THE BRIDGE

Takeshi Hirano

Takeshi Hirano

Takeshi is a Japanese tech blogger and a co-founder of The Bridge, and is also the CEO for bootupAsia, Inc. He started his career as a web designer.

Articles

Japanese startup raises $3M to bring laundry services online

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See the original story in Japanese. Lenet is a web service that allows users to order a pick up of your laundry and have it delivered to your home when it is done. White Plus, the startup behind the service, announced today it has raised 300 million yen (approximately $3 million) from Japanese investment company Jafco. They said there would be no way to sell laundry services online. When users order online, the startup’s courier will come and pick up the laundry within a couple of hours. Subsequently the laundry will be washed at partnering cleaners and then returned to your door. We had a chance to hear from the startup’s CEO Takayuki Inoshita about why there has been no startup taking advantage of this opportunity so far: When I visited industrial laundry facilities to explore partnerships, many of them got angry at me. They said there would be no way to sell laundry services online. The laundry industry is a space where facilities requires a lot of time to respond to claims from consumers. This frequency depends very much on how a clerk at the shop behaves in the inspection process when receiving laundry from customers. For a laundry…

lenet_screenshot

See the original story in Japanese.

Lenet is a web service that allows users to order a pick up of your laundry and have it delivered to your home when it is done. White Plus, the startup behind the service, announced today it has raised 300 million yen (approximately $3 million) from Japanese investment company Jafco.

They said there would be no way to sell laundry services online.

When users order online, the startup’s courier will come and pick up the laundry within a couple of hours. Subsequently the laundry will be washed at partnering cleaners and then returned to your door.

We had a chance to hear from the startup’s CEO Takayuki Inoshita about why there has been no startup taking advantage of this opportunity so far:

When I visited industrial laundry facilities to explore partnerships, many of them got angry at me. They said there would be no way to sell laundry services online. The laundry industry is a space where facilities requires a lot of time to respond to claims from consumers. This frequency depends very much on how a clerk at the shop behaves in the inspection process when receiving laundry from customers.

For a laundry company, if you bring your business completely online and experience difficulty in the inspection process, you’ll receive more complaints from customers. That’s why nobody has tried it online so far. But the startup took a unique approach and established its own laundry shop to examine what to do to make the service work. The company’s CMO Ryosuke Saito explains:

We actually built up our own shop where we were testing the inspecting process using laundry that we picked up from our customers. The reception process was the toughest part. We spent three years to learn how to refrain from wrinkling customer’s laundry when packing it for shipping to laundry facilities.

CEO Inoshita has received national qualification as a cleaning master. And as a result, the company has succeeded in standardizing the inspection process and bringing the entire service process online. By partnering with courier companies to pick laundry up from customers, they will complete the inspection process within two hours of receiving an order.

The company’s concept is very similar to that of Raksul providing discount printing services, in terms of make the most of downtime at factories. But unlike Raksul, laundry services are more difficult to standardize, so the company is still limiting its partner facilities for now.

The startup was launched back in 2009 by three co-founders, and they’ve been devoting themselves to developing the service, with a vision of a world where everyone is connected to the internet all the times.

With the new funds, the company plans to intensify its marketing efforts to get its user base to 1 million soon.

Japanese mobile payments processor Coiney raises $5M

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See also the story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Coiney, a startup focused on providing mobile payments solutions in Japan, announced today that it has raised 500 million yen (over $5 million) from Credit Saison, one of Japanese top credit card companies. I believe the service is definitely making its way into consumers’ daily lives. Coiney was launched back in March of 2012 and has been providing mobile payments solutions using swipe card readers for smartphones. This, of course, puts them in the same space as Square, Paypal Here, and Rakuten Smartpay. Earlier this year, the startup also invited ex-CyberAgent COO Shinichi Saijo to its board of directors, a significant addition to its growing family. We had a chance to speak with the startup’s CEO Naoko Samata and asked her about how they plan to expand their business. Since our last conversation, the company has been focusing on user-safety systems and stability in rather than business expansion. We asked Naoko how they expect to compete against other big other players. She explained: If you see mobile payments as a disruption to the cash market, the potential is huge. I think every single player will evolve the market in different ways. Of course,…

coiney
From the left: Takamasa Matsumoto (software designer),
Naoko Samata (CEO/founder), and David Asikin (CTO)

See also the story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Coiney, a startup focused on providing mobile payments solutions in Japan, announced today that it has raised 500 million yen (over $5 million) from Credit Saison, one of Japanese top credit card companies.

