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Creating Japan’s Open Internet – Kaneto Kanemoto

The Bridge 2016.10.07

The content of this article first appeared on Disrupting Japan. It has been reproduced by The Bridge with the approval of Disrupting Japan and the article’s author Tim Romero. Tim is a Tokyo-based entrepreneur, podcaster and author who has started four companies and led Japan market entry for others since coming to Japan more than 20 years ago. Tim hosts the Disrupting Japan podcast and is deeply involved in Japan’s startup community as an investor, founder and mentor. Kaneto Kanemoto founded OKWave to address a problem that was unique to the Japanese internet in the mid-1990’s. Most of the country felt the situation was inevitable, even natural, but Kanemoto-san knew it had to change. Although Japanese people are exceptionally polite in day-to-day interaction, due to the anonymous nature of the Internet, people behaved very differently online. In the early days, the mood was one of bullying, hostility and exclusion. Kanemoto-san founded OKWave to address these problems on the Internet in particular and in society in general, and he has succeeded remarkably at both. The Internet is a far more helpful and much more welcoming place thanks to him and OKWave. Tim: For those who don’t know, can you explain what…

The content of this article first appeared on Disrupting Japan. It has been reproduced by The Bridge with the approval of Disrupting Japan and the article’s author Tim Romero.

Tim is a Tokyo-based entrepreneur, podcaster and author who has started four companies and led Japan market entry for others since coming to Japan more than 20 years ago. Tim hosts the Disrupting Japan podcast and is deeply involved in Japan’s startup community as an investor, founder and mentor.

kaneto-kanemoto-startup-founder-okwave — OKWave founder Kaneto Kanemoto

Kaneto Kanemoto founded OKWave to address a problem that was unique to the Japanese internet in the mid-1990’s. Most of the country felt the situation was inevitable, even natural, but Kanemoto-san knew it had to change.

Although Japanese people are exceptionally polite in day-to-day interaction, due to the anonymous nature of the Internet, people behaved very differently online. In the early days, the mood was one of bullying, hostility and exclusion.

Kanemoto-san founded OKWave to address these problems on the Internet in particular and in society in general, and he has succeeded remarkably at both. The Internet is a far more helpful and much more welcoming place thanks to him and OKWave.

Tim: For those who don’t know, can you explain what OKWave does?

OKWave is Japan’s largest Q&A community. We have over 40 million active users who come to ask and answer questions about work and life, and even about love.

Tim: Really, people talk about their love life?

Sure. People ask “I’m in love with my boss. What should I do?” or “I’m having trouble getting pregnant, what can I do?” When we first started, we had a lot of IT-based questions, but as more and more non-technical people started using the Internet, there were more and more questions about everyday life.

Tim: OKWave is doing very well today, and you went from founding to IPO in only six years, but most people don’t realize what a hard time you had building the company.

I think my company built me as much as I built my company. I’m Japanese, but I was born in Japan with Korean nationality. No one knew or said anything about it until my parents changed my nationality in childhood. After that happened, my classmates leaned that I was not a natural-born Japanese, and I have a very hard time. I was bullied badly, even by kids that I thought were my good friends.

Tim: It must be hard for a child to understand what’s going in a situation like that.

Yes, I was 10-years-old then and I could not really image what prejudice was until I experienced it. My parents wanted the best for me, but no one knew about my nationality until after I become Japanese.

Tim: Many people say the being an outsider helps you think differently and can be an advantage as an entrepreneur. Was that the case?

I don’t think so. In my case I think it just made it hard to trust other people. I went to an Arts college and got a job as a designer at a good company, but I wasn’t happy there. I felt like they did not really appreciate or understand my design, so I left to find work in Tokyo. At the time I really wanted to work at Sofmap.

Tim: How did that work out?

Not well. My wife was very against the move and even threatened to divorce me. I left for Tokyo by myself, and due to my own mistakes in judgement, I ended up not getting the job, and I was actually living in a park for six months?

Tim: You were homeless for six months?

Yes. I was until I met a Chinese women who had moved to Japan and was trying to find work. I told her my story, but she didn’t feel sorry for me. In fact, she scolded me for being so weak. For not appreciating how easy I had things. For using little challenges and other people’s opinions as excuses for not trying. I was shocked at first, but I realized she was right. The next day I made some phone calls and got a very, very low-paying freelance job as a designer, but that was the start.

okwave-global-edition_screenshot — Image credit: OKWave

Tim: The start? How did that lead to OkWave?

I was soon designing web pages, but I didn’t really know how to do the job, so I went online to ask people basic questions. It’s seems natural today, but in the mid-1990s, people were upset. People told me to go away and said I had no right to waste their time with such basic questions.

