Tokyo-based startup 7th heaven&Co. officially released a new mobile app for fans of Japanese League (J. League) soccer teams called Joooy (pronounced simply ‘Joy’). The app is available for iOS for free on the iTunes App Store.
Joooy’s features include news curated from over 3,000 media sources in Japan specialized for the teams you support, chat rooms where people who are fans of the same teams can communicate, and and a friend request system to connect fans to one another.
Until now, team supporters typically would gather at bars or diners near the stadiums in real life while they were dispersed and disconnected from each other online because their communication channel is not centralized but rather varied, such as Facebook or popular mobile chat app Line. By constructing Joooy as a place where the opinions of Japanese soccer fans and those of actual team managers can interact, 7th heaven&Co. wants to be the de facto presence in the field. By getting involved with Japan’s soccer clubs, we can also expect there will be interaction between participating players and fans in the future.
7th heaven&Co. was co-founded by CEO Hiroki Tenjo and managing director Yoshitaka Nomoto.
Tenjo played soccer from elementary school through high school with dreams of playing professionally in Japan. After graduating from high school, he then decided he wanted to be a musician and made his debut as the frontman of a band. His band toured in China and Taiwan, even managing to draw a crowd of 40,000 in Taiwan as one of the most popular punk bands from Japan. Nomoto, who also has participated in Japan’s inter‐high school competition as a soccer player, has been a radio DJ, and has also been involved in producing TV shows and events. Most recently he has been involved in planning the establishment of Ponpare, a group-buying site by Japanese internet company Recruit.
What the two have in common is their experience as young boys engrossed in soccer, and the hope to add even more excitement to the Japanese pro soccer league.
Hiroki Tenjo explains in a press release:
Hiroki Tenjo
With the Premier League and other leagues that open at the same time as the J. League, the business scale and level of excitement that vastly exceeds the J. League is something that is often boasted about. We think that this fact isn’t derived just from the culture gap or the market potential for soccer business between the the UK, the Mecca of soccer, and Japan. We think that the cause of this is the weak relations between supporters and club teams (indirectly localized marketing). […] We’ve created a place where, based on the state of soccer in Japan, clubs and supporters can get connected and form closer bonds, and fans can openly express their feelings and thoughts about soccer. We’ve begun offering our ‘lifestyle communication app’ for fans with our future mission to build foundation of regional support through soccer.
Joooy is being offered as a free app, however they are currently considering ten or more different monetizations methods, including ad placement on each different club’s news feed. As for hardcore fans, touring from stadium to stadium in support of your team can be costly, but it’s possible that, through Joooy, something like a ‘sharing economy service’ between fans could be created.
7th heaven&Co. is aiming to have two million app downloads for Joooy within a year from now.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Tokyo Digital Music Syndicates (TDMS) has been running an online music store called Wasabeat since 2007, offering high-quality sound sources for club DJs. The company announced in October the launch of a free music streaming player app with Wasabeat for iOS. The app implements a recommendation function called ‘streaming mode‘, selecting most appropriate music pieces for each user from 1.2 million pieces within the Wasabeat database distributed by 10,000 labels all over the world. By being marked ‘star’ on favorite music pieces by the user, the app learns the user’s preference and will reflect that to the next recommendation. Beside the streaming mode, the app has ‘channel mode’ allowing users to select music pieces suiting themes such as ‘weekly top pickups’, ‘weekly top 20’, and ‘original compilation’. Users can try to listen to all music contents free of charge for 2 minutes each on the app, and can purchase favorites ones at full length. The company plans to launch a premium version in the spring of 2016 allowing to play all music contents at full length without purchasing each. In March, TDMS also launched a crowdfunding website for artists to consign manufacturing…
The app implements a recommendation function called ‘streaming mode‘, selecting most appropriate music pieces for each user from 1.2 million pieces within the Wasabeat database distributed by 10,000 labels all over the world. By being marked ‘star’ on favorite music pieces by the user, the app learns the user’s preference and will reflect that to the next recommendation.
Beside the streaming mode, the app has ‘channel mode’ allowing users to select music pieces suiting themes such as ‘weekly top pickups’, ‘weekly top 20’, and ‘original compilation’. Users can try to listen to all music contents free of charge for 2 minutes each on the app, and can purchase favorites ones at full length. The company plans to launch a premium version in the spring of 2016 allowing to play all music contents at full length without purchasing each.
In March, TDMS also launched a crowdfunding website for artists to consign manufacturing and sales of the vinyl record based on their sound sources called Qrates. On the website, music pieces by indies artists and DJs are open to the public, and since August, the music catalog of a major label Universal Music Japan has become available for pre-ordering popular tracks listed on it.
