On the other hand, we can expect some controversy to surround Glass whenever it does get here, in much the same way that smartphone cameras have been adjusted to combat pervy pictures on trains.
Line has just opened up its Creators Market (at creator.line.me), allowing users to register and submit stickers for review as of today. If Line approves your submission, then they will go on sale in May. According to the company’s announcement, users in Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand will be able to purchase at that time, with plans for more regions to come in the future. A set of 40 stickers will sell for 100 yen (or about a dollar), of which 50% goes to the creator. Line is already making a fortune from stickers, as we have pointed out before, and this new initiative will boost that revenue stream even more, and spur more user engagement, Line
Line has just opened up its Creators Market (at creator.line.me), allowing users to register and submit stickers for review as of today. If Line approves your submission, then they will go on sale in May. According to the company’s announcement, users in Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand will be able to purchase at that time, with plans for more regions to come in the future.
A set of 40 stickers will sell for 100 yen (or about a dollar), of which 50% goes to the creator. Line is already making a fortune from stickers, as we have pointed out before, and this new initiative will boost that revenue stream even more, and spur more user engagement,
Singapore-based Viddsee, the operator of an online platform that showcases short films from Asia, announced this week that it has surpassed five million unique viewers since launching in February 2013. The company has also rolled out an editorial feature called Viddsee Buzz, which is a sort of blog/news channel that highlights selected films with greater context. Viddsee aims to bring Asian short films to global audiences, and it will be interesting to see how it can grow from here. I don’t think this genre benefits from a wide fan base as a startup like Tokyo Otaku Mode (which showcases just anime, manga, and cosplay), but no doubt there are many people who wish to explore Asian films in depth, and so its good to have a centralized repository like this on the web. The service has a strong following over on its Facebook fan page so far, with over 42,000 fans. That growth, we understand, has been entirely organic. Viddsee features a selection of video channels, many of which have a regional focus, including Node Japan, which highlights movies from Keio Media Design’s indie film portal, Node.
Singapore-based Viddsee, the operator of an online platform that showcases short films from Asia, announced this week that it has surpassed five million unique viewers since launching in February 2013. The company has also rolled out an editorial feature called Viddsee Buzz, which is a sort of blog/news channel that highlights selected films with greater context.
Viddsee aims to bring Asian short films to global audiences, and it will be interesting to see how it can grow from here. I don’t think this genre benefits from a wide fan base as a startup like Tokyo Otaku Mode (which showcases just anime, manga, and cosplay), but no doubt there are many people who wish to explore Asian films in depth, and so its good to have a centralized repository like this on the web.
The service has a strong following over on its Facebook fan page so far, with over 42,000 fans. That growth, we understand, has been entirely organic.
Viddsee features a selection of video channels, many of which have a regional focus, including Node Japan, which highlights movies from Keio Media Design’s indie film portal, Node.
Japanese gaming powerhouse GungHo Online Entertainment, the maker of the hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons, announced this week that Princess Punt Sweets – its second most popular smartphone game – has has surpassed eight million downloads in Japan. The only other region where this title is available is in Korea, having launched back in July of 2013 (iOS and Android). I’m surprised that GungHo has not expanded this game to English regions [1], because I think it really has the kind of cute appeal that has helped so many other Japanese apps succeed in overseas markets in the past year or two. It might be an easier sell to overseas markets than Puzzle & Dragons, I think. If you’d like to try out the Japanese version, you can get it as a free download for iOS and Android. GungHo, CNet Japan Note, I’m not counting the game’s prequel, which GungHo has published in English. ↩
Japanese gaming powerhouse GungHo Online Entertainment, the maker of the hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons, announced this week that Princess Punt Sweets – its second most popular smartphone game – has has surpassed eight million downloads in Japan.
The only other region where this title is available is in Korea, having launched back in July of 2013 (iOS and Android). I’m surprised that GungHo has not expanded this game to English regions [1], because I think it really has the kind of cute appeal that has helped so many other Japanese apps succeed in overseas markets in the past year or two.
It might be an easier sell to overseas markets than Puzzle & Dragons, I think.
