I’m late to the party on this one, but after Evernote hit 100 million users earlier this week (101 million to be specific), I was surprised to see that the Asia Pacific was the company’s biggest regional market, accounting for about 35 million of its users (see above). This prompted me to reflect on when Evernote CEO Phil Libin dropped the following numbers about their Japan users a year ago: About 20% of our users and 30% of our revenue comes from Japan. The Japanese aesthetic really influences us. We have said from the beginning that we want to make it a 100 year startup, and that was influenced by Japan. Japan understands this idea of long term thinking, and we hope to combine that with the best of Silicon Valley. It’s a nice sentiment, and it’s good to see they’ve paid so much attention to Japan. Assuming that those percentages haven’t changed much over the past year, Japan may very well be Evernote’s biggest national market (or at least second biggest) in terms of both users and revenue. Via Evernote Read about this in Japanese
I’m late to the party on this one, but after Evernote hit 100 million users earlier this week (101 million to be specific), I was surprised to see that the Asia Pacific was the company’s biggest regional market, accounting for about 35 million of its users (see above).
This prompted me to reflect on when Evernote CEO Phil Libin dropped the following numbers about their Japan users a year ago:
About 20% of our users and 30% of our revenue comes from Japan. The Japanese aesthetic really influences us. We have said from the beginning that we want to make it a 100 year startup, and that was influenced by Japan. Japan understands this idea of long term thinking, and we hope to combine that with the best of Silicon Valley.
It’s a nice sentiment, and it’s good to see they’ve paid so much attention to Japan. Assuming that those percentages haven’t changed much over the past year, Japan may very well be Evernote’s biggest national market (or at least second biggest) in terms of both users and revenue.
I often hear people complain that there is a lack of good contact manager apps available of smartphones. I personally have experimented with a few, most recently Contact Sync for Gmail – which is good, but doesn’t quite cut it for me. So I was delighted to hear recently from the folks at Tokyo-based startup Wantedly that they were working on a contacts management app for iPhone [1]. That app, appropriately dubbed Contact, has just gone public today in the Japanese App Store, so I’m happy to tell you a little about it after having a chance to test it pre-release. When you initially fire up the Contact app, you’ll be asked to authorize access to your mobile’s contacts, and after that your Facebook contacts as well. Note that by authorizing Facebook, you also get a chance to view Wantedly contacts as well (since the Wantedly job platform connects with Facebook), marked with a big blue ‘W’ in the app. Contacts can also be added manually to the app if you wish. Once your contacts have all been added, you can get down to organizing them into handy groups. Like any contact app, groups could be based around anything. But…
I often hear people complain that there is a lack of good contact manager apps available of smartphones. I personally have experimented with a few, most recently Contact Sync for Gmail – which is good, but doesn’t quite cut it for me. So I was delighted to hear recently from the folks at Tokyo-based startup Wantedly that they were working on a contacts management app for iPhone [1]. That app, appropriately dubbed Contact, has just gone public today in the Japanese App Store, so I’m happy to tell you a little about it after having a chance to test it pre-release.
When you initially fire up the Contact app, you’ll be asked to authorize access to your mobile’s contacts, and after that your Facebook contacts as well. Note that by authorizing Facebook, you also get a chance to view Wantedly contacts as well (since the Wantedly job platform connects with Facebook), marked with a big blue ‘W’ in the app. Contacts can also be added manually to the app if you wish.
Once your contacts have all been added, you can get down to organizing them into handy groups. Like any contact app, groups could be based around anything. But the most important group, labeled with a phone icon, are the people you call on a regular basis. So once you have this group created, you can call out in a flash from within the contacts app.
Beyond the phone group, you might organize a group for work (see my The Bridge group above), doing so using simple drag-and-drop, with various icons assigned to each group. If you add someone by mistake, just drag them out of the group and into a trash can that conveniently appears. Wantedly has built in a clever marketing device into its group label icons, letting users earn as many as 120 new icons by sharing about the app on Facebook and Twitter.
Check out the video demo below for a closer look at how the app works:
I was a little curious to hear why Wantedly was branching out to do a contacts app, given that the business of the Wantedly platform is helping people find fitting jobs by leveraging their social graph. During a recent visit to Wantedly HQ, the company’s CEO Akiko Naka explained to me:
Most people recognize Wantedly as a job searching site. But many people are starting to use it as their profile. Not only people who are searching for jobs, but for people who are working. So our team started to think we should start building something for everyone, not just people who are searching for jobs. Organizing your contacts is one of the biggest problems people have. There are many contacts grouping apps, but not of them are that cool, perhaps lacking in design or user interface. I thought we could do it better.
