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Mixi’s photobook service gets the TV bump, is now Japan’s top app

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I’ve been pretty fascinated with Mixi’s efforts this year, in particular with those of its internal innovation team. This is the team that developed the Nohana photobook creation app, which initially launched back in February. Interestingly it has just become the number one free iOS app in Japan. I was curious this morning to know exactly why Nohana saw this sudden surge. Some quick Twitter research shows that the application received a big boost last night when it was featured on popular television show ‘A deep, life-changing story in one minute‘. Although it has been said before, this really underscores the value that television represents to any app or game in Japan [1]. Coincidentally, I had a Nohana photobook order delivered to me just yesterday, and the package included a handy little growth chart about the services first few months which you can see below. So far over 40,000 photobooks have been ordered, with 9860 printed in June. I’m still unsure as to whether Nohana can turn a profit with its “your first book is free, the second one is paid” model. But given Japan’s aging demographic, I’m sure that there are lots of customers who send second and third…

nohana-wide

I’ve been pretty fascinated with Mixi’s efforts this year, in particular with those of its internal innovation team. This is the team that developed the Nohana photobook creation app, which initially launched back in February. Interestingly it has just become the number one free iOS app in Japan.

I was curious this morning to know exactly why Nohana saw this sudden surge. Some quick Twitter research shows that the application received a big boost last night when it was featured on popular television show ‘A deep, life-changing story in one minute‘. Although it has been said before, this really underscores the value that television represents to any app or game in Japan [1].

Coincidentally, I had a Nohana photobook order delivered to me just yesterday, and the package included a handy little growth chart about the services first few months which you can see below. So far over 40,000 photobooks have been ordered, with 9860 printed in June.

I’m still unsure as to whether Nohana can turn a profit with its “your first book is free, the second one is paid” model. But given Japan’s aging demographic, I’m sure that there are lots of customers who send second and third copies directly to grandparents when they place an order [2].

Nohana also launched on Android earlier this month, so ostensibly that’s a sign that things are still going well enough to continue its efforts.

If you live in Japan and you still haven’t tried Nohana, do give it a try.

nohana-photo-books-sold
Photobooks sold, February to June

  1. For example, it played a huge part in the early success of Line, as well as popular games like Rage of Bahamut and Puzzle & Dragons. Serkan Toto explored this a little further in a post last year, specific to the social gaming industry.  ↩

  2. The app lets you save multiple addresses, making the process of sending a book to other family members very easy.  ↩

Japanese homescreen decoration app CocoPPa looks for new markets through Opera Mobile Store

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based United, the company behind smartphone homescreen decoration app CocoPPa, announced today that it has introduced its popular app on the Opera Mobile Store. That store reaches various mobile platforms including Android, BlackBerry, Java, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. In addition to Apple’s AppStore and Google Play, the company has also introduced the app on Amazon’s Android AppStore earlier this month. The Opera Mobile Store doesn’t aim to defeat conventional app stores, but rather create an alternative for users who may have different needs in terms of mobile accessibility or location. The store has more then 45 million monthly downloads from over than 30 million users in 200 countries, with an especially strong presence in India, Indonesia, Brazil, and Russia. CocoPPa launched on this app store to intensify its user acquisition in these countries in particular. For those who are not familiar with the app, our previous articles will show you how it works and why it’s currently trending. Or check out the video below for a quick overview.

Opera_Mobile_Store_top_Popular_apps_list_interface_on_Android-powered_phoneSee the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based United, the company behind smartphone homescreen decoration app CocoPPa, announced today that it has introduced its popular app on the Opera Mobile Store. That store reaches various mobile platforms including Android, BlackBerry, Java, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. In addition to Apple’s AppStore and Google Play, the company has also introduced the app on Amazon’s Android AppStore earlier this month.

The Opera Mobile Store doesn’t aim to defeat conventional app stores, but rather create an alternative for users who may have different needs in terms of mobile accessibility or location. The store has more then 45 million monthly downloads from over than 30 million users in 200 countries, with an especially strong presence in India, Indonesia, Brazil, and Russia.

