Many of our readers probably work in front of a computer for long hours. Of course, doing so can be tough on your eyes if you don’t have much of a break. There’s lots of software out there that will help you adjust, including f.lux, an application that changes the color of your computer display according to the time of the day. And here in Japan, most people in the tech industry are likely familiar with Jins PC, protective glasses that filter bluelight.
According to its website, Jins PC reduces the amount of bluelight you receive from your computer, mobile phone, and even your television display by as much as half. It was released back in September of 2011 and since then it has been a mega hit. It has posted a sales record of two million in just an year and a half after its release. The glasses are super light, weighing only 13 grams, with flexible frames providing a nice fit.
At the time of release, Jins PC leveraged the power of bloggers to create some online buzz. This online strategy worked well, with Jins PC easily available for purchase through its website. In addition to providing customized glasses online, the company also sold pre-packaged glasses for only 3,990 yen (or about $40), available in 16 colors. The packaged glasses are available at offline stores as well.
Jins PC changed the pre-conception that glasses are just for vision correction, opening up an entirely new market. And as a result another well-known affordable glasses manufacturer, Zoff, entered the PC glasses market in March of 2012.Yahoo Japan has provided all of its employees with Jins PC and the glasses are often used in medical institutions too. The company behind Jins PC, Jins Co, has other lines of glasses such as Jins Moisture and Jins Kafun Cut (which roughly translates as Jins Pollen-proof).
Asian startups are finally stepping into the spotlight, it seems. The region’s most prominent tech startup event, Echeleon, featured far more established startups this year in comparison to previous years. Many of them have already expanded their business globally, and I feel the same thing is now happening here in Japan. Here at SD Japan we have been adding Asian startup profiles to our database since January of 2013. We are proud to announce that we now have over 1000 entries for startups from Japan and around Asia. To celebrate this milestone, I’ve selected what I think are the best 50 Japanese startups from various internet sectors, in no particular order. Each is linked to its database entry, so for further information, just click through [1]. We hope this list can provide a little more visibility to standout entrepreneurs and startup folks in the country, as well as a better understanding of the space to our readers outside Japan. Update: Some people have suggested additional startups, and we’re making a note of them all for a future update [2]. So don’t hesitate to provide feedback in the comments. —RM Hot Startups Whill – A next generation personal mobility startup that…
Asian startups are finally stepping into the spotlight, it seems. The region’s most prominent tech startup event, Echeleon, featured far more established startups this year in comparison to previous years. Many of them have already expanded their business globally, and I feel the same thing is now happening here in Japan.
Here at SD Japan we have been adding Asian startup profiles to our database since January of 2013. We are proud to announce that we now have over 1000 entries for startups from Japan and around Asia. To celebrate this milestone, I’ve selected what I think are the best 50 Japanese startups from various internet sectors, in no particular order. Each is linked to its database entry, so for further information, just click through [1].
We hope this list can provide a little more visibility to standout entrepreneurs and startup folks in the country, as well as a better understanding of the space to our readers outside Japan.
Update: Some people have suggested additional startups, and we’re making a note of them all for a future update [2]. So don’t hesitate to provide feedback in the comments. —RM
Hot Startups
Whill – A next generation personal mobility startup that just got accepted into the latest 500 Startups program.
Nanapi – A Japanese website that provides helpful tips for everyday life.
Coiney – A mobile payment startup. Sort of a Square for Japan.
CocoPPa – A mobile app that allows you to customise your phone’s icons and homescreen.
Tokyo Otaku Mode – A Japanese digital media site focused on Japanese Otaku culture.
Marketplaces
Fril – A mobile marketplace app for girls where they can buy and sell clothing.
Coconala – A site where users can offer their knowledge, skills and experiences for about 500 yen (or about $5).
i-kifu – A social startup that helps Japanese non-profit organizations with their online fundraising.
Pirika – A smartphone app that encourages users to clean up their environment, and share pictures of themselves collecting trash in an effort to encourage others to do the same.
Trapro – A platform that allows users to plan and organize tours around important social issues.
CollaVol – A social volunteer platform where users can donate their time to complete certain tasks.
Readyfor – A crowdfunding platform. Most users put NPO and social cause projects on this site.
I previously published an article about tech Incubators and VCs in Japan. If you’d like to check that out, you can find it here. ↩
What’s the first thing you do when you grab your mobile phone? Slide to unlock the homescreen. Here in Asia, there is an app and an reward advertisement platform that capitalizes on this action. It’s called Latte Screen. The app was first released in Korea where it was downloaded over 2 million times in the first three months after its release. And now AppDisco Japan, the company behind the app, has announced that it will be expanding service to a total of 13 countries, including Australia, Spain, France, and Germany. According to the company, Latte Screen ‘hijacks’ (so to speak) [1] a user’s lock screen with advertisements. Users are shown the most recent advertisements (updated once every hour) and can receive points everytime they unlock their lock screen. These points can be exchanged for gift cards or even can be exchanged for cash. The company also plans to add coupons for stores and restaurants, as well as goods from Korean cosmetic brands or relating to pop stars. AppDisco released its first app in Japan, Ad Latte, back in December of 2011. The app gives out points to its users for watching commercials, answering questions, and participating in campaigns. The two…
What’s the first thing you do when you grab your mobile phone? Slide to unlock the homescreen. Here in Asia, there is an app and an reward advertisement platform that capitalizes on this action. It’s called Latte Screen. The app was first released in Korea where it was downloaded over 2 million times in the first three months after its release. And now AppDisco Japan, the company behind the app, has announced that it will be expanding service to a total of 13 countries, including Australia, Spain, France, and Germany.
