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Meet 5 new mobile startups from KDDI’s tech accelerator

Masaru Ikeda 2013.02.01

KDDI Mugen Labo, a startup incubator run by Japan’s second largest telco, recently held a conference called “4th Meeting” where we heard from five startups from the third batch [1] of its three-month acceleration program. All the smartphones apps developed by these startups will be available on au SmartPass, a flat-rate monthly subscription service that gives subscribers access to an unlimited number of apps. Here’s a quick rundown of the new services: Mana.bo ¶ Mana.bo is learning platform that allows students to ask tutors a question at any time. If you are studying at home but suddenly have a nagging question, you usually need to wait until the next school day to ask your teacher. Mana.bo makes it possible for students to ask their question immediately, without having to wait. According to the startup’s CEO Katsuhito Mihashi, the “EduTech” market is growing very rapidly in Silicon Valley, and the investment in this industry is as much as four times of what used to be four years ago. To differentiate from competitors, mana.bo is preparing to add several key features, such as an online whiteboard where they can draw, as well as tools for chatting, photo sharing, and even a numerical…

KDDI Mugen Labo, a startup incubator run by Japan’s second largest telco, recently held a conference called “4th Meeting” where we heard from five startups from the third batch [1] of its three-month acceleration program.

All the smartphones apps developed by these startups will be available on au SmartPass, a flat-rate monthly subscription service that gives subscribers access to an unlimited number of apps.

Here’s a quick rundown of the new services:

Mana.bo ¶

Mana.bo is learning platform that allows students to ask tutors a question at any time. If you are studying at home but suddenly have a nagging question, you usually need to wait until the next school day to ask your teacher. Mana.bo makes it possible for students to ask their question immediately, without having to wait.

According to the startup’s CEO Katsuhito Mihashi, the “EduTech” market is growing very rapidly in Silicon Valley, and the investment in this industry is as much as four times of what used to be four years ago. To differentiate from competitors, mana.bo is preparing to add several key features, such as an online whiteboard where they can draw, as well as tools for chatting, photo sharing, and even a numerical formula recognition feature which can detect hand-written numerals and things like radical signs and logarithms.

Log Town ¶

Log Town aggregates (or “logs”) your activities on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and generates an information index in the form of a virtual town. The service sort of has a SimCity feel, but is personalized with details of our social media behaviours. For example, when you check into an Italian restraunt with your Foursquare account, that restaurant will be virtually constructed on your Log Town page.

They just released the browser based version, and will introduce an Android app in March.

Morning Relay ¶

Morning Relay is a social wake-up call that enlists the assistance of your social circle in making sure that you wake up on time. The “relay” monikker springs from the process of being handed a baton from a teammate in a relay race – getting by with some help from your friends, as they say.

When your wake-up time closes, your social contacts will cheer you on in an effort to wake you up. If you don’t wake up, your avatar will indicate to your contacts that you still aren’t awake, so they can keep trying to nudge you out of bed. If you succeed in waking up on time, you can pass along thanks to your caller, and even help to wake up someone else on the app.

The iPhone app will be available in February, and the Android app will follow in April.

Close ¶

Close is a smartphone app that lets you chat with only with your intimate friends, allowing you to register up to nine people as contacts. It was inspired by a presentation from ex-Google senior UX researcher Paul Adams. Close’s creator Daisuke Mizuta believes the maximum limit is typical of intimate contacts someone would have. The app allows you to update your important (and not-so-important) moments without worrying about colleagues or business contacts who might be connected with you on Facebook.

Close’s developer, Reventive, raised 15 million yen in funds (about $162,000) from ex-Oracle Japan president Allen Miner and other Japanese angel investors.

Close is available for iOS and Android.

Tixee (Winner of ‘Best Startup’ award) ¶

Tixee is a service that allows you to buy tickets for interesting events online. Most ticketing apps use QR codes to be scanned at the door of an event, but this can often take more time to confirm than paper tickets. The Tixee app digitally reproduce the ticket stub tearing motion, and an event organizer just needs to swipe the screen to tear off the (virtual) stub, as you can see in the promo video below.

Tixee has already been adopted at football matches by F.C. Tokyo, and also on the concert tour of popular J-pop band Mr. Children.

