Since its launch in 2008, Tokyo-based startup Eureka has developed Pairs and Couples, mobile apps for dating and couples. The company announced today that it has been wholly acquired by US-Based The Match Group, a company of NASDAQ-listed IAC which runs globally online dating services such as Match, OKCupid, Tinder, HowAboutWe, Meetic, Twoo as well as other media sites including Ask, About.com, and Vimeo. Details of the acquisition price has not been disclosed. See also: Boasting over 1.3M users, Japan’s Eureka tackles online dating with data-driven approach Pairs is a Facebook-based dating and marriage hunting app launched in 2012 and has acquired over 1.5 million users in Japan and 800,000 users in Taiwan to date. Couple is a memory-sharing and messaging app for couples, and has acquired over 2.2 million users. The company recently launched a media business targeting couples in their teens and 20s leveraging the user base of the Couple app, planning to launch a traditional Chinese version for Taiwanese users in June. Taking advantage of the business experience of IAC with which has succeeded in many media businesses globally, Eureka wants to further develop its business around the Couples app not only in Japan but also in the Southeast Asian…
Since its launch in 2008, Tokyo-based startup Eureka has developed Pairs and Couples, mobile apps for dating and couples. The company announced today that it has been wholly acquired by US-Based The Match Group, a company of NASDAQ-listed IAC which runs globally online dating services such as Match, OKCupid, Tinder, HowAboutWe, Meetic, Twoo as well as other media sites including Ask, About.com, and Vimeo. Details of the acquisition price has not been disclosed.
Pairs is a Facebook-based dating and marriage hunting app launched in 2012 and has acquired over 1.5 million users in Japan and 800,000 users in Taiwan to date. Couple is a memory-sharing and messaging app for couples, and has acquired over 2.2 million users. The company recently launched a media business targeting couples in their teens and 20s leveraging the user base of the Couple app, planning to launch a traditional Chinese version for Taiwanese users in June.
Taking advantage of the business experience of IAC with which has succeeded in many media businesses globally, Eureka wants to further develop its business around the Couples app not only in Japan but also in the Southeast Asian region. The two firms will maintain their brands and independent business operations with their personnel structures unchanged after the merger.
In this space, we’ve seen Korean startup VCNC seeing a good growth in Asia and boasting over 11 million downloads (as of January 2015) of its couple messaging app Between, which fundraised an estimated several millions of dollars from 500 Startups and Japanese VC firm Global Brain last year.
See the original story in Japanese. Japanese startup Eureka has an office in Ebisu, Tokyo. Since its launch in 2008, the company has provided mobile apps like Pairs and Couples. We recently visited the office to hear from the company’s CEO Yu Akasaka and COO Jun Nishikawa. Boasting over 1.3 million users In July, Akasaka and Nishikawa co-founded a company focused on incubating and investing in startups in Japan and the rest of the world, called Eureka Ventures. In association with DeNA and other companies, Eureka Ventures participated in a $500,000 investment round in East Meet East, a New York-based online dating service for Asian people. Eureka expects that the partnership through this investment help their business grow further while exploring a business synergy between the North American and Asian markets. Since its launch two years ago, the Pairs app has acquired over 1.3 million downloads from the Japanese and Taiwanese markets to date, with about 500,000 users users coming from Taiwan. Given the high penetration rate of Facebook and a pro-Japanese attitude, they attempted to focus on marketing in Taiwan, becoming a big success. Akasaka explained what prompted them to start developing the Pairs app: There are many online…
Eureka CEO Yu Akasaka (right) and Jun Nishikawa (left)
Japanese startup Eureka has an office in Ebisu, Tokyo. Since its launch in 2008, the company has provided mobile apps like Pairs and Couples. We recently visited the office to hear from the company’s CEO Yu Akasaka and COO Jun Nishikawa.
Boasting over 1.3 million users
In July, Akasaka and Nishikawa co-founded a company focused on incubating and investing in startups in Japan and the rest of the world, called Eureka Ventures. In association with DeNA and other companies, Eureka Ventures participated in a $500,000 investment round in East Meet East, a New York-based online dating service for Asian people. Eureka expects that the partnership through this investment help their business grow further while exploring a business synergy between the North American and Asian markets.
Since its launch two years ago, the Pairs app has acquired over 1.3 million downloads from the Japanese and Taiwanese markets to date, with about 500,000 users users coming from Taiwan. Given the high penetration rate of Facebook and a pro-Japanese attitude, they attempted to focus on marketing in Taiwan, becoming a big success.
