Tokyo Metro has launched a new English language app called ‘Tokyo Subway Navigation for Tourists’. I just wanted to take a moment to show why I would not recommend it to any tourist. Here’s a sample search and result for how to get from Shibuya to Ebisu: Most train apps will tell you that the best way is to take the Yamanote Line, operated by JR East, for one stop and you’ll be there in about three minutes. But Tokyo Metro has not included JR trains, either because it can’t or doesn’t want to. Whatever the case, its a disservice to consumers. No app should ever suggest this route to anyone. Otherwise the app looks sharp, bringing interactivity to the popular Tokyo Metro map, as well as language support for English, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Korean, and Japanese. Considering the shortcomings of the above application, it would be nice to see third party developers be better enabled to contribute in this space. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications does have an open data strategy, which is said to include public transportation such as trains and buses, but I’m not sure of its current progress. I don’t see any information…
Tokyo Metro has launched a new English language app called ‘Tokyo Subway Navigation for Tourists’. I just wanted to take a moment to show why I would not recommend it to any tourist.
Here’s a sample search and result for how to get from Shibuya to Ebisu:
Most train apps will tell you that the best way is to take the Yamanote Line, operated by JR East, for one stop and you’ll be there in about three minutes. But Tokyo Metro has not included JR trains, either because it can’t or doesn’t want to. Whatever the case, its a disservice to consumers.
No app should ever suggest this route to anyone.
Otherwise the app looks sharp, bringing interactivity to the popular Tokyo Metro map, as well as language support for English, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Korean, and Japanese.
Considering the shortcomings of the above application, it would be nice to see third party developers be better enabled to contribute in this space. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications does have an open data strategy, which is said to include public transportation such as trains and buses, but I’m not sure of its current progress. I don’t see any information for developers about APIs on Tokyo Metro’s or Japan Railways’s websites in English, and that should really change.
Today Amazon Japan launched a storefront focused on females, dubbed ‘Amazon Woman’ (amazon.co.jp/woman), catering to women and mothers specifically. According to CNet Japan (Japanese), it’s the first time that Amazon Japan had a project team driven by a core of female employees. The site will focus on fashions, cosmetics, food, lifestyle goods, etc, with over 6000 items currently listed. While women may not be treated so fairly in Japan, many internet companies in the country are starting to realize the opportunities in providing custom services to women. Even here at The Bridge we have a special category dedicated to women on our Japanese site. CNet Japan
Today Amazon Japan launched a storefront focused on females, dubbed ‘Amazon Woman’ (amazon.co.jp/woman), catering to women and mothers specifically. According to CNet Japan (Japanese), it’s the first time that Amazon Japan had a project team driven by a core of female employees. The site will focus on fashions, cosmetics, food, lifestyle goods, etc, with over 6000 items currently listed.
While women may not be treated so fairly in Japan, many internet companies in the country are starting to realize the opportunities in providing custom services to women. Even here at The Bridge we have a special category dedicated to women on our Japanese site.
See the original story in Japanese.Tokyo-based EventRegist provides a mobile app for event organizers. It lets you announce events, handle ticketing, and collect admission fees from guests. The startup announced today that it has raised 165 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Japanese newspaper company Nikkei. Since its launch back in November of 2011, EventRegist has been available to five markets, offering service in Japanese, English, Indonesian, Thai, and traditional Chinese. They will use these new funds to intensify product development and marketing efforts. Their platform has been adopted by notable events here in Japan, such as the New Economy Summit, Ceatec Japan, and Ad:tech Tokyo. It appears they will focus on adding more functions for event-organizing companies rather than just individual meet-up organizers. Update: Nikkei unveiled they are planning to integrate their digital edition’s subscribers with EventRegist, promoting events by helping them easier register to attend.
Tokyo-based EventRegist provides a mobile app for event organizers. It lets you announce events, handle ticketing, and collect admission fees from guests. The startup announced today that it has raised 165 million yen (about $1.6 million) from Japanese newspaper company Nikkei.
Since its launch back in November of 2011, EventRegist has been available to five markets, offering service in Japanese, English, Indonesian, Thai, and traditional Chinese. They will use these new funds to intensify product development and marketing efforts.
Their platform has been adopted by notable events here in Japan, such as the New Economy Summit, Ceatec Japan, and Ad:tech Tokyo. It appears they will focus on adding more functions for event-organizing companies rather than just individual meet-up organizers.
Update: Nikkei unveiled they are planning to integrate their digital edition’s subscribers with EventRegist, promoting events by helping them easier register to attend.
