Shintaro is Japanese editor and planner based in Tokyo. He’s active in the community as an event manager, and does his best to play matchmaker in local ecosystem — not only startups but also people and entities in culture and government. Find him on Twitter, at @eshintaro.
See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s DeployGate, offering a test marketing tool for smartphone app development under the same name, announced last month that it will establish a US subsidiary. DeployGate provides a testing and marketing function that allows mobile developers to distribute beta version of their apps to testing users and collects feedbacks from them before the official launch. Spun off from Japanese internet company Mixi (TSE:2121) just a year ago, DeployGate has been providing this service for more than three years. Currently, it proposes service plans for individuals or SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) as well as the ones for big companies managing multiple apps or many developers involved. It has been adopted by various Japanese internet companies such as Mixi, Recruit (TSE: 6098) and Cookpad (TSE: 2193), in addition to some major game developers. Together with AppBroadCast, a Japanese media company focused on helping mobile gaming developers reach potential users, DeployGate released a test marketing specialized service for these developers called SakiPre. Conventionally, development of console games often required prolongation in order to raise the degree of perfection thoroughly because user reactions or feedbacks could be obtained only after the launch. However, as the game industry…
Japan’s DeployGate, offering a test marketing tool for smartphone app development under the same name, announced last month that it will establish a US subsidiary.
DeployGate provides a testing and marketing function that allows mobile developers to distribute beta version of their apps to testing users and collects feedbacks from them before the official launch. Spun off from Japanese internet company Mixi (TSE:2121) just a year ago, DeployGate has been providing this service for more than three years. Currently, it proposes service plans for individuals or SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) as well as the ones for big companies managing multiple apps or many developers involved. It has been adopted by various Japanese internet companies such as Mixi, Recruit (TSE: 6098) and Cookpad (TSE: 2193), in addition to some major game developers.
Together with AppBroadCast, a Japanese media company focused on helping mobile gaming developers reach potential users, DeployGate released a test marketing specialized service for these developers called SakiPre. Conventionally, development of console games often required prolongation in order to raise the degree of perfection thoroughly because user reactions or feedbacks could be obtained only after the launch. However, as the game industry gradually shifts toward the mobile field, it has realized a new development method which facilitates beta testing so that games are elaborated on by both developers and consumers, or sales promotion conducted before the launch.
DeployGate CEO Yuki Fujisaki commented on the positive response for their product:
Recently, people in the game business often tell me that they have been using DeployGate. The shift toward mobile in the game industry had much influence on DeployGate in providing them a new development environment.
The number of consumers who had downloaded apps from Saki-Pre has already exceeded 40,000. Also from clients, we have been receiving testimonials such as “it became possible to predict whether the game will be a big hit or not before launch” and “for a game which scored more than 3.5 at the Saki-Pre questionnaire, an average of 3.9 on GooglePlay store can be expected” as well as “since the response rate of Saki-Pre participants is more than 30%, points to be improved can be pinpointed at the last minute for the launch.”
Moreover, the company has started providing linking functions with business chat tools such as Slack, Hipchat and Chatwork since July of 2015 for easier communication within companies that makes feedbacks for development smoother as well. They were nominated for CEDEC Awards 2015 in August, followed by having spread its service steadily among global developer communities while participating in conferences in the US such as WWDC or Google I/O as well as holding meetups in tandem with Crittercism, a crash reporting tool startup in San Francisco. The team had been communicating closely with developers at Crittercism or Github, and emphasizing service development for developers from a global perspective.
The service is currently being utilized in about 100 countries. Even at launch, developers with diverse backgrounds such as Americans, Europeans and Scandinavians had used it, while only half of the users were Japanese. Since starting the service for Android first, it has gained esteem from developers in countries with much Android share, like Brazil.
COO Kazuto Yasuda looks back on the first year:
We spent most of the year enhancing the business core. Thankfully we have finished the first period of second year in the black, and have been organizing systems for management and customer supports.
In this situation, the team felt the need for local bases to gain customer support and brush up the product leveraging opinions from local developers as reference for service plans aimed at enterprises. As the first step to global expansion, they announced the establishment of the US while appointing Yasuda as its CEO.
Also the team aims at function expansion while cooperating with other service operators for developers that are under consideration. These days, the service is being enhanced under the theme of ‘how much the development environment for app developers can be simplified’ such as implementation of automated building function from source codes, called Dg Command. These updates can be checked out on the DeployGate blog.
The team is intended to continue operating their business on a bootstrap budget because they already have a good sales prospect and want to more focus on team building, investigating users’ needs, improving the product and user support.
To improve the product upon hearing feedbacks from developers using it directly, the company will set up an independent office this spring to make it easier to hold user meetups periodically. In addition to the three founders, the company has recently acquired new developers and designers, plus customer support representatives who work remotely from the office.
Fujisaki concluded:
DeployGate has grown as a tool essential for developers. Since there is substantial need not only in the IT industry but also in the game industry, many companies and developers are beginning to understand the importance of pre-launch test marketing.
