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Japan’s ‘Kiddy’ is a photo diary for iPhone that keeps grandma in the loop

Rick Martin 2013.03.07

Having recently joined the ranks of parenthood, I’ve been in the market for useful apps with which I could privately archive pictures of my new arrival. I don’t want to be one of those over-sharing parents on Facebook, nor do I want to publicly photos far beyond my immediate family and friends.

Kiddy is a photo sharing application from Japan which attempts to solve this sort of problem, letting you keep a calendar-like photo diary of your child’s development in a more private environment. If you do want to share your photos, you can push images to Facebook, or send them via email from the application.

But the most interesting sharing feature for the app is what’s called the ‘Kiddy Card.’ This feature allows you to select five of your best photos, and create a sort of postcard which you can then send to family members in the mail. Currently Kiddy is offering a free Kiddy Card campaign for the first five hundred applicants.

If you’d like to send to one address, it’s $2.59 per month; two addresses is $4.99 per month, and three addresses is $6.99 per month. In Japan in particular, with its rapidly aging population, this function is a good way to ensure that grandparents aren’t left stranded across the digital divide.

Kiddy has been around for just a few months, but so far it seems to have found a surprising niche in the ‘medical’ category on Apple’s Japanese App Store. And an Android app is said to be on the way as well. Kiddy was created by the same folks behind Compath.me, a Tokyo startup which many of you may recognize. Check out their promo video below:

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Another made-in-Japan baby diary app on the market that parents might want to check out is Daiby, from Hakuhodo DY Media Partners. As for my own baby diary of choice, I still plan to use Notabli, primarily due to its ease of use, support for audio and video moments, and its promise to liberate my photos and data if I choose to quit the app in the future. (I’m glad to see however that Kiddy also plans to have this function soon.)

Kiddy’s service of delivering your pictures on paper is somewhat reminiscent of Mixi’s Nohana photo book service. That application, amazingly, lets you order one free book per month, not including a minor shipping fee. I recently ordered one, and I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

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Tokyo-based advertising startup FreakOut raises $5.3M from Yahoo Japan

Masaru Ikeda 2013.03.07

FreakOut is a Tokyo-based startup developing a smartphone advertising platform for real-time bidding (RTB). Today it announced that it has raised 500 million yen (approximately $5.3 million) in series B funding from YJ Capital, the investment arm of Yahoo Japan (TYO:4689). FreakOut was launched in 2010 by Yuzuru Honda who previously launched a content-matching ad platform called Brainer, which was subsequently sold to Yahoo Japan in 2008. The startup has been delivering its white-label platform to more than 3,000 advertisers through 90 agencies in Japan and the US. With this new funding, the startup expects to intensify operations at its US subsidiary, FreakOut International Inc., which was launched in New York last April. Prior to this fundraising, the startup raised 350 million yen ($3.7 million) from two Japanese VC firms last year. TechCrunch Japan reports that the current value of the company is about 10.3 billion yen ($110 million).

FreakOut was launched in 2010 by Yuzuru Honda who previously launched a content-matching ad platform called Brainer, which was subsequently sold to Yahoo Japan in 2008. The startup has been delivering its white-label platform to more than 3,000 advertisers through 90 agencies in Japan and the US. With this new funding, the startup expects to intensify operations at its US subsidiary, FreakOut International Inc., which was launched in New York last April.

Prior to this fundraising, the startup raised 350 million yen ($3.7 million) from two Japanese VC firms last year. TechCrunch Japan reports that the current value of the company is about 10.3 billion yen ($110 million).

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Japanese curation site Naver Matome boasts 41 million users, cures information overload

SCORE 1,556

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.03.07

This is part of our ‘Japanese internet in-depth’ series (RSS). Stay tuned for more features that aim to explain what makes the internet unique in Japan. Naver Matome is a very simple curation platform that launched back in July of 2009. To date it has accumulated over 41 million users and over 1.2 billion page views per month. The platform is now operated by NHN Japan (perhaps best known as the company behind the Line chat app) after a merger with Naver in November of 2011. On the site, users are able to create pages that bundle images, links, and videos under a topic of their choice, ranging from dieting, to politics, to web services. There are many reasons behind the platform’s sucess including its friendly user interface, the wide genre of topics curated, compatibility with different social networks (especially Twitter), and strong SEO for both Yahoo and Google with 70% of its traffic coming from the two search engines. But above all, Naver Matome helps users overcome information overflow. This is especially true for the younger generation, which is Naver Matome’s biggest user segment 1. Many young people have never subscribed to newspapers, and for this reason Japan’s Nikkei,…

This is part of our ‘Japanese internet in-depth’ series (RSS). Stay tuned for more features that aim to explain what makes the internet unique in Japan.