Tim: That’s one thing that amazes me. Japanese people are very polite, but when they are anonymous on the Internet they can be pretty horrible.

That’s true, and it used to be worse. I decided then that I wanted to make a site where anyone could ask questions safely. At that time, no one thought it would work. Venture capitalists and private investors told me that there was no incentive for anyone to answer questions for free on the internet.

Tim: So you decided to use your own money?

Sort of. I went back to visit my wife who had stayed behind in Aichi for the past two years. I wanted to apologize and tell her all the details of my life in Tokyo, and maybe start over together. I told her about my plan. She thought about it, and gave me the money she had been saving those two years. It was enough to launch OKWave back in 2000.

Tim: Wow! That’s a lot of pressure. It’s one thing to lose investor’s money, but your wife’s savings?

Yes. [Laughs] Failure was not an option. Fortunately, the site grew quickly after we launched. People were attracted to a place where members were friendly and they could ask questions freely. After investors saw the model working, they understood it and Rakuten invested. Growth continued steadily and we were able to IPO. From outside it might look like we were able to IPO very quickly, but it was actually a very long road to get there.

It’s hard to believe that back in 1997 Japanese VCs could not even imagine the internet becoming an open and friendly place where people are willing to take the time to answer questions simply because they’ve been asked.

Most assumed the Internet would evolve to mirror Japanese business culture at that time, a collection of tightly-knit alliances and closed communities. The open internet is an obvious reality to us today, but Kanemoto-san deserves credit for not only seeing it before others did, but committing his life to making it happen.

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The happiest company in the world – Yuka Fujii

The Bridge 2016.10.02

The content of this article first appeared on Disrupting Japan. It has been reproduced by The Bridge with the approval of Disrupting Japan and the article’s author Tim Romero. Tim is a Tokyo-based entrepreneur, podcaster and author who has started four companies and led Japan market entry for others since coming to Japan more than 20 years ago. Tim hosts the Disrupting Japan podcast and is deeply involved in Japan’s startup community as an investor, founder and mentor. Yuka Fujii considers Famarry to be the happiest company in the world, and looking at who her customers are, I think she just might be right. But behind this happy company is an aggressive plan to disrupt a cartel of photo studios that have dominated the Japanese market for decades. Changes in technology and demographics have opened up a small crack in this wall, and Famarry plans on using it to gain a foothold and then to change the entire industry for the better. Tim: Can you explain a what Famarry does? It’s basically crowd-sourcing of photographers, and we’ve started with pre-wedding photography. About 70,000 couples get married in Japan every year, and about half of them do pre-wedding photography. That’s the…

The content of this article first appeared on Disrupting Japan. It has been reproduced by The Bridge with the approval of Disrupting Japan and the article’s author Tim Romero.

Tim is a Tokyo-based entrepreneur, podcaster and author who has started four companies and led Japan market entry for others since coming to Japan more than 20 years ago. Tim hosts the Disrupting Japan podcast and is deeply involved in Japan’s startup community as an investor, founder and mentor.

yuka-fujii-statup-founder-famarry — Famarry founder Yuka Fujii

Yuka Fujii considers Famarry to be the happiest company in the world, and looking at who her customers are, I think she just might be right.

But behind this happy company is an aggressive plan to disrupt a cartel of photo studios that have dominated the Japanese market for decades. Changes in technology and demographics have opened up a small crack in this wall, and Famarry plans on using it to gain a foothold and then to change the entire industry for the better.

Tim: Can you explain a what Famarry does?

It’s basically crowd-sourcing of photographers, and we’ve started with pre-wedding photography. About 70,000 couples get married in Japan every year, and about half of them do pre-wedding photography. That’s the initial market we are focusing on.

Tim: So they go to a romantic spot with a beautiful back drop and take pictures?

Exactly. The wedding photographer is usually arranged by the venue, so the couple has no choice, but people find pre-wedding photographers by word of mouth or by searching online.

Tim: How have you marketed to this audience?

We’ve had great success using Instagram. It’s nearly a perfect fit for us since it’s all about sharing photos. We run promotions, of course, but most of our customers want to share their own photos, so it’s a more modern version of word-of-mouth. It makes it easy for people to hear about us and to find a photographer they really like.

Tim: On thing that worries me about this business is that you will have very few repeat customers. Since most people only get married once, you would always need to be recruiting new customers.

We plan to build on that. A wedding is the start of a family, so naturally our customers will soon want baby pictures and then family pictures. In the future we’ll be offering these other kinds of photography services so we can grow with our clients.

Tim: You mentioned before that the photography business is changing in Japan?