By giving them more opportunities to communicate between developers and their users through our tool, we want to help developers continue developing apps that meet users’ expectations.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
The DeployGate management team: From left, COO Yasuda the second one, and CEO Fujisaki the third.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Repro, the provider of mobile analytics tool under the same name, announced today that the company has fundraised 300 million yen (about $2.6 million) from Jafco (TSE:8595), Voyage Ventures, and several angel investors. This follows their previous funding round where they raised 100 million yen (about $835,000) from DG Incubation, Brain Pad (TSE:3655), and Shift (TSE:3697) back in May of last year. Repro provides an SDK (software development kit) to support the development of apps for improved retention rate of users and UI (user interface) based on user behavior on mobile apps. When a user operates an app with an SDK installed, information such as the user’s method of operating the interface, the track record of that operation and the user’s facial expressions during that time are recorded. Based on these functions, the platform provides developers with not only quantitative analysis such as funnel and retention analysis but also qualitative analysis like reproducing user actions in the app leveraging recorded play-by-play video so that developers can instantly find what the problem is. Implementing in-app marketing features like push notification and in-app messaging, the platform helps developers improve the retention and conversation rates of…
Tokyo-based Repro, the provider of mobile analytics tool under the same name, announced today that the company has fundraised 300 million yen (about $2.6 million) from Jafco (TSE:8595), Voyage Ventures, and several angel investors. This follows their previous funding round where they raised 100 million yen (about $835,000) from DG Incubation, Brain Pad (TSE:3655), and Shift (TSE:3697) back in May of last year.
Repro provides an SDK (software development kit) to support the development of apps for improved retention rate of users and UI (user interface) based on user behavior on mobile apps. When a user operates an app with an SDK installed, information such as the user’s method of operating the interface, the track record of that operation and the user’s facial expressions during that time are recorded.
Based on these functions, the platform provides developers with not only quantitative analysis such as funnel and retention analysis but also qualitative analysis like reproducing user actions in the app leveraging recorded play-by-play video so that developers can instantly find what the problem is. Implementing in-app marketing features like push notification and in-app messaging, the platform helps developers improve the retention and conversation rates of their apps.
Since its official release in April of 2015, the platform has been adopted by major e-commerce sites, games, news media and other various apps from the IT industry, according to Repro CEO Yusuke Hirata.
The lastest funding is to strengthen the foundation of our system development and hiring talents. At the same time, we would like to start our global expansion efforts, planning to conduct a test marketing in the overseas market followed by launching an overseas office next year.
Repro CEO Yusuke Hirata
While many users are app developers in Japan, the company has been receiving numerous inquiries from overseas developers despite no massive promotion and adopted by more than 1,400 mobile apps from 18 countries. Upon funding at this time, the company wants to expand the implementation of its mobile app growth hack solution to fashion, real estate, automotive, human resources, marriage counseling, among other non-IT sectors.
Leveraging their past experience of developing and implementing the solution, Repro provide wants to provide app developers with a more comprehensive solution rather than just offering an SDK.
Hirata explained:
When developers release their app, many of them definitely want to gain sales, customer satisfaction, or touch points with their users. Based on these strategies, we will offer a growth hacking expertise for mobile app development such as setting KPIs (key performance indicators) or magic numbers, which we have learned through serving 1,400 mobile apps.
Repro recently introduced a new API (application program interface) supporting mobile push notification. This allows business owners to integrate statistics from other sales channels like a website or a real store with their mobile app so that they can conduct more personalized marketing to each and every customer.
Hirata continued:
For e-commerce sites offering both a website and a mobile app, they can push a mobile notification via our platform to the smartphone of the users who have selected items to buy but not yet completed the purchase on the website. By connecting the two interfaces, we can allow e-commerce sites to offer a cross-channel experience for their customers.
As of now Repro is focused on mobile growth hacking, but they may expand its support to a desktop or website interface in the future. Using the funds, the company plans to prepare for a global expansion without pause.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Medley announced in December that it had fundraised a total of 230 million yen (about $1.9 million) from Nikkei Business Publications (Nikkei BP), East Ventures, and Japanese angel investor Yuzuru Honda. East Ventures have invested in Medley in the past while Honda is the CEO of Japanese adtech company FreakOut (TSE:6094). The latest funding follows the company’s previous round in June of 2015, having raised 300 million yen (about $2.5 million) from Mitsui Sumitomo Insuarance Capital, MRT (TSE:6034, medical human resource), and Gree (TSE:3632, mobile gaming), as well as other angel investors. Medley provides an online job board for medical professionals, called Job Medley, as well as an online disease encyclopedia called Medley. Coinciding with the latest funds, Medley will partner with Nikkei BP to integrate Job Medley with Nikkei Medical Online, the publisher’s comprehensive information portal site for medical professionals. By utilizing the mutual strengths of both companies, they are looking to develop new services for 510,000 registered users of the portal site, encompassing 130,000 medical doctors. Medley CEO Kohei Takiguchi explained: Combining Nikkei Medical Online with our strength that engineers and medical professionals provide our services, I believe that both…
The Medley team: CEO Kohei Takiguchi stands third from left, Co-CEO/medical doctor Goichiro Toyoda stands on right.
Tokyo-based startup Medley announced in December that it had fundraised a total of 230 million yen (about $1.9 million) from Nikkei Business Publications (Nikkei BP), East Ventures, and Japanese angel investor Yuzuru Honda. East Ventures have invested in Medley in the past while Honda is the CEO of Japanese adtech company FreakOut (TSE:6094). The latest funding follows the company’s previous round in June of 2015, having raised 300 million yen (about $2.5 million) from Mitsui Sumitomo Insuarance Capital, MRT (TSE:6034, medical human resource), and Gree (TSE:3632, mobile gaming), as well as other angel investors.