Naver Matome is a very simple curation platform that launched back in July of 2009. To date it has accumulated over 41 million users and over 1.2 billion page views per month. The platform is now operated by NHN Japan (perhaps best known as the company behind the Line chat app) after a merger with Naver in November of 2011.

On the site, users are able to create pages that bundle images, links, and videos under a topic of their choice, ranging from dieting, to politics, to web services. There are many reasons behind the platform’s sucess including its friendly user interface, the wide genre of topics curated, compatibility with different social networks (especially Twitter), and strong SEO for both Yahoo and Google with 70% of its traffic coming from the two search engines.

cosplay-matome — Curated cosplay on Matome

But above all, Naver Matome helps users overcome information overflow. This is especially true for the younger generation, which is Naver Matome’s biggest user segment ¹. Many young people have never subscribed to newspapers, and for this reason Japan’s Nikkei, one of the country’s largest newspapers, has partnered with NHN to allow the use of texts (up to 200 characters) and images from the digital version of the newspaper in the hopes of attracting younger readers.

The total number of Matome pages now exceeds half a million. But what is the motivation for users to create these pages? Many users do it to earn pocket money. In November of 2010, Naver Matome began an incentive program, where some very popular Matome users with around half a million page views per month could receive payments as high as a few hundered thousand dollars.

Narumi is an example of popular curator with over 2.3 million monthly page views. Some topics he has created include:

Some curators specialize in tech, others in sports. Many of the curated topics are in fact very interesting and inspirational, although there are also many meant to be simply light or humorous.

Sometimes old articles from my personal blog get retweeted, and it’s likely that Naver Matome is contributing to that. The curators on the platform are great hunters of information, assisting others who may have difficulty finding relevant content. I hope that in the future traditional media can find a way to cooperate with Naver Matome and take advantage of the curation platform rather than seeing it as a threat or potential copyright violation, as some currently do.

Naver Matome is a unique corner of the Japanese net, and if you can read Japanese, you’re sure to find something you like over there. Enjoy!

The 20 to 29 demographic accounts for 34% of users, and 15 to 19 makes up 16%↩

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Looking for a job in Japan? Dragon Gate lets you pitch your skills to Japanese companies

Masaru Ikeda 2013.03.07

Dragon Gate is a job matching site that connects foreign students to Japanese companies. It was recently launched by Future Design Lab, a career consultancy based in Tokyo. Japanese business customs could potentially be a difficult obstacle for foreign students looking to work with Japanese companies. The consultancy helps them overcome this in a few ways, including helping in the creation of a CV as well as advising how to choose the right company to work with. The most interesting feature of Dragon Gate is that the service allows students to upload an 30- to 60-second introductory video clip for free. This video lets them showcase themselves on a prominent stage, and it enables Japanese talent seekers to easily assess the candidate’s level of Japanese proficiency as well as their business manner prior to hiring. Japanese streaming platform operator J-Stream provides the video solution for the website.. With these notable functions, the consultancy expects to help many foreign students find placements in Japanese companies. So if you’re a student or a recent graduate looking to find work in Japan, you might want to sign up!

Dragon Gate is a job matching site that connects foreign students to Japanese companies. It was recently launched by Future Design Lab, a career consultancy based in Tokyo.

Japanese business customs could potentially be a difficult obstacle for foreign students looking to work with Japanese companies. The consultancy helps them overcome this in a few ways, including helping in the creation of a CV as well as advising how to choose the right company to work with.

The most interesting feature of Dragon Gate is that the service allows students to upload an 30- to 60-second introductory video clip for free. This video lets them showcase themselves on a prominent stage, and it enables Japanese talent seekers to easily assess the candidate’s level of Japanese proficiency as well as their business manner prior to hiring. Japanese streaming platform operator J-Stream provides the video solution for the website..

With these notable functions, the consultancy expects to help many foreign students find placements in Japanese companies. So if you’re a student or a recent graduate looking to find work in Japan, you might want to sign up!

