news

Japanese location-based search engine Pathee raises $1.3 million

Pathee

Masaru Ikeda 2014.05.01

Tokyo-based Trietrue, the startup that operates location-based (Japanese) search engine Pathee, announced yesterday that it has raised 130 million yen (about $1.3 million) from Japanese digital marketing company Opt and Daiwa PI Partners. Pathee is a search engine focused on helping users obtain more relevant search results using the location detection technology. You may have sometimes seen such location-specific results when using search services like Google or Yahoo.

For example, when you need to find a bathroom, you can simply enter ‘toilet’ in a search bar of the app, and it will navigate you to any of the bathrooms within a five-minute walk from where you are. What’s unique here is the result includes the locations of bathrooms in shopping complexes or other public premises, despite the fact that Google Maps can only show you a list of intentionally designated ‘public bathrooms’.

The service currently is available only as a mobile web app, but an iOS app will be coming at the end of May.

via TechCrunch Japan

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Japanese startup raises funding for a new kind of interactive news site

Byus

Junya Mori 2014.04.30

See the original story in Japanese. Japanese startup Byus today launched the beta version of its interactive news service. The company also announced that it has secured an undisclosed sum of funding from Venture United, Incubate Fund, and Voyage Ventures. The news site was initially launched in alpha version back in July. Unlike other news sites, it lets you to ask other users about a specific news topic, with an article page for every topic generated through this Q&A back-and-forth. Each article page has links to other articles for related keywords, so you can easily explore topics you like. Overall, the service helps you understand a topic in depth, not only by exploring various factual information but also by hearing the voices of others. The news site prompts users to ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ to read every topic. But often they might not know enough a certain topic to decide on whether to accept. So this is why the development team decided to pivot towards a Q&A-based site. They also introduced a bookmarklet which helps users easily adds topics they like and ask others for more details. We understand that an Android app will be introduced before this summer, and that…

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese startup Byus today launched the beta version of its interactive news service. The company also announced that it has secured an undisclosed sum of funding from Venture United, Incubate Fund, and Voyage Ventures.

The news site was initially launched in alpha version back in July. Unlike other news sites, it lets you to ask other users about a specific news topic, with an article page for every topic generated through this Q&A back-and-forth. Each article page has links to other articles for related keywords, so you can easily explore topics you like. Overall, the service helps you understand a topic in depth, not only by exploring various factual information but also by hearing the voices of others.

The news site prompts users to ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ to read every topic. But often they might not know enough a certain topic to decide on whether to accept. So this is why the development team decided to pivot towards a Q&A-based site. They also introduced a bookmarklet which helps users easily adds topics they like and ask others for more details.

We understand that an Android app will be introduced before this summer, and that the company plans to acquire 30,000 registered users by September.

news

Task management tool ‘Jooto’ targets Japanese businesses

Masaru Ikeda 2014.04.29

See the original story in Japanese. While startups and freelancers tend to be more agile and flexible, they might fall behind in task management if team members work at different locations or have communication issues. There are a wide range of business tools out there for messaging or knowledge sharing, but we still find ourselves taking notes or writing on post-its and sticking them around the office. Of course, you can’t share updates with team members efficiently in this way. To address this problem, a new task management tool emerged earlier this year, featuring a beautiful graphical interface and drag-and-drop operability. It’s called Jooto. The development team has been improving the app based on feedback from test users since its launch of its closed beta back in January. The official launch was earlier this month. While the app is unique in its own right, the team behind it is also worthy of mention. They have their design and operations team in Singapore, system development in Hanoi, but they have chosen to target the Japanese market only. Interestingly their marketing team is not based in Tokyo, but instead on the remote island of Ishigaki, at the south-western end of the Japanese…

See the original story in Japanese.

While startups and freelancers tend to be more agile and flexible, they might fall behind in task management if team members work at different locations or have communication issues. There are a wide range of business tools out there for messaging or knowledge sharing, but we still find ourselves taking notes or writing on post-its and sticking them around the office. Of course, you can’t share updates with team members efficiently in this way.

To address this problem, a new task management tool emerged earlier this year, featuring a beautiful graphical interface and drag-and-drop operability. It’s called Jooto. The development team has been improving the app based on feedback from test users since its launch of its closed beta back in January. The official launch was earlier this month.

While the app is unique in its own right, the team behind it is also worthy of mention. They have their design and operations team in Singapore, system development in Hanoi, but they have chosen to target the Japanese market only. Interestingly their marketing team is not based in Tokyo, but instead on the remote island of Ishigaki, at the south-western end of the Japanese archipelago.

