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Japan’s Petatto Memo pins cute reminders to your phone’s home screen

SCORE 1,166

Rick Martin 2013.10.18

A few weeks back we mentioned Japan’s Community Factory, a company acquired by Yahoo Japan a year ago, which produces a number of cute/kawaii apps for smartphones. The most notable of these apps is its Decopic app, but the company aspires to overrun your entire homescreen with uber-pink cuteness. Community Factory’s latest hit is Petatto Memo, a memo application that lets you pin cute little notes (in the form of web shortcut icons) to your homescreen as visible reminders of things you have to do. This is admittedly a somewhat crude approach to task management, with so many great to-do and reminder apps out there. But for people out there who want something that stays in their face, these homescreen reminders will certainly do the trick. Even after you type the text into your memo and pit it, you can edit it at a later date if you choose. There are over 300 varieties of cute memos to choose from, so there’s lots of room for creativity. Personally, I think the adding/editing process is maybe a little clumsy, but I guess that’s the sacrifice you make for getting a visible note pinned to your homescreen [1]. Currently Petatto Memo is…

A few weeks back we mentioned Japan’s Community Factory, a company acquired by Yahoo Japan a year ago, which produces a number of cute/kawaii apps for smartphones. The most notable of these apps is its Decopic app, but the company aspires to overrun your entire homescreen with uber-pink cuteness.

Community Factory’s latest hit is Petatto Memo, a memo application that lets you pin cute little notes (in the form of web shortcut icons) to your homescreen as visible reminders of things you have to do.

This is admittedly a somewhat crude approach to task management, with so many great to-do and reminder apps out there. But for people out there who want something that stays in their face, these homescreen reminders will certainly do the trick.

Even after you type the text into your memo and pit it, you can edit it at a later date if you choose. There are over 300 varieties of cute memos to choose from, so there’s lots of room for creativity. Personally, I think the adding/editing process is maybe a little clumsy, but I guess that’s the sacrifice you make for getting a visible note pinned to your homescreen [1].

Currently Petatto Memo is the third ranked free app in the Japanese app store, and is number one in the Lifestyle category. It’s sister app, Petatto Calendar, is number four in the Lifestyle Calender, and ladies who enjoy the memo app might want to try that as well.

I tend to scoff at these super cute apps sometimes. But it’s hard to ignore the fact that they are pretty big business here in Japan, and are turning out to be a very exportable part of Japan’s mobile content industry. ↩

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How a popular Japanese daily planner still thrives in the digital age

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.10.18

With the spreading popularity of smartphones, we’re transitioning many aspects of our lives to digital. This is mostly true for daily task management too, but in Japan physical daily planner books have a strong following too. At around this time of the year, if you go to variety shops like Loft or Tokyu Hands, there is as much as half a floor dedicated to these paper planners for the coming year. One paper planner in high demand is ‘Hobo-nichi-techo’, which roughly translates to ‘Just about everyday planner’. This paper planner sold over 480,000 units last year alone, and has nabbed the number top spot in Loft’s paper planner genre for nine years consecutive. Behind this popular planner is a very well-known copy-writer and cultural figure, Shigesato Itoi. His writings and other creative works have inspired many people in this country, and it was back in 2002 that he designed this paper planner. His famous attention to detail is definitely evident in this planner. It stays open no matter which page you’re on, and it uses special paper for a smooth writing experience. On the bottom of each page (each day has its own page) there are quotes from Itoi. Hobo-nichi-techo…

With the spreading popularity of smartphones, we’re transitioning many aspects of our lives to digital. This is mostly true for daily task management too, but in Japan physical daily planner books have a strong following too. At around this time of the year, if you go to variety shops like Loft or Tokyu Hands, there is as much as half a floor dedicated to these paper planners for the coming year.

One paper planner in high demand is ‘Hobo-nichi-techo’, which roughly translates to ‘Just about everyday planner’. This paper planner sold over 480,000 units last year alone, and has nabbed the number top spot in Loft’s paper planner genre for nine years consecutive.

