news

Japanese fashion commerce giant Zozotown acquires fashion coordination startup Vasilly

Takeshi Hirano 2017.10.20

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Vasily, which runs online fashion coordination service iQON, announced on Thursday that it has been acquired by Start Today (TSE:3092), the company behind Japan’s leading fashion commerce site Zozotown. Details on financial terms have not been disclosed. See also: Japan’s fashion coordination app iQon unveils native advertising service Japanese fashion coordination site iQON surpasses 1 million users Japanese fashion site iQon lands partnership with Italian online mall Yoox.com Japanese fashion coordination site iQON raises $3.2M, will boost marketing efforts Vasily was founded back in 2008 and subsequently launched fashion coordination service iQON back in April of 2018. Using the mobile app or desktop, the service allows one to combine clothing and accessories online while sharing fashion coordination ideas with other users. Each item has a direct link to fashion e-commerce sites where purchases are made, and the startup will generate revenue from partner sites using an affiliate model. Their mobile app is highly evaluated and has been selected as the best apps several times on the Apple iTunes Appstore and Google Play. Meanwhile, Start Today, the company behind Zozotown, launched a fashion coordination app called Wear back in 2013, having since acquired…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup Vasily, which runs online fashion coordination service iQON, announced on Thursday that it has been acquired by Start Today (TSE:3092), the company behind Japan’s leading fashion commerce site Zozotown. Details on financial terms have not been disclosed.

Japan’s fashion coordination app iQon unveils native advertising service

iqon
vasily

Takeshi Hirano 2014.10.28

This is the abridged version of this and that articles in Japanese. Tokyo-based Vasily, the startup that provides fashion coordination app iQon, announced on Monday that it will launch a native advertising service called iQon Ad. According to Vasily CEO Yuki Kanayama, they will ask advertisers to create ads that fit in to relevant context and put them between outfit recommendation articles so as to deliver a higher performance in advertising. Prior to the official roll-out, they tested its performance and proved that it took less than 50% in conversion cost than conventional mobile advertising methods. Upon this launch, the company wants to build an ad network for women-focused vertical media. Meanwhile, Vasily started airing TV commercials in Japan on Saturday (see video below), which stars popular Japanese young actress Fumino Kimura, proposing potential users to find a better outfit using the app. We understand that the company recently fundraised over $10 million from Japanese telco KDDI, with their recent transaction volume reaching over $10 million on a monthly basis. As of October, they have listed over 1.3 million user-posted outfits which comprise more than 4.8 million fashion items.

This is the abridged version of this and that articles in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Vasily, the startup that provides fashion coordination app iQon, announced on Monday that it will launch a native advertising service called iQon Ad.

According to Vasily CEO Yuki Kanayama, they will ask advertisers to create ads that fit in to relevant context and put them between outfit recommendation articles so as to deliver a higher performance in advertising. Prior to the official roll-out, they tested its performance and proved that it took less than 50% in conversion cost than conventional mobile advertising methods. Upon this launch, the company wants to build an ad network for women-focused vertical media.

iQon's native ad sample — iQon’s native ad sample

Meanwhile, Vasily started airing TV commercials in Japan on Saturday (see video below), which stars popular Japanese young actress Fumino Kimura, proposing potential users to find a better outfit using the app.

We understand that the company recently fundraised over $10 million from Japanese telco KDDI, with their recent transaction volume reaching over $10 million on a monthly basis. As of October, they have listed over 1.3 million user-posted outfits which comprise more than 4.8 million fashion items.

news

Japanese fashion coordination site iQON surpasses 1 million users

iqon
vasily

Takeshi Hirano 2014.06.26

See the original story in Japanese. Vasily, a Tokyo-based startup which runs online fashion coordination service iQON, announced today that it has surpassed 1 million users. Coinciding with this announcement, the company rebranded its logo design. Since its launch back in April 2010, the service has acquired over 1 million coordinated outfits and listed over 4 million fashion items. Each item introduced on the website is linked to other e-commerce sites where you can buy it, and they drive over 1 million times the traffic to these affiliated e-commerce sites a month. They also announced that some of these sites earn over $1 million in their monthly revenue from iQON users. Will iQON disrupt the fashion e-commerce landscape? Over this past year, we’ve seen many startups have been competing with each others to gain as much time of smartphone users as possible with their mobile services, which is truly remarkable in the space of curated information sites for females. These sites are easy to launch because they don’t need to prepare resources but can be created through use of content from other media sites. But I think this concept does not apply to iQON since the curated fashion site is…

See the original story in Japanese.

Vasily, a Tokyo-based startup which runs online fashion coordination service iQON, announced today that it has surpassed 1 million users. Coinciding with this announcement, the company rebranded its logo design.