Medley provides an online job board for medical professionals, called Job Medley, as well as an online disease encyclopedia called Medley. Coinciding with the latest funds, Medley will partner with Nikkei BP to integrate Job Medley with Nikkei Medical Online, the publisher’s comprehensive information portal site for medical professionals. By utilizing the mutual strengths of both companies, they are looking to develop new services for 510,000 registered users of the portal site, encompassing 130,000 medical doctors.
Medley CEO Kohei Takiguchi explained:
Combining Nikkei Medical Online with our strength that engineers and medical professionals provide our services, I believe that both companies can better grow their businesses leveraging the mutual strengths.
The capital raised from this fundraising will be used to develop new collaborative services and for their operation. Although there is no official release of service content, they are creating brand new content for healthcare professionals.
We were told that the funds will be used to develop and operate a new service. Details of that are not yet disclosed but the company claimed that it will be something new for medical professionals.
The Job Medley platform has been steadily growing to date, building a sold revenue base for the company. It lists 47,055 positions for job-seeking medical professionals as of this writing. Instead of such a huge number of job postings, however, Takiguchi says that his team have fulfilled only about 10% of their objective which expects to list all positions available online.
Medley, the online medical resource, has attempted to enhance its service coverage, by adding a special feature page for prevention of influenza as well as a hospital search according to symptoms or the method of treatment. These efforts are based on the team’s intention to improve accessibility to existing medical database services for the public.
Takiguchi added:
Since existing medical database services are incomplete, we needed to build our own from scratch. It took more than expected to complete, but we have almost completed gathering and organizing symptoms, medical supplies, hospitals, and other related metadata information. We think that the next step is to provide users value based on our database. Using the symptom-based disease search function as well as the infection risk prediction model, we will explore new types of online medical services for users in 2016.
Medley has been receiving huge funding throughout 2015. The company has been devoted to developing the Job Medley platform to enhance the business prospects while developing the Medley database service to better serve users. They are steadily moving forward to disrupt the medical industry by inventing new online services.
Translated by Mariko Kobayashi via Mother First Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Clue announced in November the launch of a data management service for drones called DroneCloud. The service will offer a platform to manage drone data, such as tracking who operates which drone, managing projects and team members operating drones, as well as managing and sharing drone flight data. In the platform, the project management menu allows users to create and manage a project such as assigning drone managers and selecting which drone to use. The data management menu can store photos and videos taken from drones, as well as manage flight plans and other project information. The flight log menu records weather conditions, and where and when drones are being operated. The individual management menu manages model specs of drones used, records total flying hours, and maintenance status. The service is available for a monthly subscription fee of 9,800 yen ($80). Ryosuke Abe, CEO and founder of Clue explains: DroneCloud is a cloud service for companies using drones in their business. There are few peripheral services supporting their efficient drone operations such as managing drones and acquired data. We can support their safe and efficient operations by offering a service allowing them to…
Tokyo-based Clue announced in November the launch of a data management service for drones called DroneCloud. The service will offer a platform to manage drone data, such as tracking who operates which drone, managing projects and team members operating drones, as well as managing and sharing drone flight data.
In the platform, the project management menu allows users to create and manage a project such as assigning drone managers and selecting which drone to use. The data management menu can store photos and videos taken from drones, as well as manage flight plans and other project information. The flight log menu records weather conditions, and where and when drones are being operated. The individual management menu manages model specs of drones used, records total flying hours, and maintenance status. The service is available for a monthly subscription fee of 9,800 yen ($80).
DroneCloud’s dashboard
Ryosuke Abe, CEO and founder of Clue explains:
DroneCloud is a cloud service for companies using drones in their business. There are few peripheral services supporting their efficient drone operations such as managing drones and acquired data. We can support their safe and efficient operations by offering a service allowing them to manage various data in an integrated way. Since business use of drones are more advanced in the US and Europe, we will target the global market. That’s why we are offering the service in English as well as in Japanese.
He has a website called Drone Borg that covers drone startups and use cases from the world. Abe is a serial entrepreneur, having launched fashion sharing business Loving’Box. Abe is leveraging his aerospace engineering background in the drone space.
Abe says that DroneCloud will be a platform for data processing solutions in the cloud, acquiring flight data by integrating drones from different manufacturers via API (application program interface) or SDK (software development kit).
As the Aviation Law has been amended in Japan, when a company wants to use a drone, they must check flight restricted areas, apply for a flying permit, and register the drone. Clue will help users process these tasks, aiming to support overall drone operations for businesses.
Abe outlined their plans:
In addition to DroneCloud, we are looking at creating a whole “operating system” for business-use drones. Only Airware is running the business, but there is no outstanding startup in this sector. While the hardware business of drones will be commoditized in the future, I think the operating system software and the cloud will be the key to secure our competitive advantage. We intend to make DroneCloud a must-have cloud service for drone businesses, providing an OS control board that will enable seamless data integration with the cloud platform.
