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Tokyo Otaku Mode acquired by Japanese major publisher Shogakukan

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Tokyo Otaku Mode announced on Tuesday that it has been acquired by Japanese major publishing company Shogakukan. The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed. We haven’t confirmed that the company secured funding from VC firms and other sources after January of 2018. To date, the total amount of funds secured through the Series A and Series B rounds apparently surpasses 1.8 billion yen. Buffett Code estimated the company’s was valued at 3 billion yen as of August of 2022. The company was founded in March of 2011 by Naomitsu Kodaka, a former Merrill Lynch employee and former CFO of Gaiax, and then established a U.S. subsidiary in April of 2012 with global expansion in mind. Serving its global audience with updates on Japanese anime and manga in English, it has earned over 20 million followers on its Facebook fan page. After the acquisition, CEO Odaka and Vice Hajime Ataka will continue playing their role respectively. Shogakukan’s President Nobuhiro Oga and other directors join the board of Tokyo Otaku Mode as Chairman and directors respectively. Tokyo Otaku Mode kicked off its business with a media outlet offering Japanese anime and manga updates to the world, and now offers…

Image credit: Tokyo Otaku Mode

Tokyo Otaku Mode announced on Tuesday that it has been acquired by Japanese major publishing company Shogakukan. The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed. We haven’t confirmed that the company secured funding from VC firms and other sources after January of 2018. To date, the total amount of funds secured through the Series A and Series B rounds apparently surpasses 1.8 billion yen. Buffett Code estimated the company’s was valued at 3 billion yen as of August of 2022.

The company was founded in March of 2011 by Naomitsu Kodaka, a former Merrill Lynch employee and former CFO of Gaiax, and then established a U.S. subsidiary in April of 2012 with global expansion in mind. Serving its global audience with updates on Japanese anime and manga in English, it has earned over 20 million followers on its Facebook fan page. After the acquisition, CEO Odaka and Vice Hajime Ataka will continue playing their role respectively. Shogakukan’s President Nobuhiro Oga and other directors join the board of Tokyo Otaku Mode as Chairman and directors respectively.

Tokyo Otaku Mode kicked off its business with a media outlet offering Japanese anime and manga updates to the world, and now offers character goods, e-commerce, and a logistics outsourcing service that can deliver products from e-commerce and crowdfunding sites to all over the world. In September of 2014, the company became the first investee from Japan’s state-backed Cool Japan Fund. Through the acquisition, Shogakukan is expected to strengthen the overseas expansion of its intellectual property businesses.

See also:

via Shogakukan

Tokyo Otaku Mode secures up to $14M from Japan’s state-backed fund

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Tokyo Otaku Mode, the startup behind the Japanese subculture site of the same name, announced today that it has fundraised from Cool Japan Fund, Japan’s state-backed fund for the promotion of the export of Japanese cultural products and services to the global market. The fund will execute an investment worth up to 1.5 billion yen ($13.7 million) in the startup in three years. In April, the company raised series A funding worth 270 million yen ($2.5 million) from several Japanese companies. See also: Tokyo Otaku Mode has 10 million Facebook fans — But now what? Tokyo Otaku Mode raises additional funds from three VC firms Tokyo Otaku Mode starts selling custom order replica samurai swords for global fans Japanese startup Tokyo Otaku Mode uses Kyary Pamyu Pamyu in mobile promo Tokyo Otaku Mode releases new Otaku news app for iPhone and Android Tokyo Otaku Mode celebrates Facebook ‘like’ landmark with fun commemorative video Since its launch in the form of a Facebook fan page in 2011, the startup has acquired over 16 million likes. They registered a company in the state of Delaware in the US in December 2012, and subsequently joined Silicon valley accelerator 500 Startups. The company also…

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Tokyo Otaku Mode, the startup behind the Japanese subculture site of the same name, announced today that it has fundraised from Cool Japan Fund, Japan’s state-backed fund for the promotion of the export of Japanese cultural products and services to the global market. The fund will execute an investment worth up to 1.5 billion yen ($13.7 million) in the startup in three years. In April, the company raised series A funding worth 270 million yen ($2.5 million) from several Japanese companies.