The industry is becoming more accessible. Quality camera equipment used to be very expensive, but that’s not the case any more. There are many more skilled photographers with high-quality equipment than their used to be. Also, until recently, the studios controlled just about everything. They had a set of standard backdrops and poses and the customer mostly did what they were told to do. People are now starting to see photography differently. More and more people want something that suits their own character and tastes.

Tim: So there is more independence in the industry now?

There will be. It’s much easier for a photographer to be independent these days, and we try to match those photographers up with clients who suit their style. In the future, it will be very hard for the photography studios to stay in business using their current business model. Independent photographers can deliver higher quality at a lower cost and with a style customized to the customers’ personal tastes.

famarry-porfolio-photos — Image credit: Famarry

Tim: What made you target the wedding market? With Japan’s aging population, it does not seem particularly attractive.

The overall market may be shrinking from year to year in Japan, but it’s still a huge market. Not much has changed recently, so it’s a market that’s ready for disruption. As you said, the market is not growing, and many Japanese companies are trying to grow business overseas rather than innovate at home, which makes it easer for us.

Tim: Do you think being a women entrepreneur has made things easier or harder for you?

A bit of both, I suppose. Being different makes it easier to get press attention, but it can make it harder to do certain deals. With a startup you have to just deal with whatever advantages or disadvantages you have. I don’t think too much about it. In our case, however, most of our customers are women, so perhaps I can relate to them better.

Tim: I thought they were couples.

They are, but the woman generally take control of the wedding, and they are the ones who make the decisions about things like pre-wedding photography.

Tim: That makes sense. And even when it comes time for baby pictures or family portraits, it will be the wives driving the process.

Exactly.

Tim: What surprised you most about running your own business?

Both how hard it was and how fun it was. I knew it was going to be hard, but I guess you don’t really understand something until you go through it. I’m not complaining. It was just harder than I expected it would be. But I was also surprised ho much I enjoy interacting with both our staff and our customers. It’s a very happy business. To hear the voices of our customers every day and how happy they are with our service is a very encouraging thing.

Tim: I had not thought of that, but actually you are working with people at some of the happiest times of their lives. I can see how interacting with these people every day would be wonderful, and put you and your staff in a good mood as well.

Yes. that’s true. It’s also a pleasure working with the photographers. They are artists who are happy to be chosen to work with couples who like their style. Everyone is really nice, and I really want to help them. I think that we are doing a very good thing here.

I love the fact that Fujii-san considers Famarry to be the happiest business in the world, and she just might right about that.

Famarry, however, also represents a text book example of a beneficial disruptive businesses. The fundamental structure of Famarry results in their costs being much lower and their flexibility being much higher than traditional photography studios. The studios will be forced to either change the way to do business or go out of business.

Hopefully, Famarry will remain a happy business as they continue to grow.

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Project Mistletoe launched – Taizo Son becomes mainstay for young entrepreneurs

SCORE 1,081

Takeshi Hirano 2016.03.11

See the original story in Japanese. There will be a new hub being set up within Tokyo’s startup scene. The hub is named Mistletoe and offered by Taizo Son, the remarkable Japanese serial entrepreneur who has survived the chaotic dawn of Japan’s internet industry. Son explained the reason why he has named it so. A mistletoe tree produces a lot of berries, which is an ideal food for birds during winter. Birds eat mistletoe berries and deface the forest, but then new trees will sprout from the ground and expand the forest. It is better not to position the Mistletoe program as an incubation initiative. It’s neither the pure investment efforts we often saw a few decades ago on Japan’s emerging company market nor a seed accelerator inspired by Y Combinator. Son described the project as a vehicle for co-founding businesses but the fact is that it is not so easy to express in simple terms. I recently had a chance to hear more about the new project from Son. Mistletoe program concept The Mistletoe project is not a so-called incubation program for entrepreneurs but operated in the form of co-founding a business with the business founders having a core…

See the original story in Japanese.

There will be a new hub being set up within Tokyo’s startup scene. The hub is named Mistletoe and offered by Taizo Son, the remarkable Japanese serial entrepreneur who has survived the chaotic dawn of Japan’s internet industry.

Son explained the reason why he has named it so.

A mistletoe tree produces a lot of berries, which is an ideal food for birds during winter. Birds eat mistletoe berries and deface the forest, but then new trees will sprout from the ground and expand the forest.

It is better not to position the Mistletoe program as an incubation initiative. It’s neither the pure investment efforts we often saw a few decades ago on Japan’s emerging company market nor a seed accelerator inspired by Y Combinator. Son described the project as a vehicle for co-founding businesses but the fact is that it is not so easy to express in simple terms.

I recently had a chance to hear more about the new project from Son.