Wantedly CEO Akiko Naka
And personally, I think they have done it better, because the app looks pretty incredible. Perhaps the only feature additions I would request are data sync or export (perhaps to Dropbox), and maybe a batch delete/move contact option to manipulate multiple contacts, instead of having to drag and drop contacts one-by-one.
Given that the app is only available in Japanese right now [2], I had to ask Akiko the obvious question of whether or not they plan to publish an English version – to which she replied with a very short “Yup.”
Wantedly is a service that I’ve been expecting to launch in overseas markets at just about any moment now. They already have an English interface, so I’m looking forward to seeing them branch out when that day comes. But Akiko noted that if a contacts app like theirs is to succeed in a certain region, it helps if they are a trusted and recognized name in that region:
In Japan people know Wantedly pretty widely, so they aren’t scared to connect your contacts with it. In the US, maybe, then there might be a bit of a hurdle. Maybe Southeast Asia first.
If you have access to the Japanese App Store, I encourage you to give Contact a try. I’ve tried a lot of contact management apps in the past, and this has turned out to be one of my favorites.
But if you can download it from the App Store, I think there’s no reason you can’t use it even if you don’t speak Japanese. The app is very simple, with very little text. ↩
The latest in wearable tech from Japan is an interesting contrast with Google Glass. Instead of scanning the world around you for useful data, ‘Jins Meme’ glasses look back only at yourself in an effort to collect useful data from your eyes and the areas around them, monitoring blinking, blink duration, vision shifts and more. The glasses are scheduled to go on sale next spring, with a public API coming in the fall. For Jins’ own explation of the concept, check out the promo video from Jins, which we’ve included above [1]. Update: Looks like Jins has made the YouTube video private suddenly. The data will sync with an accompanying smartphone app which lets you review important info at any time. Here’s an excerpt from the product’s webpage that nicely sums up the value proposition of the system: Based on changes in eye movement, JINS MEME is able to determine levels of mental and physical tiredness, which many people are unable to notice on their own. Recovery rates from tiredness in humans drop dramatically once a certain threshold is crossed. JINS MEME can detect and alert you to those levels before reaching that point, providing a new kind of management…
The latest in wearable tech from Japan is an interesting contrast with Google Glass. Instead of scanning the world around you for useful data, ‘Jins Meme’ glasses look back only at yourself in an effort to collect useful data from your eyes and the areas around them, monitoring blinking, blink duration, vision shifts and more. The glasses are scheduled to go on sale next spring, with a public API coming in the fall. For Jins’ own explation of the concept, check out the promo video from Jins, which we’ve included above[1]. Update: Looks like Jins has made the YouTube video private suddenly.
The data will sync with an accompanying smartphone app which lets you review important info at any time. Here’s an excerpt from the product’s webpage that nicely sums up the value proposition of the system:
Based on changes in eye movement, JINS MEME is able to determine levels of mental and physical tiredness, which many people are unable to notice on their own. Recovery rates from tiredness in humans drop dramatically once a certain threshold is crossed. JINS MEME can detect and alert you to those levels before reaching that point, providing a new kind of management tool for preventing tiredness from accumulating and for improving work efficiency.
In addition to electrooculography (or eye motion) sensors, the device will also be equipped with a three-axis accelerometer and a three-axis gyro sensor. So even when you are active or exercising, Jins Meme can help you monitor how many calories you’ve burned, or even feedback on your speed or posture.
Jins Meme will come in three styles, the classic ‘Wellington’ style, a half-rim style, and sunglasses. The glasses will certainly benefit from the added advantage of being rather stylish, and not making the wearer look like a tech-augmented cyborg.
