On day two at B Dash Camp 2013 in Fukuoka, we had a chance to briefly hear Naoki Shibata, the co-founder of app store SEO tool SearchMan.
Naoki explained that users typically don’t search for an app by looking for a particular name or a brand, but rather instead they will search for it by function. So to this end, it is very helpful if your app’s name includes a significant keyword included. But you do need to be careful not to make it too long because users will just see an excerpt sometimes.
He also noted that for the App Store, you app has a limit of 100 characters, so it’s important that you maximize the space given to you. Similarly, in the app description, you need to be careful with this as well, because it shows up just underneath the app’s screenshots – so this is key real estate.
In terms of App Store and Google Play ranking criteria, he noted that both stores look for relations, factoring in keywords, users reviews, the app description, as well as the app score (which includes reviews and sales).
Naoki also gave a brief video demo of his SearchMan service which aspires to help customers take care of all these issues.
See the original story in Japanese. This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2013. You can’t discuss the history of the Japanese mobile business without talking about i-mode. This is the featurephone content platform from NTT Docomo, which many content providers used to achieve significant growth and revenue. Of course in recent years, the market need has shifted to smartphones, especially the iPhone, and not many people have their their eyes on i-mode these days. But many of the ideas developed in i-mode live on. For example, Docomo’s competitor KDDI has had much success with SmartPass, a flat rate app subscription program similar to i-mode in terms of its subscription model. How exactly will Docomo respond to KDDI’s smartphone success so far? At B Dash Camp 2013 in Fukuoka yesterday, Yoshiaki Maeda, the managing director of smart communication services at NTT Docomo, explained a little about the company’s upcoming strategy, revealing a few interesting figures in the process. Docomo’s smartphone content sales generates $180 million a month To date, Docomo has acquired 18 million smartphone users. The figure is expected to reach 40 million by the end of 2014. Their smartphone content sales grew to a…
You can’t discuss the history of the Japanese mobile business without talking about i-mode. This is the featurephone content platform from NTT Docomo, which many content providers used to achieve significant growth and revenue.
Of course in recent years, the market need has shifted to smartphones, especially the iPhone, and not many people have their their eyes on i-mode these days. But many of the ideas developed in i-mode live on. For example, Docomo’s competitor KDDI has had much success with SmartPass, a flat rate app subscription program similar to i-mode in terms of its subscription model.
How exactly will Docomo respond to KDDI’s smartphone success so far? At B Dash Camp 2013 in Fukuoka yesterday, Yoshiaki Maeda, the managing director of smart communication services at NTT Docomo, explained a little about the company’s upcoming strategy, revealing a few interesting figures in the process.
Docomo’s smartphone content sales generates $180 million a month
To date, Docomo has acquired 18 million smartphone users. The figure is expected to reach 40 million by the end of 2014. Their smartphone content sales grew to a market worth of $180 million, and that’s continuously on the rise each month.
Conversely, the i-mode content market is shrinking.
The growth of Docomo’s smartphone subscribersThe growth of revenue from smartphone content sales
On-the-spot purchase needs surpasses that of monthly subscription model
In the era of featurephones, monthly subscription models were very strong but it’s shifted to an ‘on-the-spot’ purchase model as our more subscribers move to smartphone users.
Monthly subscription sales vs. on-the-spot purchase sales in the last three years
For us, by bringing the subscription user base from the featurephone market (i-mode) to the smartphone content market, we expect monthly revenue to increase to $300 million.
Partnering with new content providers
Some content providers brought conventional (featurephone optimized) content to the smartphone app marketplace, and that will never attract our subscribers.
We value our providers though, but we further expect to get new providers involved to cultivate the market. We also have our Docomo Innovation Ventures as a touch point for new companies or startups. We’ve exploring ways to work with brand new people.
When will Docomo start ‘Sugotoku’, its monthly flat-rate subscription program for smartphone apps?