Mistletoe program concept

taizo-son-at-mistletoe — Taizo Son in the Mistletoe office
Photo by Takeshi Hirano, The Bridge

The Mistletoe project is not a so-called incubation program for entrepreneurs but operated in the form of co-founding a business with the business founders having a core idea or technology. Unlike conventional acceleration programs that typically have a specified time-period or an investment ratio, every project participating in the program will be handled under different case by case criteria.

Son explained:

Under the concept of this program, we will launch a business with its founders together. They need to bring a core technology and idea, but we will found a business with them, set a valuation for it, then work together on product development, fundraising and business development. That’s why we can’t just deal with a few projects per year. If we continue for five years, we would be able to work with more or less around 20 projects at most. […]

We’ll be doing a startup studio business. There’s a startup studio company called Expa in Silicon Valley, which we see as our role model. The company’s founder Garrett Camp is famous for having invested in Uber, and he has curated powerful people leveraging his network to propose the concept: a company which creates new companies.

This method may be close to EIR (entrepreneur-in-residence), intrapreneurship or other similar styles that Japanese tech incubator Beenos (TSE:3328) has adopted, where startups are based in an incubator’s venue and nourished upon receiving mentorship from designers and programmers at the incubator.

See also:

Son and his team has rented a 1,300 square meters venue to make the studio possible. He said:

Many of the topics we’re dealing with are still in stealth mode so we can’t disclose them. When launching a business, many of us will do something a half step ahead from now, right? VC firms carry things out one step ahead.

However, our Startup Studio wants to work on things 1.5 to 2 steps ahead. For example, Fintech or Adtech businesses are a half step ahead business. Artificial intelligence and robotics are one step ahead. That’s why we must go beyond these.

office2-compressor — The Mistletoe office’s floor plan (upper floor)
Image credit: Mistletoe

office1-compressor — The Mistletoe office’s floor plan (lower floor)
Image credit: Mistletoe

While Son says the program will be processed on an issue-driven basis, I was told that it will address people’s bottom line problems such as global food-supply issues, low birthrate and aging society, in addition to logistics issues.

He continued:

We will support novel ideas and entrepreneurs aiming to solve problems from an oblique angle over a mid- or long-range period. That’s why our main focus will be on the research and development businesses. I think an investment amount per project will be larger here than other typical cases.

These are description in text about the Mistletoe program. It’s obviously interesting as content. However, what’s more important here is that the program is conducted by Taizo Son himself.

How on earth can the team change the world gradually? In order to better understand the core context of their strategies, let’s look back at the roots of the project before it was born.

Indigo and Taizo Son

looking-for-bill-gates — Taizo Son and his team at Indigo (From Newsweek’s coverage of Indigo via Taizo Son’s Blog)

Many of our readers may recall how Son started being involved in the startup community. Son encountered Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang when attending the University of Tokyo, which led him to get involved in a project to launch Yahoo Japan. To prepare for it, Son launched a company called Indigo (currently known as Asian Groove) with ten of his classmates in 1996.

Regarding Indigo, Son was quoted in a book covering the early days of Japan’s internet industry back in 1990s to 2000s. He was as young as 27 years old when this book (Bit Valley Beat) was published.

In 2000, Son says “I’ll launch at least 10 companies this year”. Launching venture businesses in a systematic approach is Indigo’s primary business. Not only big companies but also individuals can bring their ideas to the company. Indigo invests their know-how and funds in prominent ideas.

What do you say? Yes, you see that Son started working on somewhat the original form of the Mistletoe program more than ten years ago.

One companies born out of Indigo is Onsale, currently known as Gungho Online Entertainment (TSE:3765). Having experienced the collapse of the dotcom bubble in early 2000s, he revived the business and IPO-ed the company with hugely popular titles like Puzzle & Dragons and Ragnarok Online by uniting efforts with Kazuki Morishita, the current president and CEO of Gungho.

See also:

In my previous interview with Son, he raised Andreessen Horowitz and Alphabet as rivals to Mistletoe. These two companies have a different approach from Mistletoe because they are focused on investment but the three companies have many points in common in terms of illuminating the global community as a new business breeder.

Many of our readers are also familiar with Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the founders of Andreessen Horowitz, through Ben’s authored book “The Hard Thing about Hard Things.” Netscape and Loudcloud are symbolic entities from the dot-com bubble in the US while Marc and Ben had overcome hardships; meanwhile there is Son in Japan. I can’t help feeling an indescribable charm of life in the fact that these entrepreneurs are working on the same topic at the same period after experiencing the same hardships.

