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Japan’s bookmark-driven news app ‘Presso’ launches, but fails to impress

Rick Martin 2014.03.28

Last week I mentioned that Japanese internet company Hatena would be launching a mobile news app based around its Hatena Bookmarks service. Yesterday that app, dubbed Presso, was made available on the App Store, so I decided to take it for a spin.

For those not familiar with Hatena Bookmarks, or ‘Hatebu’, the service began way back in 2005, offering the same sort of social bookmarking as Delicious (2003) but for the Japanese market. As I mentioned last week, the company has built a useful ‘hot entry’ portal based on most frequently bookmarked media from users, and this new mobile app brings that same valuable content on to mobile.

What’s useful about Presso is that the available news categories are rather robust and customizable. So for example, if I’m interested in news about ‘mobile apps’, ‘business’, and ‘cameras and photography’, I can simply select those to create a very personalized news service for myself. There are more diverse topics included as well, such as ‘Government/Economics’, ‘Manga/Anima’ [1], ‘Lifehacks’, ‘Travel’, and ‘Blogs/Journals’ (see below). You can even add your own tags on your own, which is perhaps the most useful function.

As I expected, Hatena’s new app puts more focus on photos as most modern news applications do. And I while I really like the way you can swipe right or left to go to the next news category, Presso occasionally feels slow when loading those categories. I had hoped that Presso would apply its the same minimalist reformatting on article pages that we find in apps like Instapaper and Pocket, but it doesn’t – which I think is a mistake. Similarly, I think they’ve wasted an opportunity in the video category by not pulling in videos for consumption within Presso.

One interesting feature is the optional four push notification times (8am, 12pm, 6pm, and 11pm, as you can see above), which are ostensibly intended to coincide with the times that Japanese users read news most. But overall I think Presso doesn’t bring anything to the news app space that we haven’t seen before. However, because you can bookmark articles to Hatena Bookmarks as you read them, that will feed much needed activity back into its bookmarks service, perhaps winning back many Hatena users that the company may have lost as smartphone popularity has grown.

So in this sense, I think Hatena has built this app more with its own interests in mind instead of those of its users. This might have been an exciting app two or three years ago, but in the age of startup news challengers like Gunosy and SmartNews here in Japan, I think local consumers expect a little more.

Despite the downslide of the leading social bookmarking service Delicious, online bookmarking has enjoyed something of a resurgence recently through the very geeky Pinboard. That is essentially a clone of what Delicious was when it was good, now serving a rather niche market by charging an initial one-time sign-up fee of $10, and optional caching service for $25 per year.

It would be interesting to see Hatena explore that kind of business model, but I have a feeling they never will. Nevertheless, for hardcore Hatebu fans out there, Presso is a welcome present.

Perhaps a good resource for Japanese learners interested in manga. ↩

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Recipe suggestion app ‘Me:new’ wins Docomo Ventures’ second demo day

NTT Docomo Ventures

Masaru Ikeda 2014.03.28

Docomo Ventures, the investment arm of Japan’s leading mobile telecom, held a demo event this week, where they showcased six startups from the second batch of their incubation program. Recipe suggestion app ‘Me:new’ won the top award and was the audience favorite at the event. Here’s a quick rundown about on how these startups have cultivated their ideas over the past several months. Me:new Me:new won a trip to Silicon Valley, as well as arranged appointments with investors there. The demo was presented by founder and CEO Nobuyuki Miyake and by certified dietitian Keiko Hori who supervises recipes. Busy families often need to think carefully about what they cook. Me:new (a name likely derived from the word ‘menu’) proposes what you should cook for the next seven days, thus saving you time. Depending on what you choose to cook, the app will tell you what you need to buy at the supermarket so that you can easily see what you need to pick up in one trip, rather than make multiple trips as you might without such planning. The company plans to acquire 8 million users in the next three years. It will take a monthly subscription fee paid by…

Me:new

Me:new won a trip to Silicon Valley, as well as arranged appointments with investors there. The demo was presented by founder and CEO Nobuyuki Miyake and by certified dietitian Keiko Hori who supervises recipes.

