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Japan’s Smart Auction is a destination for fashionable working ladies

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.10.09

A few days ago, Yahoo Auction here in Japan made transactions free for individual users. The company is also getting rid of the 18,900 yen (roughly $194) monthly fee for store-owners. With more and more competitors joining the second-hand products market, this is Yahoo’s attempt to retain the users it already has. But that is not stopping other companies from joining the already busy market. A new auction app called Smaoku (a short for ‘smart auction’) was released at the beginning of this month, targeting working women in their 20s and 30s.

Many such women have busy lives, and some don’t even have the time to organize their closet. But many are willing to consider an online auction as a way to clear out their closet and get some extra cash in the process. But many online auctions have problems like poor usability, and offline options like pawn shops leave no room for price negotiation. These problems have resulted in an opportunity for services like Smaoku.

Any women over 20 can open their own store on Smaoku, uploading photos taken with their smartphones. The service is invite-only for now, with the limited user base already buying and selling high-end brand products.

We had a chance to speak with Daisaku Harada, the CEO of Zawatt, the company behind Smaoku. When asked about the major differentiator between other flea market apps and this one, he explained:

Flea markets and auctions are two different things that provides completely different user experiences. Flea markets are about the fun of being a pretend store owner, and it’s also about communication. So its [generally] suited for younger people. But auction are about excitement and a game-like feeling where sellers try to find the most appropriate price to sell at. Smaoku is an auction site, which we designed to satisfy busy working women with no extra time on their hands.

Smaoku plans to officially go live at the beginning of November, and in December they’ll roll out an Android app. It is a member of KDDI Labo, and Zawatt will leverage KDDI’s marketing and business development experience to enhance its product.

Zawatt-team — Team Zawatt strikes a playful pose

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Japanese founders discuss the difficulties of sustaining a startup

Takeshi Hirano 2013.10.09

See the original story in Japanese. This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Osaka 2013. Recently we have seen more than a few Japanese companies disappearing from the market. According to a 2011 white-paper on Japanese SMEs and Industry, 30% of companies will be gone in ten years, and as many as 50% of them in 20 years [1]. It might be relatively easy to launch a startup, but it’s still very hard to keep running one. So advice for experienced entrepreneurs is very useful for all of us. On day one of B Dash Camp Osaka, we had a chance to hear such advice from Drecom CEO Yuki Naito and Crooz CEO Koji Obuchi. The session was moderated by Septeni Holdings CEO Koki Sato. Sato started the session by noting that even though M&A activities are increasing, IPOs are decreasing. Obuchi says that selling off your company is one of the necessary steps to accelerate the startup ecosystem, but he couldn’t say definitively that entrepreneurs should choose an acquisition as an easier option. When I look at faces of my employees, I feel I wouldn’t be able to let them down. I’m probably very typically…

See the original story in Japanese.

This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Osaka 2013.

Recently we have seen more than a few Japanese companies disappearing from the market. According to a 2011 white-paper on Japanese SMEs and Industry, 30% of companies will be gone in ten years, and as many as 50% of them in 20 years [1]. It might be relatively easy to launch a startup, but it’s still very hard to keep running one. So advice for experienced entrepreneurs is very useful for all of us. On day one of B Dash Camp Osaka, we had a chance to hear such advice from Drecom CEO Yuki Naito and Crooz CEO Koji Obuchi. The session was moderated by Septeni Holdings CEO Koki Sato.

Sato started the session by noting that even though M&A activities are increasing, IPOs are decreasing. Obuchi says that selling off your company is one of the necessary steps to accelerate the startup ecosystem, but he couldn’t say definitively that entrepreneurs should choose an acquisition as an easier option.

When I look at faces of my employees, I feel I wouldn’t be able to let them down. I’m probably very typically Japanese in that I wouldn’t be able to take a buy-out option.

Naito also says he really wants to keep running his business, explainging that if he sold off his company, it would be hard to find something else to do.

Looking at recent M&As in the Japanese startup scene, he pointed out that prices for startup buyouts are still low.

Mostly the prices ranging from 500 million yen to 1 billion yen, right? (from $5 million to $10 million) For startup founders, if you still hold half of your company’s shares, the amount is much more than what you can spend on your petty expenses. Your startup is what you want to do, but you will lose it after the sell-off. And you probably wouldn’t be able to spend the money so easily because it represents the fruit of your contnuous efforts. I’m not sure how one can so easily sell off a company.

