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Japanese homescreen decoration app CocoPPa reaches 10M downloads, most from overseas

Junya Mori 2013.06.24

See the original story in Japanese.

United, the startup behind popular homescreen decoration app CocoPPa, announced that the application has surpassed 10 million downloads worldwide. The app was first launched just about 11 months ago.

CocoPPa allows you to change your homescreen using icons or wallpapers posted by other users on the platform. It’s used in more than 150 countries worldwide, and a 87% of all the downloads have come from outside Japan. In addition to providing homescreen designs, the app lets you exchange messages with other users, and they often use Google Translate to enjoy chatting regardless of language gaps.

The iOS version of CocoPPa was launched back in July of 2012, and its user growth was relatively slow for the rest of that year. But growth has been much stronger since this past February, and user numbers have tripled over a span of three months. And in May, the total number of the downloads surpassed 8 million.

When we previously heard from the startup, they expressed the hope of reaching 30 million downloads by the end of this year. That’s a lofty goal, but 10 million is certainly a good first step!

Some of our readers may recall that the startup also partnered with Tokyo Otaku Mode last week. United also recently started hiring in an effort to accelerate its business expansion to the global market.

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Hello Kitty for your Smartphone: 5 Cute Apps to Try

SCORE 3,009

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.06.24

Hello Kitty Run! Run! Run! Perhaps the most popular of Japan’s many cute characters is Hello Kitty from Sanrio. This tiny cat absolutely everywhere, even on our mobile phones. Over on App Annie, searching ‘Hello Kitty’ brings up an astonishing 328 results. Here are just five of the apps we think you should consider downloading first. 1. Hello Kitty Mail ¶ One of the reasons that so many Japanese girls hesitated to switch to smartphones from feature phones was that it would be more difficult to send texts with cute emojis. Girls all have their favorite emoticons, and switching means that they would have to abandon them. But this Hello Kitty Mail app lets users send emails with cute Hello Kitty emojis, as well as Little Twin Sisters and My Melody. Additional emoji can be purchased within the app. If you’d like to download it, you can get it over on the app store for 170 yen (about $1.99). 2. Hello Kitty World ¶ Japanese web portal company Nifty released its iOS app in cooperation with Sanrio Wave back in April of 2012. And within just a year, the app has expanded to over 52 countries, with more than one…

Hello Kitty Run! Run! Run!

Perhaps the most popular of Japan’s many cute characters is Hello Kitty from Sanrio. This tiny cat absolutely everywhere, even on our mobile phones. Over on App Annie, searching ‘Hello Kitty’ brings up an astonishing 328 results. Here are just five of the apps we think you should consider downloading first.

1. Hello Kitty Mail ¶

One of the reasons that so many Japanese girls hesitated to switch to smartphones from feature phones was that it would be more difficult to send texts with cute emojis. Girls all have their favorite emoticons, and switching means that they would have to abandon them. But this Hello Kitty Mail app lets users send emails with cute Hello Kitty emojis, as well as Little Twin Sisters and My Melody. Additional emoji can be purchased within the app. If you’d like to download it, you can get it over on the app store for 170 yen (about $1.99).

2. Hello Kitty World ¶

Japanese web portal company Nifty released its iOS app in cooperation with Sanrio Wave back in April of 2012. And within just a year, the app has expanded to over 52 countries, with more than one million total downloads as of February 2013. With this app, users can create their own playland using different Sanrio characters. The social feature allows players to compete with each other through Twitter and Facebook too. The app has an English website which you can check out here.

3. Hello Kitty Run! Run! Run! ¶

Hello Kitty Run! Run! Run! is an app developed by the giant gaming company NamcoBandai, released back in May for both iOS and Android. In the game, an 8-bit Hello Kitty goes on adventures around the world turning herself into soldiers and witches. There are over 200 costumes for Hello Kitty to gear up in and over 50 stages to beat. The game is very simple and can be controlled by two buttons on the sides of the screen, making it suitable even for kids.

