Chatwork Inc., a Japanese startup that operates a cloud-based chat tool for business, has announced that it would start expanding service operations to the European region from Luxembourg. This follows its international expansion to North America last year, and the Asian region this past spring.
The Chatwork app was launched back in March of 2011, providing a business chat environment for corporate users, with features like group chat, task management, file management, and video conferencing.
Luxembourg is known for having a very low tax rate, and has succeeded in inviting a number of multinational companies to set up shop there. It’s surrounded by Germany, France, and Belgium, and most local citizens can speak English, Luxembourgish, German, and French. Chatwork has decided to start its European operations here because of these geographical and linguistic advantages. The company was in attendance at ICT Spring 2013, an annual tech startup conference in the country taking place this week.
The startup recently unveiled that it has acquired more than 200,000 users as of this month. In terms of the ratio of paid to unpaid users, Chatwork has performed even better than services like Dropbox or Evernote, which are said to be around 4 to 4.5%. More than 50,000 users visit the service every day, and more than 100 million messages have been exchanged using the platform.
The startup unveiled a screen-sharing feature called ChatWork back in May. And from here, it will be interesting to see how much traction it can build in the country where Skype started its journey.
We’ve written about the popular cosmetics and makeup review portal @Cosme on a few occasions. i-Style, the company behind the giant portal announces its most popular cosmetic products twice a year. The award-winning cosmetics are selected purely from generated user-reviews on the portal, and also factors in @Cosme’s own metrics [1]. @Cosme also has some hair and make-up video tips on its Cawaii Channel where they give out specific how-tos on products that rank well — tips like how to make cat-eyes, or how to put on fake eye-lashes. Many Japanese women prefer to buy cosmetics at stores — at least the first time, since they can get good advice on how to use the products. Cawaii channel is simple but serves a similar purpose. But other Japanese companies are trying to meet the demands in this market as well. There is another make-up video portal called Minna no Make, (roughly translated as Everyone’s makeup) which is a close equivalent to Beautylish. The site provides make-up tips by popular professional makeup artists for makeup as well as nails. Users can get advice or post their own tips and make friends around makeup and nail products. The most popular video on…
We’ve written about the popular cosmetics and makeup review portal @Cosme on a few occasions. i-Style, the company behind the giant portal announces its most popular cosmetic products twice a year. The award-winning cosmetics are selected purely from generated user-reviews on the portal, and also factors in @Cosme’s own metrics [1].
@Cosme also has some hair and make-up video tips on its Cawaii Channel where they give out specific how-tos on products that rank well — tips like how to make cat-eyes, or how to put on fake eye-lashes. Many Japanese women prefer to buy cosmetics at stores — at least the first time, since they can get good advice on how to use the products. Cawaii channel is simple but serves a similar purpose.
But other Japanese companies are trying to meet the demands in this market as well. There is another make-up video portal called Minna no Make, (roughly translated as Everyone’s makeup) which is a close equivalent to Beautylish. The site provides make-up tips by popular professional makeup artists for makeup as well as nails. Users can get advice or post their own tips and make friends around makeup and nail products. The most popular video on the site (as we write this) is how to put on red eyeliner (see video below).
Minna no Make is interesting in that users can find the makeup or nail products of their choice, and then find videos that show how to use those products. There is also a premium membership where members work as ambassadors of the site, and are given dedicated pages with more designs, original name cards to hand out to friends, and invites to exclusive events.
If you would like to see the list of winning products, you can check it out on their website in Japanese or Chinese. ↩
There are lots of fun tech-focused community events springing up around Japan. Of course, for us here in Tokyo it’s sometimes easy to overlook what’s happening beyond the capital. Hacker News events have been held in various cities around Japan (and of course, the world), and tomorrow Nagoya will be added to that list, with the city’s first Hacker News meetup being held in the afternoon [1]. The venue will be Adea (find a detailed map over on the Doorkeeper.jp page), and the time has been set for 2pm to 6pm, so that anyone who visits from out of town can catch a train back home. If you can’t make it, you can follow the discussion on Twitter on the #hnnagoya hashtag. For more details about the Hacker News events, check out Hacker News Tokyo or Hacker News Kansai. I shamefully have to confess that I’ve not attended one of these events yet. But I hope to do so soon. ↩
There are lots of fun tech-focused community events springing up around Japan. Of course, for us here in Tokyo it’s sometimes easy to overlook what’s happening beyond the capital.
Hacker News events have been held in various cities around Japan (and of course, the world), and tomorrow Nagoya will be added to that list, with the city’s first Hacker News meetup being held in the afternoon [1].