Translated by Moto Tsujino via Mother First Edited by Kurt Hanson
See the original story in Japanese Tokyo-based Coconala, previously known as WelSelf, offers an online platform under the same name where you can buy and sell knowledge, skills and, experience from users who are willing to teach. The company announced on Tuesday that it has fundraised a total of 540 million yen (about $4.4 million) from Jafco, Nissay Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, and Voyage Ventures in mid-November. This follows their previous $1.5 million funding from four investors back in September of 2013. Since its launch back in July 2012, the platform has acquired more then 200,000 registered users and over 50,000 micro jobs that you can ask, which has massively increased from 30,000 micro jobs registered as of April. Coconala CEO Akiyuki Minami says, Coconala has been steadily growing in the last three years, keeping a growth rate of 13% on a monthly basis. Since this relies in large part on word-of-month effects, now we can expect that our users recall and recognize our brand. Skills marketplace in affordable prices He claimed that Coconala connects individuals for buying and selling their skills, aiming to fulfill needs and solve problems unlike typical crowdsourcing platforms. Coconala provides a broad range of services…
Tokyo-based Coconala, previously known as WelSelf, offers an online platform under the same name where you can buy and sell knowledge, skills and, experience from users who are willing to teach. The company announced on Tuesday that it has fundraised a total of 540 million yen (about $4.4 million) from Jafco, Nissay Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, and Voyage Ventures in mid-November. This follows their previous $1.5 million funding from four investors back in September of 2013.
Since its launch back in July 2012, the platform has acquired more then 200,000 registered users and over 50,000 micro jobs that you can ask, which has massively increased from 30,000 micro jobs registered as of April.
Coconala CEO Akiyuki Minami says,
Coconala has been steadily growing in the last three years, keeping a growth rate of 13% on a monthly basis. Since this relies in large part on word-of-month effects, now we can expect that our users recall and recognize our brand.
Skills marketplace in affordable prices
Coconala CEO Akiyuki Minami
He claimed that Coconala connects individuals for buying and selling their skills, aiming to fulfill needs and solve problems unlike typical crowdsourcing platforms. Coconala provides a broad range of services for sellers including fortune-telling, relieving mental anguish, illustration, design, consultation for hobbies and travel destinations. Giving opportunities for users to ask about what they don’t know who they should ask other than their friends is the value proposition of the Coconala platform. That’s why many of services on the platform available for starting at 500 yen (about $4).
The repeat rate of their users is so high that they typically continue using a service once they start doing it. According to the company’s analysis regarding their repeat users, it saw more than 30% of heavy users have purchased services in five or more categories on the platform while over 70% of heavy users have purchased services in three or more categories. They also revealed that 25% out of all these heavy users have submitted their services to other buying users. Minami told that this tendency proves that the platform has our users’ daily lives through experiences starting with buying then submitting services followed by more buying from multiple categories.
Now we have remarkable figures. The average monthly spending per users is nearly hitting 6,000 yen (about $49). Users can sell a service for starting at 500 yen, but popular sellers are permitted to provide premium optional services as well as telephone consultation for starting at 100 yen (about $0.80) per minute. Some sellers can earn over 800,000 yen ($6,500) a month. In addition, many users purchase services several times in a month. Thanks to the synergistic effect from the increasing number of purchases, the high repeat purchase rate, and the rise in unit price, users’ monthly purchase amount (ARPU) has been increasing.
Minami explained:
This C2C (consumer to consumer) approach appeals to users with its low costs for both supplier and consumer. The low costs are enabled by its flexible cycles. This means the seller can purchase a service and the buyer can sell a service
At the same time, we have been trying to provide diverse categories, not depending on some specific category, which assures the users that they can find advise they need at Coconala of a wide range. We consider this funding to be a major turning point for us in taking another stride forward.
Upsell strategy
Coconala succeeded in establishing entrances for consultation services while they were adding various categories they deal in. They said the funding will be used not only to expand consultation services but also to solidify the foundation for creating a customer collection engine. In a press conference on Tuesday, they shared the “Coconala Platform Framework.”
By this business model, in addition to the commission fee to be collected when a deal is sealed under the current system, Coconala will charge a service provider to ensure income from advertisement, and will expand the business area to providing the solutions that are placed beyond consultations.
Minami added:
With the repeat rate we attained under the existing system and the unaided recall capacity of the service itself, we were able to set up the window for obtaining users. Now we are ready to connect with areas promising bigger business opportunities.
For example, we can show legal consultation ads to users who use fortune-telling services or divorce consultation services, and we can connect with the travel industry by providing a travel package to the user who comes to ask about possible travel destinations.
We can act as a bridge between an easy consultation and larger markets in various categories. With this framework, the user can first ask advise at Coconala, then go to purchase what they want or need without googling.
For upselling, the company may start selling services by themselves on the platform in addition to earning commission fees from ad sales and driving user traffic to service providers. Upon the investment from Voyage Ventures at this time, Coconala thinks that they will start massively investing in marketing efforts in partnership with Voyage’s media outlets and adtech business such as EC Navi, Pex, Research Panel, and Fluct.
Minami said, while covering entrances to various business areas, they will develop their own business and sometimes acquire EC services to make Coconala a real business “Coconala economy bloc.” Their goal is to go IPO during 2018.
We understand that Coconala has been establishing their service while looking further into the future of the C2C marketplace. We can expect their further growth based on the user community and culture that they have cultivated and nourished.
