Tokyo-based pLucky, the company behind service analysis platform Logbook, announced today it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from Japanese internet company Adways (TSE:2489) and startup-focused investment firm Global Brain.
Logbook helps internet companies to conduct a data-driven improvement on their web services, offering easy-to-use tools for service analysis such as auto-setting performance indicators and object values in addition to proposing countermeasures for improvement according to the web service category.
Since its launch in Alpha version back in April, pLucky has improved Logbook for almost a year and acquired over 300 users.
Using the funds, pLucky plans to enhance the Logbook platform to service analysis in the mobile app space. While there are an increased number of players offering service analysis platforms for web services, very few platforms support mobile apps.
In view of the recently increased number of web service companies developing mobile apps, pLucky wants to enhance Logbook so that people can easily make service analysis for their mobile apps without expertise. Following adding mobile app support to Logbook earlier this month, the company started accepting sign-ups from Android and iOS app developers.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Coubic (pronounced ‘coo-bic’), a startup known for a freemium scheduling and appointment booking solution under the same name, recently launched a new iOS app offering special deals on last-minute bookings for beauty salons, called Popcorn. The Popcorn app is available for iOS 7.1 and above on iTunes AppStore. See also: Japanese scheduling and appointment booking solution Coubic raises $500,000 Japan’s Coubic launches mobile app, helps merchants better manage appointment booking Rakuten acquires Japanese beauty portal to expand its own salon booking service (Tech in Asia) The app offers discount deals up to 70% off for beauty salons for hair styling, nail art and care, eyelash extensions, as well as relaxation and aesthetic salons, focused on allowing users to book a same-day or last-minute appointment. The service coverage is limited to salons in Tokyo’s busiest shopping districts such as Ebisu, Shibuya, Daikanyama, Omotesando, Roppongi, and Kichijoji. Users can pay via the app when booking an appointment, so they do not need to check the bill after the appointment. By inviting potential customers during vacant time with an easy operation, the app allows merchants to promote their business or cultivate sales channels without additional costs….
Tokyo-based Coubic (pronounced ‘coo-bic’), a startup known for a freemium scheduling and appointment booking solution under the same name, recently launched a new iOS app offering special deals on last-minute bookings for beauty salons, called Popcorn. The Popcorn app is available for iOS 7.1 and above on iTunes AppStore.
The app offers discount deals up to 70% off for beauty salons for hair styling, nail art and care, eyelash extensions, as well as relaxation and aesthetic salons, focused on allowing users to book a same-day or last-minute appointment. The service coverage is limited to salons in Tokyo’s busiest shopping districts such as Ebisu, Shibuya, Daikanyama, Omotesando, Roppongi, and Kichijoji. Users can pay via the app when booking an appointment, so they do not need to check the bill after the appointment.
By inviting potential customers during vacant time with an easy operation, the app allows merchants to promote their business or cultivate sales channels without additional costs. Leveraging the knowledge that the company has gained through operating the Coubic app, the Popcorn app also gives an easy-to-use interface for merchants to manage which time slots on the same day or the next day they can accept potential customers using special deals.
Coubic CEO Hiroshi Kuraoka explained:
We have acquired users of the Coubic app via web-based marketing rather than outbound sales efforts. For the Popcorn app, we visited many salons and explained to owners how they can benefit from our service. It can be called “our best curated list of beauty salons.”
Recruit’s HotPepper Beauty is a rival in this space. What differs the Popcorn app from its rival includes a focus on same-day or last minute booking, while its rival allows users to book an appointment several weeks in advance. Relying on a storeowner’s operation, booking availability for the day is updated in the morning or at the end of the previous day.
Hence, privately managed or family-run salons can easily set special deals in the time slots that suddenly become open, or on rainy days when customers are likely to cancel their appointment. In contrast with Hotpepper Beauty that lets merchants handle payments at their storefronts, Popcorn requests users to pay at the time of booking in the app so that merchants can minimize the risk of possible appointment cancellation.