Tomoko Devidal, the head of Nano Marketing who manages the app’s marketing efforts, told us why they operate in this way:

Since our app Jooto is developed for multilingual use, our global expansion is not so challenging from an engineering perspective. But since every startup has limited resources, we have to narrow our marketing focus. The app was developed by Skipforward in Singapore, a place where we couldn’t see a huge market opportunity. That’s why we decided on Japan as our initial target.

Despite the fact that they’ve not yet localized it to languages other than Japanese and English, they received some attention from internet users in Korea because of the highly intuitive user experience.

news

Japanese startup Sumally launches mobile marketplace service

Takeshi Hirano 2014.04.29

See the original article, written in Japanese Sumally is a social platform where users find recommendations by recording what they already have and they what. The startup has now also begun a C2C e-commerce service called Sumally Marketplace. Currently, it is available only on iPhone. You can list your item as available for sale on the app platform either by selecting an item you have already registered on site, or by registering new items via a bookmarklet and uploading its picture via the app. There is no initial fee and monthly fee for sellers, and at the moment no sales commission either. People who buy items need to only pay for the price displayed on the app, with no transaction fees. Payments are transacted by Sumally, and CEO of Sumally Kensuke Yamamoto says that the company plans to implement a 10% commission in the future. The competition in C2C mobile commerce is still very fierce in Japan. There are already Frill and Mecari in the startup arena, and Yahoo Japan on the corporate side. There are other C2C platforms out there are well including as Locari, Listore, Stulio, and Mom’s Market. It is estimated that the C2C mobile platform in…

See the original article, written in Japanese

Sumally is a social platform where users find recommendations by recording what they already have and they what. The startup has now also begun a C2C e-commerce service called Sumally Marketplace. Currently, it is available only on iPhone.

You can list your item as available for sale on the app platform either by selecting an item you have already registered on site, or by registering new items via a bookmarklet and uploading its picture via the app.

There is no initial fee and monthly fee for sellers, and at the moment no sales commission either. People who buy items need to only pay for the price displayed on the app, with no transaction fees.

Payments are transacted by Sumally, and CEO of Sumally Kensuke Yamamoto says that the company plans to implement a 10% commission in the future.

The competition in C2C mobile commerce is still very fierce in Japan. There are already Frill and Mecari in the startup arena, and Yahoo Japan on the corporate side. There are other C2C platforms out there are well including as Locari, Listore, Stulio, and Mom’s Market. It is estimated that the C2C mobile platform in Japan transacts nearly $200 million a month. All the players are striving to either increase their current share or find a new market.

50 million data points

In this extremely competitive field, how can Sumally compete? I think Sumally has much potential to grow, because of its solid structure for connecting the users and items based on their accumulated data.

Sumally started in September of 2011, and since then it has been building a network where items are connected to one another. According to Yamamoto, the database now contains 1.35 million items, built by almost 400,000 registered users. In addition, a lot of metadata has been added to each item, amounting to nearly 50 million data points. All that metadata can really help you find what you really want.

Here is how it actually works. First you click the “want it“ button on whatever item is similar to what you want. Related items will begin to appear by continuing to use the want, you will eventually achieve the ideal item.

Find a handbag in 7 steps

Since I was not quite sure how accurate the underlying data structure was, I tried out the service to see if I could find a bag to fit my own taste. Here is how I reached my ideal bag, in a total of 7 steps. I really feel this recommendation system is quite novel, very different from that of Amazon.

I wanted a handbag. So I pushed the “want it” button on a bag that I randomly selected. And I chose a hand bang of the sort that I wanted.

I continued to click “want it“ on bags which I thought were better.

I wanted a blue bag. The selection is got closer to what I wanted.

I finally I found my ideal bag.

The potential

At this point, you cannot buy the items you want on the Sumally website at the marketplace. But sellers can understand which product is popular on the website site and use that info to choose which items to sell on the marketplace.

As the number of listed items grows on the marketplace, the precision of the matching will be key. It could be a big advantage for the company, and they could even expand their business by allowing other services to use their data.

In talking with Yamamoto, I saw a lot of potential with this business structure. I’ll write more about that next time.

news

Hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons invades Japanese arcades

Rick Martin 2014.04.29

Japanese hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons has been released as an coin-operated arcade game, thanks to a collaboration between GungHo Online Entertainment and Square Enix. It’s called Puzzle & Dragons Battle Tournament, and it lets players take on their peers in real time. One of the most appealing aspects of the mobile version of Puzzle & Dragons is the ability to build and collect a team over time. So I was skeptical of an arcade version of P&D. But as VS Media points out, players in Japan can use an IC card to save their data, and pick up where they left off later. There are a number of promo movies over on the game’s official padbt.com site. But the video below from YouTube user Frank Moers gives perhaps the best overview of the actual gameplay. So I encourage you to give it a look. Gameplay costs 100 yen, or about a dollar. A list of locations where you can play can be found here.

