Tokyo-based AdInnovation, a startup providing ad consulting solutions for mobile developers, announced today that it has launched a performance analytics tool. It’s called Hitracking. Instead of conventional tools in this similar space, the new tool is more focused on giving mobile developers all they need to analyze the performance of their app. This means not only ad performance analytics but also what traffic sources best help the app turn a profit.
Their project manager, Ryoma Hosokawa, tells me that the tool aims to show you all the ROI (return on investment) metrics for an app, rather than simple ad performance-focused ROI metrics. This would include overall profit or loss. In a way, the company wants to set app developers free from monetization concerns so that they can concentrate on development.
There is also an SDK that can be embedded in your app to track stats. Pricing depends on the number of requests per month, but it is currently available free until the end of February as part of a promotion.
According to the AdInnovation consultant Aya Yamada, they will make two key efforts to make this tool better known. One will be publishing a monthly report of mobile app trends, just like what AppAnnie does. The other option is exhibiting their service at as many international showcase events as possible. You will have a chance to meet with them next year at AppsWorld North America (February 5-6, San Francisco), Casual Connect Europe (February 11-13, Amsterdam), and SXSW Interactive (March 7-16, Austin).
The company raised 160 million yen (about $1.6 million) from DBJ Capital, SMBC Venture Capital, and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital back in July.
As for other players in this space, there are services like HasOffers in the US, which secured $9.4 million from Accel Partners in a series A round back in May.
The quality of start-ups nominated for tonight’s CNet Japan Startup Awards is high, and Japanese entrepreneurs are seeking to solve problems on par with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. This is part seven of our preview of the nominees. The rest can be found here. Tokyo Otaku Mode Tokyo Otaku Mode (or TOM) is the 500 Startup graduate that exploded on the startup scene with a massive Facebook presence. The most fascinating part about TOM is how its growth trajectory has been the reverse of most startups. The normal flow goes something like this: a few entrepreneurs have an idea, build their product, then market it. But TOM started out by building a massive Facebook following of millions of fans. Since TOM hit critical mass on Facebook, it has been trying to figure out a problem most entrepreneurs would love to have: Well, we have reach. What’s next? From building iOS and Android apps, to an Etsy-like UGC strategy, it’s been fun watching them stumble uphill. Or as one of their angel investors, Craig Mod, perfectly summed up, “building their shrine”. Freee Like Quickbooks, BodeTree, Xero, Yendo, Zoho, et al., Freee is a cloud based software that helps small businesses with their…
The quality of start-ups nominated for tonight’s CNet Japan Startup Awards is high, and Japanese entrepreneurs are seeking to solve problems on par with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. This is part seven of our preview of the nominees. The rest can be found here.
Tokyo Otaku Mode
Tokyo Otaku Mode
Tokyo Otaku Mode (or TOM) is the 500 Startup graduate that exploded on the startup scene with a massive Facebook presence. The most fascinating part about TOM is how its growth trajectory has been the reverse of most startups. The normal flow goes something like this: a few entrepreneurs have an idea, build their product, then market it. But TOM started out by building a massive Facebook following of millions of fans.
Since TOM hit critical mass on Facebook, it has been trying to figure out a problem most entrepreneurs would love to have:
Well, we have reach. What’s next?
From building iOS and Android apps, to an Etsy-like UGC strategy, it’s been fun watching them stumble uphill. Or as one of their angel investors, Craig Mod, perfectly summed up, “building their shrine”.
Freee
Like Quickbooks, BodeTree, Xero, Yendo, Zoho, et al., Freee is a cloud based software that helps small businesses with their accounting. Founded by five-year Google veteran Daisuke Sasaki, who led Google’s small-to-medium sized business marketing in the APAC region, Freee fills a much needed hole in Japan. While working for Google, he realized a there was a huge problem with web-based accounting software, often only working on certain browsers and with a not so friendly user experience.
This year has been a huge year for Freee. They re-branded, raised $27M Series A, and added features and functions to streamline tedious paper-to-digital administrative tasks.
Freee addresses relevant problems for any small- to mid-sized businesses and is building partnerships [1], features, and functions that prove they are one step ahead of their competitors. Recently they added a POS (point of sale) system on their iPad app, and last week they announced a collaboration with receipt tracking app ReceReco to simplify the paper receipt tracking process.
Schoo
Schoo
Schoo is an online learning platform founded by entrepreneurs with editorial backgrounds. Their vision is to encourage other entrepreneurs to be ‘eternal students’ by providing e-learning content focused on the startup and venture world. We recently talked with the founders about their strategy for building a quality e-learning space, and I encourage you to check out that discussion [2].
