Here’s a fun UI demo from Japan that takes us a step closer to the kind of interface we saw Tom Cruise use in Minority Report. Professor Masatoshi Ishikawa of the University of Tokyo has developed something called an ‘AIRR Tablet’, which – if I understand correctly – uses a retro-reflective sheet to create a display that seems to be floating in the air. Then by using the high-speed vision technology for which the lab is now rather famous, the system can receive user input such as hand-writing in the air. The exact details are somewhat tricky to grasp (they aren’t the most clear), but the demo video below is rather cool.
Coincidentally, this is far from the only writing-in-air technology we have looked at recently (see here and here for more). Fun stuff here in Japan!
Tokyo-based system integration company Cybridge recently announced it has launched a recipe site in Vietnam called Eccook. The company has a local subsidiary called Cybridge Asia in Ho Chi Minh, responsible for managing the website. via Venture Now
Tokyo-based system integration company Cybridge recently announced it has launched a recipe site in Vietnam called Eccook. The company has a local subsidiary called Cybridge Asia in Ho Chi Minh, responsible for managing the website.
Based on the original article in Japanese We’ve been seeing many flavors of curation media here in Japan recently, including Iemo, focused on interior design, and Mery, focused on women’s interests. Those entities aim to compete with other online media by providing selected information and presenting it with sophisticated design, rather than creating their own content from scratch. We’ve seen popular curation media thrive in the US, and Upworthy was a prime example of that. Back on February 22, a travel curation media site called Tabilabo was launched. It was started by Yuki Naruse and Shotaro Kushi, both of whom studied in the US and have traveled around the world, and each has experienced starting a business more than once. We spoke to them about how and why they launched Tabilabo. Naruse: There are many books and media that introduce world culture or show pictures of beautiful scenery from around the world. But on the other hand, when you visit a travel agency or on online reservation site, they have very small amount of information, perhaps just a thin brochure. There is often no connection between motivating people to travel and the place (on a site) where users actually take…
We’ve been seeing many flavors of curation media here in Japan recently, including Iemo, focused on interior design, and Mery, focused on women’s interests. Those entities aim to compete with other online media by providing selected information and presenting it with sophisticated design, rather than creating their own content from scratch. We’ve seen popular curation media thrive in the US, and Upworthy was a prime example of that.
Back on February 22, a travel curation media site called Tabilabo was launched. It was started by Yuki Naruse and Shotaro Kushi, both of whom studied in the US and have traveled around the world, and each has experienced starting a business more than once. We spoke to them about how and why they launched Tabilabo.
Naruse: There are many books and media that introduce world culture or show pictures of beautiful scenery from around the world. But on the other hand, when you visit a travel agency or on online reservation site, they have very small amount of information, perhaps just a thin brochure. There is often no connection between motivating people to travel and the place (on a site) where users actually take action. We want to make these two points more seamlessly connected.
There are three categories on the website: “feel the world,” “know the world,” and “travel the world.”
Users can see curated content in the “feel the world” section and Talilabo’s own content in “know the world” section. They are planning to sell travel packages in the “travel the world” section, where they aim to monetize the business.
Kushi: Consider how Uber stands between users and taxi companies, and matches the supply and demand. But the important part is that Uber handles the payment part, and they can expand their business by utilizing a vast amount of payment information. We have not decided yet if we will get a license to run our own travel agency, or if we’ll tie up with other companies – but either way we believe handling users payment on our own is very important for business.
Co-founders of Tabilabo, Yuki Naruse (left) and Shotaro Kushi (right)
The company will target users ranging from their late teens to early thirties, or digital natives to be more specific. They want to attract not only those who have a great interest in travel, but also those who haven’t travelled much before. I expected to hear they were targetting people earning above a certain salary, but they have a different approach. They’ll try to change the way people decide to go travelling.
600K pageviews 10 days after launch
The user interface of Tabilabo is very similar to that of US-based digital news site Quartz. It implements some promising aspects from other successful cases both inside and outside Japan.
Naruse: Currently we post about two articles a day, but we always have dozens of articles in stock. We believe that the titles of articles are very important to reach as many readers as possible, so we get support from 120 people we called “ambassadors” who choose the best title out of about 50 ideas for articles.
Only 10 days after their February 22 launch, they reached 600,000 pageviews. They hope to eventually reach 100 million monthly pageviews.
The company plans to reach an exit resulting in billions of yen in about two years. They are currently looking at possibilities of fundraise from a few angel investors, so don’t be surprised if we bring you more good news from them in the near future.
Here’s a fun app for any freelancers or homeworkers based in Japan. Dengen Cafe, released this past December, gives you a mapped view of cafes in your area that have a power outlet, so if you’re running low on juice, you can stop and plug in. It’s in Japanese (and is focused on Japan) but is pretty easy to navigate. Check out Dengen Cafe on the App Store.
Here’s a fun app for any freelancers or homeworkers based in Japan. Dengen Cafe, released this past December, gives you a mapped view of cafes in your area that have a power outlet, so if you’re running low on juice, you can stop and plug in. It’s in Japanese (and is focused on Japan) but is pretty easy to navigate.
