Today Bracket, the company behind Stores.jp, announced that it has been acquired by Start Today. Start Today is, of course, the operator of Japanese fashion commerce giant Zozotown. Since news of the acquisition was released a few hours ago, it has dominated social feeds here in Japan.
Bracket was founded back in October of 2008, and the company operates serveral online services including a C2C car sharing site Cafore and custom made ladies shoes service, Shoes of Prey.
Stores.jp lets users to make their own online shop in matter of minutes for a monthly fee of 980 yen (about $10). Since it launched back in September of 2012, it has been used to create more than 40,000 online stores to date, and that is projected to surpass 100,000 by the end of this year. Considering that 70% of stores on Stores.jp are fashion related, it makes sense for the company to choose Start Today as a partner.
The two companies will work together to enhance each other’s services. Zozotown and Stores.jp will be heavily integrated, allowing brands on Stores.jp to set up shop on Zozotown without the hassle of registering product and inventory information, since all data is seemlessly integrated on the backend.
The startup’s direct competitor is Base, which has likely pushed Stores.jp to hustle by adding many additional services, including professional product photography, original business cards for shops, and most recently, making virtual 3D stores through a partnership with Panoplaza.
You can see in our previously published interactive acquisition timeline that buyouts often take place in the online gaming sector. We hope that this news will serve as encouragement for more up-and-coming startups, especially in the e-commerce space. Similarly, it would be great if we can see more larger internet companies seeking young startups who are making true innovations in the mobile and internet space.
If you’d like to learn more about how Stores.jp works, check out the video below.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based United, the company behind the popular homescreen decoration app CocoPPa, announced today it has started looking for third-party content holders in the character business as possible collaborators. The startup is planning to provide app users with paid content this coming fall, and hopefully by partnering with many content holders it can accumulate a rich variety of wallpapers and icons. This will be CocoPPa’s first attempt at monetizing. Some of our readers may recall that the company has partnered with Tokyo Otaku Mode, bringing illustrations from TOM to their smartphone homescreens. This collaboration provided content for free, but in the future users will pay to get icons or wallpapers featuring popular characters from prominent IP holders. When we think about this kind of business models, Line Corporation’s paid stickers also come to mind. According to that company, sticker sales generated revenue worth 1.74 billion yen ($17.4 million) in the three months from January to March, accounting for 30% of their overall income, with most of that coming from users in Japan. But when we look at the demographics of CocoPPa users (see below), they are mostly women in their early 20s, with 86% of…
Tokyo-based United, the company behind the popular homescreen decoration app CocoPPa, announced today it has started looking for third-party content holders in the character business as possible collaborators.
The startup is planning to provide app users with paid content this coming fall, and hopefully by partnering with many content holders it can accumulate a rich variety of wallpapers and icons.
This will be CocoPPa’s first attempt at monetizing. Some of our readers may recall that the company has partnered with Tokyo Otaku Mode, bringing illustrations from TOM to their smartphone homescreens. This collaboration provided content for free, but in the future users will pay to get icons or wallpapers featuring popular characters from prominent IP holders.
When we think about this kind of business models, Line Corporation’s paid stickers also come to mind. According to that company, sticker sales generated revenue worth 1.74 billion yen ($17.4 million) in the three months from January to March, accounting for 30% of their overall income, with most of that coming from users in Japan. But when we look at the demographics of CocoPPa users (see below), they are mostly women in their early 20s, with 86% of users coming from outside Japan. So it will be interesting to see if such an internationally-focused app can generate revenue in this way.
CocoPPa has already surpassed 10 million downloads in its first 11 months since the launch. If you are interested in partnering with them, feel free to apply over on their website.
If you haven’t yet tried the CocoPPa app, it is available for free on iOS and Android. The iOS app was launched back on July 26th, 2012, and the Android version followed on May 29th, 2013. As of June 22nd, iOS accounts for 90% of the app’s total downloads.
We’ve written about many cute games and apps over the past few weeks, but a recently release game from Line Corporation may have just out-cuted them all. Developed by Korea-based Hot Dog Studio, Fluffy Diver is about as kawaii as any game can get, with a lost baby seal (Fluffy) cast as the hero, on a quest to find his mother. Can you think of anything cuter than that? Me neither. Like all of Line’s casual games, the one-tap controls for Fluffy Diver are incredibly simple. The game is a landscape-oriented side-scroller [1], and you need to make Fluffy dive into and jump out of the water to avoid obstacles and collect valuable items. But even with the simple controls, mastering the flow of Fluffy’s swimming can take a while. So far, like most of Line’s games, this title is performing ok in the Asia region, ranking as a top 10 iOS adventure game in Thailand, while ranking 19th in its home market of Japan, and 40th in Taiwan [2]. If you’d like to try out Fluffy Diver, you can get it as a free download for iOS or Android. Line’s repertoire of games have done incredibly well so far,…
We’ve written about many cute games and apps over the past few weeks, but a recently release game from Line Corporation may have just out-cuted them all. Developed by Korea-based Hot Dog Studio, Fluffy Diver is about as kawaii as any game can get, with a lost baby seal (Fluffy) cast as the hero, on a quest to find his mother.