Tokyo-based mobile game developer MyNet recently announced it has raised an undisclosed sum of investment from Japanese gaming giant Sega Networks. The two companies say they will join forces to develop more gaming apps. Since its launch back in July of 2006, MyNet had been providing customer relationship management solutions to restaurants and retailers. However, they sold their CRM solutions to Yahoo Japan and changed their focus to social games development early last year. Their recent mobile game Emblem of Falkyrie has been performing well these days, especially in the Asia region. Coinciding with this announcement, MyNet has introduced an iOS version of this game. Sega Networks is a subsidiary of Sega Sammy Group, known for having developed the popular mobile puzzle RPG Puyo Puyo Quest.
Tokyo-based mobile game developer MyNet recently announced it has raised an undisclosed sum of investment from Japanese gaming giant Sega Networks. The two companies say they will join forces to develop more gaming apps.
Since its launch back in July of 2006, MyNet had been providing customer relationship management solutions to restaurants and retailers. However, they sold their CRM solutions to Yahoo Japan and changed their focus to social games development early last year. Their recent mobile game Emblem of Falkyrie has been performing well these days, especially in the Asia region. Coinciding with this announcement, MyNet has introduced an iOS version of this game.
Sega Networks is a subsidiary of Sega Sammy Group, known for having developed the popular mobile puzzle RPG Puyo Puyo Quest.
See the original story in Japanese. Our readers may recall Tokyo-based web design firm Goodpatch raised funds from Digital Garage this past December. More recently the company announced a new prototyping tool in closed beta. It’s called Prott. The tool is focused on helping developers create mobile apps based on rapid prototyping methods. We’ve already seen similar tools like Invision or Flinto, but there are very few players in this space in Japan. Coinciding with this beta version, the company has unveiled a new design for its homepage, including a promo video of the prototyping tool (see below). The company also plans to launch an iOS app for the tool this month. For their closed beta period, members of their Facebook beta testers group are preferentially invited.
Our readers may recall Tokyo-based web design firm Goodpatch raised funds from Digital Garage this past December. More recently the company announced a new prototyping tool in closed beta. It’s called Prott.
The tool is focused on helping developers create mobile apps based on rapid prototyping methods. We’ve already seen similar tools like Invision or Flinto, but there are very few players in this space in Japan.
Coinciding with this beta version, the company has unveiled a new design for its homepage, including a promo video of the prototyping tool (see below).
The company also plans to launch an iOS app for the tool this month. For their closed beta period, members of their Facebook beta testers group are preferentially invited.
Avex Entertainment Inc. [1], a music and video production company based in Tokyo, has announced a partnership with Line Corporation based around mobile content related to Avex’s artists, which include music superstar Ayumi Hamasaki. Avex has already provided Line stamps for Hamasaki (see below) and other artists, and they also create rooms in Line Play where fans can interact. The new partnership will see Avex continue to use Line and its many services as a platform, ostensibly in a more formalized manner moving forward. It will be interesting to see how many more entertainment companies follow suit. Avex Group via Venture Now A subsidiary of Avex Group. ↩
Avex Entertainment Inc. [1], a music and video production company based in Tokyo, has announced a partnership with Line Corporation based around mobile content related to Avex’s artists, which include music superstar Ayumi Hamasaki. Avex has already provided Line stamps for Hamasaki (see below) and other artists, and they also create rooms in Line Play where fans can interact.
The new partnership will see Avex continue to use Line and its many services as a platform, ostensibly in a more formalized manner moving forward. It will be interesting to see how many more entertainment companies follow suit.
Here’s a fun photo project from the folks over at Cinemacraft, as their Qixshr collage creation platform can now create interesting collages based on any of your Facebook albums [1]. I’m told by Cinemacraft founder Sandeep Casi that the service selects the top seven photos based on likes and comments, and then creates a collage based on computed areas of interest (with priority given to focus) in the photo. The crop wasn’t always perfect for me (see my zoo collage, maybe my focus was off?), but its certainly a fun and powerful service for anyone who wants to create collages from an event album. I understand that it’s already gaining some traction on Facebook, and with Twitter’s new photo features, it could potentially do well on that platform too. Check it out at Qixshr.me. Qixshr was previously released as a B2B service, but this time they’re focused on consumers. ↩
Here’s a fun photo project from the folks over at Cinemacraft, as their Qixshr collage creation platform can now create interesting collages based on any of your Facebook albums [1]. I’m told by Cinemacraft founder Sandeep Casi that the service selects the top seven photos based on likes and comments, and then creates a collage based on computed areas of interest (with priority given to focus) in the photo.