The venue will be Adea (find a detailed map over on the Doorkeeper.jp page), and the time has been set for 2pm to 6pm, so that anyone who visits from out of town can catch a train back home. If you can’t make it, you can follow the discussion on Twitter on the #hnnagoya hashtag.
If you’re a fan of Japanese sake, you should keep a spot open on your homescreen for Sakenote. This app allows you to keep track of sake you’ve drank, write a review of it, take photos, and even note where you had it. If your geo-location setting is on, the app automatically detects where you are so that you can look back on those places later on. Sakenote works sort of like Snooth Wine or the Japanese wine tracking app called Vinica developed by Kakaku.com. It’s very simple. You just start by tapping the plus sign in the upper right corner to add your favorite sake to your list. You can even search for sake names and brands using the Roman alphabet. If you want to search by kanji, there are apps like imiwa available to hand-draw your kanji so you can then copy and paste. When taking photos of the sake’s label, you might want to take photos of Tsumami (light snacks) as well so that it can help to trigger your memory later. You can share your sake with your friends on Twitter or Facebook as well. The app’s developer has plans to collaborate with sake manufacturers and…
If you’re a fan of Japanese sake, you should keep a spot open on your homescreen for Sakenote. This app allows you to keep track of sake you’ve drank, write a review of it, take photos, and even note where you had it. If your geo-location setting is on, the app automatically detects where you are so that you can look back on those places later on.
Sakenote works sort of like Snooth Wine or the Japanese wine tracking app called Vinica developed by Kakaku.com. It’s very simple. You just start by tapping the plus sign in the upper right corner to add your favorite sake to your list. You can even search for sake names and brands using the Roman alphabet. If you want to search by kanji, there are apps like imiwa available to hand-draw your kanji so you can then copy and paste.
When taking photos of the sake’s label, you might want to take photos of Tsumami (light snacks) as well so that it can help to trigger your memory later. You can share your sake with your friends on Twitter or Facebook as well. The app’s developer has plans to collaborate with sake manufacturers and restaurants to provide even more additional features later on.
Even if you become forgetful while drinking, Sakenote is a good way to ensure that you’ve remembered all the important details about your drinking. The app is available on iOS and Android.
Update: Readers may recall that we a wrote about a very similar app once before called Sakelover. It’s actually the same app, with a rebrand so that they could take the service global.
This week I had a chance to visit Dr. Adrian Cheok and his students at the Mixed Reality Lab at Keio University. The research they’re conducting is based around the notion that in the future technology will shift from today’s ‘Information Age’ to an ‘Experience Age’. Dr. Cheok predicts that we will experience the realities of other people, as opposed to just reading about them, listening to them, or watching a video on a glass screen. Visiting the Mixed Reality Lab was a refreshing experience. I’ve come to associate terms like ‘Augmented Reality’ with things like Sekai Camera, or the fascinating human Pac-man game that his lab created a few years back [1]. But Dr. Cheok points out quite rightfully – and perhaps surprisingly – that one of the earliest examples of AR was Sony’s Walkman, the first device that allowed people to have their own personal sounds with them all the time. Beyond Sound and Vision Once we accept the idea that augmented/mixed-reality is not just limited to vision, then it opens up a whole world of possibilities. And these are the possibilities that Dr. Cheok and his students are researching. He explains: I became interested to see if…
This week I had a chance to visit Dr. Adrian Cheok and his students at the Mixed Reality Lab at Keio University. The research they’re conducting is based around the notion that in the future technology will shift from today’s ‘Information Age’ to an ‘Experience Age’. Dr. Cheok predicts that we will experience the realities of other people, as opposed to just reading about them, listening to them, or watching a video on a glass screen.
Visiting the Mixed Reality Lab was a refreshing experience. I’ve come to associate terms like ‘Augmented Reality’ with things like Sekai Camera, or the fascinating human Pac-man game that his lab created a few years back [1]. But Dr. Cheok points out quite rightfully – and perhaps surprisingly – that one of the earliest examples of AR was Sony’s Walkman, the first device that allowed people to have their own personal sounds with them all the time.
Beyond Sound and Vision
Once we accept the idea that augmented/mixed-reality is not just limited to vision, then it opens up a whole world of possibilities. And these are the possibilities that Dr. Cheok and his students are researching. He explains:
I became interested to see if we could extend augmented reality to other senses. To touch. At first I made a system for human-to-pet communication. We made a jacket for a chicken that allowed a person to convey touch to a chicken remotely. Then we made Huggy Pajama, which could be used to hug a child remotely [2].