Tough times

Naito reflected back on the times when he suffered the most:

Drecom CEO Yuki Naito

One year after the IPO of my company Drecom, it still showed a loss. In 2006, we took over a company for 1.3 billion yen ($13 million) but we were forced to borrow money from the bank for it because Drecom had a low evaluation due to the Livedoor Shock. When I looked at the acquired company’s fiscal report, it still had 2 billion yen ($20 million) in short-term debt. If your company shows a loss for more than two consecutive fiscal periods, your bank will take something in security for your future pay-back and attempt to collect money from you.

At the time, Naito was in his 20s but had to make his company profitable, even lending the company money from his personal account. When they got investment from Rakuten, a total acqusition by the e-commerce giant was one of their possible options. But he rejected the proposal since he would not really be motivated to keep running the business if he lost ownership.

Obuchi let his social gaming business mature after pivotting seven times. The moderator asked him if his employees were confused with those pivots, and he said they were very tolerant, and probably understood it was necessary for the company to survive.

Naito emphasized the importance of quick execution in business, explaining:

If you know your business in feature phone content (for example) will suffer, you need to take action as soon as possible. If you start working on it when you see a loss, that might be too late.

Issued by the Japanese Ministry of Trade, Economy.↩

news

New Japanese e-commerce site sells products with a story

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.10.09

A new ecommerce website was recently launched in Japan. It’s called STORIES online store. Operated by design and branding company Seitaro Design, the concept of the site is to make buying decisions based on the stories behind each product. All products on STORIES are hand picked, with a variety of items ranging from furniture, to art jewelry, to bags. One thing they all have in common is a colorful back story, like a story of about a designer, or about the materials used to make the products. We picked out a just few fun made-in-Japan designer products from STORIES to share with you here. Dry Carbon Crutch Dry Carbon Crutch is the world’s lightest crutch. It’s made from dry carbon (or CRRP) and weighs in at just 310 grams. The concept behind this fancy crutch was to make something that can be a part of your personal fashion. It is produced by Media Culture Plus, a company that develops original products in the health/medical sector. Each crutch is custom made and is available for 230,000 yen (roughly $2,300). Dry Carbon Crutch was a recipient in Japan’s Good Design Awards 2013. Baloon This neat looking shaker set is called Baloon, and…

All products on STORIES are hand picked, with a variety of items ranging from furniture, to art jewelry, to bags. One thing they all have in common is a colorful back story, like a story of about a designer, or about the materials used to make the products. We picked out a just few fun made-in-Japan designer products from STORIES to share with you here.

Dry Carbon Crutch

Dry Carbon Crutch is the world’s lightest crutch. It’s made from dry carbon (or CRRP) and weighs in at just 310 grams. The concept behind this fancy crutch was to make something that can be a part of your personal fashion. It is produced by Media Culture Plus, a company that develops original products in the health/medical sector. Each crutch is custom made and is available for 230,000 yen (roughly $2,300). Dry Carbon Crutch was a recipient in Japan’s Good Design Awards 2013.

Baloon

This neat looking shaker set is called Baloon, and it was created by Masayuki Kurokawa. The shaker’s 0.9 mm thick glass is handblown and comes with a cork cover. A set of two can be purchased for 4,800 yen (or about $50).

SOU Wood Table

This beautiful wooden table is an original product by Seitaro Design. The layered wood uses a new type of material called paper wood, mixture of colored recycled paper and veneer. The tables are designed so that they can be easily connected to expand your dining space. The table comes in two color flavors, red & orange, and blue & green, and can be purchased for 245,000 yen.

BAXES

Made by a designer for designers, Baxes series are a great bag for carrying art papers and drawings created by Kazuko Ito. Each bag is hand-made by experienced craftmans in Nigata prefecture, and can be purchased for 26,000 yen.

Tears

Tears is a small art piece that can be worn as jewelry. It was designed by Taiwanese designer Yu-Chun Chen. Juxtaposing Barocco pearls in different forms and with different material, Tears can be purchased for 7,000 yen.

Recent news from STORIES online store can be found on its Facebook page. If you’d like to see the actual items in person, there is a gallery shop in Nishi-Azabu here in Tokyo open from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm on weekdays. But you’ll need to make a reservation in advance by calling 03-6434-0115.