Behind this popular planner is a very well-known copy-writer and cultural figure, Shigesato Itoi. His writings and other creative works have inspired many people in this country, and it was back in 2002 that he designed this paper planner. His famous attention to detail is definitely evident in this planner. It stays open no matter which page you’re on, and it uses special paper for a smooth writing experience. On the bottom of each page (each day has its own page) there are quotes from Itoi.

Hobo-nichi-techo recently made its first promotional video, which was created by Yugo Nakamura, a famous interface designer also behind a hot Japanese startup Sumally.

The people that appear in the video are the actual users of the planner, and the resulting video is pretty magical. The many types of this popular planner can be found over on the official online shop.

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Japanese premium outlet site Luxa raises $3.3 million from KDDI

Masaru Ikeda 2013.10.17

Tokyo-based Luxa, the startup running a members-only discount e-commerce platform, has announced today that it has raised 330 million yen ($3.3 million) from KDDI Open Innovation Fund, the fund operated by Japanese telco KDDI. Prior to this funding, the company raised a total of investment worth over $10 million from Japanese investment company Jafco. Coinciding with these new funds, Luxa plans to provide limited-offer discounts to mobile subscribers via au SmartPass, the telco’s flat-rate app subscription program. Since its initial launch back in August of 2010, the website has acquired over 450,000 members, mostly people in their 30s and 40s. Their products are wide-ranging, with a heavy slant towards cosmetics and appliances. The company claims that its smartphone access ratio has risen from 8% to 35%, which indicates a rapid transition of users from desktop to mobile both in revenue and traffic [1]. With this new partnership with KDDI, the startup expects to boost its user base to 4.5 million by the end of 2016. KDDI also revealed that it has invested in iRidge, the startup behind an O2O (online-to-offline) solution using mobile geolocation and notification features. The investment sum was undisclosed. This year, the telco has invested in several…

Tokyo-based Luxa, the startup running a members-only discount e-commerce platform, has announced today that it has raised 330 million yen ($3.3 million) from KDDI Open Innovation Fund, the fund operated by Japanese telco KDDI. Prior to this funding, the company raised a total of investment worth over $10 million from Japanese investment company Jafco. Coinciding with these new funds, Luxa plans to provide limited-offer discounts to mobile subscribers via au SmartPass, the telco’s flat-rate app subscription program.

au-luxa — Luxa’s storefront for KDDI mobile subscribers only

Since its initial launch back in August of 2010, the website has acquired over 450,000 members, mostly people in their 30s and 40s. Their products are wide-ranging, with a heavy slant towards cosmetics and appliances.

The company claims that its smartphone access ratio has risen from 8% to 35%, which indicates a rapid transition of users from desktop to mobile both in revenue and traffic ^[1]. With this new partnership with KDDI, the startup expects to boost its user base to 4.5 million by the end of 2016.

KDDI also revealed that it has invested in iRidge, the startup behind an O2O (online-to-offline) solution using mobile geolocation and notification features. The investment sum was undisclosed.

This year, the telco has invested in several other e-commerce startups, including Origami and Monoco. This indicates how the company plans to leverage its huge user base, developing an entirely new revenue stream, making it more than a conventional dumb pipe business.

From January of 2012 to September of 2013.↩

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Japanese startup hopes you have space in your living room for their photo tiles

Junya Mori 2013.10.17

See the original story in Japanese. Many of us enjoy taking mobile snapshots every day, and here in Japan this tendency has helped photobook services, such as Mixi’s Nohana, to become popular among consumers. Thanks to advanced printing technologies and photo shooting techniques, now we have more ways than ever to enjoy our photos. Tokyo-based startup O.N.A.R (apparently pronounced ‘One R’) recently launched a service called Niiice (apparently pronounced ‘Naaieece’) which lets you order photo tiles made from your smartphone snapshots. In this space, we’ve already seen many startups enabling users to print their own original creations using Instagram photos (see Casetagram for iPhone cases and Snaptee for T-shirts). The company plans to target consumers who want to keep their memories in a physical form nearby. And these tiles do just that. They come in small, medium, and large sizes. The small size has a magnet on the back, and the medium and large sizes come with a hook that will let you hang it on your wall. The original intention was for these tiles to be used for pet photos or to celebrate a birth. But they’ve found users are creating tiles as presents for parents or loved ones…

See the original story in Japanese.

