Good news for Japanese mobile games company Colopl this week as their repertoire of smartphone apps and games has now cumulatively passed 80 million downloads. One of its most popular games is Quiz RPG which has enjoyed television promotions in its home market, and has been pushed abroad with English and Korean versions.
The bad news however (if they have any global aspirations) is that their name is still ‘Colopl’. In Japanese, the company’s name is ‘Koropura’ – which would have made for a far more normal name had they opted to leave it alone.
Back in September we told you about Brand Pit, a startup which at that time won the Startup Sauna Tokyo pitch competition. It’s an analytics tool for brands that are trying to learn more about their fans, relying on image recognition technology instead of text or keyword analysis. Currently their focus is on analyzing images shared on Instagram, with some Facebook and Twitter analysis as well. By detecting brand logos in socially-shared images, any company that uses Brand Pit can gain valuable insights about who their fans and influences are, or even view a geographic heat-map of activity around their brand. In this way, they can get around the many problems associated with keyword analytics such as language barriers or spam. I had a chance to catch up with the company’s founder TT Chu (he’s the one in the video above), when they were pitching at e27’s Echelon Tokyo Satellite event last week [1]. He tells me that in the future, they plan to expand the scope of their image recognition technology in a way that will also expand its value for brands: We intend to detect more than just logos, brands and products. we are trying to extract and…
Back in September we told you about Brand Pit, a startup which at that time won the Startup Sauna Tokyo pitch competition. It’s an analytics tool for brands that are trying to learn more about their fans, relying on image recognition technology instead of text or keyword analysis.
Currently their focus is on analyzing images shared on Instagram, with some Facebook and Twitter analysis as well. By detecting brand logos in socially-shared images, any company that uses Brand Pit can gain valuable insights about who their fans and influences are, or even view a geographic heat-map of activity around their brand. In this way, they can get around the many problems associated with keyword analytics such as language barriers or spam.
I had a chance to catch up with the company’s founder TT Chu (he’s the one in the video above), when they were pitching at e27’s Echelon Tokyo Satellite event last week [1].
He tells me that in the future, they plan to expand the scope of their image recognition technology in a way that will also expand its value for brands:
We intend to detect more than just logos, brands and products. we are trying to extract and identify other information presented in the photo, such as the environment and the objects surrounding the branded products. This peripheral information will allow us a more accurate in-sight into the real situations/conditions where the products are being used/consumed. This piece of information is critical in segmenting the customer base.
I understand that their image recognition technology has been developed in house (primarily by Chu himself), and one of its key advantages is that it can perform well even when applied to user-generated images. So even when the images are poor – either too dark, maybe obscured by another object, or even if they’re too small, that Brand Pit can detect them where other technology might not.
When it comes to detecting peripheral objects for context, Chu tells me that they can even detect low-contrast objects like wine glasses, which is certainly an impressive feat.
They’re currently looking to raise funds to take their startup to the next level. And given the size and growth of the business analytics market, and the fact that they don’t really have many competitors, I expect that it won’t be too long before we have some more good news to share about Brand Pit.
Shamefully I couldn’t quite remember where I knew him from when we met again this time. I’m horrible with faces, much to my embarrassment. ↩
Japanese internet company CyberAgent recently launched a crowdsourcing platform called Mama & Crowd, which is focused on crowdsourced jobs for women with kids. Many mothers typically want to work to supplement their household income, but it can be difficult to find a nursery that would allow for conventional work at an office. The platform aims to help these mothers work at home by giving them crowdsourced jobs they can do while still caring for their kids. via CNET Japan
Japanese internet company CyberAgent recently launched a crowdsourcing platform called Mama & Crowd, which is focused on crowdsourced jobs for women with kids.
Many mothers typically want to work to supplement their household income, but it can be difficult to find a nursery that would allow for conventional work at an office. The platform aims to help these mothers work at home by giving them crowdsourced jobs they can do while still caring for their kids.
Japan’s Kakaku.com, the company that operates food review portal Tabelog, has announced that its premium membership (which costs 315 yen per month [1]) has now reached 350,000 subscribers as of March 16. The last time we checked in on these figures was last August, when it had 250,000 members. So we can say that growth since that time has been very impressive, especially in the face of challenges from new startups in the food space here in Japan. Tabelog’s premium service offers high discount coupons (ranging from 20% to 100% off), and mobile apps with advanced sorting/filtering preferences. This premium service began back in September of 2010. According to Kakaku.com, there are over 760,000 restaurants currently registered on Tabelog, with 5 million reviews, and 53 million monthly users split (almost evenly) among PC and smartphones. Or just over $3. ↩
Japan’s Kakaku.com, the company that operates food review portal Tabelog, has announced that its premium membership (which costs 315 yen per month [1]) has now reached 350,000 subscribers as of March 16. The last time we checked in on these figures was last August, when it had 250,000 members. So we can say that growth since that time has been very impressive, especially in the face of challenges from new startups in the food space here in Japan.
Tabelog’s premium service offers high discount coupons (ranging from 20% to 100% off), and mobile apps with advanced sorting/filtering preferences. This premium service began back in September of 2010.
According to Kakaku.com, there are over 760,000 restaurants currently registered on Tabelog, with 5 million reviews, and 53 million monthly users split (almost evenly) among PC and smartphones.
KDDI has announced that its au SmartPass a-la-carte app service has surpassed 10 million paid subscribers (as of March 17th), which is double its total subscriber base from around this time a year ago. It initially launched two years back in March of 2012. The monthly subscription service charges a fee of 390 yen per month, giving users access to hundreds of mobile applications, as well as other services like coupons, storage, security, and backup. KDDI/au had a total mobile subscriber base of about 40 million users in total in Japan in February. Via BCN
KDDI has announced that its au SmartPass a-la-carte app service has surpassed 10 million paid subscribers (as of March 17th), which is double its total subscriber base from around this time a year ago. It initially launched two years back in March of 2012. The monthly subscription service charges a fee of 390 yen per month, giving users access to hundreds of mobile applications, as well as other services like coupons, storage, security, and backup.
KDDI/au had a total mobile subscriber base of about 40 million users in total in Japan in February.
Osaka-based ‘Yume no Machi SoZo Iinkai‘ (literally meaning ‘committee creating a dream town’) is the company behind Japan’s leading food delivery site Demaecan. It recently announced that it has invested 100 million yen (approximately $983,000) in Tokyo-based Tamecco, a startup that has been developing a customer loyalty app using artificial intelligence technology. Tamecco has partnered with more than 300 restaurant and retail chains in Japan. Their app helps them establish a solid relationship with customers by leveraging its geographical and social media features. The company was launched back in 2012 by former investment banker Jonah Oh. They also have Google Japan’s former CEO Koichiro Tsujino on their advisory board. via Venture Now
Osaka-based ‘Yume no Machi SoZo Iinkai‘ (literally meaning ‘committee creating a dream town’) is the company behind Japan’s leading food delivery site Demaecan. It recently announced that it has invested 100 million yen (approximately $983,000) in Tokyo-based Tamecco, a startup that has been developing a customer loyalty app using artificial intelligence technology.
Tamecco has partnered with more than 300 restaurant and retail chains in Japan. Their app helps them establish a solid relationship with customers by leveraging its geographical and social media features.
The company was launched back in 2012 by former investment banker Jonah Oh. They also have Google Japan’s former CEO Koichiro Tsujino on their advisory board.
Rick Martin
Masaru Ikeda