Check out Hello Kitty Run! Run! Run! in action below.

4. Hello Kitty Stamp Calendar ¶

This is a simple calendar app developed by Sanrio Wave featuring original Hello Kitty stamps. The app comes with an original Hello Kitty calendar theme that changes every week. By turning on the app once a day you can see Omikuji, a sort of a fortune-telling or horoscope. The calendar is good for three months, so in order to continue using the app it will be necessary to purchase an additional three months for 115 yen.

Hello Kitty Stamp Calendar is available on iOS for 350 yen (or $3.99).

5. Hello Kitty Face ¶

This one is for true Hello Kitty fans. ‘Hello Kitty Face’ is designed to work with a special iPhone case created by Gourmandise.

The outer case works as Hello Kitty’s body and the app displays her face on your mobile sceen. The iPhone case is available on Amazon Japan for 2,990 yen (or about $31) ¹.

To see the official Hello Kitty apps by Sanrio, you can check out Sanrio’s website.

On a related note, this may be the cutest Hello Kitty iPhone case ever.↩

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10 fun photos popular on Twitter Japan

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.06.24

Whether on Twitter or Facebook, of all the things that pass through our social feeds, perhaps nothing gets more attention than photos. But of course really fun photos can be rare or hard to find. But in Japan there is a web service called Twicolle.com that lets you to discover popular photos from Twitter in a snap. According to a survey conducted by ICT, Twitter is still very popular among the many communication services available in Japan. It ranked third following Line and Facebook as the most frequently used communication services. Twitter also nabbed first place for customer satisfaction among major social networks. Let’s take a quick look to see what Japanese netizens are finding most interesting on Twitter right now. なんか教室着いたらものすごく爽やかになってた pic.twitter.com/gA6XTb3VSj — げんそ (@hisakura_genso) June 20, 2013 A chalk drawing on a blackboard. マイメロの真実 pic.twitter.com/kQOv8A0k8X — 太郎○ (@tarou7017) June 13, 2013 The truth about My Melody, the popular Sanrio character. あまちゃんを東京編から見始める人のために、北三陸編のあらすじをまとめました。 #あまちゃん #あま絵 pic.twitter.com/tiSEmYt6LP — ぷにんぷ_さな (@puninpu) June 22, 2013 A digest manga of a popular NHK TV show. イランで見つかったガイコツで、６０００歳だそうです。愛は時間を超えるんですね♡ pic.twitter.com/uhNb1ExC43 — 思わずグッときたbot (@gu_tto_kita) May 30, 2013 6000-year-old skeleton couple found in Iran. 青森やばい。 pic.twitter.com/RCAPOTLQpx — 歌広場淳 (@junjunmjgirly) June 23, 2013 Strawberry-flavored ramen noodles found…

Whether on Twitter or Facebook, of all the things that pass through our social feeds, perhaps nothing gets more attention than photos. But of course really fun photos can be rare or hard to find. But in Japan there is a web service called Twicolle.com that lets you to discover popular photos from Twitter in a snap.

According to a survey conducted by ICT, Twitter is still very popular among the many communication services available in Japan. It ranked third following Line and Facebook as the most frequently used communication services. Twitter also nabbed first place for customer satisfaction among major social networks.

Let’s take a quick look to see what Japanese netizens are finding most interesting on Twitter right now.

なんか教室着いたらものすごく爽やかになってた pic.twitter.com/gA6XTb3VSj

— げんそ (@hisakura_genso) June 20, 2013

A chalk drawing on a blackboard.

マイメロの真実 pic.twitter.com/kQOv8A0k8X

— 太郎○ (@tarou7017) June 13, 2013

The truth about My Melody, the popular Sanrio character.

あまちゃんを東京編から見始める人のために、北三陸編のあらすじをまとめました。 #あまちゃん #あま絵 pic.twitter.com/tiSEmYt6LP

— ぷにんぷ_さな (@puninpu) June 22, 2013

A digest manga of a popular NHK TV show.