Coiney
Coiney is the fourth major player in mobile payment solutions along with PayPal Here, Square and Rakuten SmartPay. All four have similar products and strategies. Square and PayPal Here have challenges most US based companies have: localization. Coiney knows and understands the Japanese market as the founder is ex-PayPal Japan.
Rakuten SmartPay’s obstacle is that Rakuten is a massive corporation. In order to quickly gain traction in a highly competitive field like mobile payments, agility is a necessity. If Rakuten SmartPay can figure out how to move and iterate quickly, they will become a major player, as Rakuten Ichiba has existing relationships with small businesses in Japan. Keep in mind that Base is also a mobile payment solution player to be reckoned with, tackling market penetration in a different way [3].
This is definitely one race to keep an eye on.
Good luck to all four finalists tonight at the CNet Japan Startup Awards!
Partnerships with Suica and Seven and i Holdings Co. to track, record, and automate transportation and credit card expenditures. ↩
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Skyland Ventures, an investment fund focused on startups, announced it has allocated its 200 million yen (approximately $2 million) fund to invest in smartphone app developers. The fund is expected to be finishing investments by next June. You may recall our recent article citing analyst’s prediction that about 60% of Japanese mobile users will switch to smartphones by 2014. Since cheaper smartphone handsets will be more easily available to many consumers, this shift will of course occur in other parts of the world as well. Obviously for Skyland, getting on board with this trend makes sense. Coinciding with this announcement, the group also disclosed its investment in Japanese mobile development startup Nanameue, which also received investment from East Ventures to the tune of 30 million yen ($300,000) [1]. The startup was launched back in May by Atsushi Takishima and Takahiro Ishihama. The pair previously worked with Japanese startup Quan, known for its apps targeting the Southeast Asian region. SlideStory, one of Nanameue’s apps, has already surpassed 400,000 downloads, with users mainly in Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan. The total downloads across all 12 of their apps has reached over 2.3 million. SlideStory allows you…
Tokyo-based Skyland Ventures, an investment fund focused on startups, announced it has allocated its 200 million yen (approximately $2 million) fund to invest in smartphone app developers. The fund is expected to be finishing investments by next June.
You may recall our recent article citing analyst’s prediction that about 60% of Japanese mobile users will switch to smartphones by 2014. Since cheaper smartphone handsets will be more easily available to many consumers, this shift will of course occur in other parts of the world as well. Obviously for Skyland, getting on board with this trend makes sense.
Coinciding with this announcement, the group also disclosed its investment in Japanese mobile development startup Nanameue, which also received investment from East Ventures to the tune of 30 million yen ($300,000) [1].
The startup was launched back in May by Atsushi Takishima and Takahiro Ishihama. The pair previously worked with Japanese startup Quan, known for its apps targeting the Southeast Asian region. SlideStory, one of Nanameue’s apps, has already surpassed 400,000 downloads, with users mainly in Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan.
The total downloads across all 12 of their apps has reached over 2.3 million.
SlideStory allows you to create a movie clip from 15 still images, or you can also create a clip of up to 32 seconds by splicing multiple clips. Its functionality resembles Korea’s Tripvi Album or Honda Motor’s RoadMovies app.
East Ventures is also a limited partner for Skyland Ventures.↩
We mentioned Japanese recipe portal Cookpad in our previous post 5 Internet services Japanese women can’t do without. With over 10 years of history since its launch way back in 1998, Cookpad perhaps is one of the most successful tech companies here in Japan with over 32 million users 1 Cookpad launched an English version of its website back in August, and after about four months of operation it now includes 8,000 recipes, attracting Japanese food fans from all over the world. In addition to the growing fan base of the English site, very recently, Japanese cuisine (or ‘washoku’) was granted UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage designation. To respond to the growing needs of washoku fans in the world, the company has now launched a special section called What is Washoku? The page introduces the top 25 classic homecooked dishes selected from the 1.59 million recipes in Cookpad’s database. The site adds one recipe to this list per day, and so far has five recipes available for viewing, such as how to make a good dashi broth, or cooking white rice using a pot instead of a rice cooker. The remaining 20 recipes are listed, accessible as they are added/linked through…
We mentioned Japanese recipe portal Cookpad in our previous post 5 Internet services Japanese women can’t do without. With over 10 years of history since its launch way back in 1998, Cookpad perhaps is one of the most successful tech companies here in Japan with over 32 million users 1
Cookpad launched an English version of its website back in August, and after about four months of operation it now includes 8,000 recipes, attracting Japanese food fans from all over the world. In addition to the growing fan base of the English site, very recently, Japanese cuisine (or ‘washoku’) was granted UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage designation. To respond to the growing needs of washoku fans in the world, the company has now launched a special section called What is Washoku?