Coubic targets a wide range of people as users for the new app, from women who want to adjust their hair to office workers who want to get a massage after work. Seeing a usage trend, the company may expand coverage beyond Tokyo to the rest of Japan.
This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese Tokyo-based Retty, a Japanese startup behind the restaurant finder app under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised 1 billion yen (or about $8.24 million) from Fidelity Growth Partners Japan and the startup’s existing investors. This follows their previous funding in a series B round securing 330 million yen ($3.2 million) back in 2013. See also: How Japan’s online social restaurant guide Retty doubled its monthly visitors Japanese social restaurant finder app Retty teams up with major portals on booking deal Retty’s monthly active users hit the 7 million milestone in February, increasing a million from January. According to the company’s CEO Kazuya Takeda, this was made possible without any paid promotion but they want to let the growth increase up to 15 to 20 million users on a monthly basis by leveraging the funds. Retty plans to use the funds to strengthen their global expansion to North American and Asian countries, especially in cities where local people have a habit of dining out every day. Along with this announcement, Retty also rolled out a new design to the iPhone app, simplifying an interface so that article viewers can better see an…
This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese
Tokyo-based Retty, a Japanese startup behind the restaurant finder app under the same name, announced today that it has fundraised 1 billion yen (or about $8.24 million) from Fidelity Growth Partners Japan and the startup’s existing investors. This follows their previous funding in a series B round securing 330 million yen ($3.2 million) back in 2013.
Retty’s monthly active users hit the 7 million milestone in February, increasing a million from January. According to the company’s CEO Kazuya Takeda, this was made possible without any paid promotion but they want to let the growth increase up to 15 to 20 million users on a monthly basis by leveraging the funds.
Retty plans to use the funds to strengthen their global expansion to North American and Asian countries, especially in cities where local people have a habit of dining out every day. Along with this announcement, Retty also rolled out a new design to the iPhone app, simplifying an interface so that article viewers can better see an author’s face of every article and find restaurants which they may like.
Renewed interface of Retty’s iOS app
Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Attache is a mobile app that aims to disrupt the conventional job-hunting method for fresh graduates in Japan. It was launched by Tokyo-based startup Givery earlier this month, and is available for iOS on iTunes AppStore and for Android on Google Play. Based on the concept of helping users eliminate trivial tasks around their job-hunts, the Attache app allows users to download slides to eliminate the need to receive bulky printed pieces of company profiles at job fairs. With the app, users can upload their resume to their potential employers, find other job fairs, sign up to attend such events, and arrange interviews. See also: The Unwritten rules of job-hunting in Japan (Tofugu) Shūkatsu: Job-Hunting in Japan (Univ. in Japan) What’s remarkable about the Attache app is the feature using the iBeacon technology. By receiving a device-unique signal for one’s smartphone transmitted from an iBeacon device, one can find invitation-only events on the app. So if job-hunting students receive a signal when launching the app, all these users are automatically invited to designated job fairs or other events. Along with the launch of the Attache app, Gively held a big job fair for 500 soon-to-graduate university students at the Hikarie Building in Shibuya. Unlike conventional job-hunts, attendees were prohibited from wearing…
Attache is a mobile app that aims to disrupt the conventional job-hunting method for fresh graduates in Japan. It was launched by Tokyo-based startup Givery earlier this month, and is available for iOS on iTunes AppStore and for Android on Google Play.
Based on the concept of helping users eliminate trivial tasks around their job-hunts, the Attache app allows users to download slides to eliminate the need to receive bulky printed pieces of company profiles at job fairs. With the app, users can upload their resume to their potential employers, find other job fairs, sign up to attend such events, and arrange interviews.
What’s remarkable about the Attache app is the feature using the iBeacon technology. By receiving a device-unique signal for one’s smartphone transmitted from an iBeacon device, one can find invitation-only events on the app. So if job-hunting students receive a signal when launching the app, all these users are automatically invited to designated job fairs or other events.