According to the company, Latte Screen ‘hijacks’ (so to speak) [1] a user’s lock screen with advertisements. Users are shown the most recent advertisements (updated once every hour) and can receive points everytime they unlock their lock screen. These points can be exchanged for gift cards or even can be exchanged for cash. The company also plans to add coupons for stores and restaurants, as well as goods from Korean cosmetic brands or relating to pop stars.
AppDisco released its first app in Japan, Ad Latte, back in December of 2011. The app gives out points to its users for watching commercials, answering questions, and participating in campaigns. The two Latte apps are integrated, allowing users to collect points from both apps.
The app will be available to U.S. users starting this summer. Latte Screen can be downloaded over on Google Play.
In their announcement, the company used the word ‘hijacks’, perhaps for creative effect. Obviously this has a negative connotation in English, but in Japanese it reads ok.↩
Japanese web conglomerate Septeni Holdings (JASDAQ:4293) has established a new subsidiary that will focus on building a manga content e-publication platform. The group gets most of its revenue from online advertising and social gaming apps. But with this platform, it is looking to diversify its business beyond intellectual property. The new subsidiary, Comicsmart, will establish a website, as well as discover and train new cartoonists for its comic e-publication platform. The company also announced a program to supporting aspiring cartoonists, called Route M, giving them complimentary painting materials, production facilities, grants, and distribution channels for their works. On a related note, Japanese gaming company Spicy Soft recently announced that it has handed over Manga Get (a manga-focused, user-generated content site) to Septeni. The site has more than 900,000 amateur cartoonists and more than 40,000 cartoons. Some of our readers may remember that Gyao and GREE recently established an investment fund for the anime business. Since the beginning of this year, anime-related startps such as MugenUp or Anipipo have been attracting much attention among Japanese consumers and investors.
Japanese web conglomerate Septeni Holdings (JASDAQ:4293) has established a new subsidiary that will focus on building a manga content e-publication platform. The group gets most of its revenue from online advertising and social gaming apps. But with this platform, it is looking to diversify its business beyond intellectual property.
The new subsidiary, Comicsmart, will establish a website, as well as discover and train new cartoonists for its comic e-publication platform. The company also announced a program to supporting aspiring cartoonists, called Route M, giving them complimentary painting materials, production facilities, grants, and distribution channels for their works.
On a related note, Japanese gaming company Spicy Soft recently announced that it has handed over Manga Get (a manga-focused, user-generated content site) to Septeni. The site has more than 900,000 amateur cartoonists and more than 40,000 cartoons.
Some of our readers may remember that Gyao and GREE recently established an investment fund for the anime business. Since the beginning of this year, anime-related startps such as MugenUp or Anipipo have been attracting much attention among Japanese consumers and investors.
Production IG Tour, photo by Danny Choo, CC license
See the original story in Japanese. Nulab is a startup based in Japan’s western city of Fukuoka, which has developed web-based collaborative tools for use with remote workers. You may be familiar with their diagram sharing tool Cacoo or their task tracking and management tool Backlog. In terms of business management style, Nulab does things a little differently than typical startups. Their method is incrementally progressive, similar to what typical SMEs do. They don’t show off so much, but their services are pretty great, and Cacoo in particular has a wide following around the world. We recently had a chance to hear from the startup’s CEO, Masanori Hashimoto, who told us a little more about their progress to date. Developing Backlog The startup’s primary revenue early on came from developing mobile and web apps for its clients. That’s how Backlog was invented. Hashimoto: We launched back in 2004 and started our business doing software development for clients. So we were working on web productions for our clients in Fukuoka, system developments for securities companies, or even consulting work. In such processes, we had no system for tracking bugs and managing fixes. So we developed our own. That was the beginning…
From the left, Nulab’s co-founders and board members: Shinsuke Tabata (managing director), Toshitaka Agata (managing director), and Masanori Hashimoto (CEO)
Nulab is a startup based in Japan’s western city of Fukuoka, which has developed web-based collaborative tools for use with remote workers. You may be familiar with their diagram sharing tool Cacoo or their task tracking and management tool Backlog.