The crop wasn’t always perfect for me (see my zoo collage, maybe my focus was off?), but its certainly a fun and powerful service for anyone who wants to create collages from an event album. I understand that it’s already gaining some traction on Facebook, and with Twitter’s new photo features, it could potentially do well on that platform too. Check it out at Qixshr.me.
Qixshr was previously released as a B2B service, but this time they’re focused on consumers. ↩
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Catarizm, the startup behind online leisure booking site Asoview, announced today that it has raised about 200 million yen (or approximately $1.95 million) from Globis Capital Partners and Jafco. The startup will use the funds to enhance its booking management system and add call center representatives. Since its official launch back in April [1], the company has been providing booking services for weekend leisure activities like skydiving, rafting, and many others. The company secured a partnership with Yahoo Japan’s travel portal back in October, and we were told at that time that they had listed 1,500 excursion activities on site from over 460 companies. That figure has since grown to about 2,150 activities available from 775 companies. They also launched a finder app for sightseeing spot called Holipple back in December. Their potential competitors include Trippiece and PlayLife here in Japan, as well as San Francisco-based startup Peek which secured funding of $5 million earlier this month. What’s interesting about this space is how large the market size is. Catarizm’s CEO Tomohisa Yamano told us that the Japanese travel industry alone is worth about $17.5 billion. But if you factor in the leisure…
Tokyo-based Catarizm, the startup behind online leisure booking site Asoview, announced today that it has raised about 200 million yen (or approximately $1.95 million) from Globis Capital Partners and Jafco. The startup will use the funds to enhance its booking management system and add call center representatives.
Since its official launch back in April [1], the company has been providing booking services for weekend leisure activities like skydiving, rafting, and many others. The company secured a partnership with Yahoo Japan’s travel portal back in October, and we were told at that time that they had listed 1,500 excursion activities on site from over 460 companies. That figure has since grown to about 2,150 activities available from 775 companies. They also launched a finder app for sightseeing spot called Holipple back in December.
Their potential competitors include Trippiece and PlayLife here in Japan, as well as San Francisco-based startup Peek which secured funding of $5 million earlier this month.
What’s interesting about this space is how large the market size is. Catarizm’s CEO Tomohisa Yamano told us that the Japanese travel industry alone is worth about $17.5 billion. But if you factor in the leisure industry as well, it’s as large as $622.6 billion. These figures include sales beyond just the reservation business they are focused on, but you get the idea.
I asked Yamano if he could be more precise about how they foresee their market potential. He responded by pointing out that Tokyo Disney Land had 2.75 million annual visitors back in 2012, and he expects they can acquire a similar volume of paying users.
So far the company headcount is less than 20 people, but they will grow to become a 40-person team as they pursue their sales target.
This particular article/summary is written with many Japanese tech companies and startups in mind. ↩
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Kaizen Platform, the startup behind the user interface A/B testing platform PlanBCD, announced today that it has secured $5 million from Fidelity Growth Partners Japan and Gree Ventures. With the funds, the company expects to add more engineers to help with platform development. Co-founder and CEO Kenji Sudo will be focused on launching the company’s international business, preparing to launch offices in San Francisco and New York. Sudo explained: We’ll use these funds to enhance our service so it can help companies grow their online businesses, rather than just serve as an A/B testing tool as it is now. We have invited Jun Ogawa (the former ad sales head at Google Japan) as country manager and Yugo Takino (former gaming platform head at GREE) as a product manager, which will allow me to focus more on launching our US operations. Beyond A/B testing As Kaizen’s interface improvement solutions combine a testing tool with crowdsourcing, and it has been embraced by many web app development companies in Japan. Their enterprise edition of PlanBCD has acquired more than 30 corporate users since its launch last August. And on online edition of their service has been…
Tokyo-based Kaizen Platform, the startup behind the user interface A/B testing platform PlanBCD, announced today that it has secured $5 million from Fidelity Growth Partners Japan and Gree Ventures. With the funds, the company expects to add more engineers to help with platform development.
Co-founder and CEO Kenji Sudo will be focused on launching the company’s international business, preparing to launch offices in San Francisco and New York. Sudo explained:
We’ll use these funds to enhance our service so it can help companies grow their online businesses, rather than just serve as an A/B testing tool as it is now. We have invited Jun Ogawa (the former ad sales head at Google Japan) as country manager and Yugo Takino (former gaming platform head at GREE) as a product manager, which will allow me to focus more on launching our US operations.