See also:

Since its launch in the form of a Facebook fan page in 2011, the startup has acquired over 16 million likes. They registered a company in the state of Delaware in the US in December 2012, and subsequently joined Silicon valley accelerator 500 Startups.

The company also sells the popular Japanese wearable toy Moff globally, and has shipped it to over 85 countries. They will use the fund to hire more engineers to optimize their e-commerce platform for mobile users as well as to strengthen logistics and promotional efforts around the e-commerce business.

via TechCrunch Japan

Tokyo Otaku Mode starts selling custom order replica samurai swords for global fans

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo Otaku Mode, the startup behind the Japanese subculture site of the same name, started accepting custom orders for replica Japanese samurai swords last week, where you can order your preferred design of a sword from over 580,000 combination patterns by choosing its nine components such as hilt binding and blade types. This was made possible in collaboration with Kyoto-based replica sword producer Kotoya. According to the company, this is the first time that e-commerce retailers accept custom orders for authentic replica swords in the world. A sword is available for $279.99 including shipping fee. The product will be delivered in about three weeks after placing the order. In our recent interview with the company, they explained that high-ticket items are selling well on their e-commerce channel because of their user demographics. Replica swords are as expensive as nearly $300, but it will be relatively easy to sell these items to their users since they have many big fans of Japanese anime like Rurouni Kenshin and cosplay performances. The company’s co-founder Takuya Akiyama shared that they have already received many orders from outside Japan. On a related note, he told us that these replica…

tom-replica-swords_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo Otaku Mode, the startup behind the Japanese subculture site of the same name, started accepting custom orders for replica Japanese samurai swords last week, where you can order your preferred design of a sword from over 580,000 combination patterns by choosing its nine components such as hilt binding and blade types. This was made possible in collaboration with Kyoto-based replica sword producer Kotoya.

According to the company, this is the first time that e-commerce retailers accept custom orders for authentic replica swords in the world. A sword is available for $279.99 including shipping fee. The product will be delivered in about three weeks after placing the order.

In our recent interview with the company, they explained that high-ticket items are selling well on their e-commerce channel because of their user demographics.

Replica swords are as expensive as nearly $300, but it will be relatively easy to sell these items to their users since they have many big fans of Japanese anime like Rurouni Kenshin and cosplay performances. The company’s co-founder Takuya Akiyama shared that they have already received many orders from outside Japan.

On a related note, he told us that these replica swords can be smoothly delivered to anywhere in the world by reporting as a ‘toy sword’ to customs. When their users receive their sword, they will be able to share a picture of themselves wearing it, which will help promoting its sales as well. It will be interesting to see how they fare from now on.

tom-replica-swords-screenshot

Japanese startup Tokyo Otaku Mode raises $2.7M

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo Otaku Mode, the startup behind the Japanese subculture site of the same name, announced today that it has raised series A funding worth 270 million yen. The round was led by Itochu Technology Ventures, with Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Sun Eight Investment, GaiaX Global Marketing Ventures (GX), and 500 Startups also participating [1]. Otaku Mode did not disclose the breakdown of the funding. Since first launching in the form of a Facebook fan page back in 2011, the startup has acquired over 14.7 million likes. They registered a company in Delaware in December of 2012, and subsequently joined Silicon valley accelerator 500 Startups. In addition to their fan page, they subsequently created their own website OtakuMode.com. Their partnering creators have increased to five times the total from last year. Evolving into e-commerce The company started its e-commerce business last September, as one of their primary revenue streams in addition to ad sales. We understand that they intend to use these new fund to further improve their e-commerce platform. According to the company’s CEO Tomohide Kamei, the gender demographic of their user base is evenly split, with almost 40% of their users coming from the…

tom_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo Otaku Mode, the startup behind the Japanese subculture site of the same name, announced today that it has raised series A funding worth 270 million yen. The round was led by Itochu Technology Ventures, with Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Sun Eight Investment, GaiaX Global Marketing Ventures (GX), and 500 Startups also participating [1]. Otaku Mode did not disclose the breakdown of the funding.

Since first launching in the form of a Facebook fan page back in 2011, the startup has acquired over 14.7 million likes. They registered a company in Delaware in December of 2012, and subsequently joined Silicon valley accelerator 500 Startups.

In addition to their fan page, they subsequently created their own website OtakuMode.com. Their partnering creators have increased to five times the total from last year.

