Accounting startup CFO won the Infinity Ventures Launchpad event with Freee, its financial service for small business. But it was followed in second place by CocoPPa, a very clever service that lets you customize you iPhone icons and homescreen. While there are many services out there that let you do such customizations to your mobile, where CocoPPa is unique is that it offers a platform where users around the world can share and collaborate on these kind of designs.
So for example, if a person in Japan creates a cute icon, someone on the other side of the world could create a wallpaper to match. This collaborative process is, I think, what sets it apart from other customization services.
While you could make a design in practically any style you wish, it looks like many of the creations that users are submitting fall into the kawaii category. And as we have seen in the past, such Japan-made apps that offer cute services like this have great appeal with overseas users.
The service was originally launched last July, and since then they have seen over 7.5 million downloads, with half of those coming from the US. They have 1.35 million monthly active users, and are seeing impressive growth. The word-of-mouth buzz around CocoPPa is good, with users sharing their screen designs on social platforms like Pinterest and Instagram (for example, see screens from Pinterest user lindsayw72 below).
Back in April they released a web version, and and Android version of the service will be coming soon too. As for monetization, currently the startup depends on ad revenue, but they will be looking to other options as well in the future.
For more information, you can check out CocoPPa’s promo video below.
This is part of our coverage of the Infinity Ventures Summit 2013 in Sapporo, Japan. You can read more of our reports from this event here. On day two of the Infinity Ventures Summit there was a conversation discussing digital fabrication, featuring a distinguished lineup of panelists from here in Japan (pictured left to right above): Kinya Tagawa, CEO, takram design engineering Hiroya Tanaka, Associate Professor of Keio University & Founder of Fablab Japan. Shigeru Kobayashi, Associate Professor, Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences Nobuyuki ‘Nobi’ Hayashi, IT Journalist/Consultant Mr. Tagawa started off with some background information noting that the innovation cycle in manufacturing used to be very slow. But just as digital innovations have changed most industries, we’re finally also starting to see it seep into manufacturing. Tagawa noted the importance of Make Magazine and its contribution to growing the culture in this space. Manufacturing was once limited to professionals, but now it appeals to a far wider group. The emergence of the ‘maker’ overlaps the previously separate spheres of innovator, producer, and consumer. Kobayashi followed up with an explanation of how 3D printing is making it easy for people to experience things like data processing, scanning, and…
This is part of our coverage of the Infinity Ventures Summit 2013 in Sapporo, Japan. You can read more of our reports from this event here.
On day two of the Infinity Ventures Summit there was a conversation discussing digital fabrication, featuring a distinguished lineup of panelists from here in Japan (pictured left to right above):
Kinya Tagawa, CEO, takram design engineering
Hiroya Tanaka, Associate Professor of Keio University & Founder of Fablab Japan.
Shigeru Kobayashi, Associate Professor, Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences
Nobuyuki ‘Nobi’ Hayashi, IT Journalist/Consultant
Mr. Tagawa started off with some background information noting that the innovation cycle in manufacturing used to be very slow. But just as digital innovations have changed most industries, we’re finally also starting to see it seep into manufacturing. Tagawa noted the importance of Make Magazine and its contribution to growing the culture in this space. Manufacturing was once limited to professionals, but now it appeals to a far wider group. The emergence of the ‘maker’ overlaps the previously separate spheres of innovator, producer, and consumer.
Hisashi Imai’s nail clippers design (thingiverse)
Kobayashi followed up with an explanation of how 3D printing is making it easy for people to experience things like data processing, scanning, and fabrication. His organization holds workshops that teach these processes, and he notes that new digital fabrication tools like laser cutters make it a very accessible activity. He emphasized that traditional fabrication can co-exist in a sort of hybrid state with new methods like these. Kobayashi cited one example of a very simple but innovative design was Hisashi Imai cleverly designed nail clippers that allows people who may have limited mobility in one limb to use a nail clippers easily. Other designers can take such a design, and adjust the parameters to their own requirements.
Tanaka pointed out that there lots of fab labs around the world, now over 200 in total. He projects that in the future stationary stores could be places where you create your own stationary. Similarly, clothing shops could be a place where you implement your own designs. He adds that services that connects all the people and workshops doing great work in this space would be valued.
Nobi gave some fun examples of great makers like Osaka University’s Hiroshi Ishiguro, who has created some things that you’ve likely seen before, including the now famous android clone of himself. There’s also Maki Sugimoto who creates 3D scans of organs, and then can use those items to practice surgeries. Organs have a wet feeling to touch, so he is even trying to use 3D printers to reproduce this.
This is a space where I expect Japan is going to progress rapidly, given some of the creative things that we have already seen in these early stages. There are lots of mad scientists in this country, says Nobi, and they getting more involved in fab labs, helping Japan stand out in this space.