Movida Japan and Taizo Son

An event of Movida Japan in its early days
Photo by Takeshi Hirano, The Bridge

Let’s get back to the original topic. Several years have been passed since the launch of Indigo Project where Son and his team were aiming of launching venture businesses successively in a systematic approach. Then he joined his brother’s company Softbank Group, and subsequently got back into the limelight with the launch of Movida Japan in 2011.

See also:

Movida Japan opening up startup program under new chief accelerator

Looking back at the time, Japanese internet giant Digital Garage (TSE:4819) and its affiliate companies launched Open Network Lab advocating the creation of Y Combinator in Japan while several other VC firms were starting similar acceleration programs. Movida Japan was among these and had been providing a several-month intensive incubation program in cohort batches. In an interview with Japanese business magazine Nikkei Business, Son described how he had launched Movida Japan.

I’ve been dashing forward to gain results while looking at my brother Masayoshi and at the people’s sense of values. […] However I suddenly realized I’m already just before 40 years old. Confucius says one has no doubts at forty. However, I had been always puzzled in my busy minute-by-minute schedule. […] What the heck I should do?

Spending two years, my conclusion was transferring my experience to young entrepreneurs. In addition, I decided to form a startup ecosystem surpassing Silicon Valley in East Asia by 2030.

I asked Son what on earth Movida Japan was. He responded:

What’s the most we have learned through it was having a place rather than us just providing mentoring or support young entrepreneurs. That was where people were polishing each others, aiming to go forward and higher. It was big for us to experience something small from the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem. I was working for Softbank Group during the same period where I could gain much experience and build my network.

When we speak with Son, he often uses this diagram (see below). That was so when I interviewed him at the launch of Movida Japan.

mistletoe-fostering-ecosystem-diagram — Image credit: Mistoetoe

I’ve been using this diagram before launching Movida Japan. Yet I was wondering what we should start with. But I thought it would sprout out from seeds here (Movida Japan). On the side, in discussions with Fumihara-kun (CEO of Nana Music) over an offline fan meeting, I was conducting billion dollar M&A deals. Such a major gap gave me a great input.

I spent almost three years doing various things from scratch, and could finally organize my thoughts. That’s Mistletoe.

Mistletoe orchestrates innovations

Looking back at what he had been doing at Indigo and Movida Japan, what he’s trying to do won’t change a lot at Mistletoe neither. That’s to create new power and solve social issues. As he mentioned, his thoughts were well organized and his activities slightly upgraded at Mistletoe, where they will ‘integrate’ entrepreneurs with each others.

Son explained:

Every entrepreneur really needs his or her focus to gain success. But solving a big problem is difficult for a single entrepreneur. That’s why we are planning to integrate their skills in solving problems with each others.

Meta Entrepreneur, a superordinate concept that Son addresses, is called “Orchestrates Innovations” at the Mistletoe program. They aim to solve big problems through “chemical reactions” resulting from combining various technologies and expertise. To make these possible, Mistletoe is to provide human resources, goods and capital.

He continued:

Finally we have fixed onto what we want to do. Two missions, orchestrating innovations and forming an ecosystem to accelerate them — that’s just what we should do.

I believe this approach is now possible because the Japanese startup scene has a deeper talent pool of entrepreneurs and investors who have been nourished by Son and the Japanese market these days.

taizo-son-at-mistletoe-2 — Photo by Takeshi Hirano, The Bridge

Son will celebrate his 20th anniversary this year since launching his first company while attending university. Concluding the interview, I asked him if he has anything unchanged since then. He replied:

I’ve been often expressing a “metaball” company. Appears to be like a globular cluster nebula. They are several objects, they look like one cluster when seen from a distance. At my company Indigo, there was no boundary defining inside or outside the team but everyone was located randomly around me and continued working.

Some people have come to us and then sped away like Halley’s Comet, others are still revolving around us. I’m told that’s the form of a company I had beem aiming for. It may not have changed a lot since my early days.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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US ad agency mogul highlights open innovation to drive startup success

The Bridge 2016.02.23

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. This is part of our coverage of The Bridge Fes 2016. Our Japanese article covering this session is available here. Stephen Plumlee, Chief Operating Officer of R/GA Media Group based in New York, held a special session on “Open Innovation” on the collaborative activities his firm provides to help startups succeed. Open Innovation is aimed at enhancing innovation by leveraging the synergy produced by the sharing of assets like human resources, networking, know-how, and intellectual property portfolios, among others. Plumlee outlined R/GA’s strategy to drive their plan by exploiting the power of Open Innovation on the client’s behalf. It entails the gathering of tech prowess and acquiring a good grasp of the innovation process. One example provided by Plumlee was R/GA’s joint work with TechStars, which as a result now has a thorough understanding on the Internet of Things (IoT), upon initially setting up two Accelerator Programs on sensor network projects and related IoT. R/GA then leveraged the Los Angeles Dodgers network to launch a sport-tech Accelerator Program for content-related activities. This was followed by another Accelerator Program with Metro…

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.

tbfes2016-open-innovation-1 — R/GA Global COO Stephen Plumlee (right) speaks with his moderator Dentsu Ventures’ Katsuyuki Hasegawa.