CocoPPa launched on this app store to intensify its user acquisition in these countries in particular. For those who are not familiar with the app, our previous articles will show you how it works and why it’s currently trending. Or check out the video below for a quick overview.

The pen is mightier than the finger: New Puzzle & Dragons branded stylus to go on sale

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If you’ve played Japan’s most popular mobile game, Puzzle & Dragons, for any real length of time, you may find that occasionally you might forget the color of the orb beneath your finger as you move it. (Or perhaps its just me and my own fat fingers?) Despite my own aversion to using a stylus, this is a game that could likely be greatly improved by using one. And now one Japanese company, MetaMoJi, through a collaboration with AppBank has created a P&D branded version of its Su-Pen stylus that will go on sale in a few weeks. This is actually a colorful version of MetaMoJi’s Su-Pen, with multi-colored Puzzle & Dragons orbs decorating the pen’s body. AppBank is the operator of the official Pazudora-ya store, which is where the new pen will go on sale on August 9th. It will retail for 1980 yen (or about $20). MetaMoji is best known for its 7notes and Note Anytime apps handwriting recognition apps, which also make use of the company’s Su-Pen stylus for a better writing experience. On a related note, the aforementioned AppBank has also recently assisted a prominent overseas company improve their reach here in Japan, lending their services…

pazudora-pen

If you’ve played Japan’s most popular mobile game, Puzzle & Dragons, for any real length of time, you may find that occasionally you might forget the color of the orb beneath your finger as you move it. (Or perhaps its just me and my own fat fingers?)

Despite my own aversion to using a stylus, this is a game that could likely be greatly improved by using one. And now one Japanese company, MetaMoJi, through a collaboration with AppBank has created a P&D branded version of its Su-Pen stylus that will go on sale in a few weeks.

This is actually a colorful version of MetaMoJi’s Su-Pen, with multi-colored Puzzle & Dragons orbs decorating the pen’s body. AppBank is the operator of the official Pazudora-ya store, which is where the new pen will go on sale on August 9th. It will retail for 1980 yen (or about $20).

MetaMoji is best known for its 7notes and Note Anytime apps handwriting recognition apps, which also make use of the company’s Su-Pen stylus for a better writing experience.

On a related note, the aforementioned AppBank has also recently assisted a prominent overseas company improve their reach here in Japan, lending their services to Finnish developer Supercell, creating Japanese tutorials for its Clash of Clans game and promoting it on the AppBank site.

Supercell’s other partner in promoting the game was GungHo, creating a cross promotion with special Clash of Clans characters within the Puzzle & Dragons game.

Reaching out to women: Shiseido does it well

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One of my favorite makeup and skincare brands is Shiseido. The cosmetics company has a 140 years of history, and is the number one cosmetics brand in Japan, and fifth worldwide. I like the brand not because I’m a devoted Shiseido products user, but more because of the company’s great digital initiatives both online and offline. The most recent such effort from Shiseido is the launch of its Makeup Simulator app, which is used by over 11,000 beauty consultants at Shiseido stores on ‘Beauty tablets’ (iPads). By looking into the screen as you would look into a mirror, the app replicates your face without makeup, using that representation as a base to try on various makeup products. The app cleverly eliminates the hassle of removing your own makeup to try on products. Shiseido’s first skin analysis product was invented back in 1984 and it has been enhanced and upgraded ever since. There are handy skin sensors installed in its Beauty Tablets as well, allowing skin condition to be measured anywhere in the store. The results can be saved, making continuous advising possible. To see many of Shiseido’s unique digital-enabled services, you can visit Shiseido – The Ginza located in Ginza,…

One of my favorite makeup and skincare brands is Shiseido. The cosmetics company has a 140 years of history, and is the number one cosmetics brand in Japan, and fifth worldwide. I like the brand not because I’m a devoted Shiseido products user, but more because of the company’s great digital initiatives both online and offline.