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New iPhone app from Domino’s Japan has virtual star Hatsune Miku dance on your pizza

SCORE 1,100

Rick Martin 2013.03.07

Domino’s Pizza has announced a pretty interesting high-tech collaboration that will create a new version of its already popular mobile app by adding the geeky appeal of virtual Vocaloid superstar Hatsune Miku. The app is free and has the normal functions of the Domino’s app, including the ability to order pizza, check the status of your order, and collect coupons. And in addition to the aqua-colored Hatsune Miku theme, it also has a few fun features, most notably an augmented reality function called ‘Pizza Stage Live.’ After your pizza arrives, you simply point your smartphone camera at the Hatsune Miku-themed Domino’s pizza box, and it suddenly becomes a stage where the animated singer begins a performance. Apparently the song, dance, and costume were all created by the folks at Domino’s Japan. Domino’s new app also includes a ‘Social Pizza Camera,’ a simple photo application that superimposes an image of Hatsune Miku – wearing costumes designed by Domino’s staffers – on top of any given scene. Once you take the picture, you can then share to Facebook or Twitter as well. Of course, Domino’s has added their logo at the bottom in the interests of some self-promotion. Domino’s employees have also…

The app is free and has the normal functions of the Domino’s app, including the ability to order pizza, check the status of your order, and collect coupons. And in addition to the aqua-colored Hatsune Miku theme, it also has a few fun features, most notably an augmented reality function called ‘Pizza Stage Live.’ After your pizza arrives, you simply point your smartphone camera at the Hatsune Miku-themed Domino’s pizza box, and it suddenly becomes a stage where the animated singer begins a performance. Apparently the song, dance, and costume were all created by the folks at Domino’s Japan.

dominos-pizza-japan-hatsune-miku^3

Domino’s new app also includes a ‘Social Pizza Camera,’ a simple photo application that superimposes an image of Hatsune Miku – wearing costumes designed by Domino’s staffers – on top of any given scene. Once you take the picture, you can then share to Facebook or Twitter as well. Of course, Domino’s has added their logo at the bottom in the interests of some self-promotion.

Domino’s employees have also gotten in on the action, producing some fun Hatsune Miku videos and songs, also featured in the app. Even Domino’s executive vice president has gotten involved in a truly cringe-worthy promo video for the application, which you can check out below.

If you’d like to try the app for yourself, you can get it for free over on Apple’s Japanese app store.

Update: We subsequently received word that Kamakura-based developer/publisher Kayac worked on this app. Impressive!

dominos-pizza-japan-hatsune-miku

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Discover an old world aesthetic with Kyoto Camera for iPhone

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.03.06

Kyoto Camera is a new iPhone photo app that recently joined the already very saturated photo app market. This application is somewhat unique however in that it isn’t about enhancing photos with filters, sharing with friends, or decorating photos with cute stamps. Interestingly, it simply focuses on discovering the colors we traditionally associate with the city of Kyoto in your everyday surroundings. By placing the white dot at the center of your photo preview, the app detects the object in the screen and displays name of the traditional color, and a corresponding color swatch is shown next to your shot, acting as a sort of stylish border flanking to the right in a polaroid-style snapshot (see above). Photos can then be saved to the camera roll. You can point to anything in your surroundings such as a convenience store, your shoes, a painting, or even Tokyo Tower. The app is sort of similar to Color Hunter except that it can be used for things in the real world. Kyoto Camera might come in handy for people who are looking to redo their walls in the style of old Kyoto. Or better yet, if you happen to be visiting Kyoto anytime…

By placing the white dot at the center of your photo preview, the app detects the object in the screen and displays name of the traditional color, and a corresponding color swatch is shown next to your shot, acting as a sort of stylish border flanking to the right in a polaroid-style snapshot (see above). Photos can then be saved to the camera roll.

You can point to anything in your surroundings such as a convenience store, your shoes, a painting, or even Tokyo Tower. The app is sort of similar to Color Hunter except that it can be used for things in the real world. Kyoto Camera might come in handy for people who are looking to redo their walls in the style of old Kyoto. Or better yet, if you happen to be visiting Kyoto anytime soon, you might use this app to snap off some pictures of key landmarks while you are there.

The city of Kyoto is filled with traditional buildings of beautiful colors. You can even find a brown McDonald’s there, which avoids its usual red so as to not disturb the surrounding landscape. If you’d like to try it out, the app is availabe over on the App Store for 85 yen (or about 90 cents).

Japan’s ‘Kiddy’ is a photo diary for iPhone that keeps grandma in the loop

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Tokyo-based advertising startup FreakOut raises $5.3M from Yahoo Japan

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