WorldJumper provides website translation services for affordable rates by making the most of a combination of machine translation, human translation, and a database of past translation results. Tokyo-based Yaraku, the startup behind the service, announced today it has launched a freemium version of the service that allows you to translate your website for free.
With this new version, the company is encouraging more hotels or exporters to create websites in foreign languages (Japanese, English, Korean, and simplified and traditional Chinese).
Our readers may recall the company raised about 110 million yen ($1.1 million) from several Japanese investors back in May. It also partnered with crowdsourced translation service Conyac back in September. Unlike conventional translation services, WorldJumper outsources orders to third-party agencies, but it also accumulates frequently-used translation requests and results in its database for future reference. In this way, it helps keep translation costs down while still improving quality over time.
The freemium version does have some limitations however, such no customer support and ads inserted in the translated pages. If you want to polish the quality of the results, you can order a fully human translation for a fee.
The company expects to see over 10,000 websites using the service by next April. We hope it can help many startups here in Japan reach out to global markets.
One of my favorite things about Japan is the abundance of creative gadget and accessory makers here. Among the more interesting ones is Hashy Topin, and this year the company is selling a very cheap but intriguing way to make watching movies on your iPhone a little bit easier. Meet ‘Telephone Vision’, a fun screen magnification accessory that will give you a 1.8x view of your smartphone screen. The kit comes with a small stand for your phone, over which you can then place the cardboard television cover. This is designed to mimic a traditional television, with buttons and a mock speaker (holes!). But the transparent acrylic screen does make your picture bigger and easier to see, which is the main attraction here. Now of course, the majority of us would not seriously use such a novelty for repeated media viewing, but selling for just 650 yen (a little more than $6) this Telephone Vision kit makes for a really fun gift, especially for kids who might want their own TV in their room. To get a closer look at the Telephone Vision kit, check out the video below from YouTuber Ayako Sato (@ksorano), which demonstrates how it is put…
One of my favorite things about Japan is the abundance of creative gadget and accessory makers here. Among the more interesting ones is Hashy Topin, and this year the company is selling a very cheap but intriguing way to make watching movies on your iPhone a little bit easier.
Meet ‘Telephone Vision’, a fun screen magnification accessory that will give you a 1.8x view of your smartphone screen. The kit comes with a small stand for your phone, over which you can then place the cardboard television cover. This is designed to mimic a traditional television, with buttons and a mock speaker (holes!). But the transparent acrylic screen does make your picture bigger and easier to see, which is the main attraction here.
Now of course, the majority of us would not seriously use such a novelty for repeated media viewing, but selling for just 650 yen (a little more than $6) this Telephone Vision kit makes for a really fun gift, especially for kids who might want their own TV in their room.
To get a closer look at the Telephone Vision kit, check out the video below from YouTuber Ayako Sato (@ksorano), which demonstrates how it is put together.
Hashy Topin really likes to use iPhones to turn back the clock in this way. Back in 2010 they featured a dock/charger combo that let you convert you iPhone into a conventional telephone.
Japan does fun novelty gifts like this incredibly well, and if you happen to pass through the country in your travels, do drop in on the nearest Tokyu Hands store for lots more disposable innovations like this one! [Via DG Freaks]
Meetrip is a service that gives you a chance to discover authentic travel experiences arranged by locals in 14 cities across Asia. Tokyo-based Duckdive, the startup behind the service, announced today that it is to be acquired by Tokyo-based social gaming developer Donuts for a undisclosed sum. The latter previously acquired Social Lunch, a website that helps students find jobs. Coinciding with this announcement, the startup revealed that it will relocate its base from Tokyo to Bangkok, where the gaming company has a development center. The startup was launched back in June by Takashi Kiyama and his co-founder Nobuhiro Ariyasu, who recently sold private lesson portal Cyta.jp to Cookpad for over 1 billion yen. In this space, we’ve seen more than a few travel discovery sites from Japan, such as KitchHike, Voyagin, and Trippiece.
