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CyberAgent subsidiary Sirok rolls out mobile debugging solution

Takeshi Hirano 2013.10.11

See the original story in Japanese. At B Dash Camp earlier this week, Kaizen Platform, the Tokyo-based startup behind A/B testing tool PlanBCD, won the top prize. But interestingly, there are a number of other development tools that are popping up here in Japan. Testing tool Fello, for example, has exceeded 100 corporate users in its first month. And yesterday, another Japanese startup gave us something new as well. Tokyo-based Sirok, the CyberAgent subsidiary behind camera app My365, introduced a comprehensive service package that helps developers debug their mobile apps. It is called Growth Debug. The new service is a complementary product positioned along side Growth Push, a testing tool focused on gaining user retention which they introduced back in August. Fierce competition Sirok CEO Yuto Mukaiyama explains: I thought the market was sort of ‘Blue Ocean’, but seems like it’s turning red [1]. But a surge in this market is something worth appreciating though. When the testing tool was launched back in August, he wanted to see it used by 1,000 apps, delivering 10 million testing notifications in three months. So how are they doing now? Mukaiyama responded: For the target about the number of apps using our service,…

See the original story in Japanese.

At B Dash Camp earlier this week, Kaizen Platform, the Tokyo-based startup behind A/B testing tool PlanBCD, won the top prize. But interestingly, there are a number of other development tools that are popping up here in Japan. Testing tool Fello, for example, has exceeded 100 corporate users in its first month.

And yesterday, another Japanese startup gave us something new as well. Tokyo-based Sirok, the CyberAgent subsidiary behind camera app My365, introduced a comprehensive service package that helps developers debug their mobile apps. It is called Growth Debug.

The new service is a complementary product positioned along side Growth Push, a testing tool focused on gaining user retention which they introduced back in August.

Fierce competition

Sirok CEO Yuto Mukaiyama explains:

I thought the market was sort of ‘Blue Ocean’, but seems like it’s turning red [1]. But a surge in this market is something worth appreciating though.

When the testing tool was launched back in August, he wanted to see it used by 1,000 apps, delivering 10 million testing notifications in three months. So how are they doing now? Mukaiyama responded:

For the target about the number of apps using our service, we’re still struggling. But we’ll probably be able to surpass 10 million notifications pretty soon. We don’t yet provide our service to foreign developers though. In terms of demographics, many of our users are social gaming developers, and casual gaming and community apps follow.

The company also expects to make see the platform used by all 200 Ameba mobile apps (iOS / Android) from CyberAgent, which they expect to account for 20% of their three-month target.

He also explained a little how how their platform can contribute to a better user retention rate:

We are using the platform to improve user retention on our own My365 app, and it is gaining 1.2 to 1.5 times in the number of daily active users on average.

The problem of debugging mobile apps

Growth Debug, their new service, provides developers with improvements in quality and efficiency by taking a different approach.

The company not only gives you the tools, but also provides personnel who can understand how to eliminate bugs.

Unlike conventional tools like Excel, when you find a bug in your app you can record and manage it via an online tool. This lets you submit an issue to management tools such as JIRA and Redmine, including a screen capture, a handset terminal ID, and a log. Mukaiyama explains how it differes from conventional debugging solutions:

We used to create a script to automate text inputs in testing a sign-up process in an app. But this doesn’t work at all on mobile apps where an enormous number of minor adjustments are usually implemented. As a result, these developers are forced to input texts manually when testing.

Finding bugs and extracting testing cases is very important, but the quality of this process depends on who is involved. An engineer many need to ask a debugger to find clarify some meaning in a list of bugs or testing cases. For social gaming developers, a bug related to in-app purchases may have a great impact on how much money you can make. That’s why we developed a tool that allows you to easily submit a defect as soon as you find it by connecting a desktop and a smartphone device.

Mukaiyama explains their another advantage they have is their strong network of debuggers:

Our parent company CyberAgent has developed a number of apps, and their experience will help our users debug more efficiently. We aim to help developers improve their apps with a combination of a tool and professionals.

In contrast with PlanBCD, their aforementioned competitor which uses crowdsourced workers to help users improve user experience, Sirok has partnered with about ten temporary employment agencies and ask them to send the company staffers when needed.

When they used their debugging package to improving some Ameba mobile apps, debugging time was shortened by about 30%.

