pLucky is the Tokyo-based startup behind the user behavior analysis tool Slash-7. The company announced today that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from CyberAgent Ventures. We figure that it’s worth about 20 million yen ($200,000).
Slash-7 aims to gives website owners sophisticated data analysis for reasonable rates. Many executives at Japanese companies are becoming increasingly interested in making the most of big data analysis to improve their business. But for website managers, it’s a time consuming task and may also result in additional costs or a possible delay spilling over into your regular projects.
The Slash-7 tool is based on Google BigQuery, a database engine for analyzing large amounts of data. It gives you access to ‘cohort analysis‘, helping measure user engagement over time. This allows users to monitor user retention rates by traffic source or measure conversion rates for a specific user group before or after a promotional campaign.
The startup was launched back in 2011 by Nobuhiro Hayashi. He has been working in the web industry for almost 10 years, and previously worked at notable Japanese startups, including Tonchidot.
When you’re trying to make a persuasive presentation, you are unlikely to be sitting in front of a computer, just clicking through your slides. Rather, you want to be standing, facing the audience, with energy in your voice and animated movements or gestures. To give you an additional tool for your presentation arsenal, stationary and office supplies manufacturer Kokuyo has announced a new ring-shaped device that can help. Using Kokuyo’s presentation remote, Kokuyoseki, people can easily click through their slides. By putting the device on your index finger, you can use your thumb to click its buttons. A simple click of the ‘Next’ or ‘Back’ button works as a page turner, and a long press allows for presentations slides to start or end. With the black out button the screen turns black, so that you can put your presentation on hold to have discussions. Kokuyoseki supports both PowerPoint for Windows and Mac, as well as Keynote 1. The device is 32 mm in diameter and weighs about 12 grams with the battery, usually good for about 15 hours. The device can be enabled by inserting a receiver in your computer’s USB port, and it doesn’t require any drivers to be…
When you’re trying to make a persuasive presentation, you are unlikely to be sitting in front of a computer, just clicking through your slides. Rather, you want to be standing, facing the audience, with energy in your voice and animated movements or gestures.
To give you an additional tool for your presentation arsenal, stationary and office supplies manufacturer Kokuyo has announced a new ring-shaped device that can help.
Using Kokuyo’s presentation remote, Kokuyoseki, people can easily click through their slides. By putting the device on your index finger, you can use your thumb to click its buttons. A simple click of the ‘Next’ or ‘Back’ button works as a page turner, and a long press allows for presentations slides to start or end. With the black out button the screen turns black, so that you can put your presentation on hold to have discussions.
Kokuyoseki supports both PowerPoint for Windows and Mac, as well as Keynote 1. The device is 32 mm in diameter and weighs about 12 grams with the battery, usually good for about 15 hours. The device can be enabled by inserting a receiver in your computer’s USB port, and it doesn’t require any drivers to be installed.
The ring comes in two sizes, a larger size for your finger, and a smaller that can be fitted on a laser pointer. Kokuyoseki will be available for 4,935 yen (or about $49) starting June 12th.
Note that some of the long press controls are unavailable on Mac PowerPoint.↩
I was a little surprised a few weeks back when I stumbled across OldPhotosJapan.com, a site featuring remarkable photos from an era that most people would think predates photography itself. Many of the pictures collected are from the Meiji and Showa periods, some going back as far as the 1860s. The site was created by Tokyo-based, Dutch photojournalist Kjeld Duits, who I had a chance to catch up with yesterday to find out more about this project. What I discovered out was that this endeavor is more than just a pet interest or a hobby, but in fact, its actually a business too. Kjeld also operates MeijiShowa.com, a site where interested parties and clients can license these photos. While a lot of the photos are accessible to those who want to dig for them, Kjeld’s value add is that he can go out and acquire interesting old photos at auctions or other sales, and then license in much the same way that he used to license his own photos. He elaborates a little more about how this who idea initially came about: I had no idea there were photos of Japan from that period. I fell in love with the…
I was a little surprised a few weeks back when I stumbled across OldPhotosJapan.com, a site featuring remarkable photos from an era that most people would think predates photography itself. Many of the pictures collected are from the Meiji and Showa periods, some going back as far as the 1860s.