On a somewhat related note, our readers will likely be familiar with Japan’s other notable glasses tech ‘Telepathy’ from the creator of Sekai Camera. As for Google Glass, it was recently discovered via code in its latest apk file that localized Japanese commands are soon on the way. So we can expect to see a battle for user eyeballs not to far in the future here in Japan! [2]
The Jins Meme app, alerting you while driving
It’s an unlisted video that we’ve gone and embedded, so Jins could disable it at any time. Apologies in advance if they do. Update: And it looks like they have. ↩
Since these glasses serve an entirely different function than Google Glass, many would argue that Jins Meme is not a Glass competitor. But I would assert that since one cannot wear two pairs of glasses at once, that any pair of glasses is a competitor for any other pair of glasses. ↩
Here’s a useful new site for parents in Japan [1]. Cozre Community (cozre.jp) is a web service that lists more than 10,000 diaper changing and breast feeding spots around the country. The service is presented as a mobile-friendly web app, which will show you nearby baby-friendly areas if you grant the site permission to access your currently location when you visit the site on a smartphone. The site provides handy information about each spot, such as whether or not it is stroller-friendly, if there’s a feeding space, or if there’s a train station or parking nearby. Cozre Community has just been launched in beta, so I hope they’ll have many more listings added over time. The site is certainly an interesting one for parents to browse, with recommended spots and popular outings featured on the front page. Via Venture News The site really only target mothers, but as a father who changes lots of diapers, I’m going assume there are lots of men who will be interested in this too. ↩
Here’s a useful new site for parents in Japan [1]. Cozre Community (cozre.jp) is a web service that lists more than 10,000 diaper changing and breast feeding spots around the country.
The service is presented as a mobile-friendly web app, which will show you nearby baby-friendly areas if you grant the site permission to access your currently location when you visit the site on a smartphone.
The site provides handy information about each spot, such as whether or not it is stroller-friendly, if there’s a feeding space, or if there’s a train station or parking nearby.
Cozre Community has just been launched in beta, so I hope they’ll have many more listings added over time. The site is certainly an interesting one for parents to browse, with recommended spots and popular outings featured on the front page.
The site really only target mothers, but as a father who changes lots of diapers, I’m going assume there are lots of men who will be interested in this too. ↩
We have witnessed a number of personal finance apps from Japanese developers over the past few years. Most notably, both Zaim and ReceReco have both taken an ease-of-input approach by implementing OCR technology into their apps for quick scanning of receipts. But today I’d like to look at a new personal finance app that takes a more visual approach to monitoring your personal spending. It’s called Photo Money. Currently available on iOS in both Japanese and English, the application lets you take a picture of whatever you’ve bought, and add the price using a large calculator-style input. Note that you can input in just about any currency, so users all around the world can try out Photo Money if they wish. The result of logging your purchases in this way is a reverse-chronological gallery of your expenditures, which is a great visual overview of your spending. The app also differs from other finance apps in that it presents only a weekly view. While this could be merely because of the space constraints of the photo gallery view, the developer states that it’s because one week gives you shorter iterations of time to improve your spending habits. So if you aren’t…
We have witnessed a number of personal finance apps from Japanese developers over the past few years. Most notably, both Zaim and ReceReco have both taken an ease-of-input approach by implementing OCR technology into their apps for quick scanning of receipts. But today I’d like to look at a new personal finance app that takes a more visual approach to monitoring your personal spending. It’s called Photo Money.
Currently available on iOS in both Japanese and English, the application lets you take a picture of whatever you’ve bought, and add the price using a large calculator-style input. Note that you can input in just about any currency, so users all around the world can try out Photo Money if they wish. The result of logging your purchases in this way is a reverse-chronological gallery of your expenditures, which is a great visual overview of your spending.
The app also differs from other finance apps in that it presents only a weekly view. While this could be merely because of the space constraints of the photo gallery view, the developer states that it’s because one week gives you shorter iterations of time to improve your spending habits. So if you aren’t happy with your spending this week, you can try to do better starting next Monday!
Developed by RandyApps [1], Photo Money is ad supported, although I think many users would welcome a paid, ad-free version too. Photo Money is currently not ranked very high on the App Store, but I think if it was reclassified to be included in the less croweded ‘finance’ category (it looks to be classified as a photo app for the time being), it could gain significant visibility as applications like Zaim and ReceReco have.
I’ve reached out to the Japanese developer, who may be based in Japan, or possibly Australia. I’m not certain. ↩
Japanese payments startup Coiney started out back in March of 2013, now just over a year later the company has released an infographic outlining some of their key metrics during that period. You can view the graphic, which is in Japanese, below, but here are some selected points that stand out: 42.7% of the service’s users are from the capital Tokyo. the average age of a Coiney user is about 45. That seems surprisingly old to me, as I’d have guess their demographics to skew a little younger. 81% of their users are male. 53% are corporate users, while 47% are small businesses 19% of users fall in the so-called ‘gourmet’, which we assume means restaurants and other food-related retailers.