Shiseido-Makeup-simulatorThe most recent such effort from Shiseido is the launch of its Makeup Simulator app, which is used by over 11,000 beauty consultants at Shiseido stores on ‘Beauty tablets’ (iPads). By looking into the screen as you would look into a mirror, the app replicates your face without makeup, using that representation as a base to try on various makeup products. The app cleverly eliminates the hassle of removing your own makeup to try on products.

Shiseido’s first skin analysis product was invented back in 1984 and it has been enhanced and upgraded ever since. There are handy skin sensors installed in its Beauty Tablets as well, allowing skin condition to be measured anywhere in the store. The results can be saved, making continuous advising possible. To see many of Shiseido’s unique digital-enabled services, you can visit Shiseido – The Ginza located in Ginza, Tokyo.

But if you can’t make it there in person, Shiseido offers part of its simulation app over on its website. By uploading your photo on Beauty Check, the simulator analyses the balance of your face, and then according to the type of look you want to try on, it makes suggestions from different Shiseido product lines such as Integrate or Maquillage.

Shiseido is also well known for its social media activities. For example, Majolica Majorca is a makeup line for younger women, popular both inside and outside of Japan. The company operates social accounts on Facebook and Pinterest in both Japanese and English. As you might expect, the company is active on Line too, opening that account back in July of 2012.

There are many apps and services that specifically target females, especially here in Japan. There is much to be learned from Shiseido’s many digital initiatives to better understand how to sell to the female demographic.

Japan’s ANA enlists Tokyo Otaku Mode to help revive tourism

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When Japanese startup Tokyo Otaku Mode passed 10 million Facebook fans, I jokingly noted that their efforts in promoting Japan and its culture have yielded far better results than those of the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry. Well, now it looks like another organization has taken notice of TOM‘s efforts, and is enlisting its help in trying to boost the amount of incoming tourists to Japan. TOM recently announced a partnership with All Nippon Airways to help promote its ‘Is Japan Cool?’ campaign. That effort is similar to Tokyo Otaku Mode in that it emphases things like cosplay and ‘kawaii’, with the goal of bringing international travelers to Japan. But it will now get a boost from TOM’s huge fan base, as the startup has set up a special landing page to feature ‘Is Japan Cool?’ Content. The startup declined to disclose any financial details of the partnership, but it is good to see the company serving a need, and ostensibly generating some revenue as a result. TOM previously also partnered with one of Japan’s most famous convenient stores, Lawson, in helping to build awareness of that brand as it expands to regions around Asia.

japan-ana-otaku-mode
Artwork from ‘Is Japan Cool? – Dreams

When Japanese startup Tokyo Otaku Mode passed 10 million Facebook fans, I jokingly noted that their efforts in promoting Japan and its culture have yielded far better results than those of the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry. Well, now it looks like another organization has taken notice of TOM‘s efforts, and is enlisting its help in trying to boost the amount of incoming tourists to Japan.

TOM recently announced a partnership with All Nippon Airways to help promote its ‘Is Japan Cool?’ campaign. That effort is similar to Tokyo Otaku Mode in that it emphases things like cosplay and ‘kawaii’, with the goal of bringing international travelers to Japan. But it will now get a boost from TOM’s huge fan base, as the startup has set up a special landing page to feature ‘Is Japan Cool?’ Content.

The startup declined to disclose any financial details of the partnership, but it is good to see the company serving a need, and ostensibly generating some revenue as a result.

TOM previously also partnered with one of Japan’s most famous convenient stores, Lawson, in helping to build awareness of that brand as it expands to regions around Asia.