The site was created by Tokyo-based, Dutch photojournalist Kjeld Duits, who I had a chance to catch up with yesterday to find out more about this project. What I discovered out was that this endeavor is more than just a pet interest or a hobby, but in fact, its actually a business too. Kjeld also operates MeijiShowa.com, a site where interested parties and clients can license these photos. While a lot of the photos are accessible to those who want to dig for them, Kjeld’s value add is that he can go out and acquire interesting old photos at auctions or other sales, and then license in much the same way that he used to license his own photos.
He elaborates a little more about how this who idea initially came about:
I had no idea there were photos of Japan from that period. I fell in love with the photos, but I thought that’s something you only see at museums. It didn’t even occur to me that I could buy them. […] I later found a book with these kinds of photos at a temple in Kyoto, and as my new year’s resolution that year, I decided to find out if it would be possible to buy these photos. ¶
And after just a few days I had already found a way; I found a place and started buying them. It was only later that I realized, “Hey, I license my own photographs, maybe I should start licensing these photographs.” Most of the places that do these are large agencies like Getty Images, or museums who tend to be bureaucratic. ¶
Subsequently he built the OldPhotosJapan site to see if there was any public interest. And sure enough, people bought them.
So far Kjeld’s strategy is to use OldPhotosJapan to drive traffic to the licensing site, MeijiShowa. And while the traffic is still relatively modest at 1000 unique views per day, ostensibly those who find the site arrive there due to a very specific keyword search. Kjeld declined to disclose any sales figures, but he is making a living from this and his other web endeavors.
I was surprised to find that he actually handles the web development and design on his own (he’s self-taught), and for MeijiShowa in particular this looks to be an impressive feat. The database of photos is rich with meta data, easily sortable and browsable with related items listed for convenience.
Photos on MeijiShowa have lots of metadata, and are easy to browse
So far Kjeld says that his clients come from both Japan and overseas, ranging from documentary film companies (the BBC is a client, for example), to restaurants who want an interesting backdrop on their wall. Kjeld also cited the example of a client from Sweden who licensed one of the photos to use on his bedroom wall (see photo below).
OldPhotosJapan originally began back in 2007, with MeijiShowa following in 2010. and Kjeld says he plans to make a Japanese version of the latter available soon, most likely in the fall of this year. Considering that about 60% of his clients currently come from Japan, this should certainly be a big help for business.
Readers here in Japan might be familiar with some of Kjeld’s other work, most notably JapaneseStreets.com, another photography project, but with a fashion focus. Currently his company, DUITS, functions as a licensing company that oversees three branches: the aforementioned OldPhotosJapan and JapaneseStreets, as well as focusing on more traditional journalism as well. He notes:
[The first two are] small niche markets that aren’t really of interest to large or even medium-sized companies. They’re just big enough for a small company like ours. But selling to tiny markets like this is possible now because of the internet.
It’s really encouraging to see this kind of entrepreneurial activity in the journalism space, especially here in Japan. Kjeld has put forth a pretty big effort, and it will be interesting to see how the business progresses in the future.