Can you think of anything cuter than that? Me neither.
Like all of Line’s casual games, the one-tap controls for Fluffy Diver are incredibly simple. The game is a landscape-oriented side-scroller [1], and you need to make Fluffy dive into and jump out of the water to avoid obstacles and collect valuable items. But even with the simple controls, mastering the flow of Fluffy’s swimming can take a while.
So far, like most of Line’s games, this title is performing ok in the Asia region, ranking as a top 10 iOS adventure game in Thailand, while ranking 19th in its home market of Japan, and 40th in Taiwan [2].
If you’d like to try out Fluffy Diver, you can get it as a free download for iOS or Android.
Line’s repertoire of games have done incredibly well so far, thanks to the company’s popular chat platform which has more than 190 million users to date.
On a somewhat related note, just last week Line Corporation announced that it would be establishing a new location in Fukuoka which will be dedicated to helping its Asia expansion.
For more information on the growth of Line and its vast repertoire of apps, including Fluffy Diver, please check out our interactive Line Timeline which chronicles its growth from its launch back in 2011 up until the present day.
One Japanese organization has a pretty awesome Kickstarter project going on right now, trying to put the ‘fun’ back in Fundoshi, a form of traditional Japanese underwear. The effort comes from the Japanese Fundoshi Association, teaming up with Kayac and ShareFun on an initiative to create Manga Fundoshi. The ‘Boom’ and ‘Thud’ designs come courtesy of Kayac, certainly fun underwear for anyone who considers their nether-regions worthy of such descriptors. For backers who give over $80, you’ll receive your Fundoshi award in a beautiful masu box. For more information, do check out the promotional video below. It’s worth watching not only because it tells you all you need to know about the project, but also because the presenter, Keiji Nakagawa, strangely changes his bow-tie multiple times [1]. You can’t help but root for this project to succeed, since it not only helps promote a bit of Japanese culture, but it’s also a healthier option than the briefs that most of us wear [2]. The ‘Manga Fundoshi’ project is seeking a modest sum of $4500 before its August 31st deadline, and has so far raised $860. If you’d like to get behind this effort, drop over to their Kickstarter page and…
One Japanese organization has a pretty awesome Kickstarter project going on right now, trying to put the ‘fun’ back in Fundoshi, a form of traditional Japanese underwear. The effort comes from the Japanese Fundoshi Association, teaming up with Kayac and ShareFun on an initiative to create Manga Fundoshi.
The ‘Boom’ and ‘Thud’ designs come courtesy of Kayac, certainly fun underwear for anyone who considers their nether-regions worthy of such descriptors. For backers who give over $80, you’ll receive your Fundoshi award in a beautiful masu box.
For more information, do check out the promotional video below. It’s worth watching not only because it tells you all you need to know about the project, but also because the presenter, Keiji Nakagawa, strangely changes his bow-tie multiple times [1].
You can’t help but root for this project to succeed, since it not only helps promote a bit of Japanese culture, but it’s also a healthier option than the briefs that most of us wear [2].
The ‘Manga Fundoshi’ project is seeking a modest sum of $4500 before its August 31st deadline, and has so far raised $860. If you’d like to get behind this effort, drop over to their Kickstarter page and pledge your support. (Big thanks to Tokyo Desu for pointing this one out.
See the original story in Japanese. After Zaim officially released its household accounting app back in 2011, it has gone on to partner with Japan’s largest recipe sharing community Cookpad, raising 42 million yen (approximately $420,000) from the company. They’ve also added an OCR feature to the app back in April, so users can record their expenses by taking pictures of their receipts. The startup will continue to work closely with Cookpad, as it has recently announced the Zaim app will integrate app with a specific Cookpad service to provide users with bargain updates from their local supermarkets. This bargain search service was launched back in February on Cookpad, and is currently serving about 500,000 users. It allows supermarket clerks to feature certain merchandise in a more quick and efficient manner than traditional hand-delivered fliers. In addition to monetizable streams like analyzing user data, the startup is likely to expand business by driving user traffic towards real purchase opportunities. According to a survey that Cookpad conducted back in July of 2012, 37% of its user base no longer subscribes to any newspaper, meaning they won’t see such supermarket fliers. Also operating in this space is a service from Toppan Printing…
After Zaim officially released its household accounting app back in 2011, it has gone on to partner with Japan’s largest recipe sharing community Cookpad, raising 42 million yen (approximately $420,000) from the company. They’ve also added an OCR feature to the app back in April, so users can record their expenses by taking pictures of their receipts.
The startup will continue to work closely with Cookpad, as it has recently announced the Zaim app will integrate app with a specific Cookpad service to provide users with bargain updates from their local supermarkets. This bargain search service was launched back in February on Cookpad, and is currently serving about 500,000 users. It allows supermarket clerks to feature certain merchandise in a more quick and efficient manner than traditional hand-delivered fliers.