The company fundraised this year an undisclosed amount from Japanese Karaoke maker Xing as well as VC firms like IMJ Investment Partners and PE&HR.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Pixta, running a marketplace for stock photos, illustration, and movie resources, announced an agreement of a partnership contract with Chinese stock photo service ImagineChina. Some of materials owned by Pixta will be sold on ImagineChina from January 2016 on a trial basis. The online advertisement market in China has been showing rapid growth in recent years. The market size is seen reaching $23.9 billion in 2014, and $31 billion in 2015, so Pixta is shifting its business emphasis into Asia in anticipation of revitalized demand for photo and video materials. Previously, Pixta had also established a branch office in Taiwan for the purpose of inbound measures toward Japan, where an increased number of utilization also can be seen. Meanwhile, ImagineChina is one of the biggest stock photo platforms in China dealing more than 5 million photo, illustration, video and creative items available for press use as material including newspapers, magazines, books or ads; it has been seeking a business partner holding abundant Japanese content. This idea coincided with Pixta’s ambition to expand into the Asian market including China, and that eventually brought this agreement. First, Pixta will start selling 14,000 copyrighted photo materials especially focusing on Japanese models for the double purpose of trial sales and market…
Japan’s Pixta, running a marketplace for stock photos, illustration, and movie resources, announced an agreement of a partnership contract with Chinese stock photo service ImagineChina. Some of materials owned by Pixta will be sold on ImagineChina from January 2016 on a trial basis.
The online advertisement market in China has been showing rapid growth in recent years. The market size is seen reaching $23.9 billion in 2014, and $31 billion in 2015, so Pixta is shifting its business emphasis into Asia in anticipation of revitalized demand for photo and video materials. Previously, Pixta had also established a branch office in Taiwan for the purpose of inbound measures toward Japan, where an increased number of utilization also can be seen.
Meanwhile, ImagineChina is one of the biggest stock photo platforms in China dealing more than 5 million photo, illustration, video and creative items available for press use as material including newspapers, magazines, books or ads; it has been seeking a business partner holding abundant Japanese content. This idea coincided with Pixta’s ambition to expand into the Asian market including China, and that eventually brought this agreement.
First, Pixta will start selling 14,000 copyrighted photo materials especially focusing on Japanese models for the double purpose of trial sales and market research. The prices will change depending on the usage methods and ImagineChina will be charged a certain ratio of the sales for each purchase. Through this partnership, Pixta will attempt to advance into China and to expand the Chinese market.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
TechCrunch Japan, the Japanese version of the leading startup news site, held its flagship annual conference TechCrunch Tokyo in Shibuya today, where 12 outstanding startups from Japan and Korea fiercely competed with each others to win the Startup Battle pitch competition. Based on votes by judges comprising investors and evangelists from Japan and the US, Tokyo-based Kufu, the Japanese startup behind cloud-based personnel management tool SmartHR, won the top award. SmartHR (TechCrunch Tokyo 2015 Startup Battle Top Award winner, IBM BlueHub Award winner, GuruNavi Award winner) Personnel management requiring the preparation of forms and documents to be filled in is a time-consuming task, especially at small companies. SmartHR is a cloud-based platform that enables users to complete all these tasks in one week for free versus three weeks for a cost of 20,000 yen ($170) on average if outsourced to a certified labor and social insurance consultant/scrivener [Sharoushi]. SmartHR is targeting four million small and medium-sized enterprises employing 27 million people in Japan. The team is planning to harmonize it with the E-Gov API (application program interface) that the Japanese government recently introduced. A database of employees is also built by using the platform so it will also provide features that encourage companies to enact office rules or hire an occupational health physician according to…
TechCrunch Japan, the Japanese version of the leading startup news site, held its flagship annual conference TechCrunch Tokyo in Shibuya today, where 12 outstanding startups from Japan and Korea fiercely competed with each others to win the Startup Battle pitch competition.
Based on votes by judges comprising investors and evangelists from Japan and the US, Tokyo-based Kufu, the Japanese startup behind cloud-based personnel management tool SmartHR, won the top award.
SmartHR (TechCrunch Tokyo 2015 Startup Battle Top Award winner, IBM BlueHub Award winner, GuruNavi Award winner)
Kufu CEO Shoji Miyata (right) receives the award from TechCrunch US writer Kim-Mai Cutler.
Personnel management requiring the preparation of forms and documents to be filled in is a time-consuming task, especially at small companies. SmartHR is a cloud-based platform that enables users to complete all these tasks in one week for free versus three weeks for a cost of 20,000 yen ($170) on average if outsourced to a certified labor and social insurance consultant/scrivener [Sharoushi].
SmartHR is targeting four million small and medium-sized enterprises employing 27 million people in Japan. The team is planning to harmonize it with the E-Gov API (application program interface) that the Japanese government recently introduced. A database of employees is also built by using the platform so it will also provide features that encourage companies to enact office rules or hire an occupational health physician according to how many employees they have.
Below is a quick rundown of other 11 startups which delivered their awesome pitch at today’s showcase event.
Bonx (Sakura Internet Award winner, PR Times Award winner, PayPal award winner)
Bonx is a wearable transceiver for skiers and other outdoor sports afficianadoes.
OneTapBuy (AWS Award winner, Special Judge’s Award winner)
Previously known as MyBanker, OneTapBuy has been focused on developing mobile app which specifically helps people manage their savings and investments more easily.