I believe the service is definitely making its way into consumers’ daily lives.

Coiney was launched back in March of 2012 and has been providing mobile payments solutions using swipe card readers for smartphones. This, of course, puts them in the same space as Square, Paypal Here, and Rakuten Smartpay.

Earlier this year, the startup also invited ex-CyberAgent COO Shinichi Saijo to its board of directors, a significant addition to its growing family.

We had a chance to speak with the startup’s CEO Naoko Samata and asked her about how they plan to expand their business. Since our last conversation, the company has been focusing on user-safety systems and stability in rather than business expansion. We asked Naoko how they expect to compete against other big other players. She explained:

If you see mobile payments as a disruption to the cash market, the potential is huge. I think every single player will evolve the market in different ways. Of course, this business needs a certain amount of a solid financial muscle. For us, it is very important to partner with other companies leveraging our business. By joining forces with appropriate partners, we will be able to reach out to more merchants who typically use our service on a daily basis.

According to Samata, more than a few consumers use mobile payments to buy high-value products or services in Japan, which is definitely different from what we’ve being seeing in the US. She shared some of their use cases and insights.

A big volume of our users are in their 40s, and 80% of them are male users. In terms of geographical metrics, it’s about a 50/50 split between urban and rural areas, which goes against our original hypothesis that Tokyoites in their 30s would be most of our user base. The average price per transaction using the service exceeds 10,000 yen ($100), which is certainly higher than the average credit card payments. […] Our customers (merchants) include outdoor tour guides, street-side butchers, flower shops, and souvenir shops. I believe the service is definitely making its way into consumers’ daily lives.

For Coiney, this may be how they differ most from their competitors. The startup aims to be a platform for solutions around money issues rather than just a payment solutions provider. As a part of their efforts on this front, the company plans to provide its payment services APIs to partnering developers. It might be very similar to what we’ve seen around API-based payment processing services such as Stripe, Braintree, and WebPay. Naoko added:

By the end of September, we’re expecting to announce our partners who will be using the closed alpha version of our SDKs. Subsequently we’ll start providing it to partner developers. We’re ready to provide SDKs for both the iOS and Android platforms. Unlike Stripes or Braintree, what we provide is payment solutions for face-to-face purchases. That’s the focus of our business.

With these new funds, the startup expects to double its engineering and business development forces, which is currently a 15-person team. It also expects to enhance its back-end infrastructure and add new models to its card reader line up.

Let’s keep an eye on Coiney to see how it progresses from here.

coiney_featured

Japanese UI improvement platform planBCD raises $800,000

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See the original story in Japanese.PlanBCD is a platform that helps developers to improve the user interface on their web services. Kaizen Platform Inc., the Tokyo-based startup behind the service, announced today that it has raised seed funding worth $800,000 from Gree Ventures, GMO Venture Partners, and CyberAgent Ventures. With these funds, the company plans to intensify its system development and marketing efforts. The service provides developers with an A/B testing environment, especially useful for improving web content and interfaces, comparing the performance of multiple available options. It helps you test and optimize processes like sign-ups, purchases, or landing pages. Unlike other conventional services, planBCD allows you to conduct this time-consuming, trial-and-error process by only embedding a single-line of JavaScript on your website. The video below shows more details about how it works. In the closed beta version, they’ve seen examples where users have improved conversion rates on their websites by 130% to 170%. [T]here’s a big barrier to optimizing user traffic for clients unless they improve user interface on their websites. The most remarkable part of the service is that PlanBCD gives you ways to crowdsource the UI and UX improvement process, something which is often difficult to assign…

planBCD

See the original story in Japanese.
PlanBCD is a platform that helps developers to improve the user interface on their web services. Kaizen Platform Inc., the Tokyo-based startup behind the service, announced today that it has raised seed funding worth $800,000 from Gree Ventures, GMO Venture Partners, and CyberAgent Ventures. With these funds, the company plans to intensify its system development and marketing efforts.