Akasaka explained what prompted them to start developing the Pairs app:
There are many online dating services in the North American and North European markets. But we thought this sector is not yet well established and still had much space for growth. Typical online dating sites may give you a negative impression, so we understood the importance of changing the culture to improve it.
After shutting down two mobile apps
Eureka has actually introduced four apps to date: Online dating and marriage hunting app Pairs, memory sharing app Couples, app discovery app Peepapp and its antecedent Pickie. But the latter two services have already been shut down.
Following other users, Peepapps allowed you to peep what apps they were using. But it was too early because there was no trend among people exploring a new app on a social basis. Regardless of support from a big company or a big promotion budget, we learned through our experience that a service not in step with the times would be never accepted.
After shutting down the two services, Eureka had been exploring the next business to take on while handling cultivation of contracted software development businesses. Nishikawa subsequently came up with an idea for an online dating service:
When it comes to a new business idea, we wanted to create one which is obviously monetizable. The online dating sector is becoming integrated and has a solid revenue model. I believed a huge potential is out there because I saw many friends around me using such service when I was abroad to study.
Adopting a data-driven approach
Despite the fact that the Asian region is considered a ‘Blue Ocean’ market for them, there are many competitors in the online dating sector. What is a key advantage behind their steady growth?
The two co-founders have strong backgrounds in marketing through their experience working with e-commerce businesses. They attach much importance to metrics like customer acquisition cost, lifetime value or conversion rate, and are adjusting the service in line with the data-driven approach that they have learned from their previous business experiences. Akasaka elaborated:
We keep seeing metrics and improving the app every day. In addition to various metrics and user feedback, we’re sharing figures like how many times the app has crashed in our entire team so we can run a PDCA cycle very quickly.
Improving user experience to satisfy user needs
Akasaka pointed out that both the product itself and the promotion effort combined make a big success. These are directly linked with behavior which they have been developing the app toward, from the user’s perspective.
Akasaka explained how they are making efforts to improve the app:
We launched a new version of the Pairs app for iOS and Android on August 21, where we rolled out various improvements. For example, typical online dating apps show you square-shaped profile photos but we changed it to round-shaped ones, which shows less numbers of candidates in a first view screen. This is a very minor change but creates a world view different from that of conventional dating sites, which makes users easier to sign up.
Nishikawa added:
While our desktop version looks like Facebook, the iOS app has adopted a similar interface to Line. Considering apps that our users are using most often, we are improving interfaces of the service for devices accordingly.
We can see their thoughtfulness in the well-designed interface. For example, they use an elaborate design in the app screen so you will not have to worry about a peep even when you are using the app in a crowded train. That’s from considering Japanese women’s typical concern that they hate anyone knowing about them using an online dating app.
Educational activities needed in any markets
The Pairs has acquired over 8 million Facebook likes, over 1 million monthly active users, and matched over 4 million couples in total.
However, once a user finds a good partner on the Pairs app, he or she will quit the app shortly. How did the team address this issue? In a response to my question, Akasaka explained:
It doesn’t matter. If a couple step into the next phase, they will start another of our apps, Couples. Even if their relationship doesn’t work out, they will get back to us and start using the Pairs app again.
As Akasaka now thinks that they can grow the service tenfold, he aims to educate people and improve their negative stereotype about encounters through online dating services. Nishikawa explained how they will proceed from here:
We invested in New York-based online dating service East Meet East a month ago. In a recent discussion with the team, they told us even Western couples are not willing to unveil that they have met each others using an online dating service. So this education process will be needed globally. We’ll be devoting ourselves to it.
Some of our readers may remember our April Fool’s Day post on crazy apps from Japan. Since then I’ve come across another series of interesting apps which in many cases leverage Facebook and peoples’ relationships on the social network. Behind them all is a single company called Eureka. And here are the apps that they’ve come up with, in no particular order. 1. Group Date Forecast¶ In Japan people don’t often go on blind dates, but instead they opt for group dates called ‘Go-kon’. There’s a person in charge of the girls side and and one for the boys side, and they are the ones responsible for bringing the hottest friends to group date. Group Date Forecast is an app that tells you who you should bring among all your Facebook friends, creating the ultimate go-kon team. 2. Facebook Invoice Checker ¶ ‘Facebook Ryokin Checker’ can roughly translates as ‘Facebook Invoice Checker’. The app calculates how much your usage fee would amount to if Facebook were a paid service. Japanese people tend to be a little more willing to pay for web and mobile services, so this idea really makes you appreciate a free service like Facebook. My invoice was…
Some of our readers may remember our April Fool’s Day post on crazy apps from Japan. Since then I’ve come across another series of interesting apps which in many cases leverage Facebook and peoples’ relationships on the social network. Behind them all is a single company called Eureka. And here are the apps that they’ve come up with, in no particular order.
