Tokyo-based Vasily, the startup that provides fashion coordination app iQon, announced on Monday that it will launch a native advertising service called iQon Ad.
According to Vasily CEO Yuki Kanayama, they will ask advertisers to create ads that fit in to relevant context and put them between outfit recommendation articles so as to deliver a higher performance in advertising. Prior to the official roll-out, they tested its performance and proved that it took less than 50% in conversion cost than conventional mobile advertising methods. Upon this launch, the company wants to build an ad network for women-focused vertical media.
iQon’s native ad sample
Meanwhile, Vasily started airing TV commercials in Japan on Saturday (see video below), which stars popular Japanese young actress Fumino Kimura, proposing potential users to find a better outfit using the app.
We understand that the company recently fundraised over $10 million from Japanese telco KDDI, with their recent transaction volume reaching over $10 million on a monthly basis. As of October, they have listed over 1.3 million user-posted outfits which comprise more than 4.8 million fashion items.
See the original story in Japanese. Bangkok-based BuzzCommerce announced that it has integrated a multiple payment solution from Japan’s GMO Payment Gateway (GMO-PG, TSE:3769). The Thai startup allows users to pay for cosmetics purchases via its e-commerce and media sites. Use of credit cards, banking transactions and convenience store payments has been enabled. See also: Meet the Japanese entrepreneur trying to disrupt the Thai cosmetics market Saroop, the company’s media site, has acquired over 390,000 likes on its Facebook fan page, providing resources and tips on beauty as well as allowing users to buy items introduced on the website. GMO-PG started providing multiple payment solution called GMO-PG Global Payment in July, in partnership with Thailand’s payment processing company 2C2P which has been invested by GMO-PG. With this implementation, Saroop’s users can pay via credit cards, ATM and online banking at Thai major banks like Bangkok Bank, Kasikorn Bank, Krung Thai Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, Thanachart Bank, United Overseas Bank, CIMB Thai Bank, Bank of Ayutthaya, as well as storefront payments at Family Mart convenience stores in Thailand. The penetration rate of credit cards in Asia is quite low, which has hampered e-commerce companies to run their business in a better…
Bangkok-based BuzzCommerce announced that it has integrated a multiple payment solution from Japan’s GMO Payment Gateway (GMO-PG, TSE:3769). The Thai startup allows users to pay for cosmetics purchases via its e-commerce and media sites. Use of credit cards, banking transactions and convenience store payments has been enabled.
The penetration rate of credit cards in Asia is quite low, which has hampered e-commerce companies to run their business in a better way in this region. However, BuzzCommerce will overcome this obstacle by implementing the payment solution so that they can expand their business more quickly.
BuzzCommerce was launched in Bangkok in April this year, and subsequently fundraised an undisclosed sum of investment from East Ventures in May.
See the original story in Japanese. Handiii (previously known as Handie) is a prosthetic hand developed by an engineering team called Exiii, which wants to make people’s daily lives more enjoyable with robotics and designs. The team published a teaser page for a crowdfunding campaign for the device on Kibidango, a Japanese crowdfunding site. See also: Handie: An affordable, functional prosthetic hand, made in Japan with 3D printing The Exiii team has set the concept of this product as a ‘casual option’ aiming to make people consider it as something more common like a watch or a shoe rather than a assistive product. They have won the second prize at James Dyson Award 2013 and also the top prize at Gugen hardware contest in Tokyo. The team has to date developed four generations of the prototype (see picture below). But there’s a huge gap between the demonstration and practical application. That’s why they are currently working toward practical use of the device in partnership with potential users and medical institutions; the crowdfunding campaign is also part of these efforts.
Handiii (previously known as Handie) is a prosthetic hand developed by an engineering team called Exiii, which wants to make people’s daily lives more enjoyable with robotics and designs. The team published a teaser page for a crowdfunding campaign for the device on Kibidango, a Japanese crowdfunding site.
The Exiii team has set the concept of this product as a ‘casual option’ aiming to make people consider it as something more common like a watch or a shoe rather than a assistive product. They have won the second prize at James Dyson Award 2013 and also the top prize at Gugen hardware contest in Tokyo.
The team has to date developed four generations of the prototype (see picture below). But there’s a huge gap between the demonstration and practical application. That’s why they are currently working toward practical use of the device in partnership with potential users and medical institutions; the crowdfunding campaign is also part of these efforts.
See the original story in Japanese. Osaka-based railway company Hankyu Corporation announced on Thursday that it will launch a membership-based incubation office in Osaka called GVH #5. The facility, to be set up near Osaka-Umeda station, will help entrepreneurs connect with each other in order to form a startup community. This initiative will be conducted in partnership with SunBridge Global Ventures, which has been operating Global Venture Habitat Osaka, an incubation space in the Grand Front Osaka building complex. See also: Osaka City Government establishes incubator and fund for local entrepreneurs Can Osaka be a startup hub? Translation app Waygo wins HackOsaka pitch contest They aim to invite entrepreneurs who are interested in developing services in such spaces as urban transport, retailing, community development, entertainment communication, and life-related services. Several incubation initiatives have begun in cities in Japan, represented by the declaration of Fukuoka city to be a startup hub or launching their incubation space. It will be interesting to see how the railway company can generate synergy in the local startup scene.
Osaka-based railway company Hankyu Corporation announced on Thursday that it will launch a membership-based incubation office in Osaka called GVH #5. The facility, to be set up near Osaka-Umeda station, will help entrepreneurs connect with each other in order to form a startup community. This initiative will be conducted in partnership with SunBridge Global Ventures, which has been operating Global Venture Habitat Osaka, an incubation space in the Grand Front Osaka building complex.
