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Fukuoka’s mayor visits Taiwan for closer ties with local startup community, government

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See the original story in Japanese. IDEASShow, one of the largest startup conferences in Taiwan, was held in the island’s biggest city of Taipei in July. Around the same time, the Mayor of Fukuoka City, Japan – Soichiro Takashima – visited Taipei, and various events to promote invitational activities for Taiwanese startups available from Fukuoka City were held. See also: All the Signs Say Welcome (Highlighting Japan) Startup Visa: Entrepreneurial Incentives for Foreigners in Fukuoka (Fukuoka Now) Fukuoka City National Strategic Special Zone for Global Startups & Job Creation (Fukuoka City) On July 21st, an event called Fukuoka Night was held at Taiwan Startup Hub (TSH) which was established by the Taiwanese Executive Yuan. At this event, Mayor Takashima went onstage and presented the support plans offered by Fukuoka City, such as startup visa issuance or renting of office plus salary support scheme for foreign startups, which all became available under Japan’s national strategic economic zone operation. Also he exhorted the audience to take part in a matching event for Japanese investment funds and startups known as Fukuoka Startup Selection, which is scheduled for November 10th. From the day after Fukuoka Startup Selection, another startup festival called Myojo Waraku will…

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Taiwan Startup Hub

See the original story in Japanese.

IDEASShow, one of the largest startup conferences in Taiwan, was held in the island’s biggest city of Taipei in July. Around the same time, the Mayor of Fukuoka City, Japan – Soichiro Takashima – visited Taipei, and various events to promote invitational activities for Taiwanese startups available from Fukuoka City were held.

See also:

fukuoka-taipei-tsh-broaderview
Fukuoka Night held at Taiwan Startup Hub

On July 21st, an event called Fukuoka Night was held at Taiwan Startup Hub (TSH) which was established by the Taiwanese Executive Yuan. At this event, Mayor Takashima went onstage and presented the support plans offered by Fukuoka City, such as startup visa issuance or renting of office plus salary support scheme for foreign startups, which all became available under Japan’s national strategic economic zone operation. Also he exhorted the audience to take part in a matching event for Japanese investment funds and startups known as Fukuoka Startup Selection, which is scheduled for November 10th. From the day after Fukuoka Startup Selection, another startup festival called Myojo Waraku will be held.

In addition, Mayor Takashima announced that a startup support base in Fukuoka Startup Café and Taiwan Startup Hub will cooperate and start mutually supporting both the Japanese startups expanding into Taiwan and the Taiwanese startups expanding into Japan. The startups under support by either of the organizations will be allowed to use office spaces in Fukuoka and Taipei.

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Pitch competition winner SkyRec awarded Fukuoka Startup Package

At a pitch competition held during Fukuoka Night, five Taiwanese startups made pitches. The competition winner was SkyRec, providing in-store analytics and solution for retailers, after winning this year’s Slush Asia. Two members from the team are invited to Fukuoka City, to be supported for full-scale business development. The other four teams, namely a provider of golf course information support Golface; a game developer utilizing augmented reality (AR) and location-based service (LBS) Toii; an installment payment service for C2C (consumer-to-consumer) trading Installments; and a developer of an app showing shortest routes in subway stations Thinktank, will be invited to Fukuoka Startup Selection, as transportation and accommodation costs will be covered by Fukuoka Directive Council.

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Four teams failed to win the competition but will be invited to the Fukuoka Startup Selection

On July 22nd, Mayor Takashima made a courtesy call on Mayor Ko Wen-je of Taipei City, who is known for utilizing social media during the election campaign. They confirmed the establishment of mutual contact points for startup support. The cooperation between Fukuoka City and the Taiwanese startup ecosystem dependent on grassroots activities is seen developing into a cross-border support system at local administration levels.