KDDI Mugen Labo just started accepting applications for the fourth batch of their accelerator program. The deadline is February 22nd. ↩

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Japan’s amazing self-stirring pot now for sale on Amazon

The Bridge 2013.02.01

This is part of our Crowdfunding in Japan series (RSS). Services like KickStarter have become a global phenomenon with the power to let creative individuals take their ideas to new heights. It’s happening here in Japan too, most notably on Campfire, the country’s answer to Kickstarter. When we think about rapidly advancing technology sectors, we don’t often think about cooking. But if you’ve ever stood impatiently over a boiling pot, mixing vegetables or pasta, this self-stirring pot, named kurokuro nabe, is technology that will likely have you drooling. It’s a ridiculously simple design, with diagonal gutters along the sides which draw water up to create a whirlpool as water heats up. The result is a wonderful self-mixing pot that should save you the time and trouble of always watching to see when it needs stirring. If you aren’t already floored by this, let me further point out that since the whirlpool brings bubbles to the center of the pot, it also prevents water from boiling over. Undesirable material like fat or oil also gathers in the middle, and can be scooped out easily. When video of the prototype was initially posted on YouTube (see video below), it racked up over…

This is part of our Crowdfunding in Japan series (RSS). Services like KickStarter have become a global phenomenon with the power to let creative individuals take their ideas to new heights. It’s happening here in Japan too, most notably on Campfire, the country’s answer to Kickstarter.

When we think about rapidly advancing technology sectors, we don’t often think about cooking. But if you’ve ever stood impatiently over a boiling pot, mixing vegetables or pasta, this self-stirring pot, named kurokuro nabe, is technology that will likely have you drooling.

It’s a ridiculously simple design, with diagonal gutters along the sides which draw water up to create a whirlpool as water heats up. The result is a wonderful self-mixing pot that should save you the time and trouble of always watching to see when it needs stirring.

If you aren’t already floored by this, let me further point out that since the whirlpool brings bubbles to the center of the pot, it also prevents water from boiling over. Undesirable material like fat or oil also gathers in the middle, and can be scooped out easily.

When video of the prototype was initially posted on YouTube (see video below), it racked up over 740,000 views, far exceeding the expectations of its designers and prompting them to produce a marketable product. It was even featured in prominent Western media like The Huffington Post and Daily Mail.

The funds raised for this project on were earmarked to cover production costs of at least 1000 pots, with trial manufacturing and mass production were to take place in the development department of Toyo Rikagaku Kenkyusho in Niigata Prefecture. That company is so renowned for its technology that Steve Jobs came all the way to Japan to place an order for iPad production there.

Although the creators raised 311,000 yen (almost $3,400) in their Campfire crowdfunding campaign, the project didn’t reach its funding target. Perhaps there’s not much of a crossover between cooking enthusiasts and Campfire backers? But thankfully, this miracle pot is being sold on Amazon Japan, so we’re delighted to see that it’s finally available for purchase.

You can check out more information about kurokuro nabe over on its website (in Japanese).

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With 100 million users, LINE is the Japanese Facebook

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.02.01

Line, one of the most popular smartphone apps in Japan, recently reached the 100 million user milestone. The free chat application was made by NHN Japan Corporation, and launched back in June of 2011. The app makes use of the user’s phone directory, allowing them to get connected with people they actually know in real life. Sound familiar? Yes, Line is in many ways aspiring to be Japan’s Facebook — the primary difference being that Line is a social service born entirely on mobile. Line is gaining popularity around the Asia region with about half of it’s users coming from outside Japan. Many celebrities in Japan are using the app including current prime minister Abe Shinzo who joined the service in January. The biggest reason behind the app’s success lies in the timing of its release. It came during a time when not-so-tech-savvy mainstream users began switching from feature phones to smartphones. With a completely different and unfamiliar tool, people turned to Line for help. With Line, all you needed to get connected with friends was their phone number. And everyone with a phone has that already. Ubiquity, and beyond! Line was first adopted by younger users but gradually gained…

Line, one of the most popular smartphone apps in Japan, recently reached the 100 million user milestone. The free chat application was made by NHN Japan Corporation, and launched back in June of 2011. The app makes use of the user’s phone directory, allowing them to get connected with people they actually know in real life. Sound familiar? Yes, Line is in many ways aspiring to be Japan’s Facebook — the primary difference being that Line is a social service born entirely on mobile.

Line is gaining popularity around the Asia region with about half of it’s users coming from outside Japan. Many celebrities in Japan are using the app including current prime minister Abe Shinzo who joined the service in January. The biggest reason behind the app’s success lies in the timing of its release. It came during a time when not-so-tech-savvy mainstream users began switching from feature phones to smartphones. With a completely different and unfamiliar tool, people turned to Line for help. With Line, all you needed to get connected with friends was their phone number. And everyone with a phone has that already.

Ubiquity, and beyond!