イランで見つかったガイコツで、６０００歳だそうです。愛は時間を超えるんですね♡ pic.twitter.com/uhNb1ExC43 — 思わずグッときたbot (@gu_tto_kita) May 30, 2013

6000-year-old skeleton couple found in Iran.

青森やばい。 pic.twitter.com/RCAPOTLQpx

— 歌広場淳 (@junjunmjgirly) June 23, 2013

Strawberry-flavored ramen noodles found in Aomori prefecture.

犬「なんかなぁ、うち昼寝しとってん。ほんでな、いきなり雨ふってきてん。」 pic.twitter.com/bmUppKC2nX — 歌うわたあめ (@watakodayo) June 23, 2013

Dog: “I was taking a nap and it started raining.”

もしもツイッターに「知らんがな」ボタンがあったら。 pic.twitter.com/TULNe0YZvc

— 非リア充あるある (@hi_riaju_) May 31, 2013

What if there was an “I don’t give a shit” button on Twitter?

佐川急便がやってしました……… pic.twitter.com/zJfx1Rl5Jh — East (@gtosairisuta) June 23, 2013

A truck in a little trouble.

正方形を31個見つけたら人材、35個は天才、40個以上はアップル社の面接行ったほうがいいらしい（笑） pic.twitter.com/jj5e4wLVwT

— よっ！ポジなか (@ftjhsmj) May 17, 2013

How many squares can you find? If you can find more than 40, you belong at an Apple job interview.

抹茶アイスの蓋を開けたら… くっそwwwwww 吹いたww pic.twitter.com/RgEG4DFTA2

— Kissy (@Kissy0722) June 23, 2013

I opened some maccha ice cream and I found— LoL.

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Introducing our Japan Internet Map

Rick Martin 2013.06.23

Last week we unveiled a new ‘Japan Internet Map’ section on our website. It’s sort of an experimental effort for us, but we think you’ll like it. This interactive presentation can give you a better ‘wide-angle’ understanding of the notable players in Japan’s internet and mobile space. Check it out here: The Japan Internet Map When we speak to readers from overseas, a refrain we continue to hear is that Japan’s tech and startup industries are difficult to find out about, that it’s a sort of a ‘black box’ market. I think we’ve helped illuminate things a little bit in the few months since our English site came online back in February. But we’d like to do more. This Japan Internet Map, while still flawed in many ways, is part of our attempt to serve our readers better. We’re delighted that the early feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and we’re also very pleased that the good folks over on The Next Web thought it worthy of a mention. As always, we’re eager to hear what you think of SD Japan, so don’t hesitate to drop a line with your comments or ideas.

The Japan Internet Map

When we speak to readers from overseas, a refrain we continue to hear is that Japan’s tech and startup industries are difficult to find out about, that it’s a sort of a ‘black box’ market. I think we’ve helped illuminate things a little bit in the few months since our English site came online back in February. But we’d like to do more.

This Japan Internet Map, while still flawed in many ways, is part of our attempt to serve our readers better. We’re delighted that the early feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and we’re also very pleased that the good folks over on The Next Web thought it worthy of a mention.

As always, we’re eager to hear what you think of SD Japan, so don’t hesitate to drop a line with your comments or ideas.

news

Japanese Raspberry Pi robot reaches Kickstarter goal in 2 days

Masaru Ikeda 2013.06.23

Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer, capable of many of the same functions as your desktop PC. And Tokyo-based gadget creator Kiluck has unveiled a cool humanoid robot that can work with the miniature computer. On Thursday began a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for its production. As of right now, it has been more than three days since the launch on the crowdfunding site, and the robot ‘fanufacturing’ project has raised more than £25,000 (about $38,600), exceeding the original target of £20,000 ($30,900). The new robot is called Rapiro, and was developed by Kiluck in collaboration with three Japanese manufacturing companies. The startup’s founder, Shota Ishiwatari, is also known for having developed Necomimi, a wearable cat-ear device that moves in accordance with your brainwave activity. Some of our readers may have seen the device at various tech conferences around the world. In combination with Raspberry Pi, Kiluck’s new widget lets you create a new friend of your own for a total cost of less than $500. The the product is expected to ship at the end of this year.