Japanese social gifting startup launches purchase behavior analysis solution

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See the original story in Japanese. Earlier this week KDDI Mugen Labo, held a demo day event which included a presentation from Giftee, a past graduate from its program. The startup allows you to send friends an e-voucher which they can then redeem at certain retailers. To give a gift, all you need is a connection to that person on a social network, and you can easily send presents to friends without even asking for their physical mail addresses. During their demo day presentation, the company unveiled a new voucher issuing system for businesses. This SaaS solution allows them to issue one-time validity e-vouchers to their customers, who can redeem it at local stores. For retailers, this new solution lets you check the validity of a voucher using the barcode scanner of a POS register at a shop. Extra equipment isn’t required to operate the service. Companies can easily distribute vouchers and analyze user behavior. When companies connect the system with their own CRM systems, they can narrow their target of who can receive e-vouchers according to certain attributes or purchasing histories. If you collect purchasing data of your target users, you can compare their behaviors before and after giving…

gifteeSee the original story in Japanese.

Earlier this week KDDI Mugen Labo, held a demo day event which included a presentation from Giftee, a past graduate from its program. The startup allows you to send friends an e-voucher which they can then redeem at certain retailers. To give a gift, all you need is a connection to that person on a social network, and you can easily send presents to friends without even asking for their physical mail addresses.

During their demo day presentation, the company unveiled a new voucher issuing system for businesses. This SaaS solution allows them to issue one-time validity e-vouchers to their customers, who can redeem it at local stores.

For retailers, this new solution lets you check the validity of a voucher using the barcode scanner of a POS register at a shop. Extra equipment isn’t required to operate the service. Companies can easily distribute vouchers and analyze user behavior.

When companies connect the system with their own CRM systems, they can narrow their target of who can receive e-vouchers according to certain attributes or purchasing histories. If you collect purchasing data of your target users, you can compare their behaviors before and after giving away the voucher.

Giftee was initially launched back in 2010 by three founders who all previously worked with Accenture. The startup received seed funding of 18 million yen (approximately $180,000) from KDDI Mugen Labo, Digital Garage, Kakaku.com, NetPrice, Inspire, and other angel investors back in 2011. Subsequently the company also raised an unknown amount of funds (thought to be in the hundreds of thousands) from Digital Garage and Sunbridge Venture Partners back in 2012.

giftee-e-Ticket-System

Japanese housewife creates clever inflatable umbrella for tots

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One of the reasons that I really like writing about Japan is that there is a steady flow of awesome design concepts from here that few other countries can match. Some of them are incredibly simple and elegant, and My 1st Umbrella is a perfect example of this. Umbrellas can be terribly and pokey dangerous items, especially for kids, and parents might be concerns about children getting sharp parts in their eye, or jamming their fingers in the moving components. So one clever Japanese entrepreneur has come up with an absolutely brilliant solution. Her inflatable umbrellas are great for young children, as they are light, easy to carry, and most of all, entirely safe. It looks almost like a bath toy, in fact. Another clear advantage is portability. One umbrella can be deflated in about ten seconds, quickly folded up and put into a bag or purse. Interestingly the creator of the product, Hiroko Yoshida, used to be a housewife, and is now the CEO of My1st. So far her umbrella has been featured on Japanese TV and on the popular publication Nikkei Trendy. If you would like to pick one up for your own little one, My 1st Umbrella…

my_1st_umbrella_japan

One of the reasons that I really like writing about Japan is that there is a steady flow of awesome design concepts from here that few other countries can match. Some of them are incredibly simple and elegant, and My 1st Umbrella is a perfect example of this.

Umbrellas can be terribly and pokey dangerous items, especially for kids, and parents might be concerns about children getting sharp parts in their eye, or jamming their fingers in the moving components. So one clever Japanese entrepreneur has come up with an absolutely brilliant solution. Her inflatable umbrellas are great for young children, as they are light, easy to carry, and most of all, entirely safe. It looks almost like a bath toy, in fact.

Another clear advantage is portability. One umbrella can be deflated in about ten seconds, quickly folded up and put into a bag or purse.

Interestingly the creator of the product, Hiroko Yoshida, used to be a housewife, and is now the CEO of My1st. So far her umbrella has been featured on Japanese TV and on the popular publication Nikkei Trendy.

If you would like to pick one up for your own little one, My 1st Umbrella is available at various retailers around Japan.