Since its launch back in April 2010, the service has acquired over 1 million coordinated outfits and listed over 4 million fashion items. Each item introduced on the website is linked to other e-commerce sites where you can buy it, and they drive over 1 million times the traffic to these affiliated e-commerce sites a month. They also announced that some of these sites earn over $1 million in their monthly revenue from iQON users.

Will iQON disrupt the fashion e-commerce landscape?

Vasily CEO Yuki Kanayama — Vasily CEO
Yuki Kanayama

Over this past year, we’ve seen many startups have been competing with each others to gain as much time of smartphone users as possible with their mobile services, which is truly remarkable in the space of curated information sites for females. These sites are easy to launch because they don’t need to prepare resources but can be created through use of content from other media sites.

But I think this concept does not apply to iQON since the curated fashion site is not one where users consume content passively like other curated content sites. In response to this idea, the company’s CEO Yuki Kanayama told us their service motivates users to act impulsively upon understanding the fashion trends and buying new outfit. This perspective can be proven by the fact that some of their affiliated e-commerce sites obtain 25% of the user traffic from iQON, and others generate a monthly revenue worth over almost $1 million.

All media sites have to make money to survive. So they have to establish intimate relationships with their users and provide them with values enough so that the users are willing to pay fees. As proven by iQON with their business, we have to be more focused on metrics and results. Through its integration efforts with e-commerce sites, it will be interesting to see how iQON can bring a new concept upon generating revenue streams to curated content sites.

celebrating-1million-users-at-iqon — iQON celebrates its 1,000,000th user sign-up.

news

In Japan, mobile lookbooks help take the stress out of shopping

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.05.22

Photo via iQon Japanese women are known for being fashion enthusiasts who love all things Kawaii. Fashion ‘lookbooks’ or coordination services are becoming an essential part of enjoying fashion in the digital age, especially in this corner of the world. One popular service in this space is fashion coordinating site iQon, which has over one million monthly users. Another popular fashion e-commerce service Zozotown has published its own original lookbook content, created by store staff and covering a variety of brands. And long before that, fashionistas have expressed themselves through their styles, uploading photos of daily look on their blogs. I recently came across another fashion coordinating site called Dre’Che, a service operated by Kakaku.com. Kakaku Group runs a range of websites including Japan’s Yelp equivalent, Tabelog, and price comparison site Kakaku.com. Its Dre’che service was launched in August of 2010, four months after iQon was released. The concept of the site is very similar to that of iQon, with the goal of making it easier for users to discover cool fashion items. On Dre’che, users first answer questions about their age, height, favorite magazine, and what kind of clothes they wear. After answering these initial questions, they can…

Photo via iQon

Japanese women are known for being fashion enthusiasts who love all things Kawaii. Fashion ‘lookbooks’ or coordination services are becoming an essential part of enjoying fashion in the digital age, especially in this corner of the world.

One popular service in this space is fashion coordinating site iQon, which has over one million monthly users. Another popular fashion e-commerce service Zozotown has published its own original lookbook content, created by store staff and covering a variety of brands. And long before that, fashionistas have expressed themselves through their styles, uploading photos of daily look on their blogs.

I recently came across another fashion coordinating site called Dre’Che, a service operated by Kakaku.com. Kakaku Group runs a range of websites including Japan’s Yelp equivalent, Tabelog, and price comparison site Kakaku.com. Its Dre’che service was launched in August of 2010, four months after iQon was released.

The concept of the site is very similar to that of iQon, with the goal of making it easier for users to discover cool fashion items. On Dre’che, users first answer questions about their age, height, favorite magazine, and what kind of clothes they wear. After answering these initial questions, they can browse looks that other users have created and then like or comment on them, or bookmark them for later reference.

Dre’Che released its iPhone app back in June of 2012, allowing users to easily take photos of items they own, and then use them to create their own looks. The app had over 7,000 items registered at its initial launch, thus offering a lot of value to first-time users who have not yet added/uploaded pictures of clothes from their own closet. Interestingly, this feature of creating looks is only available on smartphone. And as far as I can tell, there is not much interactions between users.

Another service, Bemool, takes a different approach. The site, which launched in July of 2012, has registered female stylists who pick out clothes for users. Users can answer questions about fashion tastes, including size, occasion, and budget. Subsequently they receive fashion coordination ideas from a stylist via email. This proposal process costs 3,000 yen, and then an additional 2,000 yen for each proposal. Bemool also provides a service to have the items shipped to home, and that’s available for about 30,000 yen.

With the spread of mobile phones, online shopping has become an everyday activity for many Japanese users. However, many e-commerce websites remain just a gigantic collection of products, leaving many consumers with the challenge of finding something they like. Fashion lookbooks remove this hassle, helping users discover great clothes.