This is part of our coverage of The Bridge Fes 2016.
Our Japanese article covering this session is available here.

Stephen Plumlee, Chief Operating Officer of R/GA Media Group based in New York, held a special session on “Open Innovation” on the collaborative activities his firm provides to help startups succeed. Open Innovation is aimed at enhancing innovation by leveraging the synergy produced by the sharing of assets like human resources, networking, know-how, and intellectual property portfolios, among others.

Plumlee outlined R/GA’s strategy to drive their plan by exploiting the power of Open Innovation on the client’s behalf. It entails the gathering of tech prowess and acquiring a good grasp of the innovation process.

One example provided by Plumlee was R/GA’s joint work with TechStars, which as a result now has a thorough understanding on the Internet of Things (IoT), upon initially setting up two Accelerator Programs on sensor network projects and related IoT. R/GA then leveraged the Los Angeles Dodgers network to launch a sport-tech Accelerator Program for content-related activities. This was followed by another Accelerator Program with Metro AG in Germany for innovation involving enhancement of business in the food and hospitality field.

Plumlee explained that in addition to evaluating the success of their programs, the metrics of being able to delve deeper into the respective tech space and of applying such knowledge to R/GA’s core business were adopted. This strategy covers consulting for clients among other services. He underscored the need to clarify the strategies and the business goals of the participants to attain success for the programs.

It was also noted that the lineup and scale of the programs will double this year and that R/GA plans to open an office in Tokyo in 2016.

la-dodgers-accelerator — Los Angeles Dodgers Accelerator with R/GA – Image credit: Los Angeles Dodgers Accelerator

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Yoyo launches rewards platform in Indonesia, offers free internet access to Android users

Masaru Ikeda 2015.02.23

Manila-based Yoyo Holdings [1], the Japanese-led startup known for its mobile rewards platform Candy, announced last week that it has launched a lock screen-based rewards platform for Android users in Indonesia, called PopSlide. The app is available on Google Play in Indonesia. The platform distributes news, weather forecasts, other updates, and ads to your smartphone lock screen. In return for viewing such information, users receive rewards for free Internet access on their smartphone. See also: Mobile rewards startup Yoyo Holdings raises $1.3 million From Infinity Ventures Summit in Kyoto: 13 startups pitch at Launch Pad competition Prior to Indonesia, Yoyo Holdings launched PopSlide in the Philippines in August last year, where the app surpassed 100,000 downloads in only 10 days after launch and stayed on top of the free Lifestyle Category of the Google Play store for 30 days. Their advertisers include major global brands such as McDonald’s, Nestle, Unilever, Intel, and CNN. Yoyo Holdings will launch the service in India, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia, aiming to serve over 400 million Android users in Southeast Asia. Edited by Kurt Hanson Incorporated in Singapore. ↩

Manila-based Yoyo Holdings [1], the Japanese-led startup known for its mobile rewards platform Candy, announced last week that it has launched a lock screen-based rewards platform for Android users in Indonesia, called PopSlide. The app is available on Google Play in Indonesia.

The platform distributes news, weather forecasts, other updates, and ads to your smartphone lock screen. In return for viewing such information, users receive rewards for free Internet access on their smartphone.

See also:

Prior to Indonesia, Yoyo Holdings launched PopSlide in the Philippines in August last year, where the app surpassed 100,000 downloads in only 10 days after launch and stayed on top of the free Lifestyle Category of the Google Play store for 30 days. Their advertisers include major global brands such as McDonald’s, Nestle, Unilever, Intel, and CNN.

Yoyo Holdings will launch the service in India, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia, aiming to serve over 400 million Android users in Southeast Asia.

Edited by Kurt Hanson

Incorporated in Singapore. ↩

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A missed opportunity for Japan’s startup ecosystem

Rick Martin 2014.05.29

From KPCB’s internet trends report released yesterday, comes an interesting factoid: 60% of the top 25 tech companies [were] founded by 1st and 2nd generation Americans. (p.148, see table above) I thought this would be a good time to revisit the question we asked this time last year: As the race for high-skilled immigrants begins, does Japan want to compete? To help address that question, here’s a quote from Japanese PM Shinzo Abe from a recent TV interview, cited/translated by The Japan Times: What are immigrants? The U.S. is a country of immigrants who came from all around the world and formed the (United States). Many people have come to the country and become part of it. We won’t adopt a policy like that. That strategy may prove unwise.

tech-companies-immigrants — from KPCB Internet Trends report (click to enlarge)

From KPCB’s internet trends report released yesterday, comes an interesting factoid:

60% of the top 25 tech companies [were] founded by 1st and 2nd generation Americans. (p.148, see table above)

I thought this would be a good time to revisit the question we asked this time last year:

As the race for high-skilled immigrants begins, does Japan want to compete?

