According to new research by Piper Jaffray, teens are growing tired of popular web destinations like Facebook and Youtube. They are moving on to sites like Reddit, Twitter, Vine, 4chan, and even SnapChat. But is this also true in Japan? Video Research Interative conducted a survey that might have the answer.
The survey was done in Janurary of this year, and it found that the most frequently visited site among university students is Yahoo Japan (TYO:4689), followed by Google, Facebook, and Youtube. In comparison to teenagers, university students preferred sites like Facebook and Hatena, whereas teenagers preferred Youtube, FC2, and Ameba. Hatena operates series of web services like Hatena Diary, Jinriki Search Hatena (Jinriki means manpower in English), and the Japanese Delicious equivalent Hatena Bookmark. Ameba operates a lineup of services as well, but is mostly known for its blogging platform.
The smartphone penetration of survey respondents has grown from 15.1% in November of 2010 to 43.5% in 2011, and 68.9% in same period last year. Many university students decided to switch from feature phones to smartphones when beginning their job-hunting in order to check for updated information and emails on the go.
To keep up with the rapidly shifting interests of young people, Japanese companies are coming up with different strategies. CyberAgent, for example created a dedicated team for girls’ products back in December of 2012.
The smartphone shipping volume grew 146% compared to last year, and one survey (by Markezine conducted in August of 2012) suggests that one in five girls use their smartphone for longer than ten hours a day. Smapo, the Japanese equivalent of ShopKick that we covered in a past article, is finding new partners for female brands to better satisfy this growing segment.
See the original story in Japanese. FrogApps is the Tokyo-based startup behind the notable Japanese food photo sharing app, Miil. The company’s CEO Hitoshi Nakamura recently announced he would step down from his current position, and board member Hawk Takahashi will be appointed as the new head. Mr. Nakamura will stay on the board of directors and support the startup as it grows further. FrogApps was founded in September of 2010 and went on to introduce Miil in 2011 [1]. Subsequently the startup fundraised 20 million yen from CyberAgent Ventures in 2011, and 240 million yen from Lead Capital Management and Dentsu Digital Holdings in 2012. According to Mr. Nakamura’s blog post, the food photo app has surpassed 300,000 downloads and 50,000 daily postings and comments. So why the change at the top? What’s this we’re hearing about a new company co-founded by FrogApps and Mr. Nakamura? We spoke with both the ex-CEO Hitoshi Nakamura, as well as his successor, Mr. Takahashi. Why step down now? Nakamura: I’m better at creating something from scratch. I really like to create something in a form of a service or a product, and then find its value proposition for consumers or markets. I’m…
FrogApps is the Tokyo-based startup behind the notable Japanese food photo sharing app, Miil. The company’s CEO Hitoshi Nakamura recently announced he would step down from his current position, and board member Hawk Takahashi will be appointed as the new head. Mr. Nakamura will stay on the board of directors and support the startup as it grows further.
FrogApps was founded in September of 2010 and went on to introduce Miil in 2011 [1]. Subsequently the startup fundraised 20 million yen from CyberAgent Ventures in 2011, and 240 million yen from Lead Capital Management and Dentsu Digital Holdings in 2012. According to Mr. Nakamura’s blog post, the food photo app has surpassed 300,000 downloads and 50,000 daily postings and comments.
So why the change at the top? What’s this we’re hearing about a new company co-founded by FrogApps and Mr. Nakamura? We spoke with both the ex-CEO Hitoshi Nakamura, as well as his successor, Mr. Takahashi.
Why step down now?
Nakamura: I’m better at creating something from scratch. I really like to create something in a form of a service or a product, and then find its value proposition for consumers or markets. I’m feeling that I’ve already done for the app. However, we needed to form a more sound team to keep the service growing. […] From now on, our key focus is finding how we can further boost our business.
Looking back to when you first launched, how much has your business achieved to date?
Nakamura: I can’t say we have taken the path that I expected. We had a minimum milestone to achieve, and I believe we have passed it. For our users, we have acquired many influencers who can spread the word about food and gourmet. We assumed food-savvy people like dining around town, but the facts were different. Our users like dining at home. I’ve been involved in restaurant business for a long time, and that’s why I thought we wanted to start building a user base among restaurant addicts.
From left: ex-CEO Hitoshi Nakamura and new CEO Hawk Takahashi
Did you find the right sort of business model to accelerate your business?
Takahashi: We ran a promotion campaign using food photos, and that was well received by our users. In terms of reaching our target for our possible sponsors, our service is too small to compete against conventional big mass media. However, our user base is specifically filtered around foodies and gourmets. We’ve discovered unexpected insights from our users’ feedbacks.
