want to be a leading entertainment brand, one that’s more Japanese than many of the Japanese [brands].
But at the same time, they recognize that the business models in Japan leave much room for innovation and disruption. And while the company has been active on the ground in Japan making deals with local partners, they still haven’t really made a significant marketing push in the country. I asked if they’d ever consider television ads in Japan, as that’s a common tactic among the major internet companies here – but Peter says they would likely do something else. Rovio always takes a somewhat different approach in its marketing, he notes, and that’s likely to be the case in Japan as well. Of their existing merchandising partnership with Sanrio, the makers of Hello Kitty, he explains:
It’s always important to have the best possible local partners, because we can learn a lot from them. This was the same reason we wanted to work with LucasArts on Star Wars [2].
I’m told that the downloads that Rovio is seeing from Japan still have a long way to catch up with neighboring Korea, as smartphone penetration still has much room to grow in Japan. This is another reason why playing the long game in the country might be a wise idea, because a all-out marketing push at this time could indeed be premature.
But in the interests of giving locals an idea of what Rovio and Angry Birds are all about, they recently published a sort of Japanese language primer about what Angry Birds is all about (pictured right). Antti Sonninen, Rovio’s country director in Japan, points out that the site launched just a few weeks back. This is actually a common tactic for digital companies bringing a new digital product into Japan. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn – all have done similar things. They hope to answer many of the basic questions about Angry Birds here, including profiles of the different birds, as well as an explantion of in-game items.
Meanwhile in nearby China the Angry Birds brand has truly taken flight. I’m told that in a recent survey of 1,000 people that about 94% were familiar with the Angry Birds brand. The company has never been too upset about the IP infringements that usually accompany expansion into China, because it’s only a precipitate of passion for their product. Without going into too many details about their upcoming plans in the country, Peter says with a smile that “there’s a lot going on in China.”
Currently the company has a headcount of about 550 people, with 90 percent of those in Finland. But from what I can tell, the team is very adept at spreading their message, focusing their energies in the right places at the right time. Peter was recently in Russia where Rovio hopes to open activity parks in the next year, as well as push their new Angry Birds branded cola.
Looking at other top mobile games in comparison, there aren’t many that can even come close to what Angry Birds has done in terms of building such a recognizable and iconic brand. It will be interesting to see if this long term strategy works for Rovio, not just in Japan but across the globe.
If I recall correctly, I believe this is the actual title on his name card. Fun stuff. ↩
See our Japanese report on this story Japanese social gaming giant GREE (TYO:3632) and Yahoo Japan (TYO:4689) are announcing [1] today that they will establish a joint venture for development of social games for smartphones. The initiative is tentatively called GxYz [2] With 200 million yen (about $2.16 million) in capital dedicated to the venture, this solidifies a partnership that was first announced back in November of 2012. Yahoo Japan is the most popular web portal in Japan, and GREE is looking to tap into that audience, funneling traffic from the smartphone version of the site to social games on GREE. The gaming company also hopes that those users can use Yahoo Wallet to pay for content on GREE. GREE and Yahoo Japan announced back in December that they would be co-sponsoring the Tokyo 2020 Olympic bid. For more details, see GREE’s announcement in English and in Japanese. ↩ We’re really glad that this is tentative. ↩
Japanese social gaming giant GREE (TYO:3632) and Yahoo Japan (TYO:4689) are announcing [1] today that they will establish a joint venture for development of social games for smartphones. The initiative is tentatively called GxYz [2]
With 200 million yen (about $2.16 million) in capital dedicated to the venture, this solidifies a partnership that was first announced back in November of 2012. Yahoo Japan is the most popular web portal in Japan, and GREE is looking to tap into that audience, funneling traffic from the smartphone version of the site to social games on GREE. The gaming company also hopes that those users can use Yahoo Wallet to pay for content on GREE.