Along with the launch of the Attache app, Gively held a big job fair for 500 soon-to-graduate university students at the Hikarie Building in Shibuya. Unlike conventional job-hunts, attendees were prohibited from wearing the typical navy blue formal suit when joining the event. Participating companies in the event on the employer side included notable Japanese companies such as Crowdworks (TSE:3900), DeNA (TSE:2432), Kakaku.com (TSE:2371), Recruit (TSE:6098), Vasily, and BizReach.
Givery’s post on Japanese social job search site Wantedly gave us a glimpse into what kind of people are working at their office. The average age of the development team is 26 years old, hailing from around the world such as Japan, Canada, Vietnam, mainland China, and Albania. Such diversity in the team might allow them to find inconvenience or waste that we have not been aware of, followed by development of technology-based solutions to these issues.
Going forward, Givery plans to develop the platform further, aiming to acquire 100,000 job-hunting students and serving 240 companies by the end of this year.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Showcase Gig, the digital marketing startup best known for its mobile wallet and CRM (customer relationship management) platform ‘O:der’ (pronounced ‘order’), recently launched an IoT (Internet of Things) platform called O:der Connect, which connects the O:der app that consumers have on their smartphones with in-store hardware devices at retailers. See also: How a Japanese startup plans to disrupt the CRM industry with a mobile solution Japan’s digital marketing startup Showcase Gig fundraises from Loyalty Marketing Japan’s Showcase Gig invents new platform, aiming to streamline the restaurant business O:der Connect O:der Connect is an extensive feature of the O:der platform. By installing the O:der Connect app into cash registers, it will link up with the O:der platform so that store clerks can handle tasks such as mobile app-based payments, customer relationship management, and order management using a cash register. Customer visit notifications using Beacon as well as order and payment information from apps are shown on the screen of cash registers, enabling retailers to complete tasks, which previously required multiple devices, on a single device. Since order data will be analyzed online real-time, information such as more personalized coupons can now be sent out. Casio’s V-Regi is the…
Tokyo-based Showcase Gig, the digital marketing startup best known for its mobile wallet and CRM (customer relationship management) platform ‘O:der’ (pronounced ‘order’), recently launched an IoT (Internet of Things) platform called O:der Connect, which connects the O:der app that consumers have on their smartphones with in-store hardware devices at retailers.
O:der Connect is an extensive feature of the O:der platform. By installing the O:der Connect app into cash registers, it will link up with the O:der platform so that store clerks can handle tasks such as mobile app-based payments, customer relationship management, and order management using a cash register.
Customer visit notifications using Beacon as well as order and payment information from apps are shown on the screen of cash registers, enabling retailers to complete tasks, which previously required multiple devices, on a single device. Since order data will be analyzed online real-time, information such as more personalized coupons can now be sent out.
Casio’s V-Regi is the first model as a cash register linkable with the O:der Connect platform, which was exhibited at RetailTech Japan 2015 from March 3rd to the 6th in Tokyo.
The above screen will appear in a cash register using O:der Connect. When a customer places an order using the O:der app, a new order will be added to the ‘newly arrived orders’ section on the retailer’s interface. By tapping on the order in that, its details will appear on the next screen.
When a store clerk accepts receiving the order on this screen, the user will be notified with a confirmation that the order has been received, while the store begins preparing an item based the order. When the item has been prepared, retailers can send the user another notification simply using the cash register they usually use.
When the user visits the store, Beacon will detect the approach so that retailers can promptly hand the item over to the user. Store clerks can check out profile details of O:der customers visiting at storefront, which allows retailers to issue a discount coupon for a customer’s birthday purchase or understand how often or frequently the customer has visited their store.
Showcase Gig wants to expand the applicable scope range of the O:der Connect platform from cash registers beyond to hardware devices, wearable devices, and connected cars.
As more smart devices will be introduced in the future, the O:der connect app will allow more consumers to easily place orders and payments, while it will also enable retailers to make a different promotional effort to every single customer thanks to the analysis from acquired data about customer behaviors.
These are good enough to excite us, but the Showcase Gig team still have some more news releases which will give us a big surprise. They have been proposing new forms of in-store retail practices every year, so it will be really interesting to see what they will bring next.