Our readers may recall we have featured Tokyo-based Sansan more than a few times in the past. Since the company’s launch back in 2007, it has been providing business card-based contact management solutions, in the form of its services Sansan [1] (for companies) and Eight (for individuals). Recently I received several notifications from the Eight app letting me know that a number of my contacts at the company had changed their profiles, because they had moved to a new office. The new space is located between Shibuya and Omotesando in Tokyo, a district that’s home to many prominent fashion brands. There is a cozy space available not only for their employees but also for the local community, with a great view of the city and lots of interesting potted trees and plants. One of the biggest reasons behind the company’s relocation is the rapid enlargement of their team. The number of their clients using the Sansan solution reached 1,500 companies as of this past December, up from 1,000 companies back in June. Eight, the freemium service for individuals, has acquired more than 600,000 users to date. The company may add premium features such as a mass e-mailing to your contacts…
Our readers may recall we have featured Tokyo-based Sansan more than a few times in the past. Since the company’s launch back in 2007, it has been providing business card-based contact management solutions, in the form of its services Sansan [1] (for companies) and Eight (for individuals).
Recently I received several notifications from the Eight app letting me know that a number of my contacts at the company had changed their profiles, because they had moved to a new office. The new space is located between Shibuya and Omotesando in Tokyo, a district that’s home to many prominent fashion brands. There is a cozy space available not only for their employees but also for the local community, with a great view of the city and lots of interesting potted trees and plants.
One of the biggest reasons behind the company’s relocation is the rapid enlargement of their team. The number of their clients using the Sansan solution reached 1,500 companies as of this past December, up from 1,000 companies back in June. Eight, the freemium service for individuals, has acquired more than 600,000 users to date. The company may add premium features such as a mass e-mailing to your contacts or exporting profiles for use in other apps.
In order to make it easier for Eight users to scan business cards from new contacts, Sansan has announced new services today in partnership with some business solution providers. The company has tied up with 10 co-working spaces in Tokyo, where entrepreneurs and SME owners can easily save the profiles of their contacts onto Eight using scanners at those sites. They will also provide a similar service at certain printing outlets.
Sansan has been intensifying its promotional efforts in the North American market as well, and it will be interesting to see how their solutions are accepted in regions beyond Japan.
The Eight teamAt reception, you can call them using the digital board for an appointment.A nice soft sofa for employees when they get a little tired.This gong is rung when a significant announcement is made, if they achieve a sales milestone for example.A scanner for the Sansan and Eight solutionsHiroshi Senju, director of marketing for ‘Eight’Flowers sent from well-known entrepreneurs and investors celebrating Sansan’s office relocation
Tokyo-based startup Translimit announced today that it has raised 10 million yen (about $100,000) from Genuine Startups [1] and Skyland Ventures. The funds will go towards launching a mobile quiz app with social competition features. The app will be called BrainWars, with an iOS version coming in mid-April, and an Android version to follow in June. BrainWars pits players against one another, playing three sets of mental exercise games (15 seconds each) to see which player performs better. Since these games require no verbal response [2], and users around the world can play and compete against each other regardless of language. The match is arranged to let you to play in real time, but if you can’t find anyone available to compete with, you can compete with someone you know according to their past results. In this space, we’ve already seen US-based Plain Vanilla Games, the startup behind trivia app QuizUp, which secured series B funding of $22 million from Sequoia Capital late last year. Here in Japan Namco Bandai has been selling a brain exercise app called Zen Notore. There’s Colopl Quiz RPG which has seen some success as well (iOS/Android). Translimit was initially launched back in January by Hiroki…
Translimit CEO Hiroki Takaba
Tokyo-based startup Translimit announced today that it has raised 10 million yen (about $100,000) from Genuine Startups [1] and Skyland Ventures. The funds will go towards launching a mobile quiz app with social competition features. The app will be called BrainWars, with an iOS version coming in mid-April, and an Android version to follow in June.
BrainWars pits players against one another, playing three sets of mental exercise games (15 seconds each) to see which player performs better. Since these games require no verbal response [2], and users around the world can play and compete against each other regardless of language. The match is arranged to let you to play in real time, but if you can’t find anyone available to compete with, you can compete with someone you know according to their past results.
In this space, we’ve already seen US-based Plain Vanilla Games, the startup behind trivia app QuizUp, which secured series B funding of $22 million from Sequoia Capital late last year. Here in Japan Namco Bandai has been selling a brain exercise app called Zen Notore. There’s Colopl Quiz RPG which has seen some success as well (iOS/Android).
Translimit was initially launched back in January by Hiroki Takaba and Takuma Kudo, both of whom previously worked at CyberAgent companies. They have been involved in several game projects together, including the virtual avatar service Ameba Pico (which shut down back in 2012) and mobile social game Girl Friend BETA. The Translimit team is participating in Movida Japan incubation program here in Tokyo.
Genuine Startups is an investment fund spun off from Movida Japan. ↩
It could be a mathematical equation where you have to fill in the operator, for example. ↩
Rick Martin
Masaru Ikeda