Evolving into e-commerce

The_Tokyo_Otaku_Mode_Premium_Shop

The company started its e-commerce business last September, as one of their primary revenue streams in addition to ad sales. We understand that they intend to use these new fund to further improve their e-commerce platform.

According to the company’s CEO Tomohide Kamei, the gender demographic of their user base is evenly split, with almost 40% of their users coming from the Asian region, with 20% for each of North and South America. Most of of items sold on the platform are shipped to overseas users spread across 60 countries.

Their strategy for marketing their e-commerce business is very aggressive. For example, a limited edition print (shown below) was $1,200, but it sold out immediately. Dragonball art prints autographed by manga author Akira Toriyama is on sale for about $200.

The user retention rate for their e-commerce service is much higher than other e-commerce sites, says Kamei.

A toy shop for the world

I believe Tokyo Otaku Mode has much potential to be a global media presence, capitalizing on Japan’s unique culture and art. But it will likely be difficult for them to be a comprehensive solution like Amazon, which started out with books but expanded to other items. The startup’s strength is very dependent on their chosen niche.

Kamei explained that the market cap in the global entertainment merchandising industry is worth about $29.3 billion. Since the market is dominated by content companies from the US and and around Asia he hopes that his company can sell products using characters from other companies in the future (Disney, for example). He added,

We can’t win alone. We can build our business by partnering with content holders. If we expand our business to selling non-Japanese character items, our website could look like a toy shop selling interesting items from around the world.

Even limited edition prints worth $1,200 were sold out immediately
Even limited edition prints worth $1,200 were sold out immediately


  1. Itochu Technology Ventures, GaiaX Global Marketing Ventures, and 500startups invested in the past rounds. 

CNet Japan Startup Award nominees: Otaku Mode, Freee, Schoo, Coiney

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The quality of start-ups nominated for tonight’s CNet Japan Startup Awards is high, and Japanese entrepreneurs are seeking to solve problems on par with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. This is part seven of our preview of the nominees. The rest can be found here. Tokyo Otaku Mode Tokyo Otaku Mode (or TOM) is the 500 Startup graduate that exploded on the startup scene with a massive Facebook presence. The most fascinating part about TOM is how its growth trajectory has been the reverse of most startups. The normal flow goes something like this: a few entrepreneurs have an idea, build their product, then market it. But TOM started out by building a massive Facebook following of millions of fans. Since TOM hit critical mass on Facebook, it has been trying to figure out a problem most entrepreneurs would love to have: Well, we have reach. What’s next? From building iOS and Android apps, to an Etsy-like UGC strategy, it’s been fun watching them stumble uphill. Or as one of their angel investors, Craig Mod, perfectly summed up, “building their shrine”. Freee Like Quickbooks, BodeTree, Xero, Yendo, Zoho, et al., Freee is a cloud based software that helps small businesses with their…

tom-coine-freee-schooo

The quality of start-ups nominated for tonight’s CNet Japan Startup Awards is high, and Japanese entrepreneurs are seeking to solve problems on par with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. This is part seven of our preview of the nominees. The rest can be found here.

Tokyo Otaku Mode

tokyo-otaku-mode-lead
Tokyo Otaku Mode

Tokyo Otaku Mode (or TOM) is the 500 Startup graduate that exploded on the startup scene with a massive Facebook presence. The most fascinating part about TOM is how its growth trajectory has been the reverse of most startups. The normal flow goes something like this: a few entrepreneurs have an idea, build their product, then market it. But TOM started out by building a massive Facebook following of millions of fans.

Since TOM hit critical mass on Facebook, it has been trying to figure out a problem most entrepreneurs would love to have:

Well, we have reach. What’s next?

From building iOS and Android apps, to an Etsy-like UGC strategy, it’s been fun watching them stumble uphill. Or as one of their angel investors, Craig Mod, perfectly summed up, “building their shrine”.

Freee

FREEE-japan-03

Like Quickbooks, BodeTree, Xero, Yendo, Zoho, et al., Freee is a cloud based software that helps small businesses with their accounting. Founded by five-year Google veteran Daisuke Sasaki, who led Google’s small-to-medium sized business marketing in the APAC region, Freee fills a much needed hole in Japan. While working for Google, he realized a there was a huge problem with web-based accounting software, often only working on certain browsers and with a not so friendly user experience.