The service provides developers with an A/B testing environment, especially useful for improving web content and interfaces, comparing the performance of multiple available options. It helps you test and optimize processes like sign-ups, purchases, or landing pages. Unlike other conventional services, planBCD allows you to conduct this time-consuming, trial-and-error process by only embedding a single-line of JavaScript on your website. The video below shows more details about how it works. In the closed beta version, they’ve seen examples where users have improved conversion rates on their websites by 130% to 170%.

[T]here’s a big barrier to optimizing user traffic for clients unless they improve user interface on their websites.

The most remarkable part of the service is that PlanBCD gives you ways to crowdsource the UI and UX improvement process, something which is often difficult to assign someone in your company. The accumulation of A/B testing results will be stored on the service, helping you hand the process over to someone else if necessary.

The service is a combination of an easy-to-implement environment and crowdsourcing features. Kaizen was launched back in March of 2013 by Kenji Sudo. He previously worked at Japanese human resource company, Recruit, supervising the company’s ad-tech services. Sudo explained:

At Recruit, I was involved in ad optimization services for online advertising. But I learned that there’s a big barrier to optimizing user traffic for clients unless they improve user interface on their websites. But if we help them improve their websites, it hurts our overall business efficiency to the point where we can’t work on it. As a result, only rich companies can engage in the improvement process. So this was why we launched the testing service.

He notes that the service has acquired 200 crowdsourced workers for the UI testing operations, and they are appropriately ranked corresponding to their past testing performances.

The service’s pricing has three tiers according to the kind of workers you crowdsource your UI improvement tasks. It’s 100,000 yen ($1,000) a month for Standard, 200,000 yen ($2,000) a month for Professional, and 500,000 yen ($5,000) a month for Maestro. The service has a money-back guarantee so you will not be charged if you can’t see any improvement in your website performance. The charge is comprised of the monthly fee mentioned above plus a charge for how many times the embedded JavaScript test code is called.

The service is already used by many clients, including some enterprise companies. It’s a good indication that new business models comprising of a tool and a crowdsoucring service could be trending in the near future.

Japanese social network for couples marks 5M monthly pageviews

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See the original story in Japanese. Pairy is a Japanese social network for couples. It was first launched back in June of 2012, but Timers, the startup behind the app, has just released a new version of the app. According to the company, its monthly pageviews count hit 5 million recently, and they are hoping for even more potential by adding new features. In recent years we have seen many social networks for people in close relationships, like Path (launched in October of 2011), Couple (November 2010), and Between (February 2011). After you approve a connection request from your significant other on the app, you can create a sharable album, enjoy chatting, find dating spots, and share an event calendar. With this latest renewal of the app, there will be a new feature that allows you and your partner to look back on your memories together. According to CEO Toshimasa Takahashi and COO Koichiro Tawa, the company conducted a user survey that showed users are keen to browse memories of the past. They explained: Almost a half of our female users look back on what they have talked about with their boyfriends using a chat app or Line. But in…

pairy_main

See the original story in Japanese.

Pairy is a Japanese social network for couples. It was first launched back in June of 2012, but Timers, the startup behind the app, has just released a new version of the app. According to the company, its monthly pageviews count hit 5 million recently, and they are hoping for even more potential by adding new features.

In recent years we have seen many social networks for people in close relationships, like Path (launched in October of 2011), Couple (November 2010), and Between (February 2011).

After you approve a connection request from your significant other on the app, you can create a sharable album, enjoy chatting, find dating spots, and share an event calendar. With this latest renewal of the app, there will be a new feature that allows you and your partner to look back on your memories together.

According to CEO Toshimasa Takahashi and COO Koichiro Tawa, the company conducted a user survey that showed users are keen to browse memories of the past. They explained:

Almost a half of our female users look back on what they have talked about with their boyfriends using a chat app or Line.