Meetrip is a service that gives you a chance to discover authentic travel experiences arranged by locals in 14 cities across Asia. Tokyo-based Duckdive, the startup behind the service, announced today that it is to be acquired by Tokyo-based social gaming developer Donuts for a undisclosed sum. The latter previously acquired Social Lunch, a website that helps students find jobs.
Coinciding with this announcement, the startup revealed that it will relocate its base from Tokyo to Bangkok, where the gaming company has a development center. The startup was launched back in June by Takashi Kiyama and his co-founder Nobuhiro Ariyasu, who recently sold private lesson portal Cyta.jp to Cookpad for over 1 billion yen.
In this space, we’ve seen more than a few travel discovery sites from Japan, such as KitchHike, Voyagin, and Trippiece.
And the collaborations keep on coming for Japanese hit game Puzzle & Dragons. Having already partnered successfully with Supercell on Clash of Clans, it has been announced that GungHo Online Entertainment will now work with the other Finnish mobile gaming giant Rovio, bringing Angry Birds characters into Puzzle & Dragons. The campaign will run from November 18 to December 1st. Blogger Chiyo Komoriya points out that Rovio still isn’t very popular here in Japan, largely due to competition from strong character brands like Line and Nameco. When we spoke with Rovio representatives here in Tokyo earlier in the year, they emphasized a slow-and-steady, long term strategy, with the goal of learning the market and partnering with local companies like Sanrio, the maker of Hello Kitty. So exactly how will Angry Birds look in P&D? Rovio has announced that they will be asking fans for their input on that point. They’re asking fans to graphically answer the question “What if the Angry Birds showed up in the world of Puzzle & Dragons?” Check out Rovio’s blog post for more details. The tie-up with Puzzle & Dragons will certainly help give their games some visibility in the short term here in Japan….
And the collaborations keep on coming for Japanese hit game Puzzle & Dragons. Having already partnered successfully with Supercell on Clash of Clans, it has been announced that GungHo Online Entertainment will now work with the other Finnish mobile gaming giant Rovio, bringing Angry Birds characters into Puzzle & Dragons. The campaign will run from November 18 to December 1st.
Blogger Chiyo Komoriya points out that Rovio still isn’t very popular here in Japan, largely due to competition from strong character brands like Line and Nameco. When we spoke with Rovio representatives here in Tokyo earlier in the year, they emphasized a slow-and-steady, long term strategy, with the goal of learning the market and partnering with local companies like Sanrio, the maker of Hello Kitty.
So exactly how will Angry Birds look in P&D? Rovio has announced that they will be asking fans for their input on that point. They’re asking fans to graphically answer the question “What if the Angry Birds showed up in the world of Puzzle & Dragons?” Check out Rovio’s blog post for more details.
The tie-up with Puzzle & Dragons will certainly help give their games some visibility in the short term here in Japan. Although in the long term, Rovio still has a tough challenge ahead.
Last week we told you about GungHo’s P&Dcollaboration with Warner Bros, bringing Batman characters into Puzzle & Dragons. There is still about a week to go in that event.
Although many people in Japan still prefer to read comic books on paper, smartphones are pushing the industry towards digital at a fast pace. In Japan, there are websites like Ebook Japan that provide over 160,000 digital comics, and other services like Cmoa and Manga Okoku (roughly means ‘manga kingdom’) serve the same purpose. Recently another service for digital manga was launched. It’s called Comico. At the time of launch, there are 56 different comics available free of charge, and this is expected to grow as the site expands. All the comics on the site are original and new stories are published everyday. Users on the site can rate and make comments on comics, or interact with each other. Sometime this year Comico plans to add a feature that lets anyone upload their own manga works. Comico is accessible on the web and via mobile apps on both iOS and Android. The latter are designed for an easy reading experience with a vertical scroll without frames. The company behind the service is NHN PlayArt. Its initial goal is to acquire 300,000 users by the end of this year.