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Puteko poised to push its AR coloring books in Japan

Rick Martin 2013.10.08

This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Osaka 2013. As we reported earlier today, Japanese startup Kaizen Platform walked away with the top prize at the B Dash Osaka startup pitch event. But one of the services that turned the most heads over the two-day event was Puteko’s colAR Mix app. It uses augmented reality technology to animate ordinary coloring books (see demo below), and has already attained some significant exposure when it was featured in TechCrunch back in July. Interestingly Puteko has been focused on the Japan market, and they plan to move their office here before the end of the year. They have already partnered with SourceNext in Japan, and will be working with Dentsu, DeNA, and d-right. CEO Katy Kelly explained that right now their business consists of three aspects: A library of coloring pages (sort of like Line’s stickers) Partnering with content/brand owners to make coloring pages In-app purchases, cross promotion and revenue share. In the future their business may expand to include things like game integration (use your character in a game), an SDK for third party app developers, and they may provide an authoring tool for users to create their…

This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Osaka 2013.

As we reported earlier today, Japanese startup Kaizen Platform walked away with the top prize at the B Dash Osaka startup pitch event. But one of the services that turned the most heads over the two-day event was Puteko’s colAR Mix app. It uses augmented reality technology to animate ordinary coloring books (see demo below), and has already attained some significant exposure when it was featured in TechCrunch back in July.

Interestingly Puteko has been focused on the Japan market, and they plan to move their office here before the end of the year. They have already partnered with SourceNext in Japan, and will be working with Dentsu, DeNA, and d-right. CEO Katy Kelly explained that right now their business consists of three aspects:

A library of coloring pages (sort of like Line’s stickers)
Partnering with content/brand owners to make coloring pages
In-app purchases, cross promotion and revenue share.

In the future their business may expand to include things like game integration (use your character in a game), an SDK for third party app developers, and they may provide an authoring tool for users to create their own coloring books/pages.

So far the company has raised US$200,000 in seed funding back in New Zealand, their current base, and are now seeking series A funding of $1.5 million.

Kelly emphasized the fact that their app engages not only kids, but entire families. Many children these days might lose themselves in a mobile game, colAR is an activity that is more involved. And certainly, the animated end result will be something that kids will love to show off.

Their app is available for free on both iOS and Google Play. It’s one of those jaw-dropping AR services that feels like it should have been made in Japan. So I’m glad to see they’ll be coming here!

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Kaizen Platform’s A/B test service wins BDash Camp Osaka pitch event

Rick Martin 2013.10.08

This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Osaka 2013. The highlight of day two of B Dash Camp Osaka was the startup pitch event, with a number of quality entrants from Japan and around Asia. The grand prize winner of the event was Kaizen Platform, whose CEO Kenji Sudo pitched their PlanBCD service. He was awarded a Microsoft Surface 2, a Sony Xperia Tablet Z, as well as return invite to the next B Dash Camp The service is a little tricky to wrap your head around, but its primary function is to help developers improve the user interface of their web service. The front page of their site boasts “Growth Hackers are ready to optimize your site.” But of course it can be costly for companies to hire growth hackers for such improvements, but PlanBCD proposes a crowdsourced solution and useful tools for short-term A/B testing. You will need to set a budget for your site improvement, and then add some javascript to your site’s headers. After that you wait for suggested improvements from growth hackers, and you can A/B test the ones you like best. The results can then be reviewed on a handy…

Kaizen Platform CEO Kenji Sudo

This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Osaka 2013.

The highlight of day two of B Dash Camp Osaka was the startup pitch event, with a number of quality entrants from Japan and around Asia. The grand prize winner of the event was Kaizen Platform, whose CEO Kenji Sudo pitched their PlanBCD service. He was awarded a Microsoft Surface 2, a Sony Xperia Tablet Z, as well as return invite to the next B Dash Camp

The service is a little tricky to wrap your head around, but its primary function is to help developers improve the user interface of their web service. The front page of their site boasts “Growth Hackers are ready to optimize your site.”

But of course it can be costly for companies to hire growth hackers for such improvements, but PlanBCD proposes a crowdsourced solution and useful tools for short-term A/B testing. You will need to set a budget for your site improvement, and then add some javascript to your site’s headers. After that you wait for suggested improvements from growth hackers, and you can A/B test the ones you like best. The results can then be reviewed on a handy dashboard.

Sudo says that they will be looking to expand globally, with the goal of becoming a sort of Github for growth hackers. But they still need to look at reducing their tool’s cost.

Kaizen Platform Inc. just raised seed funding worth $800,000 from GREE Ventures, GMO Venture Partners, and CyberAgent Ventures back in August, with the intention of stepping up its system development and marketing. And it wouldn’t surprise us at all to see them attract more investment very soon.

You can check out their demo video below to learn more about PlanBCD, as well as some of the slides from the pitch (in Japanese).