A client used one photo for his bedroom. An unsual, but very cool, use case
Just recently we told you about Japanese personal finance app ReceReco, which at that time had announced that it had surpassed 500,000 downloads. Since that time, the app spent about some time at or near the top of the Japanese iOS App Store charts [1], and that appears to have given the service a significant boost. A representative for BrainPad Inc, the developer of ReceReco informs us that the app has now passed 800,000 downloads, no doubt thanks its successful week, which likely exposed it to many new users. Those sort of numbers are pretty common in the gaming space, but perhaps it’s a little rare for a finance app. When asked about whether or not the company might try its luck offering such a service to overseas users, we were told that while that’s a consideration, the current focus is on making ReceReco profitable in Japan first [2]. At the recent Infinity Ventures Summit startup event, we heard from another Japanese finance startup called Money Forward. During the pitch, the founder noted that they have have a partnership to integrate with ReceReco, which is certainly a plus for anyone who uses both services. It hit number one overall on…
Just recently we told you about Japanese personal finance app ReceReco, which at that time had announced that it had surpassed 500,000 downloads. Since that time, the app spent about some time at or near the top of the Japanese iOS App Store charts [1], and that appears to have given the service a significant boost.
A representative for BrainPad Inc, the developer of ReceReco informs us that the app has now passed 800,000 downloads, no doubt thanks its successful week, which likely exposed it to many new users. Those sort of numbers are pretty common in the gaming space, but perhaps it’s a little rare for a finance app.
When asked about whether or not the company might try its luck offering such a service to overseas users, we were told that while that’s a consideration, the current focus is on making ReceReco profitable in Japan first [2].
At the recent Infinity Ventures Summit startup event, we heard from another Japanese finance startup called Money Forward. During the pitch, the founder noted that they have have a partnership to integrate with ReceReco, which is certainly a plus for anyone who uses both services.
See the original post in Japanese Tokyo-based startup Yaraku has introduced a website translation tool called World Jumper, and it has recently raised about 110 million yen ($1.1 million) from Nissay Capital, Nippon Venture Capital, and several other angel investors. The startup was first launched back in 2009, and it has been providing multi-lingual translation services for website owners. In terms of differentiation from other translation services, the company outsources orders to third-party agencies, but it also accumulates frequently-used translation requests and results in the database for future reference. This results in better translation results without the need to outsource to agencies, and it helps keep translation costs down while the quality improves as time goes by. The startup has different translation databases for different categories of websites, such as e-commerce sites, portal sites, or general corporate websites. The startup’s clients include eBay, the guide app Tokyo Cool, Sunbridge Venture Capital, and digital ad agency Opt. All these companies typically need website translation in order to reach global audiences. The multilingual-translation tool includes a feature that scrapes your website, recognizes which part needs changes or additional translation when the website is updated. In this process, a translation will be provided…
Tokyo-based startup Yaraku has introduced a website translation tool called World Jumper, and it has recently raised about 110 million yen ($1.1 million) from Nissay Capital, Nippon Venture Capital, and several other angel investors.
The startup was first launched back in 2009, and it has been providing multi-lingual translation services for website owners. In terms of differentiation from other translation services, the company outsources orders to third-party agencies, but it also accumulates frequently-used translation requests and results in the database for future reference. This results in better translation results without the need to outsource to agencies, and it helps keep translation costs down while the quality improves as time goes by. The startup has different translation databases for different categories of websites, such as e-commerce sites, portal sites, or general corporate websites.
The startup’s clients include eBay, the guide app Tokyo Cool, Sunbridge Venture Capital, and digital ad agency Opt. All these companies typically need website translation in order to reach global audiences.
The multilingual-translation tool includes a feature that scrapes your website, recognizes which part needs changes or additional translation when the website is updated. In this process, a translation will be provided based on the original HTML file without changing the source codes, so that you don’t need to re-edit the files for each additional language as long as its design format or website structure is the same as the original. Essentially, the clients don’t need to care about maintaining their non-Japanese websites.
Of course even with cutting-edge technology, automated translation between different languages cannot ensure total accuracy without human intervention. The World Jumper system still has the possibility of mistranslation or awkwardness. But in order to reduce this risk, the service gives you an interface where you can translate by yourself to educate the system for more accurate results with the future orders.
The fee consists of 80,000 yen ($800) for the initial account setup, 8,800 yen ($88) for monthly usage, and additional costs for manual translation. Your first translation requests is processed manually, but subsequent requests will be processed based on the database. This step is the one that results in reduced total costs.