Japan’s latest photo meme is a miniature woman, not intimidated by large cup sizes

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Photo via 1101.com It’s really hard to predict what kind of product will be popular with consumers. But recently here in Japan a very small ‘gacha gacha‘ toy been getting lots of attention, selling three million units since initially going on sale in July of 2012. It is a small, simple figure of a girl, and she goes by the name of ‘Cup’s Fuchiko-san’. ‘Fuchi’ means edge in Japanese, and Fuchiko is a playful name for this diminutive girl who can be hung or placed on the edge of any cups or glass. Fuchiko was created by a well-known manga artist, Katsuki Tanaka, in collaboration with a toy manufacturer Kitan Club. Fuchiko wears a typical blue work uniform, and comes in various versions in different poses. There are even official mooks (a Japanese portmanteau of ‘magazine’ and ‘book’) on Fuchiko, as well as short movies. She appears in animations, most recently in a short movie premiered before movies to promote good manners in movie theaters. Cup’s Fuchiko-san gradually became an internet phenomenon, and the online buzz definitely contributed to its growing fame. Three contests have been held to date asking people to tweet unique photos of their own little Fuchiko with…

Fuchiko-by-1101.comPhoto via 1101.com

It’s really hard to predict what kind of product will be popular with consumers. But recently here in Japan a very small ‘gacha gacha‘ toy been getting lots of attention, selling three million units since initially going on sale in July of 2012. It is a small, simple figure of a girl, and she goes by the name of ‘Cup’s Fuchiko-san’. ‘Fuchi’ means edge in Japanese, and Fuchiko is a playful name for this diminutive girl who can be hung or placed on the edge of any cups or glass.

Fuchiko was created by a well-known manga artist, Katsuki Tanaka, in collaboration with a toy manufacturer Kitan Club. Fuchiko wears a typical blue work uniform, and comes in various versions in different poses. There are even official mooks (a Japanese portmanteau of ‘magazine’ and ‘book’) on Fuchiko, as well as short movies. She appears in animations, most recently in a short movie premiered before movies to promote good manners in movie theaters.

Cup’s Fuchiko-san gradually became an internet phenomenon, and the online buzz definitely contributed to its growing fame. Three contests have been held to date asking people to tweet unique photos of their own little Fuchiko with a designated hashtag. Below are some photos that were selected as winners, and you can see more over on Kitan Blog. Over 600 photos were submitted through Twitter for one of the contests, a truly great response that turned into a wonderful internet meme.

Fuchiko-hirosan415Photo via @hirosan415

Fuchiko-okome3Photo via. @okome3

Fuchiko-DokudanjoTomPhoto via @DokudanjoTom

Fuchiko-nancy_UUUPhoto via @nancy_UUU

Now with 10 million users, Line Play is a problem for Ameba Pigg

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Having already reached the very impressive milestone of 200 million registered users earlier this week [1], Line Corporation has announced today that its Line Play virtual world application has over 10 million users around the globe, reaching that goal in just 8 months. Line Play is very much following in the footsteps of CyberAgent’s virtual world Ameba Pigg, which itself has 15 million users. It features the same kind of cute avatars which can be customized according to your preference, and a similarly styled virtual environment where you can decorate your own room and visit the rooms of others. There are even games that you can play right within the app. One would think that Line Play has a clear upper hand having been born on mobile – in contrast to Ameba Pigg which is scrambling to adjust to mobile. Of course Line’s global mindset as a company, in contrast the the more insular CyberAgent certainly won’t hurt either [2]. From now until August 4, Line will be holding special fan appreciation events within the app to mark the occasion, including bonus gem and ‘gacha’ events. If you have yet to try out Line Play, you can get it for…

line_play_10_million

Having already reached the very impressive milestone of 200 million registered users earlier this week [1], Line Corporation has announced today that its Line Play virtual world application has over 10 million users around the globe, reaching that goal in just 8 months.