Translated by Moto Tsujino via Mother First Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Pixta, running a marketplace for stock photos, illustration, and movie resources, announced an agreement of a partnership contract with Chinese stock photo service ImagineChina. Some of materials owned by Pixta will be sold on ImagineChina from January 2016 on a trial basis. The online advertisement market in China has been showing rapid growth in recent years. The market size is seen reaching $23.9 billion in 2014, and $31 billion in 2015, so Pixta is shifting its business emphasis into Asia in anticipation of revitalized demand for photo and video materials. Previously, Pixta had also established a branch office in Taiwan for the purpose of inbound measures toward Japan, where an increased number of utilization also can be seen. Meanwhile, ImagineChina is one of the biggest stock photo platforms in China dealing more than 5 million photo, illustration, video and creative items available for press use as material including newspapers, magazines, books or ads; it has been seeking a business partner holding abundant Japanese content. This idea coincided with Pixta’s ambition to expand into the Asian market including China, and that eventually brought this agreement. First, Pixta will start selling 14,000 copyrighted photo materials especially focusing on Japanese models for the double purpose of trial sales and market…
Japan’s Pixta, running a marketplace for stock photos, illustration, and movie resources, announced an agreement of a partnership contract with Chinese stock photo service ImagineChina. Some of materials owned by Pixta will be sold on ImagineChina from January 2016 on a trial basis.
The online advertisement market in China has been showing rapid growth in recent years. The market size is seen reaching $23.9 billion in 2014, and $31 billion in 2015, so Pixta is shifting its business emphasis into Asia in anticipation of revitalized demand for photo and video materials. Previously, Pixta had also established a branch office in Taiwan for the purpose of inbound measures toward Japan, where an increased number of utilization also can be seen.
Meanwhile, ImagineChina is one of the biggest stock photo platforms in China dealing more than 5 million photo, illustration, video and creative items available for press use as material including newspapers, magazines, books or ads; it has been seeking a business partner holding abundant Japanese content. This idea coincided with Pixta’s ambition to expand into the Asian market including China, and that eventually brought this agreement.
First, Pixta will start selling 14,000 copyrighted photo materials especially focusing on Japanese models for the double purpose of trial sales and market research. The prices will change depending on the usage methods and ImagineChina will be charged a certain ratio of the sales for each purchase. Through this partnership, Pixta will attempt to advance into China and to expand the Chinese market.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Kitene is an online car rental platform proposing combined road trip plans. Since its launch back in June, the platform has more than 8,500 cars registered from 240 rental providers. It also deals in a variety of types and grades of cars including campers or convertibles. As one can see from the 1,000 types of travel plans published on its website, the service provides content which meets various users’ demands. Fukuoka-based Reevo, the company behind the Kitene platform and its sister service Veecle, announced in August that it had agreed to partner with Japan Travel for development of road trips and other related services for foreign visitors to Japan. See also: Japan’s online car rental platform Veecle raises estimated $570,000 Japan Travel runs a major travel information website for foreign tourists called JapanTravel.com, where there are articles about local information proffered by 7,500 foreign residents of Japan, written from the foreigners’ perspective. According to Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan during the first half of 2015 reached 9.13 million, showing a record high with an increase by 46% over the same period of the previous year. This market…
Kitene is an online car rental platform proposing combined road trip plans. Since its launch back in June, the platform has more than 8,500 cars registered from 240 rental providers. It also deals in a variety of types and grades of cars including campers or convertibles. As one can see from the 1,000 types of travel plans published on its website, the service provides content which meets various users’ demands.
Fukuoka-based Reevo, the company behind the Kitene platform and its sister service Veecle, announced in August that it had agreed to partner with Japan Travel for development of road trips and other related services for foreign visitors to Japan.
Japan Travel runs a major travel information website for foreign tourists called JapanTravel.com, where there are articles about local information proffered by 7,500 foreign residents of Japan, written from the foreigners’ perspective.
According to Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan during the first half of 2015 reached 9.13 million, showing a record high with an increase by 46% over the same period of the previous year. This market is expected to grow further as the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 nears. Under such circumstances, Reevo CEO Ryoma Matsuo spoke of the road trip needs for foreigners using rented cars.
Reevo founder and CEO Ryoma Matsuo says,
I have experienced directly the tendency for increased use of rental car by foreigners, and was also planning to expand services for foreigners. A questionnaire given to car rental companies in association now indicated that more than 60% show interest in rental business intended for foreigners. Furthermore, according to a company among these which is already running a website individually in English, although the ratio of foreign users still remains at 10%, their sales ratio is approximately 50%. They are potentially excellent customers for the car rental business because of their long-term rental each time.
JapanTravel.com
On the other hand, some trouble can be seen upon car rental by foreigners increasingly due to differences in languages, traffic regulations or driving habits. In order to address these issues and demands upon visiting Japan, this partnership was established, expecting collaboration in marketing or proper information distribution for tourists from Japan Travel and service or content needs for road trips using rented cars from Reevo.
Matsuo elaborated:
Specifically, details of this cooperation include for example, planning road trips from the foreigners’ viewpoint and selling them to travel agents, reservation system for car rentals in multiple languages, multilingual website creation for rental car providers, or providing integrated services between JapanTravel.com and Kitene. As our pilot project, we are planning to commercialize and sell a package of road trips by campers to enjoy the four seasons in Japan within 2015.
Among the rental car services offered by Reevo, content with campers is unique enough that it can offer a new type of travels in Japan for foreign tourists. This may be one of the styles that startups can propose their new business on, featuring their unique content and know-how through cooperation with major companies.