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From the left: Mayor of Fukuoka City Soichiro Takashima, interpreter and Mayor of Taipei City Ko Wen-je
fukuoka-taipei-participants-at-taipei-city-office
Leading members of Fukuoka startups also made a courtesy call on the Mayor

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Boasting 6M downloads, Mixi brings Monster Strike to Taiwan

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Yesterday we told you about Mixi’s investment in Taiwanese recruitment site Job178. It turns out that this was not the company’s only recent activity in Taiwan, as it has also just launched a localized version of its hit mobile game Monster Strike. The Chinese name for the game is Guàiwu Dànzhū (or ‘Monster Marbles’) and currently it’s only available on Android, but an iOS version will be coming soon. Mixi is partnering with So-net Entertainment Taiwan to launch and market the game in the region. A Monster Strike homepage has been launched at monster-strike.com.tw along with a ‘how to’ page for new users. Interestingly the company is calling this its first overseas deployment of Monster Strike, so I’m going to interpret that as an indication that Mixi’s efforts to bring Monster Strike to mainland China via a partnership with Tencent have not yet come to fruition yet. I expect that perhaps Taiwan is a dry run of sorts before launching the game on the mainland. Mixi has also announced that Monster Strike now has accumulated over six million downloads. We figure that this is still largely due to heavy TV advertising here in Japan, as we mentioned back in April.

monster-strike-taiwan

Yesterday we told you about Mixi’s investment in Taiwanese recruitment site Job178. It turns out that this was not the company’s only recent activity in Taiwan, as it has also just launched a localized version of its hit mobile game Monster Strike. The Chinese name for the game is Guàiwu Dànzhū (or ‘Monster Marbles’) and currently it’s only available on Android, but an iOS version will be coming soon.

Mixi is partnering with So-net Entertainment Taiwan to launch and market the game in the region. A Monster Strike homepage has been launched at monster-strike.com.tw along with a ‘how to’ page for new users.

Interestingly the company is calling this its first overseas deployment of Monster Strike, so I’m going to interpret that as an indication that Mixi’s efforts to bring Monster Strike to mainland China via a partnership with Tencent have not yet come to fruition yet. I expect that perhaps Taiwan is a dry run of sorts before launching the game on the mainland.

Mixi has also announced that Monster Strike now has accumulated over six million downloads. We figure that this is still largely due to heavy TV advertising here in Japan, as we mentioned back in April.

monst_tw_04 monst_tw_04

monst_tw_02 Screen Shot 2014-05-15 at 9.57.43 AM

Japan’s Snapeee to host fashion event in Taiwan

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See the original story in Japanese. Snapeee is a Japanese photo-sharing app serving more than five million users worldwide. Mind Palette, the startup behind the app, announced today it that it is planning to hold a promotional event featuring runway shows and music live performances for its fans in Taiwan. The event is called Snapeee Fes and it will take place on September 14th at ATT Show Box, Taipei, Taiwan. In addition to serving individual users, the service has set up corporate accounts for apparel brands and fashion magazines. According to the startup, one of the most popular users has so far earned 1.3 million followers on the platform. The event will be the first chance for the startup to promote their service, which has a very distinct Japanese ‘kawaii’ flavor. They will invite popular Japanese models like Tina Tamashiro and Yuka Mizuhara, as well as prominent Japanese fashion brands like Vivi, Peach John, and WeGo. 70% of Snapeee’s users comes from Japan, Taiwan, and the rest of the Asian region, and they tend to be mostly female. In Taiwan in particular, the user base includes many fashion bloggers or models who are conscious about the Kawaii fashion trend. The startup…

snapeee-fes


See the original story in Japanese.

Snapeee is a Japanese photo-sharing app serving more than five million users worldwide. Mind Palette, the startup behind the app, announced today it that it is planning to hold a promotional event featuring runway shows and music live performances for its fans in Taiwan. The event is called Snapeee Fes and it will take place on September 14th at ATT Show Box, Taipei, Taiwan.

In addition to serving individual users, the service has set up corporate accounts for apparel brands and fashion magazines. According to the startup, one of the most popular users has so far earned 1.3 million followers on the platform.

The event will be the first chance for the startup to promote their service, which has a very distinct Japanese ‘kawaii’ flavor. They will invite popular Japanese models like Tina Tamashiro and Yuka Mizuhara, as well as prominent Japanese fashion brands like Vivi, Peach John, and WeGo.

70% of Snapeee’s users comes from Japan, Taiwan, and the rest of the Asian region, and they tend to be mostly female. In Taiwan in particular, the user base includes many fashion bloggers or models who are conscious about the Kawaii fashion trend. The startup expects to keep organizing such kind of events in order to establish a solid brand image in the region.