We recently wrote about Query Eye as our readers may recall.↩

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Japanese founders discuss the difficulties of sustaining a startup

Takeshi Hirano 2013.10.09

See the original story in Japanese. This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Osaka 2013. Recently we have seen more than a few Japanese companies disappearing from the market. According to a 2011 white-paper on Japanese SMEs and Industry, 30% of companies will be gone in ten years, and as many as 50% of them in 20 years [1]. It might be relatively easy to launch a startup, but it’s still very hard to keep running one. So advice for experienced entrepreneurs is very useful for all of us. On day one of B Dash Camp Osaka, we had a chance to hear such advice from Drecom CEO Yuki Naito and Crooz CEO Koji Obuchi. The session was moderated by Septeni Holdings CEO Koki Sato. Sato started the session by noting that even though M&A activities are increasing, IPOs are decreasing. Obuchi says that selling off your company is one of the necessary steps to accelerate the startup ecosystem, but he couldn’t say definitively that entrepreneurs should choose an acquisition as an easier option. When I look at faces of my employees, I feel I wouldn’t be able to let them down. I’m probably very typically…

See the original story in Japanese.

This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Osaka 2013.

Recently we have seen more than a few Japanese companies disappearing from the market. According to a 2011 white-paper on Japanese SMEs and Industry, 30% of companies will be gone in ten years, and as many as 50% of them in 20 years [1]. It might be relatively easy to launch a startup, but it’s still very hard to keep running one. So advice for experienced entrepreneurs is very useful for all of us. On day one of B Dash Camp Osaka, we had a chance to hear such advice from Drecom CEO Yuki Naito and Crooz CEO Koji Obuchi. The session was moderated by Septeni Holdings CEO Koki Sato.

Sato started the session by noting that even though M&A activities are increasing, IPOs are decreasing. Obuchi says that selling off your company is one of the necessary steps to accelerate the startup ecosystem, but he couldn’t say definitively that entrepreneurs should choose an acquisition as an easier option.

When I look at faces of my employees, I feel I wouldn’t be able to let them down. I’m probably very typically Japanese in that I wouldn’t be able to take a buy-out option.

Naito also says he really wants to keep running his business, explainging that if he sold off his company, it would be hard to find something else to do.

Looking at recent M&As in the Japanese startup scene, he pointed out that prices for startup buyouts are still low.

Mostly the prices ranging from 500 million yen to 1 billion yen, right? (from $5 million to $10 million) For startup founders, if you still hold half of your company’s shares, the amount is much more than what you can spend on your petty expenses. Your startup is what you want to do, but you will lose it after the sell-off. And you probably wouldn’t be able to spend the money so easily because it represents the fruit of your contnuous efforts. I’m not sure how one can so easily sell off a company.

Tough times

Naito reflected back on the times when he suffered the most:

Drecom CEO Yuki Naito

One year after the IPO of my company Drecom, it still showed a loss. In 2006, we took over a company for 1.3 billion yen ($13 million) but we were forced to borrow money from the bank for it because Drecom had a low evaluation due to the Livedoor Shock. When I looked at the acquired company’s fiscal report, it still had 2 billion yen ($20 million) in short-term debt. If your company shows a loss for more than two consecutive fiscal periods, your bank will take something in security for your future pay-back and attempt to collect money from you.

At the time, Naito was in his 20s but had to make his company profitable, even lending the company money from his personal account. When they got investment from Rakuten, a total acqusition by the e-commerce giant was one of their possible options. But he rejected the proposal since he would not really be motivated to keep running the business if he lost ownership.

Obuchi let his social gaming business mature after pivotting seven times. The moderator asked him if his employees were confused with those pivots, and he said they were very tolerant, and probably understood it was necessary for the company to survive.

Naito emphasized the importance of quick execution in business, explaining:

If you know your business in feature phone content (for example) will suffer, you need to take action as soon as possible. If you start working on it when you see a loss, that might be too late.