As of right now, it has been more than three days since the launch on the crowdfunding site, and the robot ‘fanufacturing’ project has raised more than £25,000 (about $38,600), exceeding the original target of £20,000 ($30,900).

The new robot is called Rapiro, and was developed by Kiluck in collaboration with three Japanese manufacturing companies. The startup’s founder, Shota Ishiwatari, is also known for having developed Necomimi, a wearable cat-ear device that moves in accordance with your brainwave activity. Some of our readers may have seen the device at various tech conferences around the world.

In combination with Raspberry Pi, Kiluck’s new widget lets you create a new friend of your own for a total cost of less than $500. The the product is expected to ship at the end of this year.

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Big data startup Hapyrus raises $925,000 from Japanese investors

Masaru Ikeda 2013.06.23

Silicon Valley-based big data startup Hapyrus announced this week that it has raised $925,000 from several investors in Japan and the US. This follows its previous round of seed funding from CyberAgent back in November of 2011. The investors this time are: Shigeru Urushibara (president of Japanese systems integrator UL Systems) Shogo Kawada (co-founder of DeNA) CyberAgent Ventures Kiyoshi Nishikawa (president of NetAge) Nissay Capital William Lohse (former president of Ziff-Davis publishing, angel investor for Pinterest) The startup was launched back in March of 2011 by Japanese entrepreneur Koichi Fujikawa. He previously worked at Yahoo Japan and at Japanese location-based ad platform startup Sirius Technology (acquired by Yahoo Japan in 2010). Japan’s governmental IT promotion agency heralded him as a “genius talent” in the computer industry with his Hadoop middleware project for scripting Ruby DSL (domain specific language). The startup launched a new service called FlyData for Amazon Redshift back in April, which allows automatic uploading and migration of data to Amazon Redshift, the data-warehouse service that can scale to petabyte size. For developers, the service allows you to control and send log files on your server to your own Amazon Redshift cluster over Amazon S3 at a frequency of…

Shigeru Urushibara (president of Japanese systems integrator UL Systems)
Shogo Kawada (co-founder of DeNA)
CyberAgent Ventures
Kiyoshi Nishikawa (president of NetAge)
Nissay Capital
William Lohse (former president of Ziff-Davis publishing, angel investor for Pinterest)

The startup was launched back in March of 2011 by Japanese entrepreneur Koichi Fujikawa. He previously worked at Yahoo Japan and at Japanese location-based ad platform startup Sirius Technology (acquired by Yahoo Japan in 2010). Japan’s governmental IT promotion agency heralded him as a “genius talent” in the computer industry with his Hadoop middleware project for scripting Ruby DSL (domain specific language).

The startup launched a new service called FlyData for Amazon Redshift back in April, which allows automatic uploading and migration of data to Amazon Redshift, the data-warehouse service that can scale to petabyte size. For developers, the service allows you to control and send log files on your server to your own Amazon Redshift cluster over Amazon S3 at a frequency of once every five minutes. This helps you easily conduct an almost realtime-like big data analysis over the cloud.

They have another service called FlyData for Heroku, which also allows the automatic upload of log data on Heroku to Amazon EC3.

On a related note, Treasure Data, another notable Japanese startup focused on big data solutions, also received angel investment worth $2.75 million back in 2012, with funds coming from several investors including Jerry Yang (Yahoo co-founder) and Yukihiro ‘Matz’ Matsumoto (the inventor of the Ruby language).

Japanese homescreen decoration app CocoPPa reaches 10M downloads, most from overseas

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