Busy families often need to think carefully about what they cook. Me:new (a name likely derived from the word ‘menu’) proposes what you should cook for the next seven days, thus saving you time. Depending on what you choose to cook, the app will tell you what you need to buy at the supermarket so that you can easily see what you need to pick up in one trip, rather than make multiple trips as you might without such planning.

The company plans to acquire 8 million users in the next three years. It will take a monthly subscription fee paid by premium users, projected to be 5% of its user base. For additional revenue streams, they will consider an online meal ordering service, advertising, and partnership with online healthcare services.

menew_pitch — Me:new’s Nobuyuki Miyake and Keiko Hori

ATLS (by ForEst)

ForEst took the so-called ‘best stretch award’, also winning a trip to Silicon Valley and appointments with investors.

Presented by Takumi Goto, ForEst aims to be the Amazon of online learning. In the same way that Amazon suggests recommendations when you visit their site based on what you have bought in the past, ForEst will build an online learning platform for students that can propose what and how to learn by measuring how much they have understood a certain topic.

They have partnered with educational publishers who have allowed the use of their materials on the platform. Based on accumulated data, it helps you overcome difficult problems and better prepare for tests or entrance exams.

Egao no Hon (books for smiles)

Some of our readers may recall we told you that Tokyo-based startup Egao has been developing an online photobook album app. Based on the presentation by Shohei Ota, it appears they have adjusted their game plan since then, now focusing on providing an online platform to help children buy event photos taken by photographers at their schools.

Here in Japan parents typically need to visit their child’s school to select from photos posted on in the school’s corridor. According to a survey, a photographer often needs to put 8,000 photos on a wall in this way (after an event, for example), and a parent will pick about 9 or 10. This process is obviously very time-intensive.

Egao’s online platform uses facial recognition technology to helps you find photos that show your child from a collection of images. Photographers benefit because they no longer need to print out so many photos to put on the wall. The company has partnered with some local photo studios and photographers around the country, and their platform lets you create a photo book from the photos you’ve selected. You can even order specific prints upon request if you choose.

Dank1 (Dankichi)

Presented by Taiki Yojima, Dank1 is a video coaching app that lets you learn from professional athletes. Many sport fans would love to be coached by professionals, but that would be especially hard for anyone living in remote areas of Japan.

The business will start by providing coaching in baseball (specifically pitching and hitting), but they plan to expand to other sports like golf later on.

Pozica by Wizpra

In the retail business here in Japan, many part-timers are hired only to quit after as little time as three months. Often this is not because they don’t like the work or pay, but instead it is often due to miscommunication with other part-time employees. As a result, this kind of turnover puts pressure on store owners.

Inspired by internal communication tools like McDonald’s Web Smile, Wizpra has developed a communication platform called Pozica which helps managers better engage with their part-timers through increased communication opportunities. The idea was presented by Yoshimitsu Imanishi, and their potential clients include beauty salons and restaurants, business that often make use of part-time employees. The company plans to eventually expand this business globally as well.

pozica_pitch — Wizpra’s Yoshimitsu Imanishi

WonderBee

WonderBee is a gadget-focused social network platform where users can exchange their insights and comments about hardware. When you are buying consumer electronics, it can be hard to identify specific user benefits through the manufacturer’s website. So the best way for you to find out is by asking people who already own that device.

The platform has a community classified according to products, so you can easily speak to someone who owns the device you are thinking to buy. On the community page there’s a ‘buy button’ that takes you to an online store-front, which helps drive traffic to manufacturers pages as well.

The company expects to build revenue streams through affiliate marketing, banner ads, and through its own online e-commerce channel. They hope to acquire more than 3.2 million users in the next three years.

wonderbee_pitch — WonderBee’s Hayato Sudo

Coinciding with this Demo Day event, Docomo Ventures announced it has just started receiving applications for the next batch of the incubation program, which is due May 8th, 2014. Selected startups will receive with assistance in partnering with NTT group companies, and Sony Mobile Communications has been added as a program partner.