Line was first adopted by younger users but gradually gained popularity over mainstream users including seniors. With over 100 million users, it is the new digital marketing platform. To better take advantage of Line, many companies are conducting user surveys. A survey of married couples and their usage of Line was a particularly interesting one. It targeted 800 married men and women of age 20 to 40. 39.5% responded that the app increased communication with their spouse. 29.4% of respondents answered that their spousal relationship has improved since using the app.

line tenki — Line also launched Line Tenki, or Line Weather this past week

But since last summer, the chat app has become more of a platform than just smartphone chat application. NHN began providing a service named Line Channel in July of 2012, a year after the app’s initial release. On Line Channel, users are able to enjoy games, fortune-telling, and even discount coupons. One game, Line Pop, has been downloaded over 20 million times worldwide as of January 2013, just two months after it’s release.

But there is a cutthroat war brewing in the chat application market. Line is no doubt the pioneer in Japan, but DeNA’s Comm and Korea’s KakaoTalk have jumped in the ring recently too. At the end of 2012, Comm had been downloaded more than five million times since it’s October launch. Kakao Talk had about 70 million users as of December 2012, with 18 million of those overseas, and about 4 million of those in Japan.

We were in touch with the CEO of Viber this week as well, who pointed out that they are hoping to make a renewed push in Asia where the app has 50 million users in total. Interestingly, six million of those are in Japan.

But still, Line’s dominance is pretty secure at home, with about 41.5 million users in Japan. Stay tuned to see how it fares abroad this year.

This is part of our ‘Japanese internet in-depth’ series (RSS). Stay tuned for more features that aim to explain what makes the internet unique in Japan.

For more information on the growth of Line, please check out our interactive Line Timeline which chronicles its growth from its launch back in 2011 up until the present day.

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Tokyo Otaku Mode has 10 million Facebook fans — But now what?

Rick Martin 2013.02.01

When I first heard of Japan-based startup Tokyo Otaku Mode it was little more than a Facebook page sharing content about Japanese Otaku subculture. But as far as Facebook pages go, there wasn’t really anything little about it. At that time I think they had about half a million fans, and since then they have gone on to crack through ten million. Yes, you read that correctly. Ten. Million. To put that in perspective, that actually makes them bigger than both Elvis (7M fans) and Jesus (5.1M). In the last year alone, they saw new fans coming on board at an average rate of 600,000 per month. The content on Tokyo Otaku Mode is primarily curated. That doesn’t simply mean curation in the normal sense of tumblr-esque web clippings brought together in recycled stream of web regurgitation. The startup gets in touch with right holders not just to obtain permission to share content, but also to offer its services to help Japanese content creators reach global audiences. According to co-founder Nao Kodaka, many of those rights holders say that the Japanese market is not growing, and now they want to pursue audiences abroad. So far, Tokyo Otaku Mode has established…

When I first heard of Japan-based startup Tokyo Otaku Mode it was little more than a Facebook page sharing content about Japanese Otaku subculture. But as far as Facebook pages go, there wasn’t really anything little about it. At that time I think they had about half a million fans, and since then they have gone on to crack through ten million.

Yes, you read that correctly. Ten. Million.

To put that in perspective, that actually makes them bigger than both Elvis (7M fans) and Jesus (5.1M). In the last year alone, they saw new fans coming on board at an average rate of 600,000 per month.

The content on Tokyo Otaku Mode is primarily curated. That doesn’t simply mean curation in the normal sense of tumblr-esque web clippings brought together in recycled stream of web regurgitation. The startup gets in touch with right holders not just to obtain permission to share content, but also to offer its services to help Japanese content creators reach global audiences. According to co-founder Nao Kodaka, many of those rights holders say that the Japanese market is not growing, and now they want to pursue audiences abroad. So far, Tokyo Otaku Mode has established healthy relationships with those groups and individuals, and as a result, can publish high quality content regularly.

The thing that most astounds me about Tokyo Otaku Mode is that the company has managed to build such a community around Japanese culture with only a ten man team. I can’t help but contrast with this the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s own Cool Japan efforts, which is in a way are trying to do the very same thing – but obviously with not as much success.

Community first

Tokyo Otaku Mode began back in 2011. That wasn’t long after the earthquake, and Nao tells me that they wanted to try to do something that could help Japan. Facebook was just catching on in the country at that time [1]. And while there were more than a few fan groups and sites focused on anime, manga, and Japanese culture, Nao says that there weren’t really and Japanese individuals or media reaching out to the world on their own. He succinctly explains:

All we have is our content. Our uniqueness, and our content.

For a young company just starting out, Facebook was certainly a logical place to build up a fan base. It’s free, and there are no server costs.

Nao describes how his team experimented with different methods of Facebook posting, trying different numbers of photos to see if some worked better than others. He points out that fans eventually began tagging themselves in photos, which meant that their friends were also seeing Otaku Mode content too. In the end, it looks to have resulted in a perfect storm of viral content that still hasn’t let up (see fan growth in the chart on the right).