This year has been a huge year for Freee. They re-branded, raised $27M Series A, and added features and functions to streamline tedious paper-to-digital administrative tasks.

Freee addresses relevant problems for any small- to mid-sized businesses and is building partnerships [1], features, and functions that prove they are one step ahead of their competitors. Recently they added a POS (point of sale) system on their iPad app, and last week they announced a collaboration with receipt tracking app ReceReco to simplify the paper receipt tracking process.

Schoo

From the left: Koizumi, Mori, Nakanishi
Schoo

Schoo is an online learning platform founded by entrepreneurs with editorial backgrounds. Their vision is to encourage other entrepreneurs to be ‘eternal students’ by providing e-learning content focused on the startup and venture world. We recently talked with the founders about their strategy for building a quality e-learning space, and I encourage you to check out that discussion [2].

Coiney

Coiney is the fourth major player in mobile payment solutions along with PayPal Here, Square and Rakuten SmartPay. All four have similar products and strategies. Square and PayPal Here have challenges most US based companies have: localization. Coiney knows and understands the Japanese market as the founder is ex-PayPal Japan.

Rakuten SmartPay’s obstacle is that Rakuten is a massive corporation. In order to quickly gain traction in a highly competitive field like mobile payments, agility is a necessity. If Rakuten SmartPay can figure out how to move and iterate quickly, they will become a major player, as Rakuten Ichiba has existing relationships with small businesses in Japan. Keep in mind that Base is also a mobile payment solution player to be reckoned with, tackling market penetration in a different way [3].

This is definitely one race to keep an eye on.

Good luck to all four finalists tonight at the CNet Japan Startup Awards!

coiney_featured


  1. Partnerships with Suica and Seven and i Holdings Co. to track, record, and automate transportation and credit card expenditures.  ↩

  2. Read the interview in two parts here and here.  ↩

  3. In the interests of disclosure, I should note here that I’m currently employed by Rakuten.  ↩

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.

CocoPPa partners with Tokyo Otaku Mode on anime-themed decorations for your smartphone homescreen

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See the original story in Japanese. CocoPPa, a smartphone wallpaper/icon decoration app from Japanese web conglomerate United, has tied up with Tokyo Otaku Mode (TOM) to allow Cocoppa users to bring their favorite illustrations from TOM to their smartphone homescreens. This is the first such collaborative business endeavor for Cocoppa. Both Cocoppa and TOM are popular sites among young people, and both have succeeded in spreading Japanese culture around the world. For TOM, this partnership gives its users more chances to show off their works as well. CocoPPa recently surpassed 8 million downloads worldwide, and TOM has accumulated more than 12.5 million likes on its Facebook. We expect that this partnership between two globally influential startups can bring about great results and more awareness about the two companies worldwide.. On a related note, we reported earlier today that has also just released a new smartphone app called Tokyo Otaku Mode mini. It’s a busy week for the up-and-coming company!

CocoPPa-TOM

See the original story in Japanese.

CocoPPa, a smartphone wallpaper/icon decoration app from Japanese web conglomerate United, has tied up with Tokyo Otaku Mode (TOM) to allow Cocoppa users to bring their favorite illustrations from TOM to their smartphone homescreens.

ec94b5743a833a9c53b3514949659d33This is the first such collaborative business endeavor for Cocoppa. Both Cocoppa and TOM are popular sites among young people, and both have succeeded in spreading Japanese culture around the world. For TOM, this partnership gives its users more chances to show off their works as well.

CocoPPa recently surpassed 8 million downloads worldwide, and TOM has accumulated more than 12.5 million likes on its Facebook. We expect that this partnership between two globally influential startups can bring about great results and more awareness about the two companies worldwide..

On a related note, we reported earlier today that has also just released a new smartphone app called Tokyo Otaku Mode mini. It’s a busy week for the up-and-coming company!