Beyond A/B testing
As Kaizen’s interface improvement solutions combine a testing tool with crowdsourcing, and it has been embraced by many web app development companies in Japan. Their enterprise edition of PlanBCD has acquired more than 30 corporate users since its launch last August. And on online edition of their service has been adopted by 500 companies in 15 countries worldwide. According to Sudo, many of their users are non-internet companies who can’t pay much attention to typical growth hacking techniques for their websites. Kaizen aims to help both less-knowledgeable companies as well as experienced users improve conversions and user acquisitions. He explained:
However well you can run an ad promotion, you can’t expect conversions without improved content on the landing page. We’re planning to build a dashboard feature that helps users understand which part of their websites should be improved for better conversions by showing them metrics.
He gave me a quick look at the dashboard, which lists improvement points with numerical indicators, essentially empowering webmasters to ask crowdsourced workers to make an improvements with just the press of a button.
While things have been good for Kaizen so far, their business still has a problem to resolve. They have about 400 crowdsourced workers who can help with client work, but they still need more. To address this need, they are exploring the possibility of finding workers in more remote areas.
Through partnerships with local governments, we would like to provide work opportunities for people like university students, especially in remote areas.
Corporate websites are often being updated and promoted, especially during new seasons or when new products are released. So if Kaizen can introduced a better version of its platform, it should be an invaluable tool for website maintenance and improvement not only in Japan but also around the world. Let’s stay tuned and see how they do!
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Mercari, the startup behind the mobile flea market app of the same name, announced today it has raised 1.45 billion yen (approximately $14.1 million) from Global Brain, Globis Capital Partners, Itochu Technology Ventures, GMO Venture Partners, and other unnamed investors. Coinciding with this funding, Fumiaki Koizumi, who had been serving as a part-time director, was appointed as a full-time officer. In addition, Shinichi Takamiya, the chief strategy officer at Globis Capital Partners has joined the board of directors. Since the service’s launch back in July, the Mercari app has surpassed one million listed items, growing at a pace of 10,000 items every day (as of last December). Their daily submissions recently grew to tens of thousand of items, and total transactions on the platform also reached several million of US dollars. The app has seen 1.5 million downloads to date. Furthermore, the company is planning to launch a subsidiary in the US to begin its international business operations. Mercari co-founder Ryo Ishizuka, former senior architect at Rock You, will be appointed as a representative for the US company. The company’s CEO Shintaro Yamada told us a little about who their typical users are,…
Coinciding with this funding, Fumiaki Koizumi, who had been serving as a part-time director, was appointed as a full-time officer. In addition, Shinichi Takamiya, the chief strategy officer at Globis Capital Partners has joined the board of directors.
Since the service’s launch back in July, the Mercari app has surpassed one million listed items, growing at a pace of 10,000 items every day (as of last December). Their daily submissions recently grew to tens of thousand of items, and total transactions on the platform also reached several million of US dollars. The app has seen 1.5 million downloads to date.
Furthermore, the company is planning to launch a subsidiary in the US to begin its international business operations. Mercari co-founder Ryo Ishizuka, former senior architect at Rock You, will be appointed as a representative for the US company.
From the left: Director Fumiaki Koizumi and co-founder/CEO Shintaro Yamada
The company’s CEO Shintaro Yamada told us a little about who their typical users are, and how those users behave:
Ladies and kids apparel account for the majority of items traded in the app, comprising about 70%. Our typical users are housewives living in remote areas. They sell unnecessary items to earn spending money, and they often buy a new item with the app.
Many expensive items, like consumer electronics for example, are submitted these days, and he expects to make Mercari a more comprehensive flea market platform.
So how are other flea market apps and auction services doing these days in comparison? Yahoo Auction leads this space in Japan, transacting over $500 million a month. Yamada expects his Mercari to eventually account for about 40% of the entire online flea market industry in Japan.
If that’s the case, we can estimate the leading C2C platform in Japan can transact about $200 million a month. Mercari still has a small share but has the potential to beat its competitors. Yamada expects to acquire new users on smartphone rather than going after users that live in other existing buy-and-sell platforms. The company is currently a 40-person team, with about half of those dedicated to user support.
Of course, if the company only does business in Japan, the market ceiling would be hundreds of millions of dollars. Yamada and his team often visit the U.S., and it seems they’ve been preparing international expansion since their launch. They have already started hiring in San Francisco. According to Yamada, the company figures to launch a service from a scratch in the U.S., rather than making use of what they’ve learned and built in Japan.
Rick Martin
Shintaro Eguchi
Masaru Ikeda
Junya Mori
Takeshi Hirano