In the mobile market, there are no real borders. And other global players fighting for user mindshare in Japan and abroad include Pose and ZooLook. It will be interesting to see who will win out in this cut-throat war.

news

Japanese fashion site iQon lands partnership with Italian online mall Yoox.com

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.04.18

Online fashion coordination service, iQon, which recently fundraised 300 million yen (or about $3.2 million), has announced a partnership with a global online fashion mall Yoox.com. Yoox was founded way back in 2000 in Italy, and has now expanded to over 67 countries including Japan. On iQon, users create their favorite looks using photos of accessories and dresses available on the website. In order to provide users with the items they’re looking for to complete their looks, iQon has teamed up with companies such as online fashion mall Zozotown to expand their items database. The company has partnered with over 40 ecommerce companies in total. I exchanged emails with Yuki Kanayama, the CEO of Vasily, the company behind iQon. He shared some interesting information about the service: Many of the looks are created on weekdays and weekends after 9pm. This is probably the time when the users are relaxed and maybe flipping through their favorite magazines — when they have the iQon app on their hands to create looks. On weekends, there are over 2,000 looks created per day. Only 20% of iQon’s users have experience buying online. Many of the users encounter fashion items they like online, and…

Online fashion coordination service, iQon, which recently fundraised 300 million yen (or about $3.2 million), has announced a partnership with a global online fashion mall Yoox.com. Yoox was founded way back in 2000 in Italy, and has now expanded to over 67 countries including Japan.

On iQon, users create their favorite looks using photos of accessories and dresses available on the website. In order to provide users with the items they’re looking for to complete their looks, iQon has teamed up with companies such as online fashion mall Zozotown to expand their items database. The company has partnered with over 40 ecommerce companies in total.

I exchanged emails with Yuki Kanayama, the CEO of Vasily, the company behind iQon. He shared some interesting information about the service:

Many of the looks are created on weekdays and weekends after 9pm. This is probably the time when the users are relaxed and maybe flipping through their favorite magazines — when they have the iQon app on their hands to create looks. On weekends, there are over 2,000 looks created per day.

Only 20% of iQon’s users have experience buying online. Many of the users encounter fashion items they like online, and then go buy them at retail stores. In a way, this is a good indication that iQon’s users are mainstream users, not the tech savvy users we typically see using the latest tech services. iQon is considering adding offline store information where certain items can be bought to enhance the user experience. What began as a fashion coordination service has now grown into a community, where some popular users have gained over a few thousand followers.

iQon’s users are currently almost all Japanese, however, with the partnership with Yoox, users can enjoy popular fashion items from around the world. This may be a footstep towards expansion to other countries. But Kanayama explains that at this point, the startup is still focused on growing the service within Japan.

As for future developments, he explained that community features will be important.

Since we have over 1,000 looks created each day, we want to allow users to create their own magazine-like page using these looks. The core value of iQon is that it helps you to discover new fashions. We want to help users find their favorite items in different ways.

news

Top 5: Japan’s Cutest Mobile Apps

SCORE 11,126

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.02.06

“Kawaii” is a word you’ll hear from young Japanese girls all too often. It can be roughly translated as ‘cute’ – but times ten or even a hundred. Japanese female youth culture can not be described without it. Anything can be kawaii, ranging from pets to behaviors to boys. So it’s no surprise that we can also find kawaii mobile apps in Japan. Here are just a few of the popular ones. Fril ¶ Fril is a fancy online flea market for female students in high school or college. Within a month of its release, the app was downloaded over 5,000 times and the number of items sold exceeded 10,000. Since most of the users are students, the average price of items is pretty low, at around 2,000 to 3,000 yen (or $22 to $34). Surprisingly Fril is an all-guy team and a graduate startup from Tokyo-based Open Network Lab incubator. Over 100 interviews with their target users have paid off, because Fril is definitely one of the most well-designed app for girls. It is currently available for iOS and Android if you’d like to give it a try. Snapeee ¶ Snapeee is a purikura app, which means it lets…

“Kawaii” is a word you’ll hear from young Japanese girls all too often. It can be roughly translated as ‘cute’ – but times ten or even a hundred. Japanese female youth culture can not be described without it. Anything can be kawaii, ranging from pets to behaviors to boys. So it’s no surprise that we can also find kawaii mobile apps in Japan. Here are just a few of the popular ones.

Fril ¶

Fril is a fancy online flea market for female students in high school or college. Within a month of its release, the app was downloaded over 5,000 times and the number of items sold exceeded 10,000. Since most of the users are students, the average price of items is pretty low, at around 2,000 to 3,000 yen (or $22 to $34). Surprisingly Fril is an all-guy team and a graduate startup from Tokyo-based Open Network Lab incubator. Over 100 interviews with their target users have paid off, because Fril is definitely one of the most well-designed app for girls. It is currently available for iOS and Android if you’d like to give it a try.