In Japan people don’t often go on blind dates, but instead they opt for group dates called ‘Go-kon’. There’s a person in charge of the girls side and and one for the boys side, and they are the ones responsible for bringing the hottest friends to group date. Group Date Forecast is an app that tells you who you should bring among all your Facebook friends, creating the ultimate go-kon team.
‘Facebook Ryokin Checker’ can roughly translates as ‘Facebook Invoice Checker’. The app calculates how much your usage fee would amount to if Facebook were a paid service. Japanese people tend to be a little more willing to pay for web and mobile services, so this idea really makes you appreciate a free service like Facebook. My invoice was 112,900 yen!
This app creates a correlation diagram for an imaginary TV drama that casts you as the hero or heroine. Based on your interactions with friends on Facebook, it creates this fun diagram. In the three weeks after its release, the app was liked by 140,000 users, creating attractive illustrated diagrams with funny and catchy titles to boot.
Titled ‘What is your May Blues?’, this app diagnoses what sickness you might have in the month of May. Why May? Well, ‘May Blues’ is a term commonly used by Japanese people, and it refers to the lack of motivation or passion that people often feel in May. April marks a new year at school or work, and after a busy first month, people sort of burn out. This app helps you deal with the affliction with a positive attitude.
Excuse for tardiness is a Facebook app that gives you good excuses for being late for work or other important occasions. The app gives you three questions to answer, like ‘do you watch the late night comedy shows?’ or ‘how many alarm clocks do you have in your room?’ Upon answering these questions, it tells you which excuse you should use — but it is presented in manga form! The app was developed for a female skin care company Dr. Ci:Labo, so the excuses tend to be a little on the cute side. When I tried it, I got “Because the cat I saw on the way to work was soooo cute”.
‘Omikuji’ is a paper fortune that you get at the beginning of the New Year at shrines in Japan. The app is no longer is service since it was provided only at the beginning of the year, but it’s a pretty interesting idea all the same. Although ‘Hatsumode’ (or the first shrine visit of the year) is a common ritual for many Japanese people, some might not be able to make it. For these people, the Omikuji app lets them to do so online. The app racked up over 250,000 Facebook likes within ten days after its release.
To help launch a new makeup powder from Clinique, Eureka developed an app called ‘Chose a friend with flawless skin’. The app works very simply. It asks you to choose five of your friends who you think have amazing skin. This made for great viral content because no one is unhappy to hear compliments about their complexion. The app has been since taken down from Facebook too, since it was for a time-specific campaign.
‘Honest Valentine Forecast’ analyzes your friendships on Facebook, and creates a map of how this year’s Valentine’s Day will turn out. In Japan, typical Valentine’s gifts have always been chocolates, and in Japan, girls give it to boys instead of the other way around. Since there’s a culture of even giving Valentine’s chocolates to co-workers at the office (a gesture called ‘giri-choko’, where ‘giri’ means ‘a sense of duty’). Honest Valentine Forecast predicts who your secret crush is, and who you should give some chocolate to.
‘Todofuken’ means ‘prefecture’ in Japanese, and this Todofuken Love Map alllows users to ask questions about love that they would hesitate to ask openly. Questions such as ‘what is your breast size?’ or ‘do you have lucky underwear?’. Interestingly, the user generated results of the questionaire are shown on a map. This app is mobile only, and is the only one on our list not integrated with Facebook.
This app hypothesizes a world that consists of only 100 men, and shows how many of these men will profess their love to you (referred to as ‘‘Kokuhaku’’ in Japanese) — possibly taking inspiration from the famous book If the World were a Village.
For many of these apps, the company will require you to you like their page first before you try them out. This is not a tactic I’m particulary fond of, but the ideas are sort of fun and they’re sure to bring you and your friends some laughs.
Eureka 
Masaru Ikeda
Yukari Mitsuhashi