This is part of our coverage of the startup LaunchPad event from the Infinitity Ventures Summit in Sapporo, Japan. Back in March we featured cloud-based accounting solution Freee, which was just emerging from stealth mode at the time. The service was developed by Tokyo-based startup CFO, and was pitch at the Infinity Ventures Summit Launchpad competition by CEO Daisuke Sasaki. While the company isn’t going to win any awards for the names of their company or service, they did walk away proudly with the top prize from this startup competition in Sapporo. Freee offers n accounting solution for small and mid-size businesses who may not have so much accounting knowledge. It allows you to view your transaction statements on site, conveniently categorize and visualized. If you need to create invoices there is a function for that as well, with the capability to change status to ‘paid’ or ‘unpaid’ accordingly. It’s especially useful for self-employed people when they have to file their taxt reports. Sasaki says that Freee helps you do your taxes as much as 50 times faster, which is certainly a big plus. Regrettably, Japan is a little bit slow adopting cloud services, so the startup will have some…
Freee wins Launchpad event – CEO Daisuke Sasaki
This is part of our coverage of the startup LaunchPad event from the Infinitity Ventures Summit in Sapporo, Japan.
Back in March we featured cloud-based accounting solution Freee, which was just emerging from stealth mode at the time. The service was developed by Tokyo-based startup CFO, and was pitch at the Infinity Ventures Summit Launchpad competition by CEO Daisuke Sasaki. While the company isn’t going to win any awards for the names of their company or service, they did walk away proudly with the top prize from this startup competition in Sapporo.
Freee offers n accounting solution for small and mid-size businesses who may not have so much accounting knowledge. It allows you to view your transaction statements on site, conveniently categorize and visualized.
If you need to create invoices there is a function for that as well, with the capability to change status to ‘paid’ or ‘unpaid’ accordingly. It’s especially useful for self-employed people when they have to file their taxt reports. Sasaki says that Freee helps you do your taxes as much as 50 times faster, which is certainly a big plus.
Regrettably, Japan is a little bit slow adopting cloud services, so the startup will have some work to do in terms of bringing users on board. So among the users they have already won over, Sasaki figures that over 3300 accounting hours have already been saved.
See this story in Japanese. Below are selected excerpts from the original. This is part of our coverage of the Infinity Ventures Summit 2013 in Sapporo, Japan. You can read more of our reports from this event here. In this panel, CyberAgent CEO Susumu Fujita spoke with five young Japanese entrepreneurs to find out more about how they got to where they are today. Participants in the discussion included: Riki Kojima, CEO of Willgate (an SEO solution provider) Nobuhiro Ariyasu, CEO of Coach United (a private lesson provider) Shintaro Otake, the CEO of Tri-fort (social app and smartphone app developer) Kensuke Furukawa, the CEO of Nanapi (an archive of how-to and daily tips) Natsuko Shiraki, the CEO of Hasuna (jeweler) Startup strategies in the face of hardships Otake: I intended to take a radical approach in order to make it successful. I set a target that we surpass Facebook, and I learned that we need radical and rapid growth to reach that goal. Kojima: At the age of 20, my company was still two years old but employed too many people, even though I didn’t have much business experience at that time. With our 100 million yen funding ($1 million), I…
This is part of our coverage of the Infinity Ventures Summit 2013 in Sapporo, Japan. You can read more of our reports from this event here.
In this panel, CyberAgent CEO Susumu Fujita spoke with five young Japanese entrepreneurs to find out more about how they got to where they are today. Participants in the discussion included:
Riki Kojima, CEO of Willgate (an SEO solution provider)
Nobuhiro Ariyasu, CEO of Coach United (a private lesson provider)
Shintaro Otake, the CEO of Tri-fort (social app and smartphone app developer)
Kensuke Furukawa, the CEO of Nanapi (an archive of how-to and daily tips)
Natsuko Shiraki, the CEO of Hasuna (jeweler)
Startup strategies in the face of hardships
Otake: I intended to take a radical approach in order to make it successful. I set a target that we surpass Facebook, and I learned that we need radical and rapid growth to reach that goal.
Willgate’s CEO Riki Kojima
Kojima: At the age of 20, my company was still two years old but employed too many people, even though I didn’t have much business experience at that time. With our 100 million yen funding ($1 million), I hired 30 people but the company unexpectedly collapsed too soon. Subsequently I found a colleague’s chat post that mentioned ‘I shouldn’t work with this company.”
Fujita: What are the advantages and disadvantages of launching your business when attending school?
Kojima: I had no business experience, so that I couldn’t figure out what was the best approach. I was forced to take a roundabout route and fail repeatedly. I’m still young, so people tend to see me as an immature business person, but in fact this makes me better at feeling people’s pains.