From the right: Showcase Gig CEO Takefumi Nitta, producer Akira Nakano
See the original story in Japanese. Apple Watch was officially introduced earlier this week. Because its planned shipping volume will overwhelmingly exceed that of Android Wear or other smart watches, Apple Watch is the main topic everywhere in the tech community for the first half of this year. As the launch of Apple draws near, people are more likely to be interested in what Apple Watch apps crop up in the future. We collected plans of Apple Watch app launches from Japanese startups, primarily involving our reader base. We couldn’t collect a lot of information as it is so soon after the official announcement of Apple Watch. However, this will provide a clue in assuming what kind of user experience will be delivered as well as what startups will bring these apps. So I hope this will help provide a future outlook for this space. Dr. Wallet (by BearTail) Dr. Wallet is a cloud-based household accounting solution that lets one track personal finances by simply scanning receipts. Dr. Wallet’s Apple Watch app allows entry of expenses from the wrist and sync with Dr. Wallet’s smartphone app. If a scanned receipt is used with the smartphone app, one can receive notification…
Apple Watch was officially introduced earlier this week. Because its planned shipping volume will overwhelmingly exceed that of Android Wear or other smart watches, Apple Watch is the main topic everywhere in the tech community for the first half of this year.
As the launch of Apple draws near, people are more likely to be interested in what Apple Watch apps crop up in the future. We collected plans of Apple Watch app launches from Japanese startups, primarily involving our reader base.
We couldn’t collect a lot of information as it is so soon after the official announcement of Apple Watch. However, this will provide a clue in assuming what kind of user experience will be delivered as well as what startups will bring these apps. So I hope this will help provide a future outlook for this space.
Dr. Wallet (by BearTail)
Dr. Wallet is a cloud-based household accounting solution that lets one track personal finances by simply scanning receipts. Dr. Wallet’s Apple Watch app allows entry of expenses from the wrist and sync with Dr. Wallet’s smartphone app. If a scanned receipt is used with the smartphone app, one can receive notification via Apple Watch app when BearTail’s operators finish digitalizing the scanned data so one can handle expense records in the app. If a monthly limit of expenses is set with the app, one can easily see with the Apple Watch app what percentage has already been consumed.
Seeing is believing. Check out the video below.
Prott（by Goodpatch）
Prott is a prototyping tool for smart devices apps, and now supports designing user interfaces for Apple Watch apps. This doesn’t mean one cannot control Prott with Apple Watch. However, as more startups develop Apple Watch apps, the more users Prott can acquire.
Nain
Nain is a Tokyo-based startup launched in November 2014, currently developing a social network service for smart watches. The above slides show what they intend to do. We will provide more details later on.
SnapDish (by Vuzz)
SnapDish is one of popular food photo apps from Japan. In contrast with other apps, their users are more likely to take pictures of their homemade dishes, so Vuzz, the company behind the the SnapDish app, thinks that developing an Apple Watch app syncing with “hunger pangs” is possible. (Photo below is the smartphone version of SnapDish.)
TennisCore
Yuichi Kato previously worked at Rakuten as a project manager for their recently-acquired chat and messaging app Viber. He quit the e-commerce giant and is currently developing an AppleWatch app for tennis players, called TennisCore.
When tennis players get ahead in their game, they tend to forget counting their scores. To prevent this, Kato developed an iPhone app that allows players to count their scores. But as it is hard to play the game while holding a smartphone, he planned an Apple Watch app that lets them keep counting with their wrist.
Towards April 24th when Apple will launch the smart watch product here in Japan, we are told that more startups are preparing release of Apple Watch apps soon. We also heard undisclosed updates regarding these apps from several Japanese startups, so people will receive user experiences never before experienced.
The Bridge’s editorials expect to be overwhelmingly busy covering more Apple Watch apps from Japanese startups over the next 6 weeks.
Junya Mori
Masaru Ikeda
Takeshi Hirano
Yukari Mitsuhashi