Ring-u
While projects like this might strike us as a little strange — or even wacky — it’s important to note that such projects can be far more practical than you might think at first glance. A version of Huggy Pajama called T Jacket has been subsequently developed for for therapeudic purposes. So for example, a child with autism could be comforted remotely with hugs can be sent over the internet by smartphone.
Readers may recall that we previously featured another remarkable haptic communication project from the Mixed Reality Lab called Ring-u. The idea here is that vibrating messages can be sent over the internet, back and forth between a pair of rings, and there is also now a smartphone interface for the ring as well. This project has perhaps far larger potential in the consumer electronics space, and they’re speaking with toy companies and high-end jewelers about possibile future developments.
Taste the Future
But perhaps the biggest challenge for Dr. Cheok and his team is figuring out how to digitize the other two remaining senses:
Smell and taste are the least explored areas because they usually require chemicals. [But] we think they are important because they can directly affect emotion, mood, and memory, even in a subconscious way. But currently its difficult because things are still analog. This is like it was for music before the CD came along.
Amazingly the team has developed a prototype electric taste machine, and I was lucky to be able to try it out during my visit. The device in its current form is a small box with two protruding metal strips, between which you insert your tongue to experience a variety of tastes. For me some were stronger than others, with lemon and spicy being the strongest. It works by using electric current and temperature to communicate taste, and I experienced what felt like a fraction of the intended tastes – but very impressive. I’m told that in the future, this system could even assume a lollipop-like form, which would certainly be very interesting.
Electric taste machine
The lab is also collaborating with Japanese startup ChatPerf, which you may recognize as the company that developed a smell-producing attachment for smartphones. They will also conduct a formal academic study to see to what level smell can affect communication between individuals. But even with ChatPerf, the creation of smells is still analog, using cartridges of liquid to emit odors. Later on Dr. Cheok hopes to similate smells in a non-chemical, digital way, noting that it can be done via magnetic stimulation of the olfactory bulb.
So while experiments like these tend to cause lots of laughs and raised eyebrows sometimes, the work is quite important in expanding how we see technology’s role in our lives.
These are just a few of the great projects that the Mixed Reality Lab is working on, and we hope to tell you about others in the future.
See the full infographic on Gurunavi Here on SD Japan, we’ve written a few articles about how tech has been used to make sushi restaurants more efficient. There was even a very unusual drone helicopter sushi in London being used for marketing purposes. Speaking of marketing, today Gurunavi (sort of Japan’s answer to Yelp) released an infographic about the many sushi-related terms used at restaurants. Even though sushi is both a casual and more formal dinner option in Japan, there are many terms that people may not be familiar with or maybe they misunderstand them. Gurunavi released this infographic to promote a better understanding of the traditional cuisine (and likely for some self-promotion too!). ‘Gari’ (pink ginger on the side) or ‘Neta’ (ingredient) are common words heard at sushi restaurants, but the infographic dives into even more advanced terms like ‘Nigemono’ (I didn’t know this one, but it means cost-efficient ingredient) and ‘Debana’ (tea served at the beginning of meal). The term ‘murasaki’, which usually refers to the color purple, is apparently used to describe soy sauce at sushi restaurants. Bookmark this infographic to show off to your friends how much you know about sushi. Gurunavi was founded way back…
Speaking of marketing, today Gurunavi (sort of Japan’s answer to Yelp) released an infographic about the many sushi-related terms used at restaurants. Even though sushi is both a casual and more formal dinner option in Japan, there are many terms that people may not be familiar with or maybe they misunderstand them. Gurunavi released this infographic to promote a better understanding of the traditional cuisine (and likely for some self-promotion too!).
‘Gari’ (pink ginger on the side) or ‘Neta’ (ingredient) are common words heard at sushi restaurants, but the infographic dives into even more advanced terms like ‘Nigemono’ (I didn’t know this one, but it means cost-efficient ingredient) and ‘Debana’ (tea served at the beginning of meal). The term ‘murasaki’, which usually refers to the color purple, is apparently used to describe soy sauce at sushi restaurants. Bookmark this infographic to show off to your friends how much you know about sushi.
Gurunavi was founded way back in 1989 and went public in 2008 as a local restaurant portal and search engine. The site’s direct competitor is Tabelog, which was launched in 2005. Tabelog’s parent company is Kakaku.com, and they recently launched a version of its site for New York in March of this year. The main difference between the two competitors is that Gurunavi is more store-oriented, providing exclusive coupons for special occasions or drinking parties. In contrast, Tabelog’s strength is its consumer-generated restaurant reviews.
Junya Mori
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Rick Martin