The maximum amount of seed investment startups are likely to obtain has been increased to 5 million yen ($50,000), up from the 2 million yen ($20,000) for past batches.

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Japanese deli delivery service officially launches after closed beta period

Rick Martin 2014.03.27

Back in December we told you about delivery service for Japanese deli foods called ‘Office Okan’, which at that time was kicking off in closed beta for corporate customers. After that initial period, the company announced the service’s official release yesterday, serving Tokyo’s Shibuya district in 2014, and gradually expanding beyond that in the future. More details can be found on our Japanese site.

More details can be found on our Japanese site.

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Sensei Note: Japan’s new social network for teachers

Masaru Ikeda 2014.03.27

See the original article in Japanese Sensei Note, a new social network service for teachers, has officially launched in Japan. The service was originally started as an online market place for teaching materials, but it has since evolved into a closed social service for teachers. Its users are restricted to just teachers or to people who want to be a teacher. Sensei Note took over a year to launch its official website. We heard from CEO and co-founder Haruki Asatani about what took so long. I’ve visited teachers throughout Japan to speak with them face-to-face. I sometimes even stayed at their homes. I wanted to have a deep understanding about their needs, and even things not really related to their work. In the end, I realized that the problems they face cannot always be solved by sharing file-based content. And I became convinced that a community where teachers gather and share their knowledge is much more valuable than just a content sharing platform. The most common image of knowledge sharing in a teacher community is that it’s passed down by experienced teachers to new ones through word of mouth. But on Sensei Note, it is also possible for young teachers…

See the original article in Japanese

Sensei Note, a new social network service for teachers, has officially launched in Japan. The service was originally started as an online market place for teaching materials, but it has since evolved into a closed social service for teachers. Its users are restricted to just teachers or to people who want to be a teacher.

Sensei Note took over a year to launch its official website. We heard from CEO and co-founder Haruki Asatani about what took so long.

Haruki Asatani

I’ve visited teachers throughout Japan to speak with them face-to-face. I sometimes even stayed at their homes. I wanted to have a deep understanding about their needs, and even things not really related to their work.

In the end, I realized that the problems they face cannot always be solved by sharing file-based content. And I became convinced that a community where teachers gather and share their knowledge is much more valuable than just a content sharing platform.

The most common image of knowledge sharing in a teacher community is that it’s passed down by experienced teachers to new ones through word of mouth. But on Sensei Note, it is also possible for young teachers to share their knowledge with experienced ones. The relationship among users is very horizontal.

The service could potentially have a viral effect, if teachers recommend it to other their peers when gathered in a school’s teacher lounge for example.

bulletinboard — Sensei Note bulletin board

Monetizing a community

Asatani is passionate about improving the educational environment. His previous work experience at Bennese Corporation (a Japanese educational service company) and his own personal experiences have resulted in a strong interest in educational issues. He believes it is essential to build a teacher community first, and the revenue can come later. But the most important thing is to initially create solid and thriving community.

We are trying to tie up with local NPOs, many of whom have contacts with local teachers. So when we explain the concept of Sensei Note to NPOs, they happily refer teachers to us. We also approached universities so that aspiring teacher can use our platform as well. 130 universities are telling their students about Sensei Note. The service is free, so they have no reason not to recommend it to students.

If the service is free, then how do they plan to monetize it? Asatani has an idea.

There are actually many companies that want to approach teachers, students, and their parents, many of them offering information services or selling educational materials. Most of them operate through agencies, and have no channel to directly approach teachers. But Sensei Note could them reach teachers directly by letting them provide educational content on site.

For example, one company provides videos on career development for students on Sensei Note. One such video has been watched by 400 students by teachers. The content itself is free, but companies can benefit by gaining more recognition among teachers and students.

Sensei Note wants to solve other issues faced by schools and teachers, not just using its own marketing budget but also via government funding or corporate social responsibility programs.