Tokyo Otaku Mode releases new Otaku news app for iPhone and Android

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo Otaku Mode announced Thursday that it has introduced a new smartphone app called Tokyo Otaku Mode mini, which is available for both iOS and Android. The new app delivers news updates on otaku culture, including Japanese anime, manga, and games. Users can set what time they want to receive news updates each day. And once a news article is downloaded, it can be read offline on the app as well. Previously, TOM released Otaku Camera which we’re told has accumulated 3.5 million downloads since its release back in December of 2012. More than 90% of all downloads are from outside Japan. The app also provides lots of illustrated frames using famous anime characters. If you’d like to try out the new Tokyo Otaku Mode mini app, you can get it over on the App Store or on Google Play.

tom-mini-logo

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo Otaku Mode announced Thursday that it has introduced a new smartphone app called Tokyo Otaku Mode mini, which is available for both iOS and Android.

The new app delivers news updates on otaku culture, including Japanese anime, manga, and games. Users can set what time they want to receive news updates each day. And once a news article is downloaded, it can be read offline on the app as well.

Previously, TOM released Otaku Camera which we’re told has accumulated 3.5 million downloads since its release back in December of 2012. More than 90% of all downloads are from outside Japan. The app also provides lots of illustrated frames using famous anime characters.

If you’d like to try out the new Tokyo Otaku Mode mini app, you can get it over on the App Store or on Google Play.

tom-mini

Otaku Camera reaches 3 million downloads, proves popular beyond Japan

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A while back we featured the fun photo application Otaku Camera, developed by the folks over at Tokyo Otaku Mode. When last we checked in on this app, it had just surpassed a million downloads having been featured on Google Play, with the iPhone version also doing pretty well. For those not familiar with Otaku Camera, the app transforms your smartphone pictures into manga style images that you can then share with friends. Now the company has just announced that the app has surpassed 3 million downloads as of May 20th. As we mentioned recently in our feature highlighting Japanese startups doing well abroad, Tokyo Otaku Mode has been pretty successful in reaching overseas audiences. Its Otaku Camera app seems to be no exception, with the Android version doing especially well in Europe, currently a top 25 photo app in Germany (18) and Austria (23), and a top 100 photo app in 33 countries in total. On the iOS side, the app’s success seems to be largely in Asia, as it is a top 50 photo app in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as its home market of Japan. But the company is making improvements, adding new photo…

otaku-camera

A while back we featured the fun photo application Otaku Camera, developed by the folks over at Tokyo Otaku Mode. When last we checked in on this app, it had just surpassed a million downloads having been featured on Google Play, with the iPhone version also doing pretty well. For those not familiar with Otaku Camera, the app transforms your smartphone pictures into manga style images that you can then share with friends.

Now the company has just announced that the app has surpassed 3 million downloads as of May 20th. As we mentioned recently in our feature highlighting Japanese startups doing well abroad, Tokyo Otaku Mode has been pretty successful in reaching overseas audiences. Its Otaku Camera app seems to be no exception, with the Android version doing especially well in Europe, currently a top 25 photo app in Germany (18) and Austria (23), and a top 100 photo app in 33 countries in total.

On the iOS side, the app’s success seems to be largely in Asia, as it is a top 50 photo app in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as its home market of Japan.

amuro-usavich

But the company is making improvements, adding new photo frames to the app that will hopefully resonate with users. They just announced new special frames for the app in collaboration with singer Namie Amuro and MTV Japan’s animated short Usavich. These frames will be free until July 31st. In total, the app has over 100 frames in English, Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish.

I find it pretty interesting that some of Japan’s most successful startup exports are proving to be photo apps. The decoration app Snapeee has 80% of its users overseas, and for many apps in the decoration or collage categories, reaching audiences abroad appears not so hard. Other examples of Japanese companies peddling photo apps to global audiences include the veteran startup SnapDish, which had the goal of going global from the very start, and Cinnamon, which is targeting the Southeast Asian market with its Seconds app.

If you’d like to get a better idea for the the camera app works, do check out our demo video below.