Monetization and business strategies
Fujita to Furukawa: I frequently visit your blog, and I know you’re quite good at writing stories. You, the company’s president, often show up on the web. What is there to gain from that?
Nanapi CEO Kensuke Furukawa
Furukawa: If you’re running an internet service, you should be familiar with the space. But on the other hand, it was once pointed out at an important business appointment that I might have too much time to spare. Many employee applicants come to us through my blog. Compared to applicants we find through talent search services, they are highly motivated and bring much benefit to our business.
Fujita: For today’s business owners, your blogging strategy makes sense. Not only to help your hiring efforts, but it may also help you bring your vision and message to employees as well. But what’s your overall strategy behind Nanapi? Are you just focused on growing it without considering monetization? Do you plan to sell it off to other companies?
Furukawa: In order to monetize the service, we need to make it grow. We have 20 million monthly unique users, not yet sufficient for the monetization. In Japan, if you monetize an internet service, it should be among the top 50 sites in the country in terms of internet traffic. Some web media companies have succeeded to monetize, but my interest is in making big stuff.
Coach United CEO Nobuhiro Ariyasu
Fujita: In my view, Cyta.jp (Coach United’s private lessons portal) is not very ‘Internettish’. How do you feel about it?
Ariyasu: No, our operations are not ‘Internettish’, as you say. For many online service providers, you typically send inquires to consumers to find out if they are satisfied with the customer experience. We actually use mystery shoppers to conduct surveys. In case that we can’t acquire users by e-mail marketing, sometimes even use telephone marketing.
Entrepreneurial culture in Japan
Fujita to Furukawa: Gradually we’re getting a culture where people admire exits. Do you plan to run your business independently without funding? Or are you interested in selling off?
Furukawa: We actually fundraised from Globis Venture Partners. In terms of our business model, our focus is on enlarging our media business. Selling off is a good option. But for now, we’d like to look at buying someone else’s service in order to enlarge our business.
I developed the Nanapi service because I couldn’t find any similar one. In our four-year experience since the launch, I eventually learned that it’s not so promising. Everyone wanted to have it but nobody actually did it, since it’s a bother.
Fujita: In Japan, entrepreneurs are generally not admired much. What do you think about this?
Furukawa: In my understanding, Japan is a country where we can easily launch a startup. We can also receive orders from big companies regardless of the size or maturity of the business. Compared to foreign countries, startup founders in Japan are relatively older, probably because we (generally) prefer to launch a business after getting work experience at a big company. For me, I’ve worked at Recruit for three years, which I think helps me do business more easily. If you are a student, people typically look down on you.
Kojima: When I failed in my business, I was bothered by the issues surrounding capitalization strategy and employment. I wanted more details about this information. I failed once but I bounced back even though I was immature. I hope our society can be tolerant of people who fail.
Ariyasu: Japan is heaven for entrepreneurs. Considering the huge amount of cash flow available in the market, the population of entrepreneurs going after that cash is extremely low. We need more success stories than we need government efforts to help entrepreneurship. If we get more billionaires, more people will get excited about entrepreneurship.
Fujita: Absolutely. If we have more success stories, that will certainly have an impact on people’s mindsets.
Tri-fort CEO Shintaro Otake
Otake finishes by asking Fujita a question: When are you planning to retire? What kind of people would you want to hand the company over to?
Fujita: To be honest, I’ve been always thinking [about] stepping down — when our business became profitable, when we completed the launch of Ameba (CyberAgent’s blog service). But the fact is, every time that we make an achievement, another new goal comes up.
For our media business especially, I was heavily involved in building it up. I did too much, and now I can’t really hand it over to someone else. (big laugh from the audience.)
See the original story in Japanese. This is part of our coverage of the Infinity Ventures Summit 2013 in Sapporo, Japan. You can read more of our reports from this event here. In contrast with that GREE and Mobage (by DeNA) who released a wide range of web-based game titles, native apps are grabbing much more attention, notably Puzzle & Dragons and Line’s repertoire of gaming apps. But can their revenue be sustained? And how will they lead the smartphone app market? We had a chance to hear from Jun Masuda, chief officer at Line Corporation, where he spoke about how to monetize apps and open the platform to the third-party developers. According to the stats from App Annie CEO Bertrand Schmitt, the Line app was ranked in 4th as of last March, based on consolidated global revenues from the iOS Appstore and Google Play. Masuda: For message app developers, you usually make money by selling stickers, ads, and charging for derivative services. For social network providers, you may might make your living with advertising. But if you rely only on that revenue stream, it’s far too difficult to sustain your business. It’s important to mix up revenue streams, both…
This is part of our coverage of the Infinity Ventures Summit 2013 in Sapporo, Japan. You can read more of our reports from this event here.