Nakamura: For example, we got sponsorship from Morinaga Milk (TYO:2264) and promoted their chocolate condensed milk products using the app. The chocolate product is an old product, as old as a plain-type condensed milk, but has not been featured so much publicly. When we asked our users to post recipes using the chocolate milk product, we received a bunch of great recipe ideas that the milk maker had never expected. These recipes were subsequently featured on the Morinaga website.
Why did a milk company like the Miil app? Was it something like market research for them?
Takahashi: Our clients (potential sponsors) may not be satisfied with only spreading the words about their products. They want to create value through interaction with our users. We turned to see how to improve our service and explore more potential business models including using the app for our client to fill their market research needs. In the next year, we’ll be much working on projects in partnership with restaurant businesses.
Nakamura: We need switch ourselves from the investment phase to a monetization phase someday. In order to make the business more sound and more sustainable, I handed over my role to Mr. Takahashi.
I heard you will be launching a new business called Froggy. What’s that about?
Nakamura: I’ve been in restaurant business for a long time, and I’ve learned there’s no innovation in this space. The restaurant business is labor-intensive, and for workers the conditions are not always the best, possibly with long hours or little to no paid vacation. That’s something technology can solve, and it can make a great impact on the industry as well. I can’t disclose much about what I’ll be working on, but I believe there’s more room for services which can work both for restaurant owners and their customers. The new project might be integrated with the Miil app as well, and I hope both can help each other, like the two wheels of the same cart, for example.
My interview with them was unfortunately quite short, and they couldn’t disclose too much about future plans. I thought they were expecting to develop a service for driving customers to real restaurants, but I could be wrong. The new project seems to have a different business model from that of the Miil app, and that may be a clue as to what they’ll do next.
Disclosure: The author’s wife has a business relationship with FrogApps.
Available in both English and Japanese for both Android and iOS. ↩
Mmbi Inc. recently announced that its mobile television service, NotTV, reached the 700,000 subscriber mark on April 8th. The mobile channel, which costs users 480 yen (just under $5) per month to use, grew steadily in 2012, but according to figures over on S-Max (which I’ve charted below) it seems as though the pace of subscriber acquisition tailed off a bit in the new year. This is unusual given that NotTV launched a promotional New Year’s campaign back on January 6th. Add to that the fact that it doesn’t appear to have received a boost from Docomo’s spring lineup of handsets, and I think this could be cause for concern for Mmbi [1]. The company’s previously stated goal for its first year was 1 million subscribers (it launched on April 1, 2012), and it has fallen well short of that milestone. Mmbi previously stated that it has the long term goal of reaching 10 million subscribers. While I’m sure NotTV will hit that first goal of a million subs in a few months, it will likely require some creative thinking to reach the second goal of 10 million. (View image version of this chart) Docomo smartphones are compatible with the…
Mmbi Inc. recently announced that its mobile television service, NotTV, reached the 700,000 subscriber mark on April 8th.
The mobile channel, which costs users 480 yen (just under $5) per month to use, grew steadily in 2012, but according to figures over on S-Max (which I’ve charted below) it seems as though the pace of subscriber acquisition tailed off a bit in the new year.
This is unusual given that NotTV launched a promotional New Year’s campaign back on January 6th. Add to that the fact that it doesn’t appear to have received a boost from Docomo’s spring lineup of handsets, and I think this could be cause for concern for Mmbi [1].
The company’s previously stated goal for its first year was 1 million subscribers (it launched on April 1, 2012), and it has fallen well short of that milestone. Mmbi previously stated that it has the long term goal of reaching 10 million subscribers.
While I’m sure NotTV will hit that first goal of a million subs in a few months, it will likely require some creative thinking to reach the second goal of 10 million.
We’ve had another fun week here at SD, doing our best to bring you interesting tech stories going down in Japan. But in case you missed any of it, here’s a wrap up below. If you’d like to get this weekly summary plus other bonus content, we hope you’ll check out our shiny new newsletter here. Features Why I can’t stop playing Puzzle & Dragons 04/12 UI Scope teams up with DeployGate to create a one-stop app testing solution 04/09 Meet 5 of Japan’s top photo apps 04/09 Cutting edge: How Japan’s “sushi tech” increases efficiency and profits 04/08 Business Namco Bandai hopes to increase global presence with new subsidiaries in Vancouver and Singapore 04/11 Yahoo Japan to launch online ticket sales service, poised to shake up $10B market 04/10 KDDI to migrate its music service to Kkbox, joining Asia’s largest music network 04/09 Design No girlfriend? No problem. Two hacker projects from Japan help you feel loved 04/08 Cerevo invents a smart, Apple-like power strip that keeps your wires under control 04/08 Apps A new iPhone app from Japan brings fun stamps to Facebook messaging [Video] 04/12 Too drunk to remember what sake you’re drinking? Japan has an app…
We’ve had another fun week here at SD, doing our best to bring you interesting tech stories going down in Japan. But in case you missed any of it, here’s a wrap up below. If you’d like to get this weekly summary plus other bonus content, we hope you’ll check out our shiny new newsletter here.