In terms of business management style, Nulab does things a little differently than typical startups. Their method is incrementally progressive, similar to what typical SMEs do. They don’t show off so much, but their services are pretty great, and Cacoo in particular has a wide following around the world. We recently had a chance to hear from the startup’s CEO, Masanori Hashimoto, who told us a little more about their progress to date.
Developing Backlog
The startup’s primary revenue early on came from developing mobile and web apps for its clients. That’s how Backlog was invented.
Hashimoto: We launched back in 2004 and started our business doing software development for clients. So we were working on web productions for our clients in Fukuoka, system developments for securities companies, or even consulting work. In such processes, we had no system for tracking bugs and managing fixes. So we developed our own. That was the beginning of the Backlog app.
Using some open source code and libraries, we could finally introduce the commercial version of the tool after a couple of testing versions. That was in 2006, and at that time the tool was available for free. We didn’t care about charging to our users. (laugh) After that we picked up a lots of new users without any intentional promotion activities.
Subsequently, they released a premium version that was priced at around 8,000 yen (about $80) a month, but that didn’t quite work out. They needed to find another way to make it work.
Hashimoto: We had been developing the app from an engineer’s perspective. We hoped the tool could help software engineers design system architecture or interfaces for their work. But then we changed things and made some improvements for designers or website producers, and the premium version started showing good numbers.
As a result, the tool became widely recognized as a task management tool, not only in the Fukuoka tech community but all across the country.
The emergence of Cacoo
Following up on the Backlog app, the startup introduced Cacoo back in 2010, enabling users to collaborate on diagrams with other remote users, and even chat within the app. Cacoo would go on to become a smash hit.
Cacoo is now integrated with AdFlow, a banner ad production assisting tool.
Hashimoto: We released the Cacoo app back in 2010. During development work, we previously used wikis for sharing technical information among our developers. But we wanted to edit a diagram or an image in the Wiki easily. And that’s why we started developing the diagram editing and sharing tool.
But for them, it was a very long road to releasing both Cacoo and Backlog. By taking time away from their primary work to develop the Cacoo app, they needed two years to develop the app and get it published.
Shifting focus
Each of the three board members plays a different role. Hashimoto was in charge of managing the client software development, but since these two web services started showing good numbers, he decided to shutdown that department.
Hashimoto: Our director Tabata takes care of the Backlog app, and Agata takes care of the Cacoo app. Since these services are growing now, we shutdown my department. It used to be the primary revenue stream for the company but I think it there is less potential in the future.
We have expected to execute this pivot earlier, but it was impossible to do it so rapidly. We spent three years to shifting our resources from development work to intensifying these new web services.
The startup has also introduced an SDK, which allows third-party developers to work on system integration with the Cacoo app.
I asked Hashimoto if he’s interested in trying for an IPO. He explained:
If your company is listed on a stock exchange, it’s no longer a private company, and should serve people almost like public works. If you expect to make your business into something like that, it’s worth trying to IPO. […] Our next goal is to make this a world-class company.
With the lofty aspiration of further global expansion, Nulab launched a subsidiary in Singapore back in March of 2012. It will be interesting to see if they can use that outpost to find further opportunities around Asia and beyond.
Readers may recall that a few months back we mentioned a really strange, but really fun game from Japan called Alpaca Evolution. The game can be described as kimo kawaii or “disgustingly cute”, and millions of downloads later Japanese mobile users have really taken to it. In case you thought that sort of hit was a one time thing, another equally weird mobile game is number one in Japan’s App Store today. It’s called Raising Titan. Update: This app appears to have been removed from the App Store. I’ll keep you posted if I learn why. When you start the game you’re given a little newborn character to care for, with options to feed or bathe it when needed. After a while, you level up to become a new, stranger looking giant, and it continues in this way until you become something quite monstrous. There’s also a mini game that looks very much inspired by Alpaca Evolution, where your giant has to eat up as many tiny humans as possible within the given time. The title is was the top free iOS app in Japan for a while today, and is also doing well in Taiwan and Hong Kong. If…
Readers may recall that a few months back we mentioned a really strange, but really fun game from Japan called Alpaca Evolution. The game can be described as kimo kawaii or “disgustingly cute”, and millions of downloads later Japanese mobile users have really taken to it.
In case you thought that sort of hit was a one time thing, another equally weird mobile game is number one in Japan’s App Store today. It’s called Raising Titan.
Update: This app appears to have been removed from the App Store. I’ll keep you posted if I learn why.
When you start the game you’re given a little newborn character to care for, with options to feed or bathe it when needed. After a while, you level up to become a new, stranger looking giant, and it continues in this way until you become something quite monstrous. There’s also a mini game that looks very much inspired by Alpaca Evolution, where your giant has to eat up as many tiny humans as possible within the given time.
The title is was the top free iOS app in Japan for a while today, and is also doing well in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
If you’d like to get a closer look at the wacky gameplay, check out our video demo below.
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Takuya Tsuchiya
Masaru Ikeda
Japanese web conglomerate 
Takeshi Hirano
Rick Martin
