Project N at World Finals venue: Chester Lee Chin Zhen, Teppei Yoneyama (Picture courtesy of Microsoft)
The Imagine Cup is an annual global competition organized by Microsoft, with the aim of nurturing students to be competitive in the international arena. The finals are taking place in St. Petersburg, Russia, where finalists from 71 counties come together to competing for the top awards in five categories, with the winners will be announced late on Thursday night (Japan Time). It will be livestreamed here if you’d like to tune in.
The team of Teppei Yoneyama and Chester Lee Chin Zhen (who are both attending Japan’s oldest computer vocational school) are finalists from Japan, proposing a new gaming app development environment. It’s called the Knowall Library, and it has taken about four years to complete. The development suite allows game developers to create a 2D or 3D gaming app relatively easily. To date many people have already developed several gaming titles using the environment, giving it high praise since it is just as sophisticated as many existing products in terms of technical features.
The video below shows you how Yoneyama presented the work at his vocational school. It’s in Japanese, but it will give you a better but idea of how it works. We are told that it’s not common for gaming app development environment to be chosen as a finalist for the Imagine Cup event.
We certainly wish them the best of luck during the rest of the competition!
For western companies, entering the Asian market is no easy task. There is the inevitable language barrier, not to mention the cultural differences. We had a chance to talk to Anji Ismail, the CEO of online marketing platform DOZ, in order to hear his thoughts on what makes the Japanese market especially different. For starters, online marketing in Japan is very well-developed. According to a study by Dentsu published in March of this year, online marketing budgets in Japan grew by 107.7% compared to the previous year. Anji adds: Japan is actually the second biggest market with over $8.1 billion in total spending in 2012, and it might reach $11 billion in 2015. Mobile is really hot in Japan, with $1.8 billion spent in 2012, ranking as the second biggest market for mobile advertising expenditures, just behind the US. Although Japanese people are known to open their wallets for digital contents such as mobile apps, games, and newsletters, it turns out that they are not especially keen to click on ads. On the web, it’s interesting to note that almost 40% of Japanese never click on sponsored ads on search engines, and only 6% of those who do have bought…
Photo: Simon le nippon on Flickr
For western companies, entering the Asian market is no easy task. There is the inevitable language barrier, not to mention the cultural differences. We had a chance to talk to Anji Ismail, the CEO of online marketing platform DOZ, in order to hear his thoughts on what makes the Japanese market especially different.
For starters, online marketing in Japan is very well-developed. According to a study by Dentsu published in March of this year, online marketing budgets in Japan grew by 107.7% compared to the previous year. Anji adds:
Japan is actually the second biggest market with over $8.1 billion in total spending in 2012, and it might reach $11 billion in 2015. Mobile is really hot in Japan, with $1.8 billion spent in 2012, ranking as the second biggest market for mobile advertising expenditures, just behind the US.
Although Japanese people are known to open their wallets for digital contents such as mobile apps, games, and newsletters, it turns out that they are not especially keen to click on ads.
On the web, it’s interesting to note that almost 40% of Japanese never click on sponsored ads on search engines, and only 6% of those who do have bought something after clicking. Actually, Japan has one of the lowest click-through rates, with only a 1.4% click rate on web ads. However, budgets are growing for search engine and social media optimization.
While Japanese people do click on ads, the CTR remains low. A relevant survey by Goo Research shows that almost 63% of respondents have clicked on ads shown on search results, while 24% have not. When asked what type of ads they are more likely to click, the most popular response was banner, images, or Flash at roughly 46%, and text ads on search results ranked second at about 28%. Links within newsletters, affiliate links within contents, and links within blog posts (content-match advertising) followed at around 25%.
Of course, entering the Japanese market cannot and should not be just restricted to online marketing. It’s a mixture of offline and online tactics, and some US companies have done it very well. Evernote is one good example. The company marked its third year anniversary in Japan back in March. There are over five million users in Japan and it’s the second most active market after US in terms of active users, with 30% of its revenue coming from the country.
Evernote was a typical case of what is called ‘blogger marketing’ in Japan. They reached out to tech savvy and influential people online, people who acted as ambassadors for the service. Lots of meetups were held, and these ambassadors also helped Evernote with promotion in book and other publications. Searching for ‘Evernote’ on Amazon Japan now yields over 500 results.
Google is another company that many Japanese people find appealing. In a survey about popular online brands, Google ranked third after Rakuten and Yahoo. That score is calculated from important factors such as usability, number of visits, and website loyalty. But the company’s unique promotions have likely been a factor in its popularity. For Google+, the company collaborated with the all-girl idol group AKB 48 and fashionista/pop star Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. To promote its Chrome web browser, the company aired a TV commercial featuring the popular virtual diva Hatsune Miku.