With this funding, the startup plans further development on the platform, making it open to third-party developers. They expect to acquire 1,000 corporate user accounts by the end of this year.
In this space, we have already seen other competitors including HongKong’s One Sky, Finland’s Get Localization, and Silicon Valley’s Transifex.
See the original Japanese version of this article If you’re a web startup, chances are you probably have a competitor or two. Maybe more. Here in Japan we are seeing rivals emerge in a number of service categories. Thankfully, with each struggling to stand out from the other, it means that users are most likely to benefit, at least in the short term. I will talk about the major players across six startup categories that have been getting attention here in Japan. Round 1: Stores.jp vs BASE (E-commerce platforms) ¶ I almost wanted to write about just this competition by itself, since both services have experienced rapid growth and the quality of their services is increasing by the day. This is a great example of how intense competition brings better quality product. See STORES.jp in our database See BASE in our database Base: The Japanese freemium e-commerce platform that’s following Shopify’s lead How Stores.jp is helping small businesses in Japan come online Round 2: iQON vs Origami vs MONOCO vs Fril (Smartphone x Fashion) ¶ iQON is media, Origami is commerce, Monoco is a concierge service, and Fril is C2C. Those startups all differ slightly but they share two common…
If you’re a web startup, chances are you probably have a competitor or two. Maybe more. Here in Japan we are seeing rivals emerge in a number of service categories. Thankfully, with each struggling to stand out from the other, it means that users are most likely to benefit, at least in the short term.
I will talk about the major players across six startup categories that have been getting attention here in Japan.
Round 1: Stores.jp vs BASE (E-commerce platforms) ¶
I almost wanted to write about just this competition by itself, since both services have experienced rapid growth and the quality of their services is increasing by the day. This is a great example of how intense competition brings better quality product.
Round 2: iQON vs Origami vs MONOCO vs Fril (Smartphone x Fashion) ¶
iQON is media, Origami is commerce, Monoco is a concierge service, and Fril is C2C. Those startups all differ slightly but they share two common threads: ‘fashion’ and ‘smartphones’. All have maintained high levels of investor interest. And it is said that this field is about to face a host of new entrants, resulting in even more hype around this space.
The platform concept of these two services differs slightly. However, I feel both have the potential to change the concept of the way people work here in Japan, and that’s what differentiates them from other worker-client matching services.
Competition this category is a little more fierce as the players are not all startups. But when I interviewed Coiney I felt that their strategy is not to compete head on with these other payment giants. Check out interview (in Japanese) for more details.
Round 5: Campfire vs Readyfor vs Countdown (Crowdfunding) ¶
Campfire has gotten a lot of attention so far, but it hasn’t yet resulted in the same kind of impact that we have seen with big overseas players. The first out of the gate in this crowdfunding space was Readyfor, which has differentiated by focusing on social contributions, donations, and NPOs. A critical success factor will be its ability to generate news media exposure.
Round 6: SmartNews vs Gunosy vs Vingow (News technology) ¶
This field is pretty interesting because the competition depends on technology much more so than in the previously mentioned categories. SmartNews shows its users almost all the same news information, which is different from the other two players. The concept of personalized news is common to Gunosy and Vingow. But Vingow offers users updated information in real-time, different from Gunosy which updates information in batches. Many users might use both services, depending on the occasion.
I confess, I also wanted to include C2C platforms in this article (such as ticket selling, for example), but I’ll come back to that another time.
Besides those listed above, Japan also has an abundance of camera applications and casual games, but many lack monetization plans and solid business models – so they are less news-worthy in my book. Most of the services listed above have established business models and firm financials, and of course that is a big attraction for investors.
If you’d like to suggest some other hot startup categories or rivalry, please let me know in the comments.
Junya Mori
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Rick Martin
Masaru Ikeda
Takeshi Hirano