If you’d like to try out the Japanese version, you can get it as a free download for iOS and Android.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo Otaku Mode, the startup behind the Japanese subculture site of the same name, announced today that it has raised series A funding worth 270 million yen. The round was led by Itochu Technology Ventures, with Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Sun Eight Investment, GaiaX Global Marketing Ventures (GX), and 500 Startups also participating [1]. Otaku Mode did not disclose the breakdown of the funding. Since first launching in the form of a Facebook fan page back in 2011, the startup has acquired over 14.7 million likes. They registered a company in Delaware in December of 2012, and subsequently joined Silicon valley accelerator 500 Startups. In addition to their fan page, they subsequently created their own website OtakuMode.com. Their partnering creators have increased to five times the total from last year. Evolving into e-commerce The company started its e-commerce business last September, as one of their primary revenue streams in addition to ad sales. We understand that they intend to use these new fund to further improve their e-commerce platform. According to the company’s CEO Tomohide Kamei, the gender demographic of their user base is evenly split, with almost 40% of their users coming from the…
Tokyo Otaku Mode, the startup behind the Japanese subculture site of the same name, announced today that it has raised series A funding worth 270 million yen. The round was led by Itochu Technology Ventures, with Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Sun Eight Investment, GaiaX Global Marketing Ventures (GX), and 500 Startups also participating [1]. Otaku Mode did not disclose the breakdown of the funding.
Since first launching in the form of a Facebook fan page back in 2011, the startup has acquired over 14.7 million likes. They registered a company in Delaware in December of 2012, and subsequently joined Silicon valley accelerator 500 Startups.
In addition to their fan page, they subsequently created their own website OtakuMode.com. Their partnering creators have increased to five times the total from last year.
Evolving into e-commerce
The company started its e-commerce business last September, as one of their primary revenue streams in addition to ad sales. We understand that they intend to use these new fund to further improve their e-commerce platform.
According to the company’s CEO Tomohide Kamei, the gender demographic of their user base is evenly split, with almost 40% of their users coming from the Asian region, with 20% for each of North and South America. Most of of items sold on the platform are shipped to overseas users spread across 60 countries.
Their strategy for marketing their e-commerce business is very aggressive. For example, a limited edition print (shown below) was $1,200, but it sold out immediately. Dragonball art prints autographed by manga author Akira Toriyama is on sale for about $200.
The user retention rate for their e-commerce service is much higher than other e-commerce sites, says Kamei.
A toy shop for the world
I believe Tokyo Otaku Mode has much potential to be a global media presence, capitalizing on Japan’s unique culture and art. But it will likely be difficult for them to be a comprehensive solution like Amazon, which started out with books but expanded to other items. The startup’s strength is very dependent on their chosen niche.
Kamei explained that the market cap in the global entertainment merchandising industry is worth about $29.3 billion. Since the market is dominated by content companies from the US and and around Asia he hopes that his company can sell products using characters from other companies in the future (Disney, for example). He added,
We can’t win alone. We can build our business by partnering with content holders. If we expand our business to selling non-Japanese character items, our website could look like a toy shop selling interesting items from around the world.
Even limited edition prints worth $1,200 were sold out immediately
Itochu Technology Ventures, GaiaX Global Marketing Ventures, and 500startups invested in the past rounds. ↩
This week we witnessed yet another entrant into Japan’s mobile news app space. It’s called Mynd, and it comes from Tokyo-based TomyK, led by Tomihisa Kamada. The app has a very beautiful UI with a number of slick translucent elements (pictured below). It also supports a wide range of external services, including Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Pocket, and Hatena. Users can opt to read news at any time, or have a summary delivered to them every morning (like Gunosy does, for example). The single article view defaults to the source’s own web view rather than stripped down text view [1], which is a mistake in my view – but this appears to be common practice among news apps in Japan. It’s interesting to see more and more new apps emerging in this space to challenge the likes of Gunosy and SmartNews. I hope to bring you a closer look at this sector in the near future, so stay tuned for that. For now, if you’d like to give Mynd a try, it’s available as a free download for iOS and Android. Think Instapaper, Readability, or even SmartNews’s ‘Smartmode’. ↩
This week we witnessed yet another entrant into Japan’s mobile news app space. It’s called Mynd, and it comes from Tokyo-based TomyK, led by Tomihisa Kamada.
The app has a very beautiful UI with a number of slick translucent elements (pictured below). It also supports a wide range of external services, including Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Pocket, and Hatena. Users can opt to read news at any time, or have a summary delivered to them every morning (like Gunosy does, for example). The single article view defaults to the source’s own web view rather than stripped down text view [1], which is a mistake in my view – but this appears to be common practice among news apps in Japan.
It’s interesting to see more and more new apps emerging in this space to challenge the likes of Gunosy and SmartNews. I hope to bring you a closer look at this sector in the near future, so stay tuned for that.
For now, if you’d like to give Mynd a try, it’s available as a free download for iOS and Android.
Think Instapaper, Readability, or even SmartNews’s ‘Smartmode’. ↩
Rick Martin
Takeshi Hirano