See original story in Japanese. Base is a Tokyo startup that provides an easy-to-implement e-commerce platform. It was born from Project Liverty, a tech savvy team led by serial entrepreneur Kazuma Ieiri. On Friday, the service added a new feature called BASE apps, allowing users to set up a shop under their own domain name. it also includes SEO (search engine optimization), and packaging material that merchants can use when shipping. With the exception of credit card surcharges, the service is provided completely free, and that includes these new features. The company’s CEO Yuta Tsuruoka explains that they will gradually add new features week by week, such as logo design, the ability to offer limited time discounts to customers, and even photo shoots for merchandise. Following Shopify’s successful ‘plug-in strategy’ Base was inspired by Shopify, the third-ranked e-commerce platform behind Amazon and eBay in terms of transaction volume (about $1 billion) in the US. In contrast to competitors, Shopify generates its revenue partially from plug-in usage. Essentially this means that when you add features or services to your e-shop, you will be requested to pay extra. Yuta adds: In the US, many merchants who have their e-shops on multi-tenant e-commerce…
Base is a Tokyo startup that provides an easy-to-implement e-commerce platform. It was born from Project Liverty, a tech savvy team led by serial entrepreneur Kazuma Ieiri. On Friday, the service added a new feature called BASE apps, allowing users to set up a shop under their own domain name. it also includes SEO (search engine optimization), and packaging material that merchants can use when shipping.
With the exception of credit card surcharges, the service is provided completely free, and that includes these new features. The company’s CEO Yuta Tsuruoka explains that they will gradually add new features week by week, such as logo design, the ability to offer limited time discounts to customers, and even photo shoots for merchandise.
Following Shopify’s successful ‘plug-in strategy’
Base was inspired by Shopify, the third-ranked e-commerce platform behind Amazon and eBay in terms of transaction volume (about $1 billion) in the US. In contrast to competitors, Shopify generates its revenue partially from plug-in usage. Essentially this means that when you add features or services to your e-shop, you will be requested to pay extra. Yuta adds:
In the US, many merchants who have their e-shops on multi-tenant e-commerce platforms have [not been doing well], and they are now moving to marketplace platforms. I really want this shift to come to Japan.
The startup’s plug-ins motivate small merchants and even individuals to open shops online. They also provide outsourced logistics service for merchants, and plan to provide vendor-managed inventory services. You can order logo design or a website template from partnering crowdsourced services via the Base platform.
Among the available plug-ins, some allow goods producers to even offer to develop merchandise for you. See apps.thebase.in to learn more about what features they provide.
Monetizing the payment process
Does the Base platform fully drive its business only with these plug-ins? Yuta says the answer is no:
During the testing period, we’ve seen merchants were using our platform in many different ways. Some merchants were selling web services, digital content, or other non-tangible services on the platform. It shows us there’s e-commerce potential far beyond just merchandise distribution. That’s the key for making our business successful, I believe.
He aspires to make this into another Paypal, as opposed to the next Rakuten or Amazon. The Base platform aspires to handle not only merchandise logistics but also monetary transactions between merchants and shoppers which may generate a huge volume of commission.
The e-commerce platform has acquired more than 23,000 merchants in the four months since its launch, where a variety of items ranging from luxury furniture to show tickets are being sold. The average price per customer reaches around 3,500 yen (around $35).
In January, the startup fundraised 23 million yen ($230,000) from Partyfactory, East Ventures, and several angel investors. We’ll keep you updated about how their business further grows from here.