In contrast with that GREE and Mobage (by DeNA) who released a wide range of web-based game titles, native apps are grabbing much more attention, notably Puzzle & Dragons and Line’s repertoire of gaming apps. But can their revenue be sustained? And how will they lead the smartphone app market?
We had a chance to hear from Jun Masuda, chief officer at Line Corporation, where he spoke about how to monetize apps and open the platform to the third-party developers.
According to the stats from App Annie CEO Bertrand Schmitt, the Line app was ranked in 4th as of last March, based on consolidated global revenues from the iOS Appstore and Google Play.
Masuda: For message app developers, you usually make money by selling stickers, ads, and charging for derivative services. For social network providers, you may might make your living with advertising. But if you rely only on that revenue stream, it’s far too difficult to sustain your business. It’s important to mix up revenue streams, both charging users and with advertising, and keep that in balance. Sale of stickers is showing good numbers, and the app is ranked in first place if you exclude gaming apps, both on the Google Play and the iOS app store.
Popular stickers, popular characters
Masuda: We’ve had success acquiring users in the Thai market, so non-Japanese also like this concept of decorative communications, adding stickers in chat. Our revenue comes primarily from the Japanese market. Prices for our stickers are common in all around the world. Prices are relatively high for Thai users, but they still like to buy the stickers.
In terms of sticker sale trends, we’re not seeing any apparent gap between the globally version and locally-optimized versions. A sticker showing familiar characters, Brown & Cony, is the best selling one in the global markets. In the countries where local people typically watch Japanese animation films or understand what kawaii means, the Line app business does well. In the rest of the world, however, business is not so good.
Make the most of 150 million users
Masuda: In the latter half of last year, the Line Pop app was the best selling of our gaming apps. For games there have been 140 million downloads, and 25 titles. I can’t disclose revenue numbers, but our strategy is to acquire new gaming users on the Line user base.
We intend to keep introducing titles that female users will like, but we carefully set prices that won’t force them to pay too much. They typically play the games where they like to talk with someone over the phone. We’ll try to think further on how to monetize.
If an app has its name associated with the Line app, it usually has a very high rank in the app store. Prior to the launching the app in the gaming app category, we check if the app behaves as intended, and assure the quality of its user experience.
Opening the platform to third-party developers
Line’s Jun Masuda
Masuda: We are actually receiving many inquires about opening the platform to third-party developers. But there’s no plan for the time being. As we’ve been doing until now, we’ll work with partner developers who have ideas on what kind of games are suitable for Line users. We shutdown the in-company gaming studio team back in April. Kakao has more than 200 gaming titles, which makes me feel the life-cycle of a title is getting shorter. We’re now carefully thinking what to do next.
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.
A Japanese creative content company called Voltage recently released an English app called Office Secrets. No, the app is not about secret Microsoft Office tips [1], but rather it’s a fun, romantic dating simulation app. The company creates romantic content for Japanese females not only on smartphones but on feature phones. With Office Secrets, female users can play a part as the main character in a story set in a fashion company. She enjoys somewhat risky love affairs with various elite and handsome men in the office. The app is faithful to the original Japanese content including different characters and stories, translating it into English in the hopes of reaching female manga fans around the world. For Voltage, this is not its first time to push content outside of Japan. Including Office Secrets, it has a total of nine apps translated into English. Another translated app called Be My Princess was released in December of last year, nabbing the number one spot in the US app store entertainment category. The app is also popular in some Asian countries too. The original Japanese content for Office Secrets was first released way back in 2006 as a game for feature phones. It…
A Japanese creative content company called Voltage recently released an English app called Office Secrets. No, the app is not about secret Microsoft Office tips [1], but rather it’s a fun, romantic dating simulation app. The company creates romantic content for Japanese females not only on smartphones but on feature phones.
With Office Secrets, female users can play a part as the main character in a story set in a fashion company. She enjoys somewhat risky love affairs with various elite and handsome men in the office. The app is faithful to the original Japanese content including different characters and stories, translating it into English in the hopes of reaching female manga fans around the world.
For Voltage, this is not its first time to push content outside of Japan. Including Office Secrets, it has a total of nine apps translated into English. Another translated app called Be My Princess was released in December of last year, nabbing the number one spot in the US app store entertainment category. The app is also popular in some Asian countries too.
The original Japanese content for Office Secrets was first released way back in 2006 as a game for feature phones. It is one the more popular games out of the 50 or so titles that Voltage provides in the Japanese market, and six million users in total have played them.
The prologue of the story is free to play, but in order to proceed with your choice of handsome men, it will cost $1.99 for the epilogue and additional $3.99 for the main story per character.
For anyone who is looking to fulfill their office love fantasy, Office Secrets is available on iOS.
Rick Martin
Takeshi Hirano
Yukari Mitsuhashi