Many of us enjoy taking mobile snapshots every day, and here in Japan this tendency has helped photobook services, such as Mixi’s Nohana, to become popular among consumers. Thanks to advanced printing technologies and photo shooting techniques, now we have more ways than ever to enjoy our photos.

Tokyo-based startup O.N.A.R (apparently pronounced ‘One R’) recently launched a service called Niiice (apparently pronounced ‘Naaieece’) which lets you order photo tiles made from your smartphone snapshots.

In this space, we’ve already seen many startups enabling users to print their own original creations using Instagram photos (see Casetagram for iPhone cases and Snaptee for T-shirts). The company plans to target consumers who want to keep their memories in a physical form nearby. And these tiles do just that.

They come in small, medium, and large sizes. The small size has a magnet on the back, and the medium and large sizes come with a hook that will let you hang it on your wall. The original intention was for these tiles to be used for pet photos or to celebrate a birth. But they’ve found users are creating tiles as presents for parents or loved ones too.

The startup’s CEO Shunsuke Nakakariya says:

We hope our users can fill their walls with our tiles. But since people already have many small articles in their rooms, there might not be much space for new items. So we think users can start tile decoration using a small space on surface of a fridge, for example.

The startup targets users in the photobook market and hopes to catch up with Nohana in its number of total app downloads. Their service is currently available for the iOS, and an Android version will follow soon. Check out the picture below using our company logo!

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Puzzle Derby: Japan’s latest puzzle/RPG hit is a horse racing game

Rick Martin 2013.10.17

While the Japanese mobile gaming space can be quite formulaic at times, I can’t help but like many of the titles that it produces. The puzzle/RPG approach that has worked so well for Puzzle & Dragons is also used in other games we have covered like Tetris Monsters or Puzzle Trooper [1]. And this week, the top iOS game in Japan continues this tradition, this time combining the familiar match–3 puzzle mechanic with horse racing of all things. Yes, say hello to Puzzle Derby. The game is developed by Net Dreamers, and it contains most of the familiar elements of Puzzle & Dragons and other games from that mold. You play a race as a sequence of rounds, matching colored orbs to boost past your opponents, playing to the strength of the horses in your deck. If you can pull off elaborate combos you stand a good chance of winning. There’s also a ‘gacha’ feature that lets you roll for new horse cards in the hopes of finding a rare one. Campaigns and events occur regularly as well, just as they do in Puzzle & Dragons. Initially launched on September 28, the game is only available in Japanese. It has…

While the Japanese mobile gaming space can be quite formulaic at times, I can’t help but like many of the titles that it produces. The puzzle/RPG approach that has worked so well for Puzzle & Dragons is also used in other games we have covered like Tetris Monsters or Puzzle Trooper [1]. And this week, the top iOS game in Japan continues this tradition, this time combining the familiar match–3 puzzle mechanic with horse racing of all things.

Yes, say hello to Puzzle Derby.

The game is developed by Net Dreamers, and it contains most of the familiar elements of Puzzle & Dragons and other games from that mold. You play a race as a sequence of rounds, matching colored orbs to boost past your opponents, playing to the strength of the horses in your deck. If you can pull off elaborate combos you stand a good chance of winning.

There’s also a ‘gacha’ feature that lets you roll for new horse cards in the hopes of finding a rare one. Campaigns and events occur regularly as well, just as they do in Puzzle & Dragons.

Initially launched on September 28, the game is only available in Japanese. It has fared well in the iOS sports category since its launch, but suddenly surged to become the top free game and overall app in Japan on Wednesday, where it currently sits right now.

Whether any these games are actually an RPG in the strict sense of the term is, of course, very debatable. ↩

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