Japanese hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons has been released as an coin-operated arcade game, thanks to a collaboration between GungHo Online Entertainment and Square Enix. It’s called Puzzle & Dragons Battle Tournament, and it lets players take on their peers in real time.

One of the most appealing aspects of the mobile version of Puzzle & Dragons is the ability to build and collect a team over time. So I was skeptical of an arcade version of P&D. But as VS Media points out, players in Japan can use an IC card to save their data, and pick up where they left off later.

There are a number of promo movies over on the game’s official padbt.com site. But the video below from YouTube user Frank Moers gives perhaps the best overview of the actual gameplay. So I encourage you to give it a look.

Gameplay costs 100 yen, or about a dollar. A list of locations where you can play can be found here.

news

Japanese scheduling and appointment booking solution Coubic raises $500,000

Coubic

Masaru Ikeda 2014.04.28

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Coubic (pronounced ‘coo-bic’), which launched a cloud-based solution earlier this month, has raised 50 million yen (approximately $500,000) from DCM and GREE Ventures last week. Their app helps companies and retailers receive booking requests from their customers, as well as manage their schedules on any device. Some might say that using a simple web form would be an adequate way to collect booking requests from your customers. So how can Coubic can add value here? We had a chance to visit their new office in Shibuya to speak with the company’s co-founder and CEO Hiroshi Kuraoka to find out more. Over the last few years, many startups have launched cloud-based services to serve business’ back office operations. Some of them include: Freee, Money Forward (accounting) BizNote Expense by CrowdCast (expense reimbursement) MakeLeaps, Misoca (invoicing) What’s unique about these services is that users don’t require technical expertise, and time-consuming work can be done even on tablets or smartphones. So what about front office operations? When companies or retailers set up an online form to receive appointment requests from customers, they typically use a web form and sort received…

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup Coubic (pronounced ‘coo-bic’), which launched a cloud-based solution earlier this month, has raised 50 million yen (approximately $500,000) from DCM and GREE Ventures last week. Their app helps companies and retailers receive booking requests from their customers, as well as manage their schedules on any device.

Some might say that using a simple web form would be an adequate way to collect booking requests from your customers. So how can Coubic can add value here? We had a chance to visit their new office in Shibuya to speak with the company’s co-founder and CEO Hiroshi Kuraoka to find out more.

Over the last few years, many startups have launched cloud-based services to serve business’ back office operations. Some of them include:

Freee, Money Forward (accounting)
BizNote Expense by CrowdCast (expense reimbursement)
MakeLeaps, Misoca (invoicing)

What’s unique about these services is that users don’t require technical expertise, and time-consuming work can be done even on tablets or smartphones. So what about front office operations? When companies or retailers set up an online form to receive appointment requests from customers, they typically use a web form and sort received requests using a tool like Excel, and import them to SalesForce or other enterprise systems for customer relationship management. As for marketing, it’s also difficult to find an easy-to-use solution.

So there isn’t really any stand-out cloud service that lets businesses complete all their front office operations. This space is a so-called red ocean because there are many ways to address the problem, but many of solutions are not technically easy to implement. So the company has developed a solution that focuses on appointment reception.

Their users include a variety of business, including hair salons, yoga studios, cooking schools, lawyers, and accountants. Customers can book appointments on your Coubic page, typically linked from your own web site. If you have the Coubic iOS app on your mobile, you will receive a push notification when a customer requests an appointment. When you launched the app, you can make a follow-up call to the customer and add the appointment to Google Calendar. Kuraoka explained:

Coubic's Hiroshi Kuraoka — Hiroshi Kuraoka

The app’s user interface delivers a responsive web design to customers, so that they can book appointments on smartphones or tablets as well as via desktop browser. The dashboard for businesses is also available on mobile. You can complete every task on mobile, from setting up a reception page to managing appointments.

Their dashboard lets you view appointments, with each appointment associated with the profile of the customer that made it. So you can easily learn how many times a customer has visited your shop, or how many months have passed since the last visit. In other words, it becomes a CRM (customer relationship management) asset.

Back office operations are essential for any companies regardless of scale. Front office operations can help make make your business more profitable, but things will work even without them.

Compared to cloud-based back office services like accounting SaaS, our service is less essential for business and so we can’t charge so much. That’s why we have to take a big share of the market. Appointment booking is needed everywhere in the world. […] So I think global expansion would be relatively easy.

With that in mind, their platform was already available in English and Korean as well as Japanese at the time of launch. They are exploring the possibility of global expansion beginning with Asian countries.

In this space, we’ve already seen BookFresh a service acquired by mobile payments processor Square back in February. But I think Coubic has no direct competitors even in the global arena. The funds from DCM and GREE Ventures could certainly help with their global business expansion.

Japanese location-based search engine Pathee raises $1.3 million

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