Of course these are just a few cases, and there are many others. And given the money to be made in this lucrative market (especially on mobile), marketing to Japanese consumers will continue to be a challenge — but one with a big payoff for those who do it right.
Japanese automotive giant Honda is generally considered to be an exceptional company because of its principles and lean manufacturing. From motorcycles to cars to robots — the series of innovations that Honda has produced over the years is pretty astounding. To showcase its past achievements, the company has released a magical two minute video product history. It’s called ‘Hands.’ The video appropriately starts with the line, “Let’s see what a curiosity can do”. The Honda Supercub motorcycle (featured early in the video) was released back in 1958, and has sold a total of over 6o million by 2008. Honda’s Civic started selling back in 1972 and was the first car ever in the world to be accredited under the USA’s Clean Air Act (Muskie Act). And there there is Asimo, Honda’s humanoid robot which debuted in the year 2000. The latest model was released in November of 2011, lighter by 6 kilograms and with an improved walking speed of 9 kilometers per hour. To see more of what Honda engineers have brought to the world, check out the video below.
Japanese automotive giant Honda is generally considered to be an exceptional company because of its principles and lean manufacturing. From motorcycles to cars to robots — the series of innovations that Honda has produced over the years is pretty astounding.
To showcase its past achievements, the company has released a magical two minute video product history. It’s called ‘Hands.’ The video appropriately starts with the line, “Let’s see what a curiosity can do”.
The Honda Supercub motorcycle (featured early in the video) was released back in 1958, and has sold a total of over 6o million by 2008. Honda’s Civic started selling back in 1972 and was the first car ever in the world to be accredited under the USA’s Clean Air Act (Muskie Act).
And there there is Asimo, Honda’s humanoid robot which debuted in the year 2000. The latest model was released in November of 2011, lighter by 6 kilograms and with an improved walking speed of 9 kilometers per hour.
To see more of what Honda engineers have brought to the world, check out the video below.
We previously featured the very clever StickerMe app, developed by the folks at Tokyo-based Motion Portrait. In the past the company has been best known for its fun facial modification apps like Zombie Booth or Sumo Booth. But interestingly their technological expertise in facial recognition has put them in the unique position of being able to make a great sticker creation app. Their app lets users take a picture of someone’s face and easily transform it into a customized sticker that can then be sent via Line, Kakao, or even on more traditional platforms like Facebook or email. Motion Portrait’s advantage is that the resultant stickers can even include changes to your face, like adding a smile to an unsmiling mouth, for example. Asia Loves Stickers So far the app has done extremely well in its first two months, picking up 1.8 million downloads during that span, mostly from around the Asia region. The countries that account for the most downloads are Japan, Thailand, and China, but it is also popular in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Of course that is all just on iOS so far, so there’s lots of potential for growth. To date, the platform…
We previously featured the very clever StickerMe app, developed by the folks at Tokyo-based Motion Portrait. In the past the company has been best known for its fun facial modification apps like Zombie Booth or Sumo Booth. But interestingly their technological expertise in facial recognition has put them in the unique position of being able to make a great sticker creation app.
Their app lets users take a picture of someone’s face and easily transform it into a customized sticker that can then be sent via Line, Kakao, or even on more traditional platforms like Facebook or email. Motion Portrait’s advantage is that the resultant stickers can even include changes to your face, like adding a smile to an unsmiling mouth, for example.
Asia Loves Stickers
So far the app has done extremely well in its first two months, picking up 1.8 million downloads during that span, mostly from around the Asia region. The countries that account for the most downloads are Japan, Thailand, and China, but it is also popular in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Of course that is all just on iOS so far, so there’s lots of potential for growth. To date, the platform that most favors StickerMe is Line with about 45% of total shares taking place on that platform. China’s WeChat is not far behind with 33%.
The app’s producer, Ryuhei Sadoshima, explained to us that that because most of the Asian countries interested in StickerMe are dominated by Android, they have even higher expectations for their upcoming Google Play release, set for later this month. Motion Portrait is targeting 10 million total downloads this year, with the hope of about 8 million downloads on Google Play.
New stamps are on the way for StickerMe, and additional designs will be more frequent in the future. There are even plans for localized stamps for different regions, which is smart especially in places like China. A new dual/group mode is on the way too, where you can add faces of multiple friends to a sticker template.