In recent years, since stimulation in the regions and development of local resources have been seen in various parts of Japan, even the Japanese have come to travel around minor domestic areas which are not so popular as sightseeing spots, or to enjoy interaction with local folks. Through expansion of market for visits to Japan, we can also expect that the regional attractions will be rediscovered.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Plaid, a startup developing a real-time analytics platform for e-commerce sites called Karte, announced last week that it has fundraised 500 million yen (about $4 million) from Fidelity Growth Partners Japan and Femto Growth Capital. David Milstein, Head of Japan for Fidelity Growth Partners, will join the team as its outside director. Femto Growth Capital invested about $1.5 million in the startup during the previous round. Karte allows e-commerce site owners to grasp their visitors’ demographics just by adding a few lines of codes to their websites. In addition to analyzing the behaviors of e-commerce site visitors in real time, the service allows the owners to send out promotional campaigns to potential buyers in form of message notifications or pop-up windows. Plaid CEO Kenta Kurahashi explained how Karte came into being: It had been difficult for e-commerce sites to treat their visitors according to their status or behaviors as sales representatives do at real retailers. We have developed a technology that enables e-commerce site owners to provide such a hospitality and a new customer experience for their visitors. While existing platforms conduct analysis based on metrics from the past, such as pageviews, unique…
Tokyo-based Plaid, a startup developing a real-time analytics platform for e-commerce sites called Karte, announced last week that it has fundraised 500 million yen (about $4 million) from Fidelity Growth Partners Japan and Femto Growth Capital. David Milstein, Head of Japan for Fidelity Growth Partners, will join the team as its outside director. Femto Growth Capital invested about $1.5 million in the startup during the previous round.
Karte allows e-commerce site owners to grasp their visitors’ demographics just by adding a few lines of codes to their websites. In addition to analyzing the behaviors of e-commerce site visitors in real time, the service allows the owners to send out promotional campaigns to potential buyers in form of message notifications or pop-up windows.
Plaid CEO Kenta Kurahashi explained how Karte came into being:
It had been difficult for e-commerce sites to treat their visitors according to their status or behaviors as sales representatives do at real retailers. We have developed a technology that enables e-commerce site owners to provide such a hospitality and a new customer experience for their visitors. While existing platforms conduct analysis based on metrics from the past, such as pageviews, unique users and residence time, Karte uses real-time access data and enables website owners to take appropriate measures to their visitors on the spot.
Karte’s dashboard for website owners
E-commerce sites, typically collecting private information on users to enable item purchases, can associate the real-time response from Karte with their customer database so that site owners can easily specify who is visiting their website and how he/she is behaving there, regardless of which browsing device he/she is using.
Karte allows users to customize how the platform responds to each of their visitors upon demographics and behaviors. For instance, an e-commerce company uses Karte to improve the awareness of their anniversary campaign, letting a banner sign pop up upon check-out to encourage their visitors to buy more; as such they can take a give-away if the purchases add up to a certain amount.
In cases of other use, for customers who are interested in a certain product category but have not decided which item to buy, some e-commerce site owners take them to a comparison chart of similar items with details. We were told that many site owners have succeeded in improving conversion rates by leveraging the platform.
Kurahashi added:
In addition to e-commerce sites, our solution allows recruiting sites to present a banner to their users seeking a position in a specific business category. Meanwhile it lets real estate companies show a pop-up message to visitors who are searching properties in a certain area or a specific type of room layout. Our product is used by many businesses including hotels and English conversation schools. Thus our clients can create a fully customized service corresponding to their business so that it can help building unique types of royalty with every single customer.
What kind of information will better work to motivate what kind of user? Kurahashi told us that’s what users have to be focused on figuring out leveraging their imagination while the Karte engine semi-automates the analyzing process of web access statistics.
Kurahashi concluded:
We hope our solution supports designing a true user experience, which is not just a customer experience but that tailored for each individual user.
We were told that the latest investment will be used to help hiring engineers, improving a user support structure for users as well as launching consulting services. They will also polish their product, developing additional functions and integration with other third-party services such as online shopping cart providers, online marketing tools, chat tools and online survey tools.
Upon solidifying its market share in Japan by expanding its market reach to enterprises and SMEs in addition to local retailers, the company is looking to expand globally.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by Masaru Ikeda and “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Pixta provides royalty-free stock photography, illustrations, and videos. Seeing an increase in downloads of five times last year’s numbers, the company is now looking to expand into the Taiwanese market. They announced the establishment of a new location in Taiwan which began business operations on July 16th. This is Pixta’s 2nd overseas location after their Singapore office. Pixta released its English and Chinese versions in 2013, and in November of the same year established a location in Singapore, expanding their business into Asia. Meanwhile, this year picture downloads in Taiwan have increased rapidly. Results of studies have shown that in addition to a high interest in fashion, beauty, and lifestyle, there is a particularly large demand for materials featuring Japanese models. Due to the coming influx of tourism to Japan along with the need to present a new image for the nation, they have created a special Japan Page featuring only images of Japan and its people. With a new location in Taiwan, Pixta will expand their marketing efforts to establish themselves locally while continuing to focus on these sorts of user needs. In conjunction with this change, the Japanese images page has…
Tokyo-based Pixta provides royalty-free stock photography, illustrations, and videos. Seeing an increase in downloads of five times last year’s numbers, the company is now looking to expand into the Taiwanese market. They announced the establishment of a new location in Taiwan which began business operations on July 16th. This is Pixta’s 2nd overseas location after their Singapore office.
Pixta released its English and Chinese versions in 2013, and in November of the same year established a location in Singapore, expanding their business into Asia. Meanwhile, this year picture downloads in Taiwan have increased rapidly. Results of studies have shown that in addition to a high interest in fashion, beauty, and lifestyle, there is a particularly large demand for materials featuring Japanese models.