Advice from a friend

Asatani first announced Sensei Note a year and a half ago at a Startup Weekend Tokyo event. While I wasn’t at the event myself, I recall hearing that he left Benesse right after winning the event in order to focus on Sensei Note. It struck me at the time that he has remarkable passion for his vision. About a year passed since then his team has been focusing on developing the service without external funding during that time. Nakatani elaborated on his motivation:

After I quit Benesse, I had an opportunity to go for drinks with a friend from my university. He had become a teacher, and he talked about his passion for why he had done so. Many new teachers have concerns, but they all have to manage their classes alone. I felt that I should support them, and that feeling really pushed me to build Sensei Note.

Now that Sensei Note has finally launched, I hope the team can come closer to their vision, and find fundraising opportunities in the near future.

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Snaptee’s new partner program lets third party apps create custom apparel

Rick Martin 2014.03.27

Hong Kong-based Snaptee, a startup that lets you to design and sell custom apparel via its mobile app, has just announced an new partnership program enabling third-party app’s to place Snaptee orders. And the first application to take advantage of this opportunity will be Japan’s Manga Camera app, a popular service that transforms your picture into manga-style art. In their announcement, Snaptee CEO WaiLun Hong remarked on the tie-up: We are big fans of Manga Camera and were thrilled when they recognized this partnership as a unique opportunity to tap into a new revenue stream and extend their users’ connection to their brand. Now, with a tap of a button, all Manga Camera comics can be taken by their creators into the Snaptee app and turned into wearable art. I’ve not yet used Snaptee, but in the past I have made a T-shirt with a picture of my own face on it, looking upwards, giving myself a thumbs-up [1]. So I like the creative potential behind a platform like Snaptee, and that potential will only get better as they add more apps to their list of partners, tapping into the user bases of other services, and giving those apps a…

In their announcement, Snaptee CEO WaiLun Hong remarked on the tie-up:

We are big fans of Manga Camera and were thrilled when they recognized this partnership as a unique opportunity to tap into a new revenue stream and extend their users’ connection to their brand. Now, with a tap of a button, all Manga Camera comics can be taken by their creators into the Snaptee app and turned into wearable art.

I’ve not yet used Snaptee, but in the past I have made a T-shirt with a picture of my own face on it, looking upwards, giving myself a thumbs-up [1]. So I like the creative potential behind a platform like Snaptee, and that potential will only get better as they add more apps to their list of partners, tapping into the user bases of other services, and giving those apps a new means of monetizing.

Snaptee also announced today that their platform has surpassed the 1 million designs milestone. While the company declined to tell us how many orders they’ve shipped, we’re told that about half of the designs come from the US, followed by China and Japan. Interestingly, Japan has about three times the conversion rate as the US, reflecting the country’s relative comfort with buying on mobile.

Everyone needs a shirt like this, in my opinion. ↩

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Puzzle & Dragons retains steady growth pace as it moves to markets abroad

Rick Martin 2014.03.27

Checking back in on our Puzzle & Dragons expansion watch, GungHo Online Entertainment’s hit mobile game surpassed 26 million downloads as of March 23, maintaining it’s steady pace of growth (see chart below). Of course as it’s Japanese user base saturates, overseas markets will become more important. The company has recently reached the following milestones in overseas markets, according to Gamebiz.jp: March 7th – reached 3 million downloads in North America March 11 – reached 1 million downloads in Hong Kong and Taiwan March 15 – reached 2 million downloads in Korea The US and Europe will be key markets moving forward, so we’ll keep an eye on GungHo’s efforts there. China could be interesting too after the company tests the waters in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Checking back in on our Puzzle & Dragons expansion watch, GungHo Online Entertainment’s hit mobile game surpassed 26 million downloads as of March 23, maintaining it’s steady pace of growth (see chart below). Of course as it’s Japanese user base saturates, overseas markets will become more important. The company has recently reached the following milestones in overseas markets, according to Gamebiz.jp:

March 7th – reached 3 million downloads in North America
March 11 – reached 1 million downloads in Hong Kong and Taiwan
March 15 – reached 2 million downloads in Korea

The US and Europe will be key markets moving forward, so we’ll keep an eye on GungHo’s efforts there. China could be interesting too after the company tests the waters in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Japan’s bookmark-driven news app ‘Presso’ launches, but fails to impress

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