To help address that question, here’s a quote from Japanese PM Shinzo Abe from a recent TV interview, cited/translated by The Japan Times:

What are immigrants? The U.S. is a country of immigrants who came from all around the world and formed the (United States). Many people have come to the country and become part of it. We won’t adopt a policy like that.

That strategy may prove unwise.

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Noramoji Project saves old Japanese fonts from store fronts, reproduces and distributes them

Rick Martin 2014.05.22

This morning I want to share a little about a really incredible typography initiative from Japan called the Noramoji Project. Ongoing for a few month now, the project’s goal is to capture older, interesting fonts seen in the real world (on store fronts, for example), and then analyze their characteristics to extrapolate a complete font set. Here’s a short (lightly edited) excerpt from the project website: Original fonts used in the signs of local stores may not be sophisticated as a precisely designed commercial font, but have a unique charm. This project’s starting point was to rediscover the appeal of craftsmanship and the aging of the materials. After rediscovering and analysis, fonts are reproduced from them. Distribution of the font will make it possible for people to know about the font. […] Profits from the font will be refunded to the owner of the signs, helping the font and the sign to survive. Why not give it a try? If you like this idea, consider getting behind it buy purchasing some fonts (there’s a donate option that gives back to store owners), or one of the many cool t-shirts from their web store.

This morning I want to share a little about a really incredible typography initiative from Japan called the Noramoji Project. Ongoing for a few month now, the project’s goal is to capture older, interesting fonts seen in the real world (on store fronts, for example), and then analyze their characteristics to extrapolate a complete font set.

Here’s a short (lightly edited) excerpt from the project website:

Original fonts used in the signs of local stores may not be sophisticated as a precisely designed commercial font, but have a unique charm. This project’s starting point was to rediscover the appeal of craftsmanship and the aging of the materials. After rediscovering and analysis, fonts are reproduced from them. Distribution of the font will make it possible for people to know about the font. […] Profits from the font will be refunded to the owner of the signs, helping the font and the sign to survive. Why not give it a try?

If you like this idea, consider getting behind it buy purchasing some fonts (there’s a donate option that gives back to store owners), or one of the many cool t-shirts from their web store.

news

Box is open for business in Japan

Rick Martin 2014.05.21

Cloud storage company Box (box.com) announced its entry into the Japanese market at an event here in Tokyo yesterday. In addition to opening an office with ten staffers here in the Japanese capital, the company also announced a number of local companies that have committed to using their secure file sharing and collaboration solution. These companies include DeNA, famima.com (Family Mart’s online presence), JGC (a global engineering contractor), Mitsubishi Estate (real estate), Sanrio Entertainment Co Ltd, and Waseda University. Box also announced Konica Minolta, NTT Communications, and Cybozu as new platform integration partners joining the Box Partner Network. Box Japan, or K.K. Box Japan, will be led by newly appointed president and managing director Katsunori Furuichi, who previously served as president and CEO of Verisign Japan. It’s good to see such a high profile cloud player moving into Japan and partnering with so many major companies. Thus far Japan has been relatively slow to adopt cloud solutions on the enterprise level, and a step like this one should help accelerate change.

Aaron Levie — Aaron Lavie, Box co-founder and CEO

Cloud storage company Box (box.com) announced its entry into the Japanese market at an event here in Tokyo yesterday.

In addition to opening an office with ten staffers here in the Japanese capital, the company also announced a number of local companies that have committed to using their secure file sharing and collaboration solution. These companies include DeNA, famima.com (Family Mart’s online presence), JGC (a global engineering contractor), Mitsubishi Estate (real estate), Sanrio Entertainment Co Ltd, and Waseda University. Box also announced Konica Minolta, NTT Communications, and Cybozu as new platform integration partners joining the Box Partner Network.

Box Japan, or K.K. Box Japan, will be led by newly appointed president and managing director Katsunori Furuichi, who previously served as president and CEO of Verisign Japan.