We’re preparing for it to be launched very soon. It would be similar to our competitor KDDI’s strategy, but we’re still in talks with partner content providers (and/or app developers). We aspire to make it comfortable enough so that our customers will be happy to use it.
See the original story in Japanese. This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2013. Along with the evolution of web services, online advertising platforms have drastically evolved. In the past, we used to place simple banner ads on our websites, and subsequently search advertising emerged. Now we’ve adopted impression-based ads using ad tools like DSP (demand-side platform). But the further ad solutions evolve, the more issues we face. Here’s a quick rundown on the panel discussing issues facing the online advertising space in Japan. The panelists for the session include: Osamu Aranami, Corporate Office, Head of Marketing Solutions Company, Yahoo Japan Kenichi Sugawara, CMO, ScaleOut Koki Sato, President and CEO, Septeni Holdings Moderator: Toru Kawarazuka, Senior Manager, Sales Management Dept., Sony Bank Does social media have much of an impact on the conventional ad business? Aranami: I can’t disclose our figures because we’re heading towards the announcement of our financial statements in the week ahead. In terms of browsing devices, it’s changing. The share of smartphone and tablets is on the rise. Sato: Social media allows users to create a sort of user pool as well as owning their official website. The engagement helps acquire…
Along with the evolution of web services, online advertising platforms have drastically evolved. In the past, we used to place simple banner ads on our websites, and subsequently search advertising emerged. Now we’ve adopted impression-based ads using ad tools like DSP (demand-side platform).
But the further ad solutions evolve, the more issues we face. Here’s a quick rundown on the panel discussing issues facing the online advertising space in Japan. The panelists for the session include:
Osamu Aranami, Corporate Office, Head of Marketing Solutions Company, Yahoo Japan
Kenichi Sugawara, CMO, ScaleOut
Koki Sato, President and CEO, Septeni Holdings
Moderator: Toru Kawarazuka, Senior Manager, Sales Management Dept., Sony Bank
Does social media have much of an impact on the conventional ad business?
Aranami: I can’t disclose our figures because we’re heading towards the announcement of our financial statements in the week ahead. In terms of browsing devices, it’s changing. The share of smartphone and tablets is on the rise.
Sato: Social media allows users to create a sort of user pool as well as owning their official website. The engagement helps acquire high-profile users, and may work well for global business expansions. But it’s still in the stage of trial and error.
Using personal profiles for advertising
Sugawara: DSPs allow you a specific ad space on an impression-basis. In terms of placing ads using this platform, you can specify a target audience segment or ad spaces. The audience segments requires personal profiles. For example, when you visit a motor comparison site (overseas), they will use your profile and propose target vehicles for you.
Aranami: Yahoo Japan has users’ purchase histories on our shopping site and auction site. We’re considering to use that data for our ad delivery. But at the same time, we have to be careful on how we should handle such data.
Septeni Holdings CEO Koki Sato speaking on the panel
What’s ahead for rich media ads?
Aranami: To help with promotional activities for the Olympic bid in Tokyo, we’ve created an ad where athletes move when you mouse over them. It generated a lot of buzz, but we’re still preparing for movie ads.
Sato: At my company, the demands of rich media ads account for a lesser share of our business, especially compared to English-speaking countries. There are two key points here: How much can premium (rich media) ads bring value compared to conventional TV ads? And how many users are shifting from desktop browsing to smartphone devices.
Sugawara: There are rights management issues as well. Some TV ads cannot be reproduced for online advertising because of rights issues.
Aranami: Yahoo Japan is working on finding out how we can create a safe and secure ad networks for our clients, as well as deploy further extensive developments on YDN, our Yahoo Display-ad Network. We can take minor requests from our clients, such as which domain they would like to place ads on. We proudly think ourselves as Japan’s largest DSP operator.