Although many people in Japan still prefer to read comic books on paper, smartphones are pushing the industry towards digital at a fast pace. In Japan, there are websites like Ebook Japan that provide over 160,000 digital comics, and other services like Cmoa and Manga Okoku (roughly means ‘manga kingdom’) serve the same purpose.
Recently another service for digital manga was launched. It’s called Comico. At the time of launch, there are 56 different comics available free of charge, and this is expected to grow as the site expands. All the comics on the site are original and new stories are published everyday. Users on the site can rate and make comments on comics, or interact with each other. Sometime this year Comico plans to add a feature that lets anyone upload their own manga works.
Comico is accessible on the web and via mobile apps on both iOS and Android. The latter are designed for an easy reading experience with a vertical scroll without frames.
The company behind the service is NHN PlayArt. Its initial goal is to acquire 300,000 users by the end of this year.
See the original article in Japanese When I interview entrepreneurs, it’s not uncommon to hear people say: “This is my first media interview. I don’t know what to say." I think some might feel a little better by preparing for an interview beforehand. So with that in mind, here is a list of the questions that I usually ask entrepreneurs. What made you start your business? What is your product? How does your product different from others? How did you come up with this idea? How do you think your product can change the world? What is your short-term goal? These are the minimum questions I ask entrepreneurs who have just started a business. Let me explain why: What made you start your business? What I’d like to know here is the personality of the entrepreneur. Sometimes I can hear some stories of how they started their business, or they might tell anecdotes about how they came up with the idea. Those stories can help me better understanding the person. This is one of the most important questions. What is your product? In some cases, the product comes first when it comes to telling a company’s story. Perhaps they founded…
When I interview entrepreneurs, it’s not uncommon to hear people say: “This is my first media interview. I don’t know what to say." I think some might feel a little better by preparing for an interview beforehand. So with that in mind, here is a list of the questions that I usually ask entrepreneurs.
What made you start your business?
What is your product?
How does your product different from others?
How did you come up with this idea?
How do you think your product can change the world?
What is your short-term goal?
These are the minimum questions I ask entrepreneurs who have just started a business. Let me explain why:
What made you start your business?
What I’d like to know here is the personality of the entrepreneur. Sometimes I can hear some stories of how they started their business, or they might tell anecdotes about how they came up with the idea. Those stories can help me better understanding the person. This is one of the most important questions.
What is your product?
In some cases, the product comes first when it comes to telling a company’s story. Perhaps they founded the company to market the product, and that product is heavily intertwined with the business.
I make sure to collect some information about the product before an interview, and I try to elicit more stories from the entrepreneur. This is so I can understand the personality of the entrepreneur by seeing how passionately the person speaks.
As one of our writers mentioned in a past article, sometimes the personality of an entrepreneur has a big influence on the product.
How is your product different from others?
Based on my experiences interviewing entrepreneurs, there are rarely “brand new” products. When I hear about a product from an entrepreneur, a similar product comes to my mind in most cases.
I have to identify the originality of the product somehow, and that’s what I’m trying to figure out with this question. The answer will help me understand how well the entrepreneur knows the strengths and the originality of the product and how much he/she has researched the competition. And of course, I can understand the product better by asking this question.
How do you think your product will change the world?
This question is a minor question, one that not all reporters will ask. I ask it sometimes. Some entrepreneurs might give you an answer similar to why they started the business. But some go further, explaining what kind of impact on the world and the society their business can have. You can elicit more ambitious thoughts by asking this question.
I get excited when I hear big ambition from entrepreneurs, like Hironao Kunimitsu, the cofounder of Gumi. Entrepreneurs who have big goals and vision and are always attractive to me.
What is your short-term goal?
This is a more detailed question. I ask about a short-term goal they have set and what detailed action they plan is in place to help achieve it. By asking about both long-term and short-term goals, I can see the road map they have in mind.
They cannot disclose everything open to public. But understanding short-term goals and action plans will help me understand how much growth I can expect.
Masaru Ikeda
Rick Martin
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Junya Mori