It’s good to see such a high profile cloud player moving into Japan and partnering with so many major companies. Thus far Japan has been relatively slow to adopt cloud solutions on the enterprise level, and a step like this one should help accelerate change.

news

Hong Kong-based brokerage service ‘8 Securities’ now online in Japan

Rick Martin 2014.05.21

Hong Kong-based online brokerage 8 Securities has officially launched its localized Japanese website just a few hours ago (8securities.co.jp), which will support its services for Japan when they launch in the coming weeks. The company’s Wealth Management service is scheduled to launch in early June, and its Social Trading Portal will follow in July. With intentions to expand from Hong Kong to cover both Japan and the Greater China area, this step into Japan represents a bold move for the company which looks to be growing well. I understand that currently 8 Securities will be operating profitably in 2014, with its bottom line increasing $4 million from 2012 to 2013. It boasts about 50,000 customers [1], with the average customer holding about $40,000 of investments. About 8% of their users access trading on mobile (the portal is web-based), and that approach will certainly serve them well in Japan where smartphone usage is relatively high. Unique to Japan Regarding the Wealth Management offering, the company’s CEO, Mikaal Abdulla, elaborates on how it works: We are offering Japan customers a simple way to invest in a global portfolio of up to 17 exchange traded funds. Customers complete a 3 minute online survey…

Hong Kong-based online brokerage 8 Securities has officially launched its localized Japanese website just a few hours ago (8securities.co.jp), which will support its services for Japan when they launch in the coming weeks. The company’s Wealth Management service is scheduled to launch in early June, and its Social Trading Portal will follow in July.

With intentions to expand from Hong Kong to cover both Japan and the Greater China area, this step into Japan represents a bold move for the company which looks to be growing well. I understand that currently 8 Securities will be operating profitably in 2014, with its bottom line increasing $4 million from 2012 to 2013. It boasts about 50,000 customers [1], with the average customer holding about $40,000 of investments.

About 8% of their users access trading on mobile (the portal is web-based), and that approach will certainly serve them well in Japan where smartphone usage is relatively high.

Unique to Japan

Regarding the Wealth Management offering, the company’s CEO, Mikaal Abdulla, elaborates on how it works:

We are offering Japan customers a simple way to invest in a global portfolio of up to 17 exchange traded funds. Customers complete a 3 minute online survey to assess their risk profile and time horizon and we deliver a global portfolio that matches their goals. Its that simple.

8 Securities’ Social Trading Portal is, in my view, its most intriguing technology, a peer-to-peer service that lets users view how the community is trading as a whole, and even get push notifications for activity on watched stocks, traders, geographies, or times. Mikaal adds, “Unlike social trading mobile apps or bulletin boards, we have combined the social interaction and the actual trade. This has not been done before.”

Interestingly, 8 Securities is aiming to eventually offer this particular service via the web at no cost, with the goal of attaining 1 million registered users. That could serve as a great way to bring potential customers in the door who might then might begin investing with a brokerage account. That’s really clever.

Mikaal explains that they are also planning to launch the Social Trading Platform in Mainland China in late 2014. He explains that they develop all their products in English, Chinese (simplified and traditional), and Japanese, so expansion of the tech itself will be more or less a turn-key process.

These services promise to help Japanese individuals to invest in global markets more easily, and Mikaal notes that both product lines “are totally unique in Japan and solve real customer problems.”

To learn more about 8 Securities and its push into Japan, do check out the company’s YouTube Channel which has a number of informative new videos in Japanese, including this brief introduction to the service.

Mikaal explains that this is 50,000 active accounts with assets, which differs slightly from some previous reports (like this one) about 8 Securities because of a redefinition of ‘active’, which I understand is now in line with industry norms. ↩

news

GREE Ventures closes $50M fund to target Asian startups

Rick Martin 2014.05.16

GREE Ventures has just announced the initial closing of its second fund. Dubbed the AT-I Investment Limited Partnership, this is a 5 billion yen fund (or about $50 million) which it will use to target tech startups in Japan and South East Asia, mostly series A stage companies at about 100 million yen to 300 million yen per company ($1 million to $3 million). Investors in the fund include GREE Inc, SME Support Japan, Credit Saison, Ateam Inc, and Mizuho Capital. The announcement notes that a second closing will likely come later this summer. GREE Ventures (PDF)

GREE Ventures has just announced the initial closing of its second fund. Dubbed the AT-I Investment Limited Partnership, this is a 5 billion yen fund (or about $50 million) which it will use to target tech startups in Japan and South East Asia, mostly series A stage companies at about 100 million yen to 300 million yen per company ($1 million to $3 million).

Investors in the fund include GREE Inc, SME Support Japan, Credit Saison, Ateam Inc, and Mizuho Capital. The announcement notes that a second closing will likely come later this summer.

GREE Ventures (PDF)

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