The page introduces the top 25 classic homecooked dishes selected from the 1.59 million recipes in Cookpad’s database. The site adds one recipe to this list per day, and so far has five recipes available for viewing, such as how to make a good dashi broth, or cooking white rice using a pot instead of a rice cooker. The remaining 20 recipes are listed, accessible as they are added/linked through the month.
Japanese cuisine is growing in popularity in many countries with over 55,000 Japanese restaurants overseas. This number has doubled in the past three years. And many of these Japanese restaurants are operated without any involvement from Japanese people. Thanks to Cookpad with the basics to traditional Japanese cuisine at hand, people can enjoy such authenticity in the comfort of their own home as well.
For those of you who are up to the challenge of cooking Japanese food, you might check out Cookpad’s Facebook page for a steady stream of tips as well.
The quality of start-ups nominated for Tuesday’s CNet Japan Startup Awards is high, and Japanese entrepreneurs are seeking to solve problems on par with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. This is part six of our preview of the nominees. The rest can be found here. PlanBCD, Kaizen Platform Inc. PlanBCD is one of the few startups — globally — attempting to bring high-converting designs to the masses. The closest corresponding product from the US is Optimizely, founded by an ex-Googler 1. While Optimizely’s core product is technology-reliant, PlanBCD is taking a different approach. Users post a job to PlanBCD’s dedicated network of designers, UI/UX specialists who they call ‘Growth Hackers’. These Growth Hackers pick a job they would like to take on, and the user chooses their favorite, which is then tested for 28 days. Payment is based on performance 2. Its human factor sets Kaizen Platform aside from similar products: Optimizely uses Amazon’s Analytics SDK and Google’s UI optimization tool, Content Experiments. We expect that PlanBCD is a product that will stay on our radars for awhile. Wantedly Wantedly is a social recruiting tool based on Facebook. The CEO and founder Akiko Naka’s ethos aligns with the product, aspiring to connect…
The quality of start-ups nominated for Tuesday’s CNet Japan Startup Awards is high, and Japanese entrepreneurs are seeking to solve problems on par with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. This is part six of our preview of the nominees. The rest can be found here.
PlanBCD, Kaizen Platform Inc.
PlanBCD is one of the few startups — globally — attempting to bring high-converting designs to the masses. The closest corresponding product from the US is Optimizely, founded by an ex-Googler 1. While Optimizely’s core product is technology-reliant, PlanBCD is taking a different approach. Users post a job to PlanBCD’s dedicated network of designers, UI/UX specialists who they call ‘Growth Hackers’. These Growth Hackers pick a job they would like to take on, and the user chooses their favorite, which is then tested for 28 days. Payment is based on performance 2.
Its human factor sets Kaizen Platform aside from similar products: Optimizely uses Amazon’s Analytics SDK and Google’s UI optimization tool, Content Experiments. We expect that PlanBCD is a product that will stay on our radars for awhile.
Wantedly
Wantedly is a social recruiting tool based on Facebook. The CEO and founder Akiko Naka’s ethos aligns with the product, aspiring to connect potential employers with talent through the social graph. She believes opportunities found through friends (and mutual friends) create better cultural fits and happier work environments.
“Invest in people, not ideas” is a saying repeatedly spoken by VCs and investors in the US. It is apparently working well in Japan, as Wantedly reports they have over 1,800 clients and more than 61,000 users.
Talknote
If I were still living in America, it would be very easy to dismiss Talknote as just another Yammer clone. But here on the ground in Tokyo, it’s clear why Talknote acquired so many customers. There are many archaic infrastructures out there and the restaurant industry is certainly one of them. Countless establishments still have no website and even accept fax requests for reservations or food deliveries. Haruo Koike, the CEO and founder of Talknote, is the perfect person to push this industry forward, as he has been in the restaurant business for 10 years.
Disruption starts with little baby steps like these, and it will be exciting to track Talknote’s progress. There’s also a part of me that wishes an American start-up would take Koike-san’s approach, as the food industry in the US could use a big change as well.
Talknote’s Facebook page is also very engaging, and I love how the CEO uses and supports products in the start-up community.