Due to the coming influx of tourism to Japan along with the need to present a new image for the nation, they have created a special Japan Page featuring only images of Japan and its people. With a new location in Taiwan, Pixta will expand their marketing efforts to establish themselves locally while continuing to focus on these sorts of user needs.
In conjunction with this change, the Japanese images page has now also been made available for the traditional Chinese version of Pixta. The page features travel locations that are popular amongst Taiwanese such as Tokyo, Mt. Fuji, Kyoto, Hokkaido, as well as other destinations in Japan. Using photos and other materials, the company hopes to show the appeal of Japan and meet the needs of the increasing demand.
Due to all of the attention being focused on Japan with to the coming Olympic games and other events, many industries are concentrating their efforts on dealing with the influx of people, which is why businesses are moving to present the appeal of Japan through photos and illustrations. On that front you could say that Pixta is hitting the iron while is hot.
See the original story in Japanese. The Microsoft Innovation Award 2015 (MIA2015) is an annual opportunity to showcase how startups have developed innovative software and services that bring progressive ideas to life. The presenting ceremony for the award was held at Microsoft Japan headquarters in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago where the MIA Award and Audience Choice’s Award winners were announced following the finalist pitches. In the event, The Bridge coordinated two panel discussions focused on data-driven startups. Panel 1: How will a data-driven approach factor into healthcare apps and platforms? The event’s second session kicked off with a panel about how healthcare startups are leveraging big data to improve their platforms and businesses. Moderated by The Bridge co-founder Masaru Ikeda, this session included: Francois Cadiou (CEO, Healint) – on screen via Skype Yoko Gibo (Managing Director, Noom Japan) Yuji Mizoguchi (CEO, FiNC) Shinichiro Isago (Technical Evangelist Manager, Emerging Technology Evangelism, Microsoft Japan) Healint has developed an app called Migraine Buddy which collects data recorded from sufferers of migraine headaches. By recording the symptoms of migraines from patients, doctors can more accurately report on those symptoms. Healint performs big data analysis based on accumulated user data and, by sharing…
Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. Image by A Health Blog.
The Microsoft Innovation Award 2015 (MIA2015) is an annual opportunity to showcase how startups have developed innovative software and services that bring progressive ideas to life. The presenting ceremony for the award was held at Microsoft Japan headquarters in Tokyo a couple of weeks ago where the MIA Award and Audience Choice’s Award winners were announced following the finalist pitches.
In the event, The Bridge coordinated two panel discussions focused on data-driven startups.
Panel 1: How will a data-driven approach factor into healthcare apps and platforms?
From the right: Shinichiro Isago (Microsoft Japan), Francois Cadiou (Healint) on screen, Yoko Gibo (Noom Japan), and Yuji Mizoguchi (FiNC)
The event’s second session kicked off with a panel about how healthcare startups are leveraging big data to improve their platforms and businesses. Moderated by The Bridge co-founder Masaru Ikeda, this session included:
Francois Cadiou (CEO, Healint) – on screen via Skype
Shinichiro Isago (Technical Evangelist Manager, Emerging Technology Evangelism, Microsoft Japan)
Healint has developed an app called Migraine Buddy which collects data recorded from sufferers of migraine headaches. By recording the symptoms of migraines from patients, doctors can more accurately report on those symptoms. Healint performs big data analysis based on accumulated user data and, by sharing and marketing that information to pharmaceutical companies and research institutions, new medicines are developed and healthcare quality is improved.
CEO Cadiou argued that the app attracts many Japanese people:
Things like one’s own nervous system can be quite difficult to grasp, so patients should record and manage their condition daily, gather the appropriate data, and then see a doctor in order to recieve the optimal method of treatment.
FiNC, a mobile health technology startup in Japan, employs full time personnel, physicians, pharmacists, and instructors in the preventive medicine field. Most recently, with the release of their healthcare news app Wellness Post, FiNC has been making the push to proliferate medical information relevant to their users. Additionally they are working on a new preventative medicine crowdsourcing platform for nutritionists, trainers, and other health specialists.
NYC-headquartered Noom has been offering preventative medicine solutions for consumer and commercial use since 2008. More recently they have been developing a smart AI (artificial intelligence)-based personal coach app called Noom Coach, as well as Noom Health, an app that family physicians and trainers can use to get an accurate picture of their patient’s health based on each patient’s recorded diet and exercise, making it possible to offer counseling to many patients remotely at low cost, and with a high degree of accuracy.
Now is the time to make healthcare data a real focus
To start the discussion, the speakers were asked to share what led them to start their businesses. Speaking from his own clinical development experience, Cadiou found himself focused on the various ways progress can be made in transitioning from paper to web apps and sensors, and so on. To approach these hurdles, Cadiou started working with data scientists and programmers, considerably progressing his research and development practices in Singapore.
In view of many healthcare startups born out in the world, FiNC CEO Mizoguchi shared his point of view on the state of the healthcare market. He said,
Healthcare is a concern everyone shares, which is why we are in such a good market to expand globally.
Noom, on the other hand, broke into the market through a NYC-based startup accelerator specializing in healthcare. Gibo expressed,
The healthcare business world as a whole has a high barrier of entry and is a difficult place to grow as a business. That’s why the existence of an accelerator that combines big business with healthcare technology is so crucial, and also why Noom has also been able to work together with a variety of medical institutions.
Adding that through beginning to offer enterprise targeted services they have seen considerable growth. The healthcare field itself appears to be experiencing a movement of innovation right now that is justifiably garnering global attention.
