Tokyo-based recipe sharing service Cookpad (TSE:2193) announced yesterday that it has acquired Indonesian [1] recipe site Dapur Masak, buying a 60% stake for US$600,000 from founder Soegianto Widjaja. Cookpad announced back in January that it had invested an undisclosed amount for a 40% share of Dapur Masak.
Our readers may recall Cookpad also acquired US-based Allthecooks and Spain’s Mis Recetas back in December.
via Venture Now
See the original article, written in Japanese With Tokyo chosen as host for the 2020 Olympics, the city is likely to get more and more attention from tourists. Of course among the many tourists expected to come to Japan, many will be Muslim. Tokyo International Airport recently opened a prayer room for Muslims, but there are other issues to work on. One such issue is food. For example, when I spend time with Muslim friends in Tokyo, it can be difficult to find alcohol-free soy sauce and menus which don’t contain pork. But one entrepreneur has stepped up to try to solve this problem. Fukuoka-based Kyushu Lab has launched an Android app called HalalMinds. It enables users to scan the bar code of any product to identify if it is halal, or permissable for Muslims to eat. The app also has a Qibla Compass feature, which lets Muslims to determine the right direction for performing prayers. Japan already has a Muslim population of about 150,000, and about the same number live in South Korea too. Nearly 1.2 million Muslims visit Japan every year either for sightseeing or for business. Kyushu Lab wants to help serve this demographic as potential users…
See the original article, written in Japanese
With Tokyo chosen as host for the 2020 Olympics, the city is likely to get more and more attention from tourists. Of course among the many tourists expected to come to Japan, many will be Muslim. Tokyo International Airport recently opened a prayer room for Muslims, but there are other issues to work on. One such issue is food. For example, when I spend time with Muslim friends in Tokyo, it can be difficult to find alcohol-free soy sauce and menus which don’t contain pork. But one entrepreneur has stepped up to try to solve this problem.
Fukuoka-based Kyushu Lab has launched an Android app called HalalMinds. It enables users to scan the bar code of any product to identify if it is halal, or permissable for Muslims to eat. The app also has a Qibla Compass feature, which lets Muslims to determine the right direction for performing prayers.
Japan already has a Muslim population of about 150,000, and about the same number live in South Korea too. Nearly 1.2 million Muslims visit Japan every year either for sightseeing or for business. Kyushu Lab wants to help serve this demographic as potential users or HamalMinds.
The app was developed by Indonesian student Agung Pambudi, a member of Kyushu Lab who has lived in Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Finland. Along with his doctoral studies in Kyushu University, he put a lot of effort into developing this app. He explained:
As a Muslim, we need to live our everyday lives with halal food and drink. But it is hard to find such products in Japan because some processed foods contain pork or alcohol. Also, we even recognize meat not processed in a permissible way as non-Halal. We developed HalalMinds with the aim to of bringing it to not only Japanese users, but to users around the world.
Considering the overall size of Muslim population, even here in Japan, I think there is much potential to monetize such an app. I recall a team of university students who designed an app called C@ndy, a sort of Craiglist for Muslims.
Singapore-based startup Bitsmedia launched an app called Muslim Pro which lets you find halal restaurants and read the Koran. That app achieved 4 million downloads in March 2014.
HalalMinds released its Android app early this month, and an iOS version will follow at the end of this month.
Tokyo-based tour company Travelience has announced that it has recently launched a search platform for international visitors coming to Japan. It’s called TripleLights, and it aims to connect travelers with licensed guides/interpreters. Licensed guides require certification by the Japan Tourism Agency, and they will be requested to send a photocopy of their certificate when signing up for TripleLights. The platform can show international visitors a list of interpreters who can guide you around sightseeing spots in 10 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, and Thai. The company emphasizes that its platform can help avoid mismatching guides and travelers, since you can confirm what kind of person will guide you before booking your tour. They are planning to expand beyond Japan to cover travel destinations in Asian and European regions. Via CNET Japan
Tokyo-based tour company Travelience has announced that it has recently launched a search platform for international visitors coming to Japan. It’s called TripleLights, and it aims to connect travelers with licensed guides/interpreters.
Licensed guides require certification by the Japan Tourism Agency, and they will be requested to send a photocopy of their certificate when signing up for TripleLights. The platform can show international visitors a list of interpreters who can guide you around sightseeing spots in 10 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, and Thai.
The company emphasizes that its platform can help avoid mismatching guides and travelers, since you can confirm what kind of person will guide you before booking your tour. They are planning to expand beyond Japan to cover travel destinations in Asian and European regions.