Japanese payments startup Coiney started out back in March of 2013, now just over a year later the company has released an infographic outlining some of their key metrics during that period.
You can view the graphic, which is in Japanese, below, but here are some selected points that stand out:
42.7% of the service’s users are from the capital Tokyo.
the average age of a Coiney user is about 45. That seems surprisingly old to me, as I’d have guess their demographics to skew a little younger.
81% of their users are male.
53% are corporate users, while 47% are small businesses
19% of users fall in the so-called ‘gourmet’, which we assume means restaurants and other food-related retailers.
The creative folks over at Tokyo-based TeamLab have developed an interesting video solution that lets you transform any given location into your own three-dimensional graphical space over a green screen. What’s remarkable about it is that when the camera moves, the virtual space will adjust to the viewing angle in real time. Dubbed TeamLab Studio, the technology is currently in the beta phase, but has been put into use at Cure Studio in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. The studio can be used by anyone to create cosplay videos in virtual worlds, and you can even add things like magic effects to accentuate your movement. One such video sample can be viewed below. Cure Studio can be used for free, although visitors will have to pay admission for Haco Stadium Ikebukuro where the studio is located. While a TeamLab rep couldn’t disclose too much details about the technology behind the real-time synchronized camera movement and visualized space, I understand that the software to interface with the camera was developed in-house at TeamLab. This is just the latest digital work from the very prolific TeamLab, which is also responsible for ingenious projects like the interactive TV game that was played by a million people…
The creative folks over at Tokyo-based TeamLab have developed an interesting video solution that lets you transform any given location into your own three-dimensional graphical space over a green screen. What’s remarkable about it is that when the camera moves, the virtual space will adjust to the viewing angle in real time.
Dubbed TeamLab Studio, the technology is currently in the beta phase, but has been put into use at Cure Studio in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. The studio can be used by anyone to create cosplay videos in virtual worlds, and you can even add things like magic effects to accentuate your movement. One such video sample can be viewed below. Cure Studio can be used for free, although visitors will have to pay admission for Haco Stadium Ikebukuro where the studio is located.
While a TeamLab rep couldn’t disclose too much details about the technology behind the real-time synchronized camera movement and visualized space, I understand that the software to interface with the camera was developed in-house at TeamLab.
This is just the latest digital work from the very prolific TeamLab, which is also responsible for ingenious projects like the interactive TV game that was played by a million people in real time last year, or the two-ton, 4D animated tree that was displayed in Fukuoka last Christmas.
See our report in Japanese Adways Korea, the subsidiary of Tokyo-based Adways Inc, has announced the official launch of its Yoyaku Top 10 service in Korea. It lets users pre-register for mobile game apps, and has been available in Korea in the beta phase since January. For developers, it serves as a medium to reach fans before the launch of an app, or even provide push notifications for new updates or events. During that three month beta, the service has been used by 150 apps from 50 different developers, with as many as 10,000 pre-registrations coming on a single app. The company claims a 56% conversion rate, which they say is far better than PC-based pre-registration services [1]. Yoyaku Top 10 was initially launched for the Japanese market in January of 2013, and Adways apparently has experienced enough success with it to warrant localization into Korean to explore that market. After Korea, the company aspires to expand service elsewhere in Asia. Adways says this figure is 20% for PC services, though we don’t have any verification for this. ↩
Adways Korea, the subsidiary of Tokyo-based Adways Inc, has announced the official launch of its Yoyaku Top 10 service in Korea. It lets users pre-register for mobile game apps, and has been available in Korea in the beta phase since January. For developers, it serves as a medium to reach fans before the launch of an app, or even provide push notifications for new updates or events.
During that three month beta, the service has been used by 150 apps from 50 different developers, with as many as 10,000 pre-registrations coming on a single app. The company claims a 56% conversion rate, which they say is far better than PC-based pre-registration services [1].
Yoyaku Top 10 was initially launched for the Japanese market in January of 2013, and Adways apparently has experienced enough success with it to warrant localization into Korean to explore that market.
After Korea, the company aspires to expand service elsewhere in Asia.