Issued by the Japanese Ministry of Trade, Economy.↩

news

Japanese CEOs from Mixi, Livesense on developing new businesses

Takeshi Hirano 2013.10.07

See the original story in Japanese. This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2013. On day one of B Dash Camp 2013 in Osaka, the first session featured a discussion, moderated by Hiroyuki Watanabe of B Dash Ventures, with two representatives of leading Japanese leading internet companies: Yusuke Asakura, CEO of Mixi; and Taichi Murakami, CEO of Livesense Mixi has revised its fiscal year performance forecast ending March of 2014, down from 13.5 billion yen ($139 million) to 8 billion ($82.4 million), forcing their executives into a hard spot. Meanwhile Livesense, while not well recognized by many outside Japan, but is performing well. We’re forecasting an operating profit worth 1.5 billion yen ($15.5 million). Currently we are exploring the launch of a new monetization model like a buzz marketing site. The both companies need to think about their future business strategy in their respective business environments. Coinciding with a new acquisition just announced today (they’ll acquire speed-dating organizer Confianza to launch a match-making business), Mixi’s Asakura spoke about his company’s future potential for in-house service development and M&A. Our readers may recall that to date Mixi has launched mobile testing environment DeployGate, photobook service Nohana,…

B Dash Ventures' Hiroyuki Watanabe, Livesense's Taichi Murakami, Mixi's Yusuke Asakura — From the left: B Dash Ventures’ Hiroyuki Watanabe, Livesense’s Taichi Murakami, Mixi’s Yusuke Asakura

See the original story in Japanese.

This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2013.

On day one of B Dash Camp 2013 in Osaka, the first session featured a discussion, moderated by Hiroyuki Watanabe of B Dash Ventures, with two representatives of leading Japanese leading internet companies: Yusuke Asakura, CEO of Mixi; and Taichi Murakami, CEO of Livesense

Mixi has revised its fiscal year performance forecast ending March of 2014, down from 13.5 billion yen ($139 million) to 8 billion ($82.4 million), forcing their executives into a hard spot. Meanwhile Livesense, while not well recognized by many outside Japan, but is performing well.

We’re forecasting an operating profit worth 1.5 billion yen ($15.5 million). Currently we are exploring the launch of a new monetization model like a buzz marketing site.

The both companies need to think about their future business strategy in their respective business environments. Coinciding with a new acquisition just announced today (they’ll acquire speed-dating organizer Confianza to launch a match-making business), Mixi’s Asakura spoke about his company’s future potential for in-house service development and M&A. Our readers may recall that to date Mixi has launched mobile testing environment DeployGate, photobook service Nohana, a business research service, and a match-making business.

Watanabe asked how such new businesses can be synergized with their conventional businesses. Asakura replied:

We don’t need to pursue immediate synergy with our services. By making the most of the knowledge we have, we will keep acquiring new services and development ones in house. For example, the match-making business will be treated as separate from our main business.

Livesense’s Murakami unveiled they have four different business development efforts: internal service development, investment in startups, M&A, and partnerships. When pressed by the moderator, he confessed that he had hoped to invest in private lesson marketplace Cyta.jp, recently acquired by Japanese recipe site Cookpad. This prompted a big laugh from the audience.

Since Livesense has been developing a database business from the scratch, it helps them build up knowledge on how to better develop a new business. He said this will also work even in a business that is entirely different from their own existing businesses.

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Japanese translation startup Conyac raises $600,000

Takeshi Hirano 2013.10.07

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Anydoor, the startup behind crowdsourced translation service Conyac, announced today that it has raised funding worth 60 million yen (approximately $600,000) from three Japanese VC firms: United, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and SMBC Capital. Coinciding with this announcement, Conyac also unveiled that its total number of corporate users exceeds 1,000. With these new funds, the company plans to intensify business and system development efforts. We’ve been using Conyac for translating news stories between Japanese and English. In the interests of full dislosure, I spoke with some of the investors to help them understand how much potential the startup might have. Here is the points I told them: Language barriers can be a big problem, especially here in Asia where languages are so diverse. There could be big potential in launching news media sites that making the most of translation services like Conyac, in the same way that we do. Many people in Japan have difficulty finding information because of language barriers. If the startup can eliminate the loss of such business opportunities, it could potentially have a great impact on business and culture. Even in this era, I’m still a little skeptical about whether…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Anydoor, the startup behind crowdsourced translation service Conyac, announced today that it has raised funding worth 60 million yen (approximately $600,000) from three Japanese VC firms: United, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and SMBC Capital. Coinciding with this announcement, Conyac also unveiled that its total number of corporate users exceeds 1,000.

With these new funds, the company plans to intensify business and system development efforts.

We’ve been using Conyac for translating news stories between Japanese and English. In the interests of full dislosure, I spoke with some of the investors to help them understand how much potential the startup might have. Here is the points I told them:

Language barriers can be a big problem, especially here in Asia where languages are so diverse.
There could be big potential in launching news media sites that making the most of translation services like Conyac, in the same way that we do.

