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Japanese mobile analytics startup Repro sets up shop in Singapore for SEA expansion

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See the original story in Japan. Tokyo-based Repro, the provider of mobile analytics tool under the same name, announced today that it has established a wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore to strengthen business expansion into Southeast Asian (SEA) markets. The subsidiary, namely Repro Singapore Pte. Ltd., aims to cultivate the client base in Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and among others, while it intends to employ five to ten people in each of these respective markets by the end of 2021. See also: Japan’s mobile analytics and marketing tool Repro gets $2.6 million to expand to US Japan’s mobile analytics company Repro secures $835,000 from DG Incubation, others Marking five years since its launch, the tool has been used by 6,500 companies across 59 countries in the world, which has been good enough for the startup to see the potential in the markets outside Japan. In the SEA market, which the startup will be focused on, the growing penetration of mobile devices has much contributed to promoting e-commerce and other online services among local people. The launch of the subsidiary was based on their conviction that there would be more demand in user-focused marketing measure in the region. Translated by Masaru…

repro-team-in-singapore
The Repro Singapore team
Image credit: Repro

See the original story in Japan.

Tokyo-based Repro, the provider of mobile analytics tool under the same name, announced today that it has established a wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore to strengthen business expansion into Southeast Asian (SEA) markets. The subsidiary, namely Repro Singapore Pte. Ltd., aims to cultivate the client base in Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and among others, while it intends to employ five to ten people in each of these respective markets by the end of 2021.

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Marking five years since its launch, the tool has been used by 6,500 companies across 59 countries in the world, which has been good enough for the startup to see the potential in the markets outside Japan. In the SEA market, which the startup will be focused on, the growing penetration of mobile devices has much contributed to promoting e-commerce and other online services among local people. The launch of the subsidiary was based on their conviction that there would be more demand in user-focused marketing measure in the region.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda

Japan’s mobile analytics and marketing tool Repro gets $2.6 million to expand to US

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Repro, the provider of mobile analytics tool under the same name, announced today that the company has fundraised 300 million yen (about $2.6 million) from Jafco (TSE:8595), Voyage Ventures, and several angel investors. This follows their previous funding round where they raised 100 million yen (about $835,000) from DG Incubation, Brain Pad (TSE:3655), and Shift (TSE:3697) back in May of last year. Repro provides an SDK (software development kit) to support the development of apps for improved retention rate of users and UI (user interface) based on user behavior on mobile apps. When a user operates an app with an SDK installed, information such as the user’s method of operating the interface, the track record of that operation and the user’s facial expressions during that time are recorded. Based on these functions, the platform provides developers with not only quantitative analysis such as funnel and retention analysis but also qualitative analysis like reproducing user actions in the app leveraging recorded play-by-play video so that developers can instantly find what the problem is. Implementing in-app marketing features like push notification and in-app messaging, the platform helps developers improve the retention and conversation rates of…

repro_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Repro, the provider of mobile analytics tool under the same name, announced today that the company has fundraised 300 million yen (about $2.6 million) from Jafco (TSE:8595), Voyage Ventures, and several angel investors. This follows their previous funding round where they raised 100 million yen (about $835,000) from DG Incubation, Brain Pad (TSE:3655), and Shift (TSE:3697) back in May of last year.

Repro provides an SDK (software development kit) to support the development of apps for improved retention rate of users and UI (user interface) based on user behavior on mobile apps. When a user operates an app with an SDK installed, information such as the user’s method of operating the interface, the track record of that operation and the user’s facial expressions during that time are recorded.

Based on these functions, the platform provides developers with not only quantitative analysis such as funnel and retention analysis but also qualitative analysis like reproducing user actions in the app leveraging recorded play-by-play video so that developers can instantly find what the problem is. Implementing in-app marketing features like push notification and in-app messaging, the platform helps developers improve the retention and conversation rates of their apps.

Since its official release in April of 2015, the platform has been adopted by major e-commerce sites, games, news media and other various apps from the IT industry, according to Repro CEO Yusuke Hirata.

The lastest funding is to strengthen the foundation of our system development and hiring talents. At the same time, we would like to start our global expansion efforts, planning to conduct a test marketing in the overseas market followed by launching an overseas office next year.

Repro CEO Yusuke Hirata
Repro CEO Yusuke Hirata

While many users are app developers in Japan, the company has been receiving numerous inquiries from overseas developers despite no massive promotion and adopted by more than 1,400 mobile apps from 18 countries. Upon funding at this time, the company wants to expand the implementation of its mobile app growth hack solution to fashion, real estate, automotive, human resources, marriage counseling, among other non-IT sectors.

Leveraging their past experience of developing and implementing the solution, Repro provide wants to provide app developers with a more comprehensive solution rather than just offering an SDK.

Hirata explained:

When developers release their app, many of them definitely want to gain sales, customer satisfaction, or touch points with their users. Based on these strategies, we will offer a growth hacking expertise for mobile app development such as setting KPIs (key performance indicators) or magic numbers, which we have learned through serving 1,400 mobile apps.

Repro recently introduced a new API (application program interface) supporting mobile push notification. This allows business owners to integrate statistics from other sales channels like a website or a real store with their mobile app so that they can conduct more personalized marketing to each and every customer.

Hirata continued:

For e-commerce sites offering both a website and a mobile app, they can push a mobile notification via our platform to the smartphone of the users who have selected items to buy but not yet completed the purchase on the website. By connecting the two interfaces, we can allow e-commerce sites to offer a cross-channel experience for their customers.