This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2013. At B Dash Camp 2013 in Fukuoka today, Kakao CEO Sirgoo Lee, explained a little about the rise of the KakaoTalk mobile chat application in Korea and around Asia. Sirgoo was joined on stage by Gen Miyazawa, the head of search at Yahoo Japan, Kakao’s partner in Japan. To date the KakaoTalk app has seen over 86 million downloads, including 10 million here in Japan. Sirgoo explained that Kakao has over 29 million daily unique views, and more than 4.8 billion messages are exchanged each day. Perhaps more important than those metrics are the revenue figures that Sigoo mentioned. He says that in 2012 the company hit $42 million in total revenue, turning a profit of $6.5 million. Most of that revenue comes from their platform business, specifically games and social commerce, as well as ads. But he noted that this is just the beginning and that this social layer can stimulate growth in spaces like e-commerce, for example, showing friends what you want to buy. Line Corporation CEO Akira Morikawa was sitting in the front row (having spoken in a session earlier in the day) and…
At B Dash Camp 2013 in Fukuoka today, Kakao CEO Sirgoo Lee, explained a little about the rise of the KakaoTalk mobile chat application in Korea and around Asia. Sirgoo was joined on stage by Gen Miyazawa, the head of search at Yahoo Japan, Kakao’s partner in Japan.
To date the KakaoTalk app has seen over 86 million downloads, including 10 million here in Japan. Sirgoo explained that Kakao has over 29 million daily unique views, and more than 4.8 billion messages are exchanged each day.
Perhaps more important than those metrics are the revenue figures that Sigoo mentioned. He says that in 2012 the company hit $42 million in total revenue, turning a profit of $6.5 million. Most of that revenue comes from their platform business, specifically games and social commerce, as well as ads.
But he noted that this is just the beginning and that this social layer can stimulate growth in spaces like e-commerce, for example, showing friends what you want to buy.
Line Corporation CEO Akira Morikawa was sitting in the front row (having spoken in a session earlier in the day) and Sirgoo acknowledged that they have a few things that Kakao could take away from watching how Line operates:
We have to learn more from Morikawa-san in terms of global business. We are very local in that 70% of our users are in Korea. It’s difficult to expand beyond Korea. We at Kakao are taking a different approach. […] We’re partnering with Yahoo Japan here, and we’d like to partner with local partners in other regions who know those regions.
This is an interesting contrast with Line, who expands in a different manner, observing where they do well and then flying in to do business there.
The paths of these two mobile chat giants have largely mirrored each other to date, with each one dominating their respective local markets. But with their somewhat differing philosophies on expansion, it will be interesting to see which strategy works best.
See the original story in Japanese. This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2013. The e-learning industry is changing drastically with new technologies like cloud technology or social media. One of notable startups in this space is Schoo, which provides real-time online lecture services on many topics. We had a chance to check out a panel on online e-learning services at B Dash Camp 2013 today in Fukuoka. In the fist, Dylan Arena, the chief learning scientist of the e-learning solution provider Kidaptive, introduced four keywords to describe the latest trends in the US e-learning market. Access: Giving access to online lecture services anywhere at anytime. Attention: Giving teachers an efficient way to pay an attention to what their students are doing in their classrooms. Assessment: An advanced e-learning system gives teachers a way to assess their students far better than before. Personalization: Using the three points stated above, explore a way to personalize lecture content to individual students. For the people who have less learning opportunities for economic reasons, Kidaptive’s solution allows teachers reach students by providing a combination of an online e-learning environment as well as private tuition opportunities. Subsequently teachers can check…
The e-learning industry is changing drastically with new technologies like cloud technology or social media. One of notable startups in this space is Schoo, which provides real-time online lecture services on many topics.
We had a chance to check out a panel on online e-learning services at B Dash Camp 2013 today in Fukuoka. In the fist, Dylan Arena, the chief learning scientist of the e-learning solution provider Kidaptive, introduced four keywords to describe the latest trends in the US e-learning market.
Access: Giving access to online lecture services anywhere at anytime.
Attention: Giving teachers an efficient way to pay an attention to what their students are doing in their classrooms.