Many people in Japan have difficulty finding information because of language barriers. If the startup can eliminate the loss of such business opportunities, it could potentially have a great impact on business and culture.

Even in this era, I’m still a little skeptical about whether or not machine translation services will be able to overcome language barriers. Crowdsourced translation services is just one available option.

I think they might need to publish more case studies about how companies or entrepreneurs can expand their business by breaking language barriers. For many users, if you can recognize Conyac as a platform that enhances your business, then you can recognize the real value proposition of the platform.

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Japan’s Uzabase introduces business news curation app

Takeshi Hirano 2013.09.22

See the original story in Japanese. The advent of social media and smart devices has allowed us to receive continuous updates from content producers at any time, no matter where we are. So these days people really need practical solutions to help them filter what to receive and read. We’ve seen several outstanding Japanese startups working on such information solutions, including Smart News, Vingow, and Gunosy. It’s an economic journal for the smartphone era On Friday another player jumped into this space. Tokyo’s Uzabase, the startup behind corporate profile database Speeda, unveiled an iOS app that curates financial and business news updates. It’s called News Picks. News Picks aggregates business and financial updates from 30 news entities in Japan and around the world, delivering them to subscribers with in-depth analysis by the startup’s team of economists and high profile entrepreneurs. The app is available for iOS, and its desktop version will be also introduced by the end of this year. If you think this is just a RSS news aggregator, you’re partly right. But the biggest draw of this service is that it is developed and managed by a team with a solid background in finance. The startup was founded…

See the original story in Japanese.

The advent of social media and smart devices has allowed us to receive continuous updates from content producers at any time, no matter where we are. So these days people really need practical solutions to help them filter what to receive and read. We’ve seen several outstanding Japanese startups working on such information solutions, including Smart News, Vingow, and Gunosy.

It’s an economic journal for the smartphone era

On Friday another player jumped into this space. Tokyo’s Uzabase, the startup behind corporate profile database Speeda, unveiled an iOS app that curates financial and business news updates. It’s called News Picks.

News Picks aggregates business and financial updates from 30 news entities in Japan and around the world, delivering them to subscribers with in-depth analysis by the startup’s team of economists and high profile entrepreneurs. The app is available for iOS, and its desktop version will be also introduced by the end of this year. If you think this is just a RSS news aggregator, you’re partly right. But the biggest draw of this service is that it is developed and managed by a team with a solid background in finance.

The startup was founded back in 2008. The company’s first app, Speeda, was invented by its founding members who previously worked with investment banks. It collects news updates and business analysis from think tanks, and provides them to finance businesses. In terms of differentiation from big players like Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters, the service requires users to have no special terminal nor master specific commands or functions.

The company is rapidly expanding its focus on Asia, and has overseas offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Curation by economic experts might be the key

One key service provided by the startup is a strong expertise in business trends, with valuable news updates curated by financial experts.

When you launch the app, you’re required to log in to the service with your social media accounts. But I found it somewhat discouraging that it asked me to create a user account/password for the service in addition to the social media login. Subsequently, you choose persons or business categories that interest you. This process is similar to that of the Vingow app as well.

You can browse updates in the timeline curated by other users you follow, or check out the news crawling robots. You can add notes on updates, which then allows other users know why you liked it. Like conventional RSS reader apps, you can jump to the original website from any given update.

From my perspective, there’s still room to improve in terms of choosing updates to suit my preference. It’s difficult to choose which high profile user I should follow. For example, if I follow Japanese dotcom tycoon Takafumi Horie, I don’t know what kind of curated updates I will get through his timeline.

Here on this site, we also bring you updates from startup scenes around the world, including business updates. From a media person’s perspective, I’m looking forward to seeing how this kind of solutions changes how consumers’ get news updates.