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Mobile ad innovation and the Asia challenge

Rick Martin 2013.10.08

This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Osaka 2013. In the second morning session on day two of B Dash Camp Osaka, we heard a panel on the latest developments in smartphone advertising. Included in the talk on stage was Ganesan Velayathan, CEO, Fun & Cool Ventures, and Sid Bhatt, CEO of Aarki Inc. Joining the talk via Skype was Brian Wong, the co-founder of Kiip. 22-year-old Wong was an especially interesting (and charismatic) addition to this panel, since Kiip actually refuses to be called an ad company, instead preferring the moniker of ‘rewards company’. He says they are trying to redefine brand engagement, as well as connections that brands have with consumers: Kiip came from our observation that people were already engaged in ‘moments of happiness’. When people got a high score in a game, there’s an emotion. But that moment of happiness would often be abused by an ad. We wanted to instead acknowledge and reward these moments. Kiip is currently included in about 1500 apps. They started out in games but they are now in six verticals, including fitness, music, to-do, and food. Many of the ad dollars that come their way would…

ganesan-velaythan-sid-bhatt — Ganesan Velayathan, CEO, Fun & Cool Ventures Inc., Sid Bhatt, CEO of Aarki Inc

This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Osaka 2013.

In the second morning session on day two of B Dash Camp Osaka, we heard a panel on the latest developments in smartphone advertising. Included in the talk on stage was Ganesan Velayathan, CEO, Fun & Cool Ventures, and Sid Bhatt, CEO of Aarki Inc. Joining the talk via Skype was Brian Wong, the co-founder of Kiip.

22-year-old Wong was an especially interesting (and charismatic) addition to this panel, since Kiip actually refuses to be called an ad company, instead preferring the moniker of ‘rewards company’. He says they are trying to redefine brand engagement, as well as connections that brands have with consumers:

Kiip came from our observation that people were already engaged in ‘moments of happiness’. When people got a high score in a game, there’s an emotion. But that moment of happiness would often be abused by an ad. We wanted to instead acknowledge and reward these moments.

Kiip is currently included in about 1500 apps. They started out in games but they are now in six verticals, including fitness, music, to-do, and food. Many of the ad dollars that come their way would normally be spent on video, he explains:

They want the relationship with users to be a reciprocal one, starting such relationships “with a gift rather than yelling.”

We are now one of Hulu’s top three acquisition partners in the US. […] The bottom line is simple: As long as you have something relevant with a timely aspect to it, people will convert at a higher rate [than traditional ads]

Kiip is currently working with Yahoo Japan as one of their premier partners. They are also working with Lawsons, SMCC, Dell, with many more companies to come later. Japan is an especially fitting environment for a service like Kiip, as Wong explains:

Japan has a great mobile literacy. You can tap your phone and buy something, but that still science fiction in the US. In Japan, that science fiction is a reality. And I felt our platform would be accelerated there.

Like Kiip, Aarki Inc has been getting pretty creative in how it engages consumers on mobile devices. CEO Sid Bhatt showed off some really fun demos, including a rich media ad for Landrover. That ad let the user move their phone around to display a 360-degree view of the inside of a Landrover. Time spent in such rich media ads can be over two minutes, says Sid, and this is what advertisers are really looking for these days.

The traditional format, the banner ad, is quickly becoming obsolete. People still use it but it is definitely not the future.

And then there’s the Asia problem

Sid explained a little about their platform, which allows the creation of complex ads with drag and drop widgets, doing so in a better, faster, cheaper way.

He says that they are considering an office in Japan, but they are still trying hard to understand the market. What we build in the US may not be applicable in Asia.

Ganesan expressed this very same point as well, saying that In addition to the challenges that come with innovating new advertising technology, operating in the Asia region brings a whole new set of obstacles:

In Asia each country has its own style. Agencies still control the market in Japan.[…] Southeast Asia has many languages, many cultures, and different dominant market players. So [the challenge is] how to navigate that, and the agencies, and deliver the best results.

Ganesan, who operates an Asia-focused market place where developers and advertisers can connect, explained the value of their service by pointing out how it lets users choose the app where they advertise, rather than use an algorithm to select.

Moderator Tak Miyata from Scrum Ventures shared some figures to clarify the importance of the innovations these panelists have developed. Mobile ad spend, he says, was only 1 percent of all ad spend in 2011, but by 2017 it will represent about 17 percent – surpassing traditional media.

So while there will certainly be a payoff for companies who can figure out how to best engage consumers on mobile, those who can solve that riddle in regions across Asia have an especially big reward in store.

Japan’s Smart Auction is a destination for fashionable working ladies

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