But in terms of looking over memories, the Line mobile app or existing social networks would probably suffice. This is why the startup has added a new feature to the app, allowing users to plan a date with their partner online. They added:

We are also providing third party information about possible date spots. We conducted a survey about the “couples market” and learned that it is worth as much as 1.3 trillion yen (approximately $13.27 million) if you include things like restaurants, hotels, and gifting etc. Our app allows users to arrange reasonably (priced) but remarkable date planning.

The duo previously worked at Japanese ad agent Hakuhodo back in 2010. They submitted a business plan for the original concept of the Pairy app at the company’s in-house business contest. They went on to launch the startup together with three engineers who previously worked with DeNA, and subsequently it was chosen for the first batch of Docomo’s incubation program.

Since the app targets a very niche demographic, it will need a more deliberate monetization models than conventional social media such as Line or Facebook. Although typical social media apps highlight their messaging or chatting features, it is interesting to see what the newly added date planning feature will bring to this app.

pairy_dateplanning

Japanese flea market app secures investment of $3M just 6 weeks after launch

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based United, the company behind homescreen decoration app CocoPPa, announced today that it has partnered with Kouzoh. You may recall that Kouzoh is the mobile commerce company which recently developed a flea market app called Mercari. As part of this partnership, United will invest 300 million yen (approximately $3 million) in the flea market company, thus taking a 14.5% stake in the company. The partnership will be made official on August 28th, when United’s managing director Hiroki Teshima will join the Kouzoh’s management board. In addition, United announced it is also planning to establish a local subsidiary in the US to intensifying global marketing efforts for its CocoPPa app. We heard from both United’s Hiroki Teshima and Kouzoh’s founder and CEO Shintaro Yamada. According to Yamada, his main reason to enter this partnership was the prospect of a business collaboration with CocoPPa, which is showing rapid user growth. From his perspective, CocoPPa and Mercari overlap in their user demographics, and he figures the partnership will help Mercari accelerate its growth as well. Teshima explained that United plans to treat Mercari as a ‘sister app’ and collaboratively work on driving user traffic and run joint…

unitedkouzohSee the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based United, the company behind homescreen decoration app CocoPPa, announced today that it has partnered with Kouzoh. You may recall that Kouzoh is the mobile commerce company which recently developed a flea market app called Mercari.

As part of this partnership, United will invest 300 million yen (approximately $3 million) in the flea market company, thus taking a 14.5% stake in the company.

The partnership will be made official on August 28th, when United’s managing director Hiroki Teshima will join the Kouzoh’s management board. In addition, United announced it is also planning to establish a local subsidiary in the US to intensifying global marketing efforts for its CocoPPa app.

We heard from both United’s Hiroki Teshima and Kouzoh’s founder and CEO Shintaro Yamada.

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Kouzoh’s Shintaro Yamada

According to Yamada, his main reason to enter this partnership was the prospect of a business collaboration with CocoPPa, which is showing rapid user growth. From his perspective, CocoPPa and Mercari overlap in their user demographics, and he figures the partnership will help Mercari accelerate its growth as well.

Teshima explained that United plans to treat Mercari as a ‘sister app’ and collaboratively work on driving user traffic and run joint promotional campaigns. The company is experienced in the smartphone ad business, and expects to bring some of that to Mercari to help it succeed.

Mr. Teshima also explained to us a little about their expansion to the US:

In terms of marketing CocoPPa in the US, this launch will be very speedy. We will renew the service in September, and add a paid service in October. I’ve been visiting the US to find potential partners which can provide attractive paid content for our app.

Regarding international expansion of the Mercari app, we need to focus on the domestic market for the time being and look to launching it in the US later on. When Mercari starts global expansions, CocoPPa will have a certain following in the US so that it can help Mercari to acquire users there. We’ll work closely together since United expects to let Kouzoh be one of its group companies.

According to the announcement, United’s US subsidiary CocoPPa Inc. will be established in New York where Mr. Naka Imuta, the general manager at CocoPPa business, will be named as the CEO. United’s CEO Yozo Kaneko and managing director Hiroki Teshima also join the management board for the NY company.

For more information on Mercari, check out our recent interview with CEO Shintaro Yamada.