Snapeee ¶

Snapeee is a purikura app, which means it lets you take photo booth style pictures with many decorative features. Released in May of 2011, the app has attracted users not just in Japan but all across Asia, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao. People in other parts of Asia really like “kawaii” things too, and half a year after its release, the app has been downloaded over 800,000 times with half of those from overseas. Snapeee adds decorative stamps, brushes, and frames to the app everyday. Decorated photos can be shared on different social network such as Facebook, Twitter, mixi, GREE, Ameba, Renren, and Sina Weibo. The application is available for both iOS and Android.

Decopic ¶

A product of Community Factory Inc, Decopic is another popular purikura app and is a competitor of the afore-mentioned Snapeee. It was recently announced that it had reached the lofty milestone of 12 million downloads, which is certainly an impressive mark for any mobile app. The company was bought by Yahoo Japan in September of last year, for an estimated price of one billion yen (about $11 million) [1]. Yahoo Japan was eager to get into mobile, and successfully obtained Decopic’s eight million users.

The app can be distinguished by its unique user interface, as it is not designed like a typical smartphone app. It’s more like the purikura machines to which its target users are accustomed. It’s available for both iOS and Android.

iQon ¶

iQon is a fashion community that allows users to create magazine-like collages of fashion styles, sort of the Japanese equivalent to Polyvore. iQon was originally a web service only, but it released an iPhone app in February of last year. With over one million visitors as of March, 2012, the number of collages posted on the service has increased by a factor of twenty. The main users are in their twenties, and they access the app nine times a day on average. It’s available for both iOS and Android.

Nameco ¶

The tweets and posts originating from within this app at one point practically filled my entire Twitter stream. Nameco is a game that requires users to grow and harvest mushrooms, and it has been downloaded over 13,000,000 times as of June, 2012, with a 4.5 star rating on the iTunes app store. The huge popularity of Nameco is due to its uber-cute mushroom character. There are over one hundred types of physical merchandise items for the character, and that certainly puts it in a lucrative space as we have seen from Rovio with Angry Birds. It has even managed to collaborate with Sanrio’s Hello Kitty. The app is currently available for both iOS and Android.

There are so many of these apps that it’s impossible to cover them all in just one article. But if you’re looking to reach Japanese or Asian girls in their twenties, these apps are certainly a good model to follow.

This is part of our cute Japanese apps series (RSS), examining a trend of ‘kawaii’ success stories emerging from Japan’s mobile space.

That estimated price is according to TechCrunch Japan. ↩

news

Japanese fashion coordination site iQON raises $3.2M, will boost marketing efforts

Takeshi Hirano 2013.02.04

See original story in Japanese Vasily, a Tokyo-based startup which runs online fashion coordination service iQON, announced today that it has fundraised a total of 300 million yen (approximately $3.2 million) from Globis Capital Partners, Itochu Technologuy Ventures, and GMO Venture Partners. This is the second round of funds following the previous series A funding of 140 million yen ($1.5 million) in May of 2011. The iQON service allows you to combine clothing and accessories online and share fashion coordination ideas with other users. Each item has a direct link to fashion e-commerce sites where you can purchase it, and the startup will generate revenue from partner sites using an affiliate model. More than 300,000 coordinated outfits have been registered since the service launched in April of 2010, and users are bookmarking their favorites more than a million times a month. The startup introduced its iOS app last February (and an Android app is now also available) which really took off. It even helped some of their partnering e-commerce sites make more than 20 million yen monthly sales through the affiliate traffic. The company focused on service development in the series A phase, but will be intensifying branding and marketing…

See original story in Japanese

Vasily, a Tokyo-based startup which runs online fashion coordination service iQON, announced today that it has fundraised a total of 300 million yen (approximately $3.2 million) from Globis Capital Partners, Itochu Technologuy Ventures, and GMO Venture Partners. This is the second round of funds following the previous series A funding of 140 million yen ($1.5 million) in May of 2011.

The iQON service allows you to combine clothing and accessories online and share fashion coordination ideas with other users. Each item has a direct link to fashion e-commerce sites where you can purchase it, and the startup will generate revenue from partner sites using an affiliate model. More than 300,000 coordinated outfits have been registered since the service launched in April of 2010, and users are bookmarking their favorites more than a million times a month.

The startup introduced its iOS app last February (and an Android app is now also available) which really took off. It even helped some of their partnering e-commerce sites make more than 20 million yen monthly sales through the affiliate traffic. The company focused on service development in the series A phase, but will be intensifying branding and marketing efforts from now on.

When discussing fashion e-commerce sites in Japan, we can’t help but mention Zozotown (listed on the Tokyo Mothers exchange since 2007). The site is a partner for Vasily rather than a competitor because the two companies have different business models and won’t compete and/or conflict. Vasily’s CEO, Yuki Kanayama, says they will keep working closely with their good partner Zozotown in the future.