Adways says this figure is 20% for PC services, though we don’t have any verification for this. ↩
Kyoto-based mobile game publisher Ponos has announced that its popular tower defense title Battle Cats has surpassed 9 million downloads as of May 3rd. At the same time, the company is announcing that its repertoire of smartphone apps have now seen over 33 million downloads in total. That total surprises me, because while the company has a lot of games, Battle Cats is the only one that has ever really gotten my attention. While it has been a while since we’ve looked in on this title (the English version was retired last year, much to our despair), the most recent million downloads have come in 110 days, quicker than the previous million, which required 137 days. Ponos has recently started airing a series of commercials here in Japan for Battle Cats starring singer Sachiko Kobayashi. They’re pretty strange little promos, which is perhaps fitting, given how strange the game actually is. They ran from April 28th until May 4th, and likely were a big help in giving the game a push in the past few weeks. I’m still a big fan of this game, and if you don’t mind venturing into a Japanese-language title, I encourage you to check it…
Kyoto-based mobile game publisher Ponos has announced that its popular tower defense title Battle Cats has surpassed 9 million downloads as of May 3rd.
At the same time, the company is announcing that its repertoire of smartphone apps have now seen over 33 million downloads in total. That total surprises me, because while the company has a lot of games, Battle Cats is the only one that has ever really gotten my attention.
While it has been a while since we’ve looked in on this title (the English version was retired last year, much to our despair), the most recent million downloads have come in 110 days, quicker than the previous million, which required 137 days.
Ponos has recently started airing a series of commercials here in Japan for Battle Cats starring singer Sachiko Kobayashi. They’re pretty strange little promos, which is perhaps fitting, given how strange the game actually is. They ran from April 28th until May 4th, and likely were a big help in giving the game a push in the past few weeks.
I’m still a big fan of this game, and if you don’t mind venturing into a Japanese-language title, I encourage you to check it out.
Line Corporation’s latest entry in the mobile gaming space is a rehashed version of the jousting game Shake Spears from Russian developer Alawar Entertainment. The original Shake Spears title first hit app stores way back in mid–2011. Line announced this game was coming to its platform last year, and now this past week it has finally gone live on both iOS and Android. Like most of Line’s casual titles, Shake Spears lets you connect with your friends on the popular messaging platform. But here, in what Line calls its first ever real-time battle game, you can joust against your friends if they are online at the same time. You can also play against other players beyond your Line friends, or against the ‘environment’ (ostensibly meaning computer players [1]). There are a number of in-game purchases available too (surprise, surprise!), including upgraded weaponry and equipment, as well as magic that can be used in matches. In order to joust, you need to use one finger/thumb on the right to move your spear up or down, and likewise you need you use a finger/thumb on the left to defend with your shield. The action turns to a slow motion view as you…
Line Corporation’s latest entry in the mobile gaming space is a rehashed version of the jousting game Shake Spears from Russian developer Alawar Entertainment. The original Shake Spears title first hit app stores way back in mid–2011. Line announced this game was coming to its platform last year, and now this past week it has finally gone live on both iOS and Android.
Like most of Line’s casual titles, Shake Spears lets you connect with your friends on the popular messaging platform. But here, in what Line calls its first ever real-time battle game, you can joust against your friends if they are online at the same time. You can also play against other players beyond your Line friends, or against the ‘environment’ (ostensibly meaning computer players [1]). There are a number of in-game purchases available too (surprise, surprise!), including upgraded weaponry and equipment, as well as magic that can be used in matches.
In order to joust, you need to use one finger/thumb on the right to move your spear up or down, and likewise you need you use a finger/thumb on the left to defend with your shield. The action turns to a slow motion view as you approach the opposing knight, and you can even feint a low hit and then hit high above your opponent’s shield. Check out our video demo above for a quick walkthough of how jousting looks.
Dehorsing an unidentified knight
Line’s chief strategy and marketing officer Jun Masuda said in his company’s announcement that he hopes the game will “appeal to and attract both casual and core gamers alike.”
Personally I think it’s optimistic to think that a game like this will attract anything other than casual gamers. But Alawar will definitely benefit from the reach of the Line platform, which now extends to 420 million users globally.
Overall I think this is a fun game that would appeal to Western/European users of Line, and maybe it might be an asset for the company if and when it can win some popularity in those markets [2]. As for Line’s core markets here in the Asia region, I’d be surprised if any of them are receptive to Shake Spears.
It’s a little tricky to tell whether you’re playing against someone in real time or not. I took on a friend in duel mode, but I’m not certain whether or not we were logged in at once. ↩
Line has seen some popularity in Spain, but not that much elsewhere in Europe. ↩