Via CNET Japan
Beatrobo Inc. has announced today that it has raised $1.1 million from Lawson HMV Entertainment and Genuine Startups, in order to further develop and expand its PlugAir business [1]. Our regular readers are likely aware that Beatrobo, in addition to operating a really fun streaming music service, has developed its PlugAir technology that can be used to share and distribute digital content. It doesn’t have to be music, but it could also be used to share videos or ebooks, for example. This partnership with Lawson, who is very active in the entertainment and ticketing business, is an intriguing twist in Beatrobo’s progression. The startup’s CEO and founder Hiroshi Asaeda explained to us how that tie-up came about: They have connections to the entertainment business, and a channel for distribution, HMV Japan and their ten thousand stores. One of our focuses was to find a distribution channel because our product is physical. Our initial idea was to distribute it at concerts like merchandise, and when we were talking to [Lawson HMV Entertainment], they eventually said they’d invest in us. Asaeda elaborates that Beatrobo will, in fact, license their patent to Lawson so that they can manufacture the device. Obviously if the…
Beatrobo Inc. has announced today that it has raised $1.1 million from Lawson HMV Entertainment and Genuine Startups, in order to further develop and expand its PlugAir business [1]. Our regular readers are likely aware that Beatrobo, in addition to operating a really fun streaming music service, has developed its PlugAir technology that can be used to share and distribute digital content. It doesn’t have to be music, but it could also be used to share videos or ebooks, for example.
This partnership with Lawson, who is very active in the entertainment and ticketing business, is an intriguing twist in Beatrobo’s progression. The startup’s CEO and founder Hiroshi Asaeda explained to us how that tie-up came about:
They have connections to the entertainment business, and a channel for distribution, HMV Japan and their ten thousand stores. One of our focuses was to find a distribution channel because our product is physical. Our initial idea was to distribute it at concerts like merchandise, and when we were talking to [Lawson HMV Entertainment], they eventually said they’d invest in us.
Asaeda elaborates that Beatrobo will, in fact, license their patent to Lawson so that they can manufacture the device. Obviously if the startup were to manufacture PlugAir devices on their own, they’d burn through their funding very, very quickly. So this arrangement brings assistance on the manufacturing side, and also assures reasonably widespread use of the app, which is required by anyone who uses a PlugAir device in order to pull content from the cloud.
As you can see in the video below, using PlugAir is almost the same sort of experience as using a USB key. But the technology doesn’t actually store content on the device. As I understand it, it instead receives soundwaves from your phone which are then turned into electric power, launching the device’s microcontroller to get its serial number [2]. They then send that data back to the phone using its microphone input, which unlocks access to cloud content.
I asked Asaeda about the challenge of making people understand that a smartphone’s headphone jack can be used in this way. He affirmed that this indeed an critical challenge:
That’s our goal for this whole year. Techy people will think if it is a gadget that goes in the earphone jack, then it’s a credit card reader. We need to change the whole idea of the earphone jack, and make people understand that you can get content from there. That’s why we started with entertainment. But some people have even asked about medical use, and storing patient or prescription information. It’s a key.
If you think about what Beatrobo has done here, they’ve quite elegantly made it possible for physical limitations to be applied to digital content. I emphasize the word possible here, because whether or not those limitations are actually applied is a decision that the content provider will make themselves. PlugAir could enable limitless copying to your friends’ smartphones, or it could be limited to, for example, giving your friends 90 second samples that expire in 24 hours. Sharing could even be incentivized, with musicians giving you a bonus track if you share samples with three friends.
Asaeda explained what they learned from working with Linkin Park using PlugAir over the past year:
What I noticed from Linkin Park that they didn’t really want the email addresses of fans, but a rather contact point where fans can buy or experience their content.
So if you think of PlugAir as a fan community device, (paying) members of a fan club could receive updated content over and over again in the future. I understand that push notifications will be on the way soon, which will enable fans to stay up to date with the latest content.
There’s a ton of potential in this idea, and Asaeda says flat out that his ultimate goal is to replace the CD:
We want to change music, we love it. Somebody needs to change the industry. Nobody is trying, so I’m going to do it.
See the original article written in Japanese Tokyo-based Metaps has launched on online payment platform called Spike, releasing it in open beta here in Japan. Spike is a web-based payment solution, and business users can start using it just by embedding a unique URL on their own website. Where it differs from similar services is in its business model. Payment systems typically charge user fees, like a starting fee or a transaction fee. But Spike is instead using a freemium model. Currently they have a free plan and a business premium plan. For the free plan, there is no initial fee, monthly fee, or commission. Subscribers on this plan can transact up to 1 million yen ($10,000) per month. For the business premium plan, the monthly fee is 3000 yen ($30), with no commission charged until you transact more than 10 million yen ($10,000). Beyond that there’s a 2.5% commission and 30 yen ($0.03) charged per transaction. For this open beta version, only the free plan is available. There are plans to provide an API for business premium subscribers later. I spoke to the CEO of Metaps, Katsuaki Sato, to learn more about this launch. My understanding is that you…
See the original article written in Japanese
Tokyo-based Metaps has launched on online payment platform called Spike, releasing it in open beta here in Japan. Spike is a web-based payment solution, and business users can start using it just by embedding a unique URL on their own website. Where it differs from similar services is in its business model.