Crowdworks is the Japanese equivalent of design crowdsourcing sites like Logo Tournament or 99designs. It launched in March of 2012 and its total number of registered creators and engineers surpassed 7,000 in October of the same year. To date, more than 3,600 small businesses have used the site. Among the small businesses that leverage crowdsourcing, tech startups are apparently very active in using the service to create new logos and app icons. Here are some of the tech companies that have used Crowdworks for creative inspiration and what those winning designs look like. miil miil is basically a sort of Instagram for foodies. You can like and comment on each other’s food photos, and find out nearby restaurants and photos shared there. On Crowdworks, the startup asked for a new icon they could use for the app store, and paid 30,000 yen (about $320) to get the job done. 36 designs were submitted in total. Gunosy By looking at your Facebook and Twitter accounts, Gunosy curates news articles best suited for each user. The news can be viewed on the Gunosy website, received by email, or simply read in their app. The service launched in October of 2011 and gained…
Crowdworks is the Japanese equivalent of design crowdsourcing sites like Logo Tournament or 99designs. It launched in March of 2012 and its total number of registered creators and engineers surpassed 7,000 in October of the same year. To date, more than 3,600 small businesses have used the site.
Among the small businesses that leverage crowdsourcing, tech startups are apparently very active in using the service to create new logos and app icons. Here are some of the tech companies that have used Crowdworks for creative inspiration and what those winning designs look like.
miil
miil is basically a sort of Instagram for foodies. You can like and comment on each other’s food photos, and find out nearby restaurants and photos shared there.
On Crowdworks, the startup asked for a new icon they could use for the app store, and paid 30,000 yen (about $320) to get the job done. 36 designs were submitted in total.
Gunosy
By looking at your Facebook and Twitter accounts, Gunosy curates news articles best suited for each user. The news can be viewed on the Gunosy website, received by email, or simply read in their app. The service launched in October of 2011 and gained over 76,000 users as of this month.
Gunosy was looking for a cover image for their Facebook page and found one they liked from the 19 designs submitted. Considering the tech savvy user demographic, the very modern design really suits the brand.
Takumen
Takumen is an e-commerce service for well-known ramen spots all over Japan.
Takumen offered creators 20,000 yen (about $213) for a logo for a new ramen shop called Sakuta-ya. 34 different designs were submitted, and a very manly black and red logo won the competition.
Samurai International
The startup was seeking a logo for a new music application which has racked up over 2 million downloads to date. The app auto-plays selected music from YouTube, so it was essential that the logo reflects that connection with YouTube.
From the 18 submitted designs, the startup chose a very simple logo with a musical note.
Poica
Poica is a smartphone app that carries all of your point cards in one handy place. Readers may recall our video review of the app earlier this month.
The startup used Crowdworks to create introductory business cards to give out to people they meet. The 40,000 yen prize (about $426) was won with a simple white and green design, out of 15 designs.
Crowdworks recently partnered with Yahoo! Crowdsourcing this past January, teaming up to make the service the largest crowdsourcing site in Japan. Other small businesses are leveraging the site as well, including a local beer manufacturer in Atsugi. You can see some pretty labels for the new spring beer here.
Last week we mentioned that the mobile card battle game Dark Summoner from publisher A-Team (TYO:3662) had surpassed 5 million downloads worldwide on the iOS and Android platforms. So far the title has been doing well on the top grossing app charts in both its home market and in the US. For those of you who have yet to check it out, here’s our quick video walk-through of Dark Summoner. The game isn’t really all that much different than other mobile card battle games in my view. Rage of Bahamut is a similar game, although obviously a lot more popular [1]. While I wouldn’t go so far as to call these games horrible, they do require a little bit of time to get into, and could certainly use more of an explanation for beginners. I’m curious to hear if any of our readers are playing Dark Summoner, and if you are, please leave your thoughts in the comments. Are these card battle games all the same to you? Or do they each have something unique to offer? Let us know. (And feel free to drop me a line in-game as well [2]!) We recently spoke with Cygames, the developer of…
Last week we mentioned that the mobile card battle game Dark Summoner from publisher A-Team (TYO:3662) had surpassed 5 million downloads worldwide on the iOS and Android platforms. So far the title has been doing well on the top grossing app charts in both its home market and in the US.
For those of you who have yet to check it out, here’s our quick video walk-through of Dark Summoner. The game isn’t really all that much different than other mobile card battle games in my view. Rage of Bahamut is a similar game, although obviously a lot more popular [1]. While I wouldn’t go so far as to call these games horrible, they do require a little bit of time to get into, and could certainly use more of an explanation for beginners.
I’m curious to hear if any of our readers are playing Dark Summoner, and if you are, please leave your thoughts in the comments. Are these card battle games all the same to you? Or do they each have something unique to offer? Let us know. (And feel free to drop me a line in-game as well [2]!)