Tokyo Otaku Mode has previously received backing from a number of investors. I recently got in touch with one of them, Craig Mod, who explained to me what it was about Tokyo Otaku Mode that made him want to get behind them as an angel investor [2]. He describers them as a team of “total hustlers” and sharp marketers, bold enough to turn social media on its head:

[T]he fact that they saw an opportunity to leverage Facebook — and Facebook alone — as a platform to launch a publishing-like company was, to me, a first. Instead of spending tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars building complicated software for their company, they spent five minutes and used Facebook Pages as their home base on the internet. Obvious in hindsight but very avant garde even just a year ago.

Mo’ Money, Mo’ mobile

But you can’t make money directly on a Facebook fan page. So Otaku Mode was still faced with the problem that plagues so many in the content industry. How do you convert eyeballs into dollars? The strategy that the company has taken, and one which mentors have advised, is to drive Facebook traffic to its new website at OtakuMode.com, which just recently emerged from its private beta to become fully open to the public.

Nao explains explains that they hope to drive enough traffic to the site so that they could eventually advertise and convert those eyes into dollars.

The company has also dipped its toes in the mobile space as well, publishing its Otaku Camera application for iOS and Android, which turns your photos into manga style art. It isn’t the most original idea in the world, as Manga Camera did pretty much the exact same thing. But Otaku Camera is, in my opinion, far better executed. So far it has over 500,000 downloads, which is not a bad start. I’m told that in the future the application could sell special frames, in collaboration with certain rights holders.

Momoiro Reku: Hatsune Miku cosplay on Tokyo Otaku Mode — UGC content: Momoiro Reku’s Hatsune Miku cosplay on Tokyo Otaku Mode

The site also now serves as an outlet for content creators as well, with a dedicated UGC section which features some really amazing stuff. There’s also a verification process, by which the best of the best content creators earn a sort of Twitter-style verified badge, provided that they meet a number of stringent criteria. They can upload content on their own, and leverage Otaku Mode’s platform to reach audiences overseas who they may not otherwise be able to reach.

The website also recently added a news section, where articles about the latest happenings in the world of manga and anime are posted. The company also foresees the possibility of branching into e-commerce as a possible monetization method. Nao says, “Picture Esty, but for Otaku.”

This young company will certainly be one to watch in the coming year, just to see if its good fortune can extend beyond its Facebook success. I’m not going to make any predictions, but if I were a betting man, I certainly wouldn’t wager against them.

In fact, Facebook’s role in post-earthquake communication highlighted the social network in the eyes of many in Japan. ↩
Craig previously wrote his impressions of the company for Contents Magazine in a wonderful article entitled “Our New Shrines“. Like almost everything Craig Mod writes or creates, I can’t recommend it enough. ↩

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Hello World! We’re Sd Japan.

announcements

Rick Martin 2013.02.01

They say innovation is dead in Japan. Or at least that’s the prevailing narrative in Western media recently. Yes, many of the big companies synonymous with technology in Japan have been lagging behind. But the big picture is more than that, and we hope to show you that big picture one little piece at a time. Are who are we? We’re Sd Global, an English-language online news website born out of the Japanese site Startup Dating. As a team of writers living and exploring Japan, we hope to discover new developments and untold stories in Japan’s digital space and put them on display here. It could be college kids bootstrapping the next great mobile app, a Japanese multinational making waves overseas, or a high-tech vending machine – if it’s a game changer in the world of technology, then it’s in our sights. And we’ll do our best to bring you our own insights. Sd is an ambitious project, one that I’m personally very excited to join as a writer and editor. The Japanese tech sphere is ever-changing, and I’m eager to learn more about it from my colleagues, an all-star cast who have all been prominent voices in the community…

They say innovation is dead in Japan. Or at least that’s the prevailing narrative in Western media recently. Yes, many of the big companies synonymous with technology in Japan have been lagging behind. But the big picture is more than that, and we hope to show you that big picture one little piece at a time.

Are who are we? We’re Sd Global, an English-language online news website born out of the Japanese site Startup Dating. As a team of writers living and exploring Japan, we hope to discover new developments and untold stories in Japan’s digital space and put them on display here. It could be college kids bootstrapping the next great mobile app, a Japanese multinational making waves overseas, or a high-tech vending machine – if it’s a game changer in the world of technology, then it’s in our sights. And we’ll do our best to bring you our own insights.

Sd is an ambitious project, one that I’m personally very excited to join as a writer and editor. The Japanese tech sphere is ever-changing, and I’m eager to learn more about it from my colleagues, an all-star cast who have all been prominent voices in the community for some time now.

We always welcome feedback from you, the reader. So send us your story tips, suggestions, or criticisms anytime.

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