Payment systems typically charge user fees, like a starting fee or a transaction fee. But Spike is instead using a freemium model. Currently they have a free plan and a business premium plan. For the free plan, there is no initial fee, monthly fee, or commission. Subscribers on this plan can transact up to 1 million yen ($10,000) per month.
For the business premium plan, the monthly fee is 3000 yen ($30), with no commission charged until you transact more than 10 million yen ($10,000). Beyond that there’s a 2.5% commission and 30 yen ($0.03) charged per transaction. For this open beta version, only the free plan is available. There are plans to provide an API for business premium subscribers later.
I spoke to the CEO of Metaps, Katsuaki Sato, to learn more about this launch.
My understanding is that you are trying to innovate upon the existing business model in this field, sort of like PayPal did, rather than targeting developers by offering APIs like Stripe or Braintree. Is that correct?
Sato: Our target is those who want to use a payment solution but don’t know how to code. I am not really looking at PayPal, but our target customers could include people who have already tried out PayPal or think it’s is a bit too complicated to use.
Your announcement says that you will offer the starter plan completely free. Does this mean there will be no limit on the amount of the transactions in the future?
Sato: As we expand the service, we plan to raise the maximum transaction amount, and ultimately get rid of that limit. What I am trying to do is recreate a real-life economy using an internet payment solution.
That’s very ambitious. You have different target demographics for the two plans, individual freelancers and small businesses. How will you set the boundary between these two?
Sato: I don’t have any specific boundary between them, but I think of businesses who transact tens of millions yen (tens of thousands dollars) monthly, seed or early-stage startups, as middle-sized. We do plan to provide additional value like APIs for business-premium subscribers.
I see. When will you start offering the business-premium plan?
Sato: We plan to start running a pilot program in May of 2014 and launch it officially this summer.
Thank you very much.
In Japan, there are smartphone payments services like Square and Coiney, and payment solutions that focus on providing APIs, like WebPay. So competition in this area is becoming fierce. Spike’s vision of having no fees for starters has drawn a lot of attention. If it really works out, I think many businesses will use it.
Metaps core business is its Android monetization platform. Founded in 2007, the company now has in eight offices around the world. According to Sato, the number of game developer clients is now a few thousand, and the total number of downloaded Android apps that implement the SDK is between 1.2 and 1.3 billion. Sato also mentioned that 20 to 30 percent of the company’s sales are from the Japanese market, with the rest from China and the East Asian market.
A Hokkaido-based startup recently unveiled its mobile app SekaiMenu, which helps restaurants give readable menus to customers in 20 languages. It supports European and Asian languages including English, Chinese, Korean, and Thai, and lets customers browse a menu and then place an order by scanning a QR code printed on that menu. The company recently started rolling out their solution, testing it at six restaurants in Sapporo. Founder and CEO Nobuyasu Fukunishi explained a little more about it: International travelers are rapidly increasing here in the Sapporo area since airline companies added flights from South East Asian regions. And many local restaurants have deployed in-store public wi-fi service for customers as well. Considering that the Tokyo Olympics are coming in 2020, I think we have to provide an environment that helps international visitors enjoy their time here in Sapporo. The startup aims to help restaurants nationwide provide travelers with service equal to what typical Japanese customers experience. Interestingly, they also plan to provide overseas restaurants this sort of solution to help them better serve Japanese travelers. via Doshin Web
A Hokkaido-based startup recently unveiled its mobile app SekaiMenu, which helps restaurants give readable menus to customers in 20 languages. It supports European and Asian languages including English, Chinese, Korean, and Thai, and lets customers browse a menu and then place an order by scanning a QR code printed on that menu.
The company recently started rolling out their solution, testing it at six restaurants in Sapporo. Founder and CEO Nobuyasu Fukunishi explained a little more about it:
International travelers are rapidly increasing here in the Sapporo area since airline companies added flights from South East Asian regions. And many local restaurants have deployed in-store public wi-fi service for customers as well. Considering that the Tokyo Olympics are coming in 2020, I think we have to provide an environment that helps international visitors enjoy their time here in Sapporo.
The startup aims to help restaurants nationwide provide travelers with service equal to what typical Japanese customers experience. Interestingly, they also plan to provide overseas restaurants this sort of solution to help them better serve Japanese travelers.
via Doshin Web
Masaru Ikeda
Rick Martin
Takeshi Hirano