I started playing Puzzle & Dragons a few months back. Or at least, that was my first serious look at it [1]. Prior to that, I had picked it up for a few plays only to put it down just as fast. It’s a game that takes a little bit of time to get into, and in the English version the help menu isn’t really an adequate primer for what the game has in store. And while I’ve come to really love the game, I think it can be tricky for newcomers. What follows is a short explanation of what I’ve learned about the game so far, as well as what I wish I knew when I first picked it up. The mechanics of the puzzle is not immediately apparent to start. If you haven’t tried the game yet, I’ve included a short video explainer above to help you get the gist of how to recognize basic orb patterns that can quickly be solved, and once you master those, you can move on to more advanced techniques [2]. Looking ahead to possible combinations makes the game feel somewhat chess-like sometimes, in that you need to plan ahead to execute your…
I started playing Puzzle & Dragons a few months back. Or at least, that was my first serious look at it [1]. Prior to that, I had picked it up for a few plays only to put it down just as fast. It’s a game that takes a little bit of time to get into, and in the English version the help menu isn’t really an adequate primer for what the game has in store. And while I’ve come to really love the game, I think it can be tricky for newcomers. What follows is a short explanation of what I’ve learned about the game so far, as well as what I wish I knew when I first picked it up.
The mechanics of the puzzle is not immediately apparent to start. If you haven’t tried the game yet, I’ve included a short video explainer above to help you get the gist of how to recognize basic orb patterns that can quickly be solved, and once you master those, you can move on to more advanced techniques [2]. Looking ahead to possible combinations makes the game feel somewhat chess-like sometimes, in that you need to plan ahead to execute your moves within the limited time you have. I used to be a chess fanatic, and perhaps that’s why this game appeals to me so much.
It’s also not at all obvious for a beginner how to best power up and evolve your monsters. While it’s important to save magic stones to try to get rare eggs from the machine, you’ll find in later levels that in order to acquire evolution material for specific cards, you need to find out in which dungeons you can acquire it. You could keep playing until you stumble across it, or you could check one of online databases for the game that are out there.
I still don’t fully understand evolving monsters and building teams, and there are lots of other resources out there that you might want to check out to learn more about that. But I do like that the depth of the game and the fact that I’ve been casually playing for months and there’s still so much more to learn.
Everybody must get stones
Spend a magic stone to continue?
Why Puzzle & Dragons has been such a money-maker for GungHo Entertainment? It’s all about the magic stones, the games currency. You’re occasionally awarded a stone, or simply given one as a gift upon login – but no matter how you get them, you probably ought to save them to either expand your monster box (in early stages especially) or to take a shot at the rare egg machine.
But the game draws on the same money-making principle of video game arcades back in the 70s and 80s: insert coin to continue. And sometimes after you’ve played a long round only to lose to a tough boss, you’ll be tempted to spend a magic stone to continue. Or, if you have no magic stones, you’ll be very tempted to buy one.
As a personal rule, I try not to spend any money on any virtual goods in games [3], and I’m really glad that the game isn’t crippled as a result. Game play isn’t really hampered at all, in fact. I don’t think I’m a hardcore fan of the game, but I do pick up the game daily, which is more frequent than any other mobile game.
What day is it, anyway?
Puzzle & Dragons has special dungeons available on certain days of the week. On the weekend for example, you earn more coins than usual, which can then be used to pay for power ups later on. Thursday is a fun day for me as it awards wood monsters, and I’m working on building a wood team. But this pattern of recurring in-game events is a pretty brilliant strategy from GungHo. Gamers look forward to the weekend when they can rack up lots of coins, or to special events during the week when there might be an increased chance of finding a rare monster. There are events on special occasions too, like a recent easter event, or the current spring event which just started.
No doubt gamers who take Puzzles & Dragons more seriously may find the information above somewhat trivial or obvious. But I think since the English version of the game still hasn’t come close to being popular on the US app charts, I thought I’d pass on a little information about why I like it so much. Besides the fun of the puzzles alone, there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had in collecting rare monsters and building a team. I enjoy the card battle genre, and P&D has all the right elements of that, I think.
Anyway, if you’d like to learn more about the game, I’ve included some more resources below. Some of them are deeper than you’ll need starting out, but keep them on hand for when you start to get hooked. If you have any advice to give I’d be delighted to hear it, so don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.
Note that I’m referring to the US/English version of Puzzle & Dragons, as opposed to the Japanese version. ↩
Some of the tutorials that exist on the net seem to indicate tactics that are far more complex than my simple video demo. I look forward to diving deeper and learning more. ↩
The money I spend in the Apple Store is usually on text editors or, more recently, on the very expensive Dragon Dictate, which I used to write this post. ↩
Yukari Mitsuhashi
According to new research by Piper Jaffray, teens are growing tired of popular web destinations like Facebook and Youtube. They are moving on to sites like Reddit, Twitter, Vine, 4chan, and even SnapChat. But is this also true in Japan? Video Research Interative conducted a survey that might have the answer.
Takeshi Hirano
Rick Martin