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Forget food photos. Japan’s ‘Instapaper for Interiors’ raises $1M

Takeshi Hirano 2013.09.20

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Tunnel is the startup behind RoomClip, a photo sharing service that lets you show off your room. The company announced today that it has raised 100 million yen ($1 million) from Femto Growth Capital. Coinciding with this funding, the investment firm’s general partner Tetsuya Isozaki will join the board of the startup. Tunnel was founded back in November of 2011. Previously it received seed investment of 10 million yen ($100,0000) from Samurai Incubate and Cyber Agent Ventures back in 2011. According to the startup’s CEO Masahiko Takashige, the service’s main userbase are females in their 20s and 30s. He observed many people sharing interior photos on Mixi and other social networking services even before launching the startup back in May of 2012. To date the RoomClip mobile app has seen 130,000 downloads and over 100,000 photos posted. I asked Takashige about what motivates users sharing those photos. For some users, they may not be so proud to show the inside of their home to others. So sharing such photos of your room can be a good excuse to clean up a little. Other users say it can be sort of addictive. In terms…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Tunnel is the startup behind RoomClip, a photo sharing service that lets you show off your room. The company announced today that it has raised 100 million yen ($1 million) from Femto Growth Capital. Coinciding with this funding, the investment firm’s general partner Tetsuya Isozaki will join the board of the startup.

Tunnel was founded back in November of 2011. Previously it received seed investment of 10 million yen ($100,0000) from Samurai Incubate and Cyber Agent Ventures back in 2011.

According to the startup’s CEO Masahiko Takashige, the service’s main userbase are females in their 20s and 30s. He observed many people sharing interior photos on Mixi and other social networking services even before launching the startup back in May of 2012. To date the RoomClip mobile app has seen 130,000 downloads and over 100,000 photos posted. I asked Takashige about what motivates users sharing those photos.

For some users, they may not be so proud to show the inside of their home to others. So sharing such photos of your room can be a good excuse to clean up a little. Other users say it can be sort of addictive.

In terms of user behaviors, 90% of users are viewing other user’s photos, and refer to interiors posted by the service’s most frequent users. This tendency leads to some monetization potential with e-commerce opportunities.

For typical interior fanatics, they hope to discover and buy items they really want. We see many furniture and specialty stores in town. But you select items and place them in your room very much according to your own preference. Our service lets you share this experience online.

The startup expects to add product details and links to e-commerce sites in the app, and examine how these efforts can help drive user traffic for monetization.

The company aims to eventually reach 2.5 downloads for its mobile app and acquire 2 million users.

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Japan e-commerce startup Monoco partners with major broadcaster Fuji TV

Takeshi Hirano 2013.09.13

See the original story in Japanese. Monoco is a flash sales e-commerce site specializing in limited quantity fashions selected by curators and buyers worldwide. The company announced today that it has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Fuji Startup Ventures, the investment arm of Japanese TV network Fuji TV. Coinciding with this funding, the two companies are expecting to work on collaborative product development and explore possible sales opportunities on Fuji TV’s own programs. Furthermore Monoco plans to launch a physical store in Shibuya, Tokyo on September 27th, to be called Monoco Showroom. The company has been seeing good progress of late as well. I spoke with the startup’s CEO Takehiro Kakiyama back in April of last year, when his team has just shifted their gears to become Monoco after its previous efforts under the FlutterScape banner. The team has devoted itself to growth since them, and raising funds (thought to be in the millions of dollars) from Japanese telco KDDI back in July. Monoco now has over 80,000 users, and has partnered with 1,100 product designers Kakiyama didn’t disclose any revenue figures, but he did say that the marketplace now has over 80,000 users, has partnered with 1,100…

See the original story in Japanese.

Monoco is a flash sales e-commerce site specializing in limited quantity fashions selected by curators and buyers worldwide. The company announced today that it has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Fuji Startup Ventures, the investment arm of Japanese TV network Fuji TV.

Coinciding with this funding, the two companies are expecting to work on collaborative product development and explore possible sales opportunities on Fuji TV’s own programs. Furthermore Monoco plans to launch a physical store in Shibuya, Tokyo on September 27th, to be called Monoco Showroom.

The company has been seeing good progress of late as well. I spoke with the startup’s CEO Takehiro Kakiyama back in April of last year, when his team has just shifted their gears to become Monoco after its previous efforts under the FlutterScape banner. The team has devoted itself to growth since them, and raising funds (thought to be in the millions of dollars) from Japanese telco KDDI back in July.

Monoco now has over 80,000 users, and has partnered with 1,100 product designers

Kakiyama didn’t disclose any revenue figures, but he did say that the marketplace now has over 80,000 users, has partnered with 1,100 product designers (both in Japan and around the world), and has over 50,000 items available on the platform.

Their headcount has reached 22, way up from five when the service was launched.

It will be interesting to see how Monoco will compete in this space now that it has the support of this Japanese media giant.