Line Play is very much following in the footsteps of CyberAgent’s virtual world Ameba Pigg, which itself has 15 million users. It features the same kind of cute avatars which can be customized according to your preference, and a similarly styled virtual environment where you can decorate your own room and visit the rooms of others. There are even games that you can play right within the app.

One would think that Line Play has a clear upper hand having been born on mobile – in contrast to Ameba Pigg which is scrambling to adjust to mobile. Of course Line’s global mindset as a company, in contrast the the more insular CyberAgent certainly won’t hurt either [2].

From now until August 4, Line will be holding special fan appreciation events within the app to mark the occasion, including bonus gem and ‘gacha’ events. If you have yet to try out Line Play, you can get it for free on the App Store or on Google Play. Or to get a better idea of the look and feel of this mobile virtual world, check out the promo video below.

For more information on the growth of Line and its vast repertoire of apps, including Line Play, please check out our interactive Line Timeline which chronicles its growth from its launch back in 2011 up until the present day.


  1. Some readers were asking us how many of these 200 million were active users. Line tells us they don’t provide worldwide monthly active user numbers, but says that for Japan, monthly active users were about 80.4% as of December 2012.  ↩

  2. CyberAgent previously tried to expand Ameba Pigg beyond Japan, pushing its Pico World service abroad. But regrettably that initiative fell flat and was closed up last December.  ↩

Business reporting tool Gamba now integrates with GitHub, BitBucket, and more

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Yokohama-based startup Gamba announced today that its business reporting tool has been integrated with four code- and task-tracking tools: GitHub, BitBucket, Pivotal Tracker and Google Tasks. Some of our readers may recall that we featured Gamba in our coverage of Samurai Venture Summit. Their app app was launched back last December by Masahiro Morita who previously work with Rakuten as a business development producer. To date it has acquired more than 1,000 corporate accounts in Japan ranging from listed companies to SMEs. For sales representatives or engineers, the app provides an easy way to share your updates with colleagues or management, at the beginning and the end of business hours. For management who has difficulty finding time to speak with employees face-to-face, it provides information on the progression of tasks and what are employees focusing on. In terms of differentiation from similar services, the app lets users post just an excerpt of their daily updates, which keeps things from being too troublesome. If you there are any additional details that you want to share with colleagues, that information will be submitted to the integrated third-party services mentioned above. In this way, coworkers get a brief update first can later explore…

gamba_logoYokohama-based startup Gamba announced today that its business reporting tool has been integrated with four code- and task-tracking tools: GitHub, BitBucket, Pivotal Tracker and Google Tasks.

Some of our readers may recall that we featured Gamba in our coverage of Samurai Venture Summit. Their app app was launched back last December by Masahiro Morita who previously work with Rakuten as a business development producer. To date it has acquired more than 1,000 corporate accounts in Japan ranging from listed companies to SMEs.

For sales representatives or engineers, the app provides an easy way to share your updates with colleagues or management, at the beginning and the end of business hours. For management who has difficulty finding time to speak with employees face-to-face, it provides information on the progression of tasks and what are employees focusing on.

In terms of differentiation from similar services, the app lets users post just an excerpt of their daily updates, which keeps things from being too troublesome. If you there are any additional details that you want to share with colleagues, that information will be submitted to the integrated third-party services mentioned above. In this way, coworkers get a brief update first can later explore more details if needed.

gamba_screenshot

I had a chance to speak with Morita, and he explained how they plan to improve the business moving forward.

We actually received many requests from users who expected us to launch mobile apps. We’re currently working on those, and the iOS app will go live next month, with Android following later on. Subsequently we’ll to add a paid service and exploring series A funding in October.

Regarding possible overseas service expansion, he believes there is a need for this kind of task tracking and reporting beyond Japan too. And in that case, possible competitors would include IDoneThis.com, a notable task tracking tool based in San Francisco.

The company aspires to acquire 5,000 corporate accounts. Here in Japan, we have seen more than a few possible competitors including Chatwork, Co-work, and Talknote.

Gamba is backed by Tokyo-based startup incubator Samurai Incubate.