Need to improve your mobile game’s engagement? Ask this Fello

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See the original story in Japanese. Today Japanese startup Unicon launched a platform called Fello, aiming to help mobile gaming app developers improve the user retention rates in their apps. The platform provides testing and analysis features for typical mobile gaming app functions such as push notification or messaging via an SDK. For now, the tool is available for iOS and Android, with support for platforms like Unity, Cocos2d-x, and Air on the way. The startup was launched by entrepreneur Ryuichi Tanaka. He previously founded a different startup called Knockin’on [1], but went on to later work with Zynga Japan. He leads a team experienced in mobile gaming development, committed to serving native app developers with the tool. In comparison to GrowthPush, a similar solution that we (coincidentally) featured earlier today, the Fello platform also provides a messaging feature as well as measuring push notification performance. Since leaving my previous job (business department lead at Zynga Japan), I’ve been providing a KPI analysis tool for developers. Making a native app is more time-consuming than a browser-based app, and you will typically find problems to solve around screen transitions, charging users, and notifications. You’ll also need to develop a bulletin board…

fello_screenshot


See the original story in Japanese.

Today Japanese startup Unicon launched a platform called Fello, aiming to help mobile gaming app developers improve the user retention rates in their apps.

The platform provides testing and analysis features for typical mobile gaming app functions such as push notification or messaging via an SDK. For now, the tool is available for iOS and Android, with support for platforms like Unity, Cocos2d-x, and Air on the way.

The startup was launched by entrepreneur Ryuichi Tanaka. He previously founded a different startup called Knockin’on [1], but went on to later work with Zynga Japan. He leads a team experienced in mobile gaming development, committed to serving native app developers with the tool.

In comparison to GrowthPush, a similar solution that we (coincidentally) featured earlier today, the Fello platform also provides a messaging feature as well as measuring push notification performance.

Since leaving my previous job (business department lead at Zynga Japan), I’ve been providing a KPI analysis tool for developers. Making a native app is more time-consuming than a browser-based app, and you will typically find problems to solve around screen transitions, charging users, and notifications. You’ll also need to develop a bulletin board feature. So our tool provides developers with an analysis feature as well as helping them improve user retention.

The startup claims that a gaming app improves its retention rate by one and half times through push notification. They believe a Fello-enabled communication feature may raise that rate even further. Its analysis feature delivers useful metrics about an app, such as daily active users, user retention rate, and the number of app installations.

The startup was registered in Singapore and is now based there since casual games are on the rise in the South East Asia region.

Their monetization model looks a little unusual, since this tool is currently available for free. In their announcement, it was mentioned that they are planning to add features to help app developers drive user traffic and monetize. Based on that, we can assume they will launch advertising or premium services in the future. However, Tanaka didn’t disclose any specifics about how they will make money.

We’ve seen several app analysis tools in the US gaming market, where Flurry has been showing steadily growth since its launch back in 2005. Here in Japan, the recent smartphone shift will help the casual gaming app market expand further, almost certainly increasing the need for these kind of tools.


  1. A startup running affiliate services and job posting sites. It was acquired by Japan’s leading car navigation system vendor Zenrin DataCom back in November of 2012.

Japanese startup offers A/B testing for mobile push notifications

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See the original story in Japanese. CyberAgent subsidiary Sirok, the startup behind mobile photo app My365, announced yesterday that it has launched a tool for app developers to analyze user responses to push notifications. The service is called Growth Push, and allows you to conduct an A/B testing to measure user responses by implementing their SDK. The setup is free, and there is no monthly fee required for the first 50,000 notification testings. It is currently available (in Japanese) for iOS, but it will be coming to Android soon. This kind of growth hacking tool typically helps marketers increase their user base. In this space we’ve already seen AppSocially, which is now under the 500 Startups umbrella. We heard from the Sirok’s COO Yuto Mukoyama about their expectations for this tool. We learned that app developers need this kind of tool through our experience managing our apps My365 and Pipul (an avatar-based RPG). Developers need to focus on how they can efficiently retain users. Conventional web services typically have an e-mail notification feature, and a push notification is [the mobile] equivalent to that, and it is important in terms of keep users engaged in this mobile era. The startup tested…

growth-push

See the original story in Japanese.