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Japanese startup Fello raises $1M to help game developers improve user retention

Takeshi Hirano 2013.09.12

See the original story in Japanese. Singapore-based Unicon, the Japanese startup behind user retention improvement platform Fello, announced today that it has raised 100 million yen (approximately $1 million) from Jafco and other Japanese investors. With these funds, the startup will intensify engineering and marketing efforts and is planning to set up an office in Japan. The platform provides testing and analysis features for typical mobile gaming app functions such as push notification or messaging via an SDK. According to the startup’s CEO Ryuichi Tanaka, more than 100 app developers have signed up for the service since its launch back in August. Over 100 app developers have signed up for Fello since its launch in August In the Japanese gaming industry, many publishers are shifting their development efforts from browser-based apps to native apps. Fello’s growth indicates there’s a high need for this kind of platforms in terms of helping developers improve their apps. Why are they off to such a good start? Tanaka says that it’s likely because the service is free. For developers, if you have published a number of apps, a plan that charges by volume would be a heavy burden. Users can gain a 7-day user…

See the original story in Japanese.

Singapore-based Unicon, the Japanese startup behind user retention improvement platform Fello, announced today that it has raised 100 million yen (approximately $1 million) from Jafco and other Japanese investors. With these funds, the startup will intensify engineering and marketing efforts and is planning to set up an office in Japan.

The platform provides testing and analysis features for typical mobile gaming app functions such as push notification or messaging via an SDK. According to the startup’s CEO Ryuichi Tanaka, more than 100 app developers have signed up for the service since its launch back in August.

Over 100 app developers have signed up for Fello since its launch in August

In the Japanese gaming industry, many publishers are shifting their development efforts from browser-based apps to native apps. Fello’s growth indicates there’s a high need for this kind of platforms in terms of helping developers improve their apps.

Why are they off to such a good start? Tanaka says that it’s likely because the service is free. For developers, if you have published a number of apps, a plan that charges by volume would be a heavy burden. Users can gain a 7-day user retention rate of up to 60% on average by adding a messaging function using the platform’s SDK. That rate is three times higher than the average without such a function.

So how will the startup monetize this platform? I presumed it would adopt a freemium business model — but I was wrong. Tanaka tells me that they will launch an ad network in the beginning of September, but he could not go into more details.

The startup is targeting casual game developers, and that may be why they are based in Singapore, likely hoping fill the need for this kind of solutions for the entire Asian region. They have already started talks with major game developers that may potentially participate in the ad network. We will update you with more details when they become available.

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Japanese recipe sharing site Cookpad acquires private lesson marketplace Cyta.jp for $10 million

Takeshi Hirano 2013.09.06

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Coach United, the startup behind private lesson marketplace Cyta.jp, announced today that it has been acquired by Japanese recipe sharing site Cookpad. Update: Several news sources say the acquisition price is 1 billion yen ($10 million). Since its launch back in June of 2011, it has grown to provide users with about 140 different private lessons (in fields such as language learning, music study, or qualification acquisition), available at 3,000 locations around the country. Unlike other marketplace services which typically connect potential students to teachers, the startup assures the quality of the lessons they introduce on the website by checking into will teach them or where it will take place. In our past interview with the startup’s CEO Nobuhiro Ariyasu, the company expected to have 20,000 users received private lessons (as of August). Prior to the acquisition, the two companies have worked with each other on some test marketing initiatives back in late 2012.

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Coach United, the startup behind private lesson marketplace Cyta.jp, announced today that it has been acquired by Japanese recipe sharing site Cookpad.

Update: Several news sources say the acquisition price is 1 billion yen ($10 million).

Since its launch back in June of 2011, it has grown to provide users with about 140 different private lessons (in fields such as language learning, music study, or qualification acquisition), available at 3,000 locations around the country. Unlike other marketplace services which typically connect potential students to teachers, the startup assures the quality of the lessons they introduce on the website by checking into will teach them or where it will take place.

In our past interview with the startup’s CEO Nobuhiro Ariyasu, the company expected to have 20,000 users received private lessons (as of August).