In addition to monetizable streams like analyzing user data, the startup is likely to expand business by driving user traffic towards real purchase opportunities. According to a survey that Cookpad conducted back in July of 2012, 37% of its user base no longer subscribes to any newspaper, meaning they won’t see such supermarket fliers.
Also operating in this space is a service from Toppan Printing called Shufoo, which allows households to check the latest supermarket discounts online. The service is provided in partnership with NTT Broadband Platform using their WiFi access points, typically located at railway stations in urban areas.
See the original story in Japanese. Thanks to the progress that companies like Rakuten and Amazon have made in the e-commerce market, we can now easily purchase quality items for better prices online. But in Japan, the online retail market still accounts for less than 10% of the nation’s overall retail market, which means there’s still lots of potential for further growth. One player out there is hoping to disrupt the Japanese market from a unique angle. Coach United is the Tokyo-based startup behind Cyta.jp, one of Japan’s leading marketplaces focused on private lessons. According to CEO Nobuhiro Ariyasu, their newly launched smartphone-optimized interface will be a turning point for the company, capitalizing on Japan’s increasing affinity for all things mobile. They plan to create a new kind of business where instead of selling just products online, they focus on ‘service e-commerce’. Cyta.jp provides users with information about 140 different private lessons (such as language learning, music study, or qualification acquisition) which are available at 3,000 locations around the country. Unlike other marketplace services which typically connect potential students to lesson teachers, the startup assures the quality of the lessons they introduce on the website by checking into who will…
Thanks to the progress that companies like Rakuten and Amazon have made in the e-commerce market, we can now easily purchase quality items for better prices online. But in Japan, the online retail market still accounts for less than 10% of the nation’s overall retail market, which means there’s still lots of potential for further growth.
One player out there is hoping to disrupt the Japanese market from a unique angle. Coach United is the Tokyo-based startup behind Cyta.jp, one of Japan’s leading marketplaces focused on private lessons. According to CEO Nobuhiro Ariyasu, their newly launched smartphone-optimized interface will be a turning point for the company, capitalizing on Japan’s increasing affinity for all things mobile. They plan to create a new kind of business where instead of selling just products online, they focus on ‘service e-commerce’.
Cyta.jp provides users with information about 140 different private lessons (such as language learning, music study, or qualification acquisition) which are available at 3,000 locations around the country. Unlike other marketplace services which typically connect potential students to lesson teachers, the startup assures the quality of the lessons they introduce on the website by checking into who will teach or where it will take place. Since launching back in June of 2011, have served a total of about 20,000 users.
Shifting to Smartphones
Ariyasu explained the recent shift in their users’ preferences.
Smartphone access is rapidly increasing. It used to account for just 10% of all access, but it reached 45% back in June and has now surpassed desktop access.
Cyta.jp access statistics by browsing device (June 2011 – June 2013)
As we reported several times before, smartphone access is increasing across many Japanese web services. Mr. Ariyasu believes in this trend, and is going to adjust his service accordingly.
We learned that people use smartphones during commutes and at home. Over the last two months, we’ve been focusing on developing a smartphone-optimized interface in order to provide [all] available features to smartphone users.
The startup isn’t selling physical products on side, but rather lessons in the form of a service. It requires a business strategy different from that of conventional online retailers. The company expects to standardize its strategy and expand business to other local community-based services. He adds:
We plan to allow users to book a local service using our website and consume it offline. These services include things like baby sitting, waterworks repair, and even decorative nail painting. Major e-commerce sites such as Rakuten or Amazon will not be able to sell these services online. But we believe consumers will want to buy them online.
This concept is somewhat similar to the group-buying service trends initiated by Groupon. It’s relatively easy to build a system that allows users to discover and find a service they may be interested in. However, in order to encouraging consumers to buy the service and give them a positive user experience, it probably requires a little more know-how. In fact, with group-buying services there have been difficulties in terms of how participating retailers delivered their services, often resulting in poor service quality.
Cyta.jp has been trying to ensure quality by interviewing lesson teachers prior to hiring, or carrying out surprise inspections of lessons via ‘mystery shoppers’ (so to speak). It is through this extra effort that the company plans to be a leader in the service e-commerce industry.
Personally I was a little unsure if this quality assurance policy could co-exist with business scalability. But Ariyasu explained:
I don’t think a costly business is unscalable, it’s a bit of a misconception. In fact, group-buying businesses were using a bunch of people for sales, but their business were successfully scaled. Whether or not your business is scalable depends on the whether you can be persistently profitable, so you can receive funds and invest in the business to scale up when needed.
It will be interesting to see what kind of an impact Cyta can make. And it will be perhaps even more interesting to see if many other young startups follow in this sort of service e-commerce in the future.
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Junya Mori
Rick Martin
Masaru Ikeda
Takeshi Hirano