Assessment: An advanced e-learning system gives teachers a way to assess their students far better than before.
Personalization: Using the three points stated above, explore a way to personalize lecture content to individual students.
For the people who have less learning opportunities for economic reasons, Kidaptive’s solution allows teachers reach students by providing a combination of an online e-learning environment as well as private tuition opportunities. Subsequently teachers can check up on how students are doing in a more systematic manner.
From the left: Drecom’s Yuki Naito and Quipper’s Akifumi Yokoi
Interestingly, social gaming players are showing an interest in the e-learning area. On this panel, Drecom‘s CEO Yuki Naito and Quipper‘s Akifumi Yokoi discussed what’s ahead for the intersection of gaming and education services. Naito explained a bit about their e-learning platform, adding:
The know-how for improving user retention rate in the social gaming areas can also work in managing e-learning services.
While it’s doubtful that social gaming developers will sidetrack their businesses into this space, it will interesting to see them occasionally deploying their ideas to different business spaces such as this one.
This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2013. The afternoon session of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2013 included a panel on the changes in B2B business brought about by the social web. Participants in the discussion included: Akira Kurabayashi, senior director, corporate development Koki Uchiyama, CEO, Hottolink Inc. Masahide Nakamura, President and CEO, Allied Architects Inc. Moderator: Yasuhisa Tsubata, Reservation service unit manager, media services, Yahoo Japan 16:05 – Kurabayashi: “In the US, social networks exist in business, not just in the consumers space. There are so many players in the business social area.” He explains a little about Marketing Cloud, their leading social marketing platform. 16:08 – Nakamura: About 3000 companies in Japan using social B2B, but we figure the number of companies that will use social for business will increase. […] We think this is like 15 years ago in the consumer space, where things are only just starting to take off. 16:12 – Tsubata notes that maybe if more people use Line for B2B then maybe it can boom. He observes Line CEO Morikawa taking notes in the front row. Mr. Uchiyama says jokingly that he’d like to partner with them! 16:15…
The afternoon session of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2013 included a panel on the changes in B2B business brought about by the social web. Participants in the discussion included:
Akira Kurabayashi, senior director, corporate development
Koki Uchiyama, CEO, Hottolink Inc.
Masahide Nakamura, President and CEO, Allied Architects Inc.
Moderator: Yasuhisa Tsubata, Reservation service unit manager, media services, Yahoo Japan
16:05 – Kurabayashi: “In the US, social networks exist in business, not just in the consumers space. There are so many players in the business social area.” He explains a little about Marketing Cloud, their leading social marketing platform.
16:08 – Nakamura: About 3000 companies in Japan using social B2B, but we figure the number of companies that will use social for business will increase. […] We think this is like 15 years ago in the consumer space, where things are only just starting to take off.
16:12 – Tsubata notes that maybe if more people use Line for B2B then maybe it can boom. He observes Line CEO Morikawa taking notes in the front row. Mr. Uchiyama says jokingly that he’d like to partner with them!
16:15 – Nakamura: There’s lots of information moving about these days, and for example, if you eat at a restaurant you may recommend it online, and this sort of social data is abundant online — and search might not be the most efficient to sort though it. I think the volume of data will only get larger, and we’re still in the early stages of sorting though it.
16:23 – Uchiyama: In 2010 there was a stock forecast system using social media, so I think with things like that there’s not a big gap between the US and Japan. […] On Japanese companies not yet being aggressive: Japanese companies are often thinking about past cases, rather than new ideas. […] The literacy level of the customers is very different as well.
16:27 – Nakamura: Asia’s GDP is projected to soon account for 52% of the world, so I don’t think it’s merely about exporting US services to these regions, but you also have to localize of course.
16:31 – Tsubata: B2B is a good sector to invest in, and there are lots of companies looking to market on the web and in the social world, and I think there’s lots of potential there.
Rick Martin
Takeshi Hirano