The three companies are each engaged in analyzing data connected to their users’ healthcare and putting that into use in developing services, so the question of how is this kind of big data to be effectively used is becoming of interest. Gibo pointed out that as far as health care data goes, the data that has been collected so far is small, and supplying data to insurance companies and patients has only recently started. However, it can be said that a data-based business model incorporating feedback regarding insurance companies is on the verge.
Mizoguchi shared,
There have been a lot of offers for the trial deployment of our services, and we’ve begun dealing with the local government. […]
This has all just recently started in Japan so data and evidence are still scarce. With consent from users, we’d like to make that data open to use and build a structure for use and application. By recording physical, location, and movement behavior data, the time when we can provide individualized health care services based on users’ individual data may be soon. Our aim is to continue searching for the best ways to utilize data to make as many people happy as we can.
In response to this, Microsoft’s Isago said,
Up until now Microsoft has largely been involved in the game and entertainment industries, but the requests from people in other industries such as healthcare increased when the Kinect was introduced. […]
Basically I think you could say that more and more people are realizing the possibilities technology holds. Currently we’re focusing our efforts on the medical and security fields. We’re always on the look out for startups that are interested in working together with Microsoft to develop new services that utilize various different kinds of cloud data.
Gibo also expressed that the healthcare market itself is still in an early stage, and that through collaboration with businesses such as Microsoft to open up commercial channels, new paths are created.
Commenting on the future of healthcare Gibo had this to say,
In regard to health, we’re aiming for a worry-free society. Progressing to a society where people can understand their own bodies and have the appropriate control is the objective of healthcare.
Panel 2: How will data-driven startups change how to find the right job opportunities?
From the right: Shinichiro Isago (Microsoft Japan), Yukihiro Ikemi (Grooves), and Toshiyuki Oka (Atrae)
The second panel, regarding data-driven hiring platforms that turn skills and careers into data to meet with the needs of employers and suggest potential employers to users, featured the following people:
Shinichiro Isago (Technical Evangelist Manager, Emerging Technology Evangelism, Microsoft Japan)
Up until now Atrae has been running Green and other recruitment sites, but recently, in cooperation with big data analysis company Brain Pad (TSE:3655), they have launched a personnel mining service called TalentBase, which utilizes big data analysis AI. Unlike the typical resume based on your previous business experience, this new service creates reference data based on human relations using data analysis. The aim is to create better person to company matches based on connections and shared evaluations.
Grooves is currently running Forkwell, a portfolio site for engineers, as well as CrowdAgent, which generates recruitment matches from its 3,500 registered companies. It aims to be a national recruitment information portal with a network of more than 16,000 business people. Additionally, Grooves recenty established a HR tech R&D unit, aiming to conduct research on applications of artificial intelligence and big data analysis within the personnel recruitment field. Kenji Hirata, the first person to become engaged in international standardization of personnel training and competency was appointed as head on the research institute.
The HR market itself is calling for a major change
It could be said that one of the essential dilemmas among companies is how to effectively match potential employees with open positions. As the field of matching through the use of data and AI experiences a swell of interest, these problems are addressed. The discussion participants were asked what reasons led to the development of their services.
Ikemi explained that despite the fact that the recruitment business in Japan alone is a 7 trillion yen ($57.2 billion) market, 44 billion yen ($360 million) globally, these business practice haven’t changed since pre-war times. He said that as a tech enterprise, they started with the idea of wanting to create a service that will shake up the HR field in Japan. Even at that, he clarified by saying that the large amount of matching of people and businesses was “unexpected”. He supposed that similarly to dating and marriage matching sites randomness is a considerable aspect.
Ikemi explained,
Optimizing matching using big data is good, but we want to suggest matches that feel like stories.
Additionally, Ikemi explained that Japan not adopting HR-XML (Human Resources – eXtended Markup Language) had a major influence on the job hunting market. In the US, more so that recruitment platforms, crawler-type recruitment services are widely recognized, for the reason that HR-XML, which aims for the collaboration of recruit information, is continuing to become more familiarized. Through HR-XML, unification of topics like “Job Description” found on recruitment media and corporate sites has made possible automation and data-based matching, as well as personalized recruitment recommendations. However, Japan took a different path while not adopting such collaboration, which is why we have seen the spread of recruitment matching that utilizes individuals’ resources. From this, an opportunity is being missed to gather superior foreign personnel in Japan and inversely to send Japan’s superior personnel out into the world.
He continued,
We want to realize a new ‘Job Description’ in Japan.
When asked if things that were before done by humans be replaced by machines, Oka said he doesn’t think career consultation can be done with AI. He also said that more so than matching a person with a company through TalentBase, the aim is to create a place where a person can connect to another person within that company, and by focusing on building human relationships, new methods for choosing a place of work can be found that don’t necessarily rely on factors like one’s previous income and company position. Because we have to consider not just data but also human relationships, which can be seen as a sort of irrationality in society, said Oka.
Isago also commented that while working at Microsoft,
When doing recruiting through the same vendor, we can only gather one type of people. If the business itself wants to experience growth, how to create a place where recruitment matching for other types of people than those that have brought the company this far, this is the time to for businesses to meet this challenge.
Similar to healthcare, this is a task carried by the world’s businesses, which is why the successes of international enterprises set a global precedents, and why the potential for services themselves to expand globally is yet to be realized.