We recently spoke with Cygames, the developer of Rage of Bahamut about the process of bringing that game to global users. You can read that article in its entirety here. ↩
My ID is 1459947259. You can share yours in the comments if you like. ↩
Conyac is a Tokyo-based startup that focuses on providing cost-effective translation services, leveraging crowdsourced expertise. It recently added a new service to its repertoire called Conyac for Business, and the company also announced its first overseas expansion to San Francisco. In addition to those developments, we also learned that Una Aruna Softic has joined the team to help their international marketing efforts in San Francisco. She previously worked with EverConnect.me, a social media account aggregation service that was shut down last September. We spoke with Una as well as Conyac’s CEO Naoki Yamada, about their plans to grow this translation business. Tell us about this new business service, and why you are expanding your offerings in this way. It’s called Conyac for Business, and it is designed better suit business translation needs. We started our service in May of 2009, aiming at giving individual users a way to break language barriers at affordable rates. [But] now we’re receiving more translation requests from corporate users, and that’s why we created the new service, to better serve those users. How is it different from your existing service? Our regular service provides translation services for casual communication purposes, such contacting a sales representative…
Conyac is a Tokyo-based startup that focuses on providing cost-effective translation services, leveraging crowdsourced expertise. It recently added a new service to its repertoire called Conyac for Business, and the company also announced its first overseas expansion to San Francisco. In addition to those developments, we also learned that Una Aruna Softic has joined the team to help their international marketing efforts in San Francisco. She previously worked with EverConnect.me, a social media account aggregation service that was shut down last September. We spoke with Una as well as Conyac’s CEO Naoki Yamada, about their plans to grow this translation business.
Conyac’s Una Softic (left) and CEO Naoki Yamada (right)
Tell us about this new business service, and why you are expanding your offerings in this way.
It’s called Conyac for Business, and it is designed better suit business translation needs. We started our service in May of 2009, aiming at giving individual users a way to break language barriers at affordable rates. [But] now we’re receiving more translation requests from corporate users, and that’s why we created the new service, to better serve those users.
How is it different from your existing service?
Our regular service provides translation services for casual communication purposes, such contacting a sales representative at an e-commerce site abroad when ordering. For the purpose of encouraging our (crowdsourced) translators to make a translation request very quickly, the maximum length in each ‘request unit’ was limited to [a maximum of] 720 characters. However, for the business service, the limit is extended up to 50,000 characters so that our users need not to split sentences into pieces when placing a translation order, meaning it may fit even for business documents as well.
Of course, in terms of satisfying clients with the translation quality, we also established a new qualification process to choose highly skilled translators for business needs. The business service can accept original documents for translation requests not only as text files but also in some different business document file formats such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Powerpoint, and Keynote Files. This feature would be really helpful for our business users, because they no longer need to replace texts in their original documents with translation results.
So why do this now?
We found there’s a need for much work coming from the social gaming industry. Social gaming developers are now intensifying their international expansion. And in terms of localizing their gaming apps with foreign languages, they have a tremendous need for translation because the release cycles of new apps and updates are very, very short. We believe our service fit them well, and that’s why we also added to our sales headcount in order to cultivate more corporate clients from the industry.
Does the recent change of your major shareholders have anything to do with this new business strategy?
Yes. So far, we have fundraised a total of approximately 40 million yen ($431,000) from Samurai Incubate, United (previously known as ngi group), and Skylight Consulting. The shares previously held by our first investor Samurai Incubate were handed over to angel investor Anri Samata, because he has many connections with our potential clients, so that he could help us.
You’re launching a new office in San Francisco. What’s the main purpose of that office?
Yes, my new colleague Una will be in charge of that, and we will be setting up a new office (or a desk) at a co-working space in San Francisco. We’ve not yet decided the location or the date of its launch, but will announce that very shortly. Basically, the main role of our SF office is to intensify our marketing efforts and gain a presence in the global startup community. Through the new office, we expect to get more new clients from the West coast who are in need of translation as well.
Do you have any plan to set up other overseas offices after San Francisco?
Yes. We’re now exploring the potential of setting up a new office in Singapore, where a number of Japanese and Asian gaming/tech startups have their offices.
The competition in the translation space is getting more intense these days. A Conyac competitor, 500Starups-backed Gengo is considered to be slightly ahead when it comes to serving businesses, as they have developed many tools and interfaces for business translation needs. In the Asian region, other startups in the translation space include OneSky and Translation Market – both from Hong Kong.
Rick Martin
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Masaru Ikeda