Prior to the acquisition, the two companies have worked with each other on some test marketing initiatives back in late 2012.

news

Anime illustration crowdsourcing platform raises $1.3M

Takeshi Hirano 2013.08.30

See the original story in Japanese. Crowdsoucing platforms can be divided into two categories: 1) general purpose and 2) industry-focused. The latter is very much focused on specific business fields such as translation or design, and such crowdsourcing platforms are on the rise. MugenUp is a Tokyo-based startup that provides a crowdsourcing platform for animated content and illustrations. The company just announced that it has raised series B funding worth 130 million yen (or approximately $1.3 million) from Industrial Growth Platform and SMBC Venture Capital. MugenUp was launched back in June of 2011 as a social games developer, but that plan didn’t quite work out. So last year they shifted to work on an animation-focused platform, since they thought they would be able to take advantage of the experiences from their past projects. Readers may recall when we spoke with the startup’s CEO Ryota Ichioka back in May, he told us about how they serve as an illustration solution to many game companies who might have just a few full-time illustrators. We plan to grow into a 100-person team in a year For crowdsourcing platform operators, if you focus on a specific business sector, the fortunes of your business will…

See the original story in Japanese.

Crowdsoucing platforms can be divided into two categories: 1) general purpose and 2) industry-focused. The latter is very much focused on specific business fields such as translation or design, and such crowdsourcing platforms are on the rise.

MugenUp is a Tokyo-based startup that provides a crowdsourcing platform for animated content and illustrations. The company just announced that it has raised series B funding worth 130 million yen (or approximately $1.3 million) from Industrial Growth Platform and SMBC Venture Capital.

MugenUp was launched back in June of 2011 as a social games developer, but that plan didn’t quite work out. So last year they shifted to work on an animation-focused platform, since they thought they would be able to take advantage of the experiences from their past projects. Readers may recall when we spoke with the startup’s CEO Ryota Ichioka back in May, he told us about how they serve as an illustration solution to many game companies who might have just a few full-time illustrators.

We plan to grow into a 100-person team in a year

For crowdsourcing platform operators, if you focus on a specific business sector, the fortunes of your business will obviously be very directly dependent on trends in that sector. The rise of the Japanese social gaming industry has helped the startup’s business grow rapidly, enabling them to raise a 100 million yen ($1 million) in funding from Japanese VC Nissay Capital back in September of 2012.

MugenUp functions as an intermediary between customers and clients, helping them find appropriate matches. A key aspect of this process is a chat system called Mugen Work Station. This allows their directors to communicate with crowdsourced workers, monitor the production process, and give workers revision requests if needed.

We heard more from CEO Ichioka about how business is going these days.

In terms of the orders we’re receiving, projects related to mobile games are continuously growing. But I think the content of games on each gaming platform is changing. For example, illustration work for card battle games is still in a high demand in browser-based gaming apps, but native app developers typically ask us to help them develop animated 3D/2D content developed with Unity.

IMGP79521 — MugenUp directors advice crowdsourced workers using the chat system.

Ichioka shared a little more about their hiring plan:

Our total number of registered crowdsourced workers will hit 10,000 very shortly. In the office, we have 60 full-time and part-time workers. With these funds, we will add people with skills to handling 3D animated content, and we plan to grow into a 100-person team in a year.

In addition, our chat system has a handy translation feature that helps our directors communicate with foreign crowdsourced workers in English and Chinese.

According to Mr. Ichioka, the chat system also keeps clients updated about how their outsourced projects are going, and an upcoming version will allow them to check how workers are creating character designs at any time.

The startup is receiving many orders for 3D content. Ichioka explained the startup’s future exists in the accumulation of these content data.

We’ve been receiving orders for 3D models of real products. They are typically orders to optimize data for actual production rather than just digital content. So we are aiming to move into a market that will replace the metal mold business.

When we look at the digital fabrication industry, 2D or 3D design data can be alternatives to metal molds. The point is not about creating products featuring popular characters, but the accumulation of design data allows the startup to analyze and predict what kind of characters or shapes will be popular in different markets.

While most of their future plans were not disclosed, they revealed that the accumulated design data includes many useful engineering tips, such as how much shrinkage you need to plan for when creating a vinyl chloride creation with digital 3D data.

We’re aiming at a comprehensive platform for design data, making the most of our experiences through our crowdsourcing platform business. We’re trying to adopt our kind of service operations and database design to genres such as toys or figure sculptures.

For anime studios out there, you will be able to easily digitize your intellectual property (such as anime characters), letting you easily partner with toy makers and co-develop derivative works.

The startup is already profitable and planning to get listed on a stock exchange in a few years. It is interesting to see how crowdsourcing work styles will be adopted here in Japan and around the world.

Takeshi Hirano

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