CyberAgent subsidiary Sirok, the startup behind mobile photo app My365, announced yesterday that it has launched a tool for app developers to analyze user responses to push notifications. The service is called Growth Push, and allows you to conduct an A/B testing to measure user responses by implementing their SDK.

The setup is free, and there is no monthly fee required for the first 50,000 notification testings. It is currently available (in Japanese) for iOS, but it will be coming to Android soon.

This kind of growth hacking tool typically helps marketers increase their user base. In this space we’ve already seen AppSocially, which is now under the 500 Startups umbrella.

We heard from the Sirok’s COO Yuto Mukoyama about their expectations for this tool.

We learned that app developers need this kind of tool through our experience managing our apps My365 and Pipul (an avatar-based RPG). Developers need to focus on how they can efficiently retain users. Conventional web services typically have an e-mail notification feature, and a push notification is [the mobile] equivalent to that, and it is important in terms of keep users engaged in this mobile era.

The startup tested this tool trying to improve the app launch rate of their game Pipul, and they confirmed that it had a positive impact. It lets you to conduct A/B testing to show different messages to both free users and to paying users. Mukoyama adds:

You can refine your app based on A/B test results and your measurement of the app launch rate or conversion rate. The tool primarily targets startups developing iOS-based gaming apps and community services. I believe we can help them improve user retention based on analytics.

Sirok was founded last year by many student entrepreneurs, and they went on to became a subsidiary of CyberAgent. The internet company helped them learn how to market app services, since the internet company has much experience launching its own apps in the past. Mukoyama elaborated on how his team foresees working with CyberAgent.

Ameba (CyberAgent’s blogging and virtual world platform) has released more than a few games, many with several million downloads. We expect to start acquiring users with this base. We’re aiming to have 1,000 apps using the tool worldwide in three months, sending out about 100 million notifications for their testings.

To date, photo app My365 has seen three million downloads, at a pace of about new 3,000 users a day. Their daily active users total reached 60,000 and is still rising.

growthpush_analysis

How ScaleOut plans to evolve Japan’s ad-tech market [Interview]

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See the original story in Japanese. There was a big move in the Japanese ad-tech market yesterday. Mediba, an ad-focused subsidiary of Japan’s second largest telco KDDI, announced its takeover of ad-tech startup ScaleOut. The purchase price was not disclosed but it’s reportedly worth more than 1 billion yen (10 million dollars). Some of our readers may recall that Mediba acquired smartphone-focused ad network startup Nobot back in August of 2011. ScaleOut’s CEO Daisuke Yamazaki previously worked with Yahoo Japan where he launched behavioral targeting and rich media ads. Yuzuru Honda, the founding CEO of competing ad-tech startup FreakOut is also known for having sold content-matching ad platform Brainer to Yahoo Japan. Yahoo Japan seems to have produced many men of talent in the space. There were very few platforms that could provide 10 billion monthly impressions when we launched our company When Mr. Yamazaki launched ScaleOut back in 2006, the market was not as mature as it is today. He explains: There were very few platforms that could provide 10 billion monthly impressions when we launched our company. Since the market has no concept about RTB (real-time bidding) advertising, we developed an ad distribution platform which can steadily provide…

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From the left: Nobot CEO Kiyotaka Kobayashi, Mediba CEO Takashi Ohasa,
ScaleOut CEO Daisuke Yamazaki, and ScaleOut CMO Kenichi Sugawara

See the original story in Japanese.

There was a big move in the Japanese ad-tech market yesterday. Mediba, an ad-focused subsidiary of Japan’s second largest telco KDDI, announced its takeover of ad-tech startup ScaleOut. The purchase price was not disclosed but it’s reportedly worth more than 1 billion yen (10 million dollars). Some of our readers may recall that Mediba acquired smartphone-focused ad network startup Nobot back in August of 2011.

ScaleOut’s CEO Daisuke Yamazaki previously worked with Yahoo Japan where he launched behavioral targeting and rich media ads. Yuzuru Honda, the founding CEO of competing ad-tech startup FreakOut is also known for having sold content-matching ad platform Brainer to Yahoo Japan. Yahoo Japan seems to have produced many men of talent in the space.