In terms of monetization, I understand that so far in-app purchases have not performed so well – but the company is looking to do sponsored stickers in collaboration with certain companies. Motion Portrait has done lots of B2B business in Japan in the past, and they are planning to expand into sponsored stickers in the coming months.
It’s interesting to see a service like this one take advantage of the popularity of mobile chat apps on this way. And it will be really interesting to see what happens with StickerMe over the next year.
If you’d like to check out StickerMe for iOS, you can get it for free on the App Store. Or you can see our video demo of the app below.
Mobile content company Furyu may be a one of those rare companies that is better known among younger girls than by business people or industry insiders. Because aside from its mobile content and media business, the company also develops ‘purikura’ machines, or photo booths. Japanese women of all generations have experienced the fun of these photo booths at one time or another. Recently such booths in Japan are a one-stop solution for cuteness. There are photoshop-like features that enhance your skin, enlarge your eyes, and more. The photos can be decorated using stamps and frames, and the newer machines comes with photo collage features as well. Furyu leverages its mobile content business in these photo booths, providing cute character stamps and decorations. One example is its CameLion character which is available at specific photo booths called ‘Girl’s Photographer‘. The CameLion character is learning to be a professional photographer, and works sort of like a guide for those using the photo booth machine. Furyu just released a puzzle game app called ‘CameLion’s Game and Book’ on both iOS and Android. Furyu was founded back in year 2007 and has operated a famous mobile emoji portal called Muteki Deco Ranking (‘Muteki’…
Mobile content company Furyu may be a one of those rare companies that is better known among younger girls than by business people or industry insiders. Because aside from its mobile content and media business, the company also develops ‘purikura’ machines, or photo booths. Japanese women of all generations have experienced the fun of these photo booths at one time or another.
Recently such booths in Japan are a one-stop solution for cuteness. There are photoshop-like features that enhance your skin, enlarge your eyes, and more. The photos can be decorated using stamps and frames, and the newer machines comes with photo collage features as well. Furyu leverages its mobile content business in these photo booths, providing cute character stamps and decorations.
One example is its CameLion character which is available at specific photo booths called ‘Girl’s Photographer‘. The CameLion character is learning to be a professional photographer, and works sort of like a guide for those using the photo booth machine. Furyu just released a puzzle game app called ‘CameLion’s Game and Book’ on both iOS and Android.
Furyu was founded back in year 2007 and has operated a famous mobile emoji portal called Muteki Deco Ranking (‘Muteki’ means ‘invincible’). Due to the widespread shift from featured phones to smartphones in Japan, the company has optimized its portal for Android. There are over 60,000 decorative stamps that can be used when texting. Muteki Deco Ranking is available for a monthly fee of 294 yen (or about $3).
When it comes to the mobile culture in Japan, micro-payments are here to stay. It’s important to remember that it’s not only mobile gamers opening their wallets. Young girls do not hesitate to pay 300 yen every month as long as their appetite for ‘kawaii’ is fulfilled.
Tokyo-based distributed computing company Skeed announced [pdf] yesterday that the company’s founder and chief innovation officer Dr. Isamu Kaneko has passed away due to heart attack on Saturday. He was 42 years old. Dr. Kaneko has been working as an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo, where he invented P2P file-sharing software Winny in 2003. In 2004, there were many file leak incidents at Japanese companies which may have been caused by people using the software. He was previously arrested under the suspicion of abetting copyright disputes despite the fact that he just invented the software. In 2011, the Japanese supreme court finally judged that he was not guilty. He recently co-founded Skeed, which focuses on developing P2P-based content delivery technology. His colleague recently pitched at ICT Spring 2013, an annual tech conference that took place in Luxembourg last month. Our thoughts are with his family and colleagues. Rest in peace.
Tokyo-based distributed computing company Skeed announced [pdf] yesterday that the company’s founder and chief innovation officer Dr. Isamu Kaneko has passed away due to heart attack on Saturday. He was 42 years old.
Dr. Kaneko has been working as an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo, where he invented P2P file-sharing software Winny in 2003. In 2004, there were many file leak incidents at Japanese companies which may have been caused by people using the software. He was previously arrested under the suspicion of abetting copyright disputes despite the fact that he just invented the software. In 2011, the Japanese supreme court finally judged that he was not guilty.
He recently co-founded Skeed, which focuses on developing P2P-based content delivery technology. His colleague recently pitched at ICT Spring 2013, an annual tech conference that took place in Luxembourg last month.
Our thoughts are with his family and colleagues. Rest in peace.
Masaru Ikeda
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Rick Martin
Tokyo-based distributed computing company 