As of now Repro is focused on mobile growth hacking, but they may expand its support to a desktop or website interface in the future. Using the funds, the company plans to prepare for a global expansion without pause.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s mobile analytics company Repro secures $835,000 from DG Incubation, others

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Repro, the provider of mobile analytics tool Repro, recently stated that the company has fundraised 100 million yen (about $835,000) from DG Incubation, Brain Pad (TSE:3655), and Shift (TSE:3697). DG Incubation is the investment arm of Japanese internet service company Digital Garage (TSE:4819) while Brain Pad is a Japanese big data analysis company and Shift runs a software testing business. Repro provides SDK (software development kit) for supporting the development of apps for the retention rate of users and UI (user interface) improvement based on user behavior on mobile apps. When a user operates an app with an SDK installed, information such as the user’s method of operating the interface, the track record of that operation, and the user’s facial expressions during that time are recorded. Unlike websites, it is very difficult to update apps real time once they are released. Therefore, it is important to improve the app as much as possible before release. Hence, these days an increasing number of startups and companies are strengthening their UX (user experience) design based on user tests and hearings. However, in group tests for running user tests, the situation can often differ from the…

repro_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Repro, the provider of mobile analytics tool Repro, recently stated that the company has fundraised 100 million yen (about $835,000) from DG Incubation, Brain Pad (TSE:3655), and Shift (TSE:3697). DG Incubation is the investment arm of Japanese internet service company Digital Garage (TSE:4819) while Brain Pad is a Japanese big data analysis company and Shift runs a software testing business.

Repro provides SDK (software development kit) for supporting the development of apps for the retention rate of users and UI (user interface) improvement based on user behavior on mobile apps. When a user operates an app with an SDK installed, information such as the user’s method of operating the interface, the track record of that operation, and the user’s facial expressions during that time are recorded.

Unlike websites, it is very difficult to update apps real time once they are released. Therefore, it is important to improve the app as much as possible before release. Hence, these days an increasing number of startups and companies are strengthening their UX (user experience) design based on user tests and hearings.

However, in group tests for running user tests, the situation can often differ from the everyday, natural atmosphere. Even direct observation of behavior and interview with users still can be artificial due to it being a face-to-face interaction in an interview setting, which means that there is still the chance of a mismatch between the interaction produced there and the users’ actual thoughts and actions. In response to these problems, Repro saves voice recording data and takes photographs with a built-in camera, thus recording the user’s natural behavior. In addition, Repro also accumulates data on how users swiped and clicked on the screen, which makes it possible to see when and where the user decided to depart. Test users can use the app in natural settings such as the user’s home, as opposed to places such as a meeting room.

Unlike existing crash-detection tools, Repro can reproduce the crash based on video recordings from the start to the crash of an app, providing fact-based feedback and making debugging more efficient. The accumulated data support the improvement of the app not only through quantitative analyses such as click rates, roaming time and departing points, but also through qualitative analyses based on video recordings. Needless to say, Repro also assures privacy protection. The text fields of the app detect text input and runs an image processing. Also, it is possible to place a survey either at the beginning or the end of the tests.

Repro CEO Yusuke Hirata explained:

Many customers who introduced Repro into their systems voice how they were able to learn the users’ behavior which were not visible through mere quantitative data and became visible by knowing the living behavior of users. Of course, most of these lessons seemed to have been quite shocking for them. (Laughs.) I mean, learning the manner in which the majority of users move away from the app in a matter of seconds, and learning it through the qualitative data of video recordings, one can directly confront actual reality. We believe that app improvement begins with a proper confrontation of such reality. Indeed, most people who introduce Repro are able to find concrete solutions.

Moreover, in addition to traditional funnel and retention analyses, the administrator screen shows real-time analyses based on video recordings of the users’ behaviors within the app. With previous quantitative data, the only way to analyze user behavior was to look at behavior represented by numbers alone. Over the Repro administrator screen, on the other hand, video allows for a much more concrete representation of user retention and conversion and of where, when, and how users depart or stumble.

Hirata explained:

Live user behavior is a goldmine of hints for app improvement. I would like others to reflect such live information on their apps and understand the true behavior of users. Once analyses are done carefully, one could discover the magic number for letting services grow. For example, users may become active after the number of friends on Facebook passes a certain threshold, or when a certain number of follows are made on Twitter, or the number of saves on the Pocket app (formerly known as Read It Later), and so forth.

If there existed a magic number for increasing the growth of all services and user activity rates, and if it were possible to discover such numbers, then they could be used as KPIs. Enabling analysis of data, discovering the interrelationships. Therefore, Repro can allow observations which can capture the live voice and behavior of users with greater accuracy, by combining quantitative data with qualitative ones.

Repro graduated from the 6th batch of KDDI Mugen Labo, the accelerator program by a Japanese leading telco. During the eight months from the program’s demo day up to the present, Repro has already released a beta version, been introduced into companies such as Mixi and Rakuten, and been used by more than 400 e-commerce and news apps from various genres.

Based on the present release, Repro began providing an official version from its beta version. Plans include a free plan, 12,000 yen ($100) per month plan for startups, 60,000 yen ($500) per month basic plan, 120,000 yen ($1,000) per month gross plan, 360,000 yen ($3,000) per month plan for businesses, and more. The recorded videos and the quantity of data varies according to price.

Moreover, the funding will foster an expansion of the supply of developers, which will lead to creating business overseas, primarily in the US, by 2016.

Notes Hirata,

Analytics service such as MIXPanel and Lookback exist overseas, but Repro has demonstrated high performance in SDK storage, CPU usage, memory usage, etc. As a product, it has been developed to compete on the world market. Taking the present funding as an opportunity, we will build the foundations for expanding our business overseas.

Repro CEO Yusuke Hirata
Repro CEO Yusuke Hirata

Translated by  Conyac crowdsourced translation service
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda