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KDDI Mugen Labo unveils 5 new incubated startups

Masaru Ikeda 2013.09.27

KDDI Mugen Labo is the incubation arm of Japan’s second largest telco, KDDI. It recently unveiled five startups that qualified to participate in the fifth batch of its incubation program. They will receive mentoring in residency at the incubator as well as free rental of smartphone or tablet devices.

Here’s a quick rundown of the startups and what they will be working on.

Zukan.com

Zukan.com is a consumer-generated photo curation site that aims to create a variety of encyclopedias. The platform was developed by two engineers from Kyushu University’s graduate school. One example of how it works is a curated picture book that introduces 2,700 species of fish shown in 34,000 pictures.

Dr. Wallet

Some of our readers may recall that we recently featured this personal finance data entry solution that simply scans your receipts. Dr. Wallet does not use OCR (optical character recognition) but instead depends on human-powered data entry to ensure accuracy, sorting and classifying your purchases as well. With this human element, the company can achieve data entry accuracy of up to 99.98%, likely enough to ease users’ concerns of erroneous input. The startup is backed by Incubate Fund.

SmaOku

SmaOku, a Japanese portmanteau of ‘Smart’ and ‘Auction’, is a mobile auction app focused on second-hand clothes for females. Users can create their own store in as little as three minutes using a smartphone. The service was developed by Tokyo-based startup Zawatt, which has been developing notable web services like WishScope and Ohaco. CEO Daisaku Harada believes conventional auction sites don’t fit with user behaviors in the smartphone era, and so he is aspiring to develop a more simple auction platform.

PEDALRest

PEDALRest is a finalist from a recent Startup Weekend Tokyo event. In Tokyo, illegal bicycle parking near railway stations is a big problem for many local governments. But from the commuter’s point of view, it can be hard to find a parking space. This service connects you with landlords who have idle spaces, allowing you to easily find a space for your bicycle. It makes our communities a marginally easier place to live in, and it eliminates the danger of costly parking fines.

Aoi Zemi

Aoi Zemi (‘zemi’ here means ‘seminar’), is a live-streamed online lecture service for junior high students. Their focus is to provide informative live programming as well as opportunities to interact with other users by sharing something they’re calling ‘timelines’. Live-streaming is available for free, but you will be charged for watching recorded lecture programs.

This 5th batch of the incubator program will start very shortly, and we can expect to see the results of their efforts at their presentation event three months from now.

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O2O done right: Game maker showcases products from all over Japan

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.09.27

One product that does O2O really well is Japan’s Colopl. We’ve covered this company and its impressive geolocation mobile games in previous articles. The games require users to actually travel from one destination to another, and the distance is then converted into points within the game. I’ve heard that many fans of the game are businessmen, since the games add a little fun to their commuting life. Soon Colopl will hold its third annual ‘Colopl Bussanten’. This seven-day event is sort of like a farmer’s market, where 70 local stores from all over Japan gather together in one place. The participating stores are all partners in the game Colony-na-seikatsu, where users receive special cards called Coloca when they visit these stores and make purchases of a certain amount. There are over 190 partner stores carefully selected by Colopl employees, and they all provide original products that makes the trip expense money well spent. For the past two events, 40,000 to 60,000 people visited, and this number is expected to grow even higher this year. From September 25th to 30th, special priority tickets to the event will be available on Amazon for 3150 yen. The purchase comes with unknown special mystery…

Soon Colopl will hold its third annual ‘Colopl Bussanten’. This seven-day event is sort of like a farmer’s market, where 70 local stores from all over Japan gather together in one place. The participating stores are all partners in the game Colony-na-seikatsu, where users receive special cards called Coloca when they visit these stores and make purchases of a certain amount. There are over 190 partner stores carefully selected by Colopl employees, and they all provide original products that makes the trip expense money well spent.

For the past two events, 40,000 to 60,000 people visited, and this number is expected to grow even higher this year. From September 25th to 30th, special priority tickets to the event will be available on Amazon for 3150 yen. The purchase comes with unknown special mystery products as well.

Colopl Bussanten will take place from October 17th to 23rd (10am to 8pm) on the 8th floor of the Tokyu department store in Kichijoji.

This is an interesting initiative by a mobile gaming company, and it definitely fits under the company mission, ‘Entertainment in Real Life’.

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Grand Prix Story: Retro 8-bit racing goodness on mobile

Rick Martin 2013.09.26

There were lots of fun mobile games at the recent Tokyo Game Show. But here’s a game that I stumbled upon today, which has actually been around for some time, but is still worth sharing here. Kairosoft’s Grand Prix Story is a delicious little 8-bit race simulation game that puts you in the role of a racing team manager. And for a racing game that actually require you to drive, it’s surprisingly fun. Your job is to manage the teams funds, improve your car, hire drivers and mechanics, and even acquire sponsorships. You can spend money to have your team conduct research on developing better car parts, and then out them to the test in a simulated race. As the team manager, you can also put your driver through training, but you need to make sure he’s well rested enough to go full throttle on race day. If he can pull off a podium finish, that will bring prize money you can further invest, and it also turns the heads of sponsors to get behind your team. Grand Prix Story comes in two versions: a paid app which is $3.99, and a free/lite version that limits your playing time. For…

Your job is to manage the teams funds, improve your car, hire drivers and mechanics, and even acquire sponsorships. You can spend money to have your team conduct research on developing better car parts, and then out them to the test in a simulated race.

As the team manager, you can also put your driver through training, but you need to make sure he’s well rested enough to go full throttle on race day. If he can pull off a podium finish, that will bring prize money you can further invest, and it also turns the heads of sponsors to get behind your team.

Grand Prix Story comes in two versions: a paid app which is $3.99, and a free/lite version that limits your playing time. For a better idea of how the game is played, check out our video demo above.

If you’d like to try another fun 8-bit mobile game from Japan, you might also check out Ninja Striker, a really fun retro platformer that we looked at last month.

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Line Camera photo app surpasses 50 million users

Rick Martin 2013.09.26

Line Corporation announced today that its Line Camera application has surpassed 50 million users as of yesterday. That application was initially released back in April of 2012, and like all of Line’s other apps, it has ridden the popularity of the Line chat platform (or Line Channel) to reach a number of app markets around the world. To date Line camera has done very well, becoming a top 10 iOS photo app in 20 countries, and a top 10 Android photo app in 14 countries – primarily in Asia and South America. The app supports the main languages in those regions, including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, as well as Thai and Spanish which were added in the 5.0 update in August. The company will apparently be targeting female users with new beauty features are coming in early October to Line camera, including capabilities to adjust skin brightness and smoothness, fix skin blemishes, as well as functions to make your face smaller and eyes bigger. You can see these functions in screenshot below provided by Line. If you look closely there is also an ‘volume’ button with what looks like a breasts icon too. I’m not yet sure how I feel about…

Line Corporation announced today that its Line Camera application has surpassed 50 million users as of yesterday.

That application was initially released back in April of 2012, and like all of Line’s other apps, it has ridden the popularity of the Line chat platform (or Line Channel) to reach a number of app markets around the world.

To date Line camera has done very well, becoming a top 10 iOS photo app in 20 countries, and a top 10 Android photo app in 14 countries – primarily in Asia and South America. The app supports the main languages in those regions, including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, as well as Thai and Spanish which were added in the 5.0 update in August.

The company will apparently be targeting female users with new beauty features are coming in early October to Line camera, including capabilities to adjust skin brightness and smoothness, fix skin blemishes, as well as functions to make your face smaller and eyes bigger. You can see these functions in screenshot below provided by Line. If you look closely there is also an ‘volume’ button with what looks like a breasts icon too. I’m not yet sure how I feel about this last feature.

For more information on the history of Line to date, check out our interactive Line timeline.

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In conversation with Survey Monkey CEO Dave Goldberg

Masaru Ikeda 2013.09.26

Last week featured a number of international tech events here in Tokyo, including the Tokyo Game Show and ad:tech Tokyo. I was asked to serve on some panels at ad:tech, and moderated a fireside chat with Dave Goldberg, who is a well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur and also the husband of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. For those unfamiliar with his work, he’s the CEO of Survey Monkey, a cloud-based, web survey development company, which raised $800 million from several investors (including Google) back in January. Prior to joining the company in 2009, he started his first media company, Launch Media, back in 1993, which was subsequently acquired by Yahoo for $12 million in 2001. According to Dave, the Survey Monkey has acquired over 68,000 users in the Japanese market alone, and he says both user and revenue growth are strong. The company has 15 million users in total around the world. Survey Monkey has acquired over 68,000 users in the Japanese market alone Coinciding with this his visit to Tokyo, he unveiled a new feature for Japanese users called Question Bank. The feature aims to make survey creation easier and faster by presenting samples of recommended Q&A sets to reduce bias…

chat-with-goldberg1 — Image credit: Hideyuki Nakanishi

For those unfamiliar with his work, he’s the CEO of Survey Monkey, a cloud-based, web survey development company, which raised $800 million from several investors (including Google) back in January. Prior to joining the company in 2009, he started his first media company, Launch Media, back in 1993, which was subsequently acquired by Yahoo for $12 million in 2001.

According to Dave, the Survey Monkey has acquired over 68,000 users in the Japanese market alone, and he says both user and revenue growth are strong. The company has 15 million users in total around the world.

Survey Monkey has acquired over 68,000 users in the Japanese market alone

Coinciding with this his visit to Tokyo, he unveiled a new feature for Japanese users called Question Bank. The feature aims to make survey creation easier and faster by presenting samples of recommended Q&A sets to reduce bias and give you more accurate answers.

Typically, when I have a chance to speak with entrepreneurs or investors from Silicon Valley, there’s one thing I can’t help but ask about. The most prominent startups in the Japanese market are from the gaming industry. But in the US, we’ve seen many exits for startups that serve enterprises. Why is there such a big difference in the two ecosystems?

He answered that there was a rise in the entertainment and consumer-focused gaming industry in the US, but the trend is changing. He says you can see user demographics changing at Evernote, as the service first targeted individuals but subsequently many office workers started using it to share documents with colleagues. Many companies have adopted it as a business tool, and he calls this phenomenon the ‘consumerization of business tools’. Dave adds that in Japan, when companies choose what tools should be used, it is typically a top-down decision where those at the top make their employers use the same tools. He notes this business culture gap makes it difficult for Japanese startups to succeed with business-focused innovations.

He closed with some sound advice for Japanese entrepreneurs:

Don’t fear failure, hire people who are smarter than you, and get all the support you can get.

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Announcement: SD Japan to become ‘The Bridge’ on October 7

housekeeping

Rick Martin 2013.09.26

This site began in Japanese as Startup Dating back in 2010, since then bringing Asian tech news to readers in Japan. This year, I had to honor of joining the team to create a complementary English version, SD Japan, with the mission of bringing Japanese tech and startup news to the rest of Asia and the world. So now this bilingual site is a bridge that sends news in two directions. And I’m really happy to announce that we have some big plans to make it even better in the next few months. The first step will be a rebrand that reflects what we aspire to be for the tech and startup space. On October 7 we will evolve our work so far into a new media presence known as ‘The Bridge’. Check out our swanky new orange logo on the right. It’s rich in vitamin C. Without going into too many details, let me briefly say that this is far more than a simple rebrand. New features will be rolling out in phases, with a heavier focus on our database as well as a sort of scoring system that will guide our readers towards the hottest startups and trends…

So now this bilingual site is a bridge that sends news in two directions.

And I’m really happy to announce that we have some big plans to make it even better in the next few months.

The first step will be a rebrand that reflects what we aspire to be for the tech and startup space. On October 7 we will evolve our work so far into a new media presence known as ‘The Bridge’. Check out our swanky new orange logo on the right. It’s rich in vitamin C.

Without going into too many details, let me briefly say that this is far more than a simple rebrand. New features will be rolling out in phases, with a heavier focus on our database as well as a sort of scoring system that will guide our readers towards the hottest startups and trends in the industry.

We hope to be more than media, and act as a service to connect startups and investors, not just in Japan but around Asia too.

There will be more updates in our regular weekly newsletter as things develop, so I encourage you to sign up.

In an age where news is information, technology news sites have a responsibility to create more than just a firehose of articles. You deserve better, and we’re going to try our best to deliver. That means more than just text. It means video interviews, timelines, app/game screencasts, and more ambitious big-picture projects like our Japan Internet Map that tie it all together.

If you’re an aspiring writer, media producer, or data nerd looking to develop your digital media chops, do get in touch if you’d like to get involved. And as always, if you are a young startup company or entrepreneur, we’d love to talk with you as well!