There were very few platforms that could provide 10 billion monthly impressions when we launched our company

When Mr. Yamazaki launched ScaleOut back in 2006, the market was not as mature as it is today. He explains:

There were very few platforms that could provide 10 billion monthly impressions when we launched our company. Since the market has no concept about RTB (real-time bidding) advertising, we developed an ad distribution platform which can steadily provide ad impressions for media companies.

Subsequently we launched a RTB-enabled DSP (demand-site platform) service since the market trend was being shifting to RTB advertising. In terms of focusing our resources on our core business, we wondered if we should stop receiving outsourced business. Based on discussions with with Mr. Hiroyuki Watanabe [1], we made up our mind to concentrate on providing DSP services.

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Scale Out was founded back in 2006, and launched DSP services back in 2012. That means they have been working on it for about five years. In terms of focusing on DSP services, B Dash Ventures helped them make the significant decisions. Yamazaki added:

Our system development didn’t proceed as expected, and we had some money problems. But Watanabe helped us a lot both mentally and financially. Up until we invited CMO Sugawara to our board, everything around our business was decided based on discussion with me and Watanabe.

Watanabe knows the ad-tech startup industry since he also helped other startups in this space, such as Nobot. Mr. Watanabe explained:

Prior to investing in the startup, I shared my perspective on the future of the Japanese ad business and ad-tech industry. Based on that, Mr. Yamazaki and I completed the startup’s management policy and business plan together. To bring more talent to the board, we invited Mr. Sugawara as a supervisor for sales and marketing.

Why has ScaleOut partnered with Mediba? Yamazaki raised the recent smartphone shift as a reason. He explained:

To date, online advertising has been targeting PC users, and smartphone ads have no big share in the market. A smartphone ad is typically placed in a limited space but shares much space on the screen. For users, you typically check information resources briefly with a smartphone, and maybe dig deeper on a PC.

If we can provide clients with solutions that allow them to see user behaviors across multiple platforms, that would be a significant differentiation point. For clients, in terms of drawing user attention, smartphones will definitely work better than PCs. We learned this after we’ve switched to DSP services, and also learned this meets the KDDI-Mediba ‘3M’ strategy [2]. That’s one of major reasons why we’ve partnered with Mediba.

To date, online advertising has been targeting PC users, and smartphone ads have no big share in the market.

We should also mention the company’s own technology called Data Management Platform, DMP for short. The startup formed a team focused on data analytics, and will launch an ad service using much accumulated user behavioral data. Yamazaki added:

I assume most ad networks will change ad distribution in the future. They will typically pick the best choice of available ads using behavioral data analytics. If we can launch a platform for ad distribution across multiple browsing devices, we can distribute the best ad optimization to every single user. Google is the biggest holder of big data accumulation, but KDDI-Mediba dominates the Japanese market in this space.

Ads may be noisy for users sometimes. And in order to provide users with ads that serve as useful information or recommendations, we need to evolve in partnership with KDDI-mediba.

Based on the analysis of enormous user data using the company’s DMP technology, their clients can distribute the best optimization of ads to their users through the platform.

Adtech startups don’t typically expose much about what they provide, but we’re glad to have a glimpse into that ScaleOut has in store. Let’s wait and see how this particular acquisition will impact the Japanese ad industry.


  1. The CEO of B Dash Ventures. He invested in the startup and joined its board back in April of 2012.
  2. This represents KDDI-mediba’s business strategy, referring to multi-device, multi-network, and multi-media.

User-generated travel plan startup Trippiece raises $2M

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based travel startup Trippiece announced today that it has raised 200 million yen (approximately $2 million) from Draper Nexus Venture Partners and other investors [1]. With the funds, the startup plans to start developing smartphone apps. The company also invited Fumiaki Koizumi to the board of directors. He previously worked with Mixi and DeNA where he helped them IPO. At Trippiece, his main role will be to strengthen the management. We expected social media could help get the word out about the website, but this wasn’t the case. It has been more than a year since Trippiece formally launched back in January of 2012. Currently there are nearly 1,400 travel plans available on the site, and 100 to 200 users take trips using those plans every week. Management operations behind the scenes have become stable, and the startup plans to further improve that with the funds. CEO Ian Ishida explained that it hasn’t been a smooth ride for the company so far. The power of social media didn’t quite live up to their expectations. Trippiece is comprised of many small travel plans. We expected social media could help get the word out about the…

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See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based travel startup Trippiece announced today that it has raised 200 million yen (approximately $2 million) from Draper Nexus Venture Partners and other investors [1]. With the funds, the startup plans to start developing smartphone apps.