Escaping the Galapagos: 5 Japanese startups that looked beyond home

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Startups in Japan can loosely be classified into two groups: those who look beyond Japan’s borders, and those who do not. While there’s nothing wrong with a company settling into a local niche market, we can’t help but admire the ambition of some Japanese companies who look at the internet as an enabler that lets them reach global markets. Conversely, there are many services that exist only in Japan that we wish were available for the entire world to use. We’d like to take a moment to recognize five Japanese companies that have either seen some global success, or have shown exceptional global ambition [1]. And if possible, we hope to bring you more such examples next month too. I’m going to informally dub this the unofficial “Galapagos Bridge Awards”, to recognize those who build international bridges, thus helping to destroy the so-called Galapagos syndrome (used so often to refer to the mobile space). If the name sticks, perhaps I’ll forge some bronze turtle statues in my kiln and pass them out to the winners next time. Here are the five companies in no particular order: Snapeee ¶ Japanese photo decoration apps have much international appeal, as the notion of…

galapagos bridge awards
Photo by wikipedia, fun annotations by us

Startups in Japan can loosely be classified into two groups: those who look beyond Japan’s borders, and those who do not. While there’s nothing wrong with a company settling into a local niche market, we can’t help but admire the ambition of some Japanese companies who look at the internet as an enabler that lets them reach global markets. Conversely, there are many services that exist only in Japan that we wish were available for the entire world to use.

We’d like to take a moment to recognize five Japanese companies that have either seen some global success, or have shown exceptional global ambition [1]. And if possible, we hope to bring you more such examples next month too. I’m going to informally dub this the unofficial “Galapagos Bridge Awards”, to recognize those who build international bridges, thus helping to destroy the so-called Galapagos syndrome (used so often to refer to the mobile space). If the name sticks, perhaps I’ll forge some bronze turtle statues in my kiln and pass them out to the winners next time.

Here are the five companies in no particular order:

Snapeee

snapeee

Japanese photo decoration apps have much international appeal, as the notion of ‘kawaii’ is a very exportable one. And perhaps because of that, Snapeee has mustered popularity in most countries around the Asian region. Targeting female users, it has accumulated more than 4 million users from around the world, with 80% of its users coming from outside its homes market of Japan. So far the service is proving most popular in regions like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Readers may recall that we mentioned Snapeee a little while back in our Japan’s cutest mobile apps feature, and the company made headlines earlier today when it announced a round of series B funding.

See Snapeee in the SD Japan database

Snapdish

snapdish

If any company really belongs on this list, it’s probably the food photo app Snapdish. In fact, it was just a few weeks back that we heard the company’s founder, Hidetaka Fukushima, speak about building his business for the global market from the very start. It’s great to see yet another Japanese photo app that’s doing well overseas. If this keeps up, we might have to consider calling it a trend!

See Snapdish in the SD Japan database

Tokyo Otaku Mode

tokyo-otaku-mode-lead

This startup, which focuses on sharing anime, manga, and cosplay related content to international audiences, showed pretty great foresight in betting on Facebook before it really picked up any momentum in Japan. Tokyo Otaku Mode has grown its fan base on the social platform to more than 11 million fans, and is trying to solidify its web content offerings, while serving as a bridge to other Japanese companies struggling for visibility outside of their home market (see Lawson and MTV81).

See Tokyo Otaku Mode in the SD Japan database

Cinnamon

miku-hirano-cinnamon
Cinnamon CEO Miku Hirano

I swear, when I started making this list it wasn’t nearly as heavy with photo apps as this. But it’s hard not to admire these Japanese founders who decided to set up their company in Singapore, and then hop on down to Vietnam to start their quest to build a photo app that will target the Southeast Asian market to start. That app, Seconds, has already launched on Google Play for Vietnam and Thailand, and the company is considering other Asian regions like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore next. I had a chance to interview Cinnamon’s CEO, Miku Hirano, back in April, so if you’d like to hear more about what she has planned, do check out that conversation.

See Cinnamon in the SD Japan database

Crypton Future Media

dominos-pizza-hatsune-miku
Hatsune Miku x Dominos collaboration

This company might not fall under our usual ‘startup umbrella’, but with 30 employees the Sapporo-based media company is a very small one — but few have had such a big global impact. This is the group behind the voice synthesizer application Vocaloid (having acquired Vocaloid 2 from Yamaha), and the Hatsune Miku character which has emerged from Japanese subculture to become a mainstream icon. We’ve recently written about successful Hatsune Miku collaborations with Domino’s Pizza and fashion company Ceno.

You can check out their website over at crypton.co.jp

See Crypton Future Media in the SD Japan database

Honorable Mention


  1. There are lots of others, of course, but these are just the ones that stood out to us this month. I’m sure many readers will suggest others, and we’re eager to hear them.  ↩