They aim to invite entrepreneurs who are interested in developing services in such spaces as urban transport, retailing, community development, entertainment communication, and life-related services.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Fukurou Labo, the startup focused on providing marketing solutions for smartphone apps, launched a ‘deep link‘ optimization platform called Circuit in beta. The company started inviting beta test users from app development companies. The service is provided for free during its beta version, and they have no plan about when it will be switched to a paying service. Deep link means the link that lets users jump to a specific page on a mobile app rather than its top page. By using the Circuit platform and embedding its JavaScript tag on your website, it allows users to show them your content via your mobile app rather than a web browser if users have already installed your app into their handsets. For instance, this solution can be adopted to a service that requests you to input your profile in the login process despite the fact that a native mobile app for the service has already acquired your profile through Facebook login etc. So if you have an account for the service, a native mobile app rather than a web app allows you to skip several input processes, which improves user experience. This is what…
Tokyo-based Fukurou Labo, the startup focused on providing marketing solutions for smartphone apps, launched a ‘deep link‘ optimization platform called Circuit in beta. The company started inviting beta test users from app development companies. The service is provided for free during its beta version, and they have no plan about when it will be switched to a paying service.
Image credit: Facebook Developers
Deep link means the link that lets users jump to a specific page on a mobile app rather than its top page. By using the Circuit platform and embedding its JavaScript tag on your website, it allows users to show them your content via your mobile app rather than a web browser if users have already installed your app into their handsets.
For instance, this solution can be adopted to a service that requests you to input your profile in the login process despite the fact that a native mobile app for the service has already acquired your profile through Facebook login etc. So if you have an account for the service, a native mobile app rather than a web app allows you to skip several input processes, which improves user experience. This is what Circuit can benefit you most.
Obviously the concept of deep linking, seamlessly connecting a native app and a web app with each other, is similar to App Links that Facebook unveiled at their developers conference in April or Syn. (pronounced as Syn Dot), KDDI’s integrated portal menu for smartphone users in partnership with their alliance companies. This will prevent your users escaping from your service at the time of transition between a web app and a native mobile app.
This kind of solution is still premature on a global level. According to Fukurou Labo’s CEO Sho Shimizu, companies in this space like URX and Deeplink.me launched as recently as in 2013. Branch Metrics is remarkably new and was launched in May this year.
The deep linking issue is likely to come to mind for many people, but why has no one provided a good answer to this to date? In response, Shimizu said this is because of the immense workload rather than the technical complexity involved. It is not so difficult for developers to establish links between apps but it is very time-consuming.
Many developers usually face trouble when creating a link map that specifies link-points connecting a native mobile app and a web app with each other. So this task is usually put off in the entire app development process. Circuit can take care of this mapping process, and adopting this kind of outsourced solutions is a more productive approach, in particular upon maintaining an app after development.
Fukurou Labo CEO Sho Shimizu
Listening to Shimizu, his words brought to my mind the growth hacking tool PlanBCD, offered by Kaizen Platform. This tool helps developers to improve their apps’ usability simply by embedding a JavaScript tag. Circuit can be seen as bring the app version of PlanBCD. PlanBCD has succeeded in acquiring UX experts using crowdsourced forces.
As with Kaizen Platform I think Shimizu’s firm can also leverage crowdsourced skills in processing tiresome link-mapping tasks. It will be interesting to see how Fukurou Labo can help developers improve user experience in their apps.
Tokyo-based Beenos (previously Netprice.com) announced today that it has participated in a $2 million investment with India’s Nirvana Venture Advisors and 500 Startups in New Delhi-based Bigfoot Retail Solutions, the company behind India’s e-commerce enabling platform KartRocket. For Beenos, this follows their investments in other companies in the Indian e-commerce industry, such as ShopClues (January 2013) and Citrus Pay (December 2013). Beenos had also invested in Indonesia’s biggest e-commerce platform Tokopedia in its early days in 2012, and the former company unveiled yesterday that it had earned about $4 million in profit by transferring some Tokopedia shares to Softbank and Sequoia Capital. KartRocket provides an e-commerce platform that enables retailers to launch their online storefronts easily in a way that is similar to what Shopify does in the US. The company was serving only about 100 online stores a year ago, but that number has now jumped to 1,900. KartRocket previously fundraised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from 5ideas Startup Superfuel and 500 Startups, with participation from Jatin Aneja, a partner at India’s largest law firm Amarchand Mangaldas, in July 2013.
Tokyo-based Beenos (previously Netprice.com) announced today that it has participated in a $2 million investment with India’s Nirvana Venture Advisors and 500 Startups in New Delhi-based Bigfoot Retail Solutions, the company behind India’s e-commerce enabling platform KartRocket.
For Beenos, this follows their investments in other companies in the Indian e-commerce industry, such as ShopClues (January 2013) and Citrus Pay (December 2013). Beenos had also invested in Indonesia’s biggest e-commerce platform Tokopedia in its early days in 2012, and the former company unveiled yesterday that it had earned about $4 million in profit by transferring some Tokopedia shares to Softbank and Sequoia Capital.
KartRocket provides an e-commerce platform that enables retailers to launch their online storefronts easily in a way that is similar to what Shopify does in the US. The company was serving only about 100 online stores a year ago, but that number has now jumped to 1,900.
KartRocket previously fundraised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from 5ideas Startup Superfuel and 500 Startups, with participation from Jatin Aneja, a partner at India’s largest law firm Amarchand Mangaldas, in July 2013.
Takeshi Hirano
Masaru Ikeda
Junya Mori
Shintaro Eguchi