The company also invited Fumiaki Koizumi to the board of directors. He previously worked with Mixi and DeNA where he helped them IPO. At Trippiece, his main role will be to strengthen the management.

We expected social media could help get the word out about the website, but this wasn’t the case.

It has been more than a year since Trippiece formally launched back in January of 2012. Currently there are nearly 1,400 travel plans available on the site, and 100 to 200 users take trips using those plans every week. Management operations behind the scenes have become stable, and the startup plans to further improve that with the funds.

CEO Ian Ishida explained that it hasn’t been a smooth ride for the company so far. The power of social media didn’t quite live up to their expectations.

Trippiece is comprised of many small travel plans. We expected social media could help get the word out about the website, but this wasn’t the case. The community only became active when we acquired 20,000 users.

If a user-generated travel plan has more than five users apply to join, the startup will arrange a tour using its partnerships with travel agencies. Right now the service has more than 50,000 users, but they need to acquire more to keep going along their planned roadmap.

IanIshida_snapshot
Trippieace CEO Ian Ishida

The startup is about to launch a corporate membership system, with intended account holders being talent agencies or other businesses that have many fans. Trippiece is also planning to arrange tours accompanying entertainers or performers. We don’t know too much about this, but we understand they are in talks with several agencies right now.

Their user base is not large enough for a social media network. But they have improved their business model enough to step forward to the next stage.

Whenever I meet up with Ishida, he usually talks about his love for the service, and it’s good to have someone like that at the helm. It will be fascinating to watch him evolve this unique travel experience moving forward.

Trippiece started out back in March of 2011, receiving seed funding worth 3.5 million yen from Samurai Incubate Fund. Subsequently, the company also received 5 million yen from Movida Japan.


  1. Technically, the service name and company name (trippieace) are different in spelling for some reason. 

Japan’s Mediba scoops up ad tech startup for $10M

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See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Nikkei reported earlier today that mobile ad company Mediba has taken over ScaleOut, a Tokyo-based ad tech startup. The purchase price is reportedly 1 billion yen, or approximately $10 million. Mediba is an ad-focused subsidiary of Japan’s second largest telco KDDI. Some of our readers may recall that the company acquired ad-network Nobot back in August of 2011. ScaleOut runs a demand-side platform (DSP) which allows digital ad buyers to do more through a single interface. For instance, when you place an ad the platform typically helps you determine which network yields the best cost performance. In this space, we’ve seen more than 20 companies already enter the market, including Japanese internet giants CyberAgent and GMO, as well as FreakOut which raised more than $5 million back in March from Yahoo Japan. To learn more about the acquisitions that have happened in Japan in recent years, you can find out more on our acquisitions timeline. We’re also preparing bring you a special interview with the startup’s CEO Daisuke Yamazaki, so please stay tuned for that as well.

426b83c5411168ebde7d073ccce45321

See the original story in Japanese.

Japan’s Nikkei reported earlier today that mobile ad company Mediba has taken over ScaleOut, a Tokyo-based ad tech startup. The purchase price is reportedly 1 billion yen, or approximately $10 million. Mediba is an ad-focused subsidiary of Japan’s second largest telco KDDI. Some of our readers may recall that the company acquired ad-network Nobot back in August of 2011.

ScaleOut runs a demand-side platform (DSP) which allows digital ad buyers to do more through a single interface. For instance, when you place an ad the platform typically helps you determine which network yields the best cost performance.

In this space, we’ve seen more than 20 companies already enter the market, including Japanese internet giants CyberAgent and GMO, as well as FreakOut which raised more than $5 million back in March from Yahoo Japan.

To learn more about the acquisitions that have happened in Japan in recent years, you can find out more on our acquisitions timeline.

We’re also preparing bring you a special interview with the startup’s CEO Daisuke Yamazaki, so please stay tuned for that as well.