Fitting, as Google is known for its thorough A/B testing, the most well known, Marissa Mayer’s 41 shades of blue test. ↩
There’s nothing online that describes their growth hacker acquisition strategy – the closest I found was this job-share posting found here. Since the founders are ex-Recruit, I’m assuming they have techniques unavailable for public knowlege. ↩
See the original story in Japanese. Goodpatch is a Tokyo-based startup focused on giving web companies a better user experience and user interface for their projects [1]. The company announced today that it has raised $100 million yen (approximately $1 million) from DG Incubation, the investment arm of Digital Garage (TSE:4819). The startup was launched back in August of 2011, and is known for its role in designing the slick Japanese news curation app Gunosy. Since investments in startups are usually made based on the scalability of their business, it is curious why a startup like this that has no product would receive funds. We spoke with the company’s co-founder and CEO Naofumi Tsuchiya to hear a little more about what’s behind this funding. The Bridge: What was the purpose of this funding? Isn’t it hard for companies like yours with no scalable product to do so? Tsuchiya: We faced tough times in the beginning, but your colleague Eguchi-san previously posted an article and it made many people aware of the fact that we designed Gunosy. Then we gradually started receiving more offers for work, far more than we could do. Our business became profitable, but we needed to pay…
Goodpatch is a Tokyo-based startup focused on giving web companies a better user experience and user interface for their projects [1]. The company announced today that it has raised $100 million yen (approximately $1 million) from DG Incubation, the investment arm of Digital Garage (TSE:4819).
The startup was launched back in August of 2011, and is known for its role in designing the slick Japanese news curation app Gunosy. Since investments in startups are usually made based on the scalability of their business, it is curious why a startup like this that has no product would receive funds.
We spoke with the company’s co-founder and CEO Naofumi Tsuchiya to hear a little more about what’s behind this funding.
Goodpatch CEO Naofumi Tsuchiya
The Bridge: What was the purpose of this funding? Isn’t it hard for companies like yours with no scalable product to do so?
Tsuchiya: We faced tough times in the beginning, but your colleague Eguchi-san previously posted an article and it made many people aware of the fact that we designed Gunosy. Then we gradually started receiving more offers for work, far more than we could do. Our business became profitable, but we needed to pay a lot of tax. It will require more time than we expected to save money to launch our next business.
We first thought production companies like us would have no chance to receive investments. However, our advisor Kimiyuki Suda told us that there was potential for our company to get investment from Digital Garage.
Digital Garage was co-founded by Kaoru Hayashi and Joi Ito (the director of MIT Media Lab), and they became one of the greatest global internet companies, coming from a tiny web production. Since my team is looking to do more global business, they are one of the role models we should follow. That’s why we were keen to receive investments from Digital Garage. They are a business company, and have many ways to exit other than IPO and M&As. That’s different from typical investment firms.
The Bridge: What do you expect from this investment?
Tsuchiya: I have been managing the company alone, and I know I’ll reach my limit soon. I’m keen to get advice from the folks at Digital Garage through the partnership.
In addition, Digital Garage acquired a company called Neo back in November of last year, which specializes in giving UX consultation for enterprises and governments. They have many offices around the world. The partnership with Digital Garage will help us collaborate with that UX consultancy, and also help us keep our clients updated with the best of cutting-edge UX methods from San Francisco. For example, if we can send some of our employees to San Francisco every several months and give them a chance to learn the best UX methods, it will also help us hire good talent at our Tokyo office too.
What we do is not web or app production outsourced from our clients, but we get directly involved in making their products. If our client’s concept has no potential to make a reputation in the market, we would refuse their project offer.
Tsuchiya told us the company is now working on a new service focused on improving user interface and user experience design. It will be launched by the end of this year.
Prior to launching this company, he was working as an intern at Btrax, a digital agency based out of San Francisco. Coinciding with these funds, we heard message from Tsuchiya’s former boss Brandon Hill, complimenting the milestone of his old colleague:
It is my great pleasure to see the success of one of our interns. At the same time, I feel a bit funny that although Mr. Tsuchiya did not have the shiniest resume, he definitely has the makings of an entrepreneur – passion, courage, action, and determination.I truly admire him for recovering from a disastrous situation back in 2012. Just over a year ago, he lost his founders, staff, and customers. At that time, I had asked him what he was going to do. He just said “I won’t give up.” Now with over 30 employees, he’s in the process of creating a real business.
It is said that ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’, but I’ve been skeptical how much impacts a news site like ours can have on real businesses. So I was pleased to learn my colleague’s article made a bit of an impact on this startup during its rough time, helping them back on the road to success.
Over two years passed since the launch, they are now an over 30-people team.A bunch of Ideas from employees for improving web designs for clients on the boards.
The company’s name is derived from Dogpatch Labs, a well-known incubation space based out of San Francisco. ↩
Masaru Ikeda
Mona Nomura
Yukari Mitsuhashi