Popcorn is a last-minute beauty salon booking app, focused on serving in the central Tokyo area. It helps salon owners cultivate a new customer base while customers can have their hair cut for a lower price.
The movement to promote the utilization of IT in the fields of legacy has been increasing in a couple of years. Real estate is one of the fields where various players are acting to try to assimilate with technology. The movement of the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is one of the backgrounds which is activating the players’ activities. The ministry has established an investigation committee to enable non face-to-face explanation of important matters, which had to be done face to face so far, by using the Internet and other tools. The committee had been held repeatedly in 2014. The Japan Association of New Economy, led by founders of Japanese internet businesses including Rakuten and CyberAgent Ventures, also has been making some actions such as makin proposals in the committee. As a result, social experiments focusing on the ban of online real estate transactions have been started since this August. A movement is also following among startups as if corresponding these movements. Ietty, the Japanese startup behind an online real estate platform under the same names, has now secured a total of 200 million yen (approximately $1.6 million) from Investors Cloud (cloud service provider for apartment investors),…
Ietty CEO Taihei Ogawa
The movement to promote the utilization of IT in the fields of legacy has been increasing in a couple of years. Real estate is one of the fields where various players are acting to try to assimilate with technology.
The movement of the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is one of the backgrounds which is activating the players’ activities. The ministry has established an investigation committee to enable non face-to-face explanation of important matters, which had to be done face to face so far, by using the Internet and other tools. The committee had been held repeatedly in 2014.
The Japan Association of New Economy, led by founders of Japanese internet businesses including Rakuten and CyberAgent Ventures, also has been making some actions such as makin proposals in the committee. As a result, social experiments focusing on the ban of online real estate transactions have been started since this August.
A movement is also following among startups as if corresponding these movements. Ietty, the Japanese startup behind an online real estate platform under the same names, has now secured a total of 200 million yen (approximately $1.6 million) from Investors Cloud (cloud service provider for apartment investors), Sansei Capital (the investment arm of Mitsui Life Insurance), Dentsu Digital Holdings, Mizuho Capital, and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital.
A business synergy by cooperation with each subscriber is also expected. Since real estate is often related with insurance and finance, there is a potential of cooperation with Mitsui Life Insurance, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, and Mizuho Bank. Investors Cloud has a business synergy as a real estate company which is strong in the Internet, and Dentsu as a company which has knowledge to reach the masses.
The Ietty website
Since the beta launch of its platform in June of 2013, Ietty fundraised $500,000 from I Mercury Capital, or the investment arm of Japanese mobile gaming giant Mixi, followed by another $1.9 million funding from YJ Capital (the investment arm of Yahoo Japan), and Incubate Fund. The company started expanding its business range such as providing Ietty Biz , the welfare service for corporations while also setting up a real store in Tokyo.
Ietty initially started as a recommendation service of real estate. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been gradually replace recommendation function though our readers might know. Even in Ietty, about 80% of proposals of properties are performed by the algorithm. When the environment over real estate changes as introduced in the introduction, the replacement of existing works, making network of people who have real-estate and building license and ordering business by cloud sourcing for example, will be possible.
Ietty CEO Taihei Ogawa explained:
As online system of real estate develops, AI replaces salespeople and cloud sourcing is going to be used actively. Then, the cost of operation side decreases and a commission competition will occur.
The real estate world was not facing users so far. Ietty focuses on the attitude of user first thoroughly. The business model is going to be different than what it is now from now on. Nothing will be more important than telling no lies to users for sustainable grow up. We attend to users as a 24-hour real estate agent in smartphones anytime.
If a commission war occurs, Ogawa predicts that some companies among online real estate agent survive and the different shades of services are expected to be made. For Ietty, being ”user first” might be a feature of its service. On the other hand, it will be difficult for real estate agents in town, the business model of labor intensive, to remain if commission fees are lowered. How does ietty ,who has been providing its service by building network with real estate agents in town manage?
In response, Ogawa says,
Certainly, the service which was provided by agents in town thus far is going to be completed online. However, locality might be lost with that kind of service-providing. No one can beat local real estate agents at the information such as what the town is like and what kinds of stores are around. We want ietty to keep the network with local agents and vary the relationships.
Ietty plans to have a service renewal around next February and is going to perform enhancement of service development, repletion of sales structure and enhancement of marketing function based on this funding. Ietty currently expects to have over 100 million yen ($810,000) annual sales and aims positive balance within this year.
Translated by Azusa Murano via Mother First Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Surely there are more than a few men in their 30s whose hearts won’t skip three beats upon espying this device. Its design reminds one of the Nintendo NES, the home video game released by the Japanese game maker in July of 1983. However, this is a new smartphone-use game device called Picocasette, jointly developed by Japan’s Sirok and U.S.-incorporated Beatrobo. One can play the game inside by inserting the device into the earphone plug of a smartphone. Tokyo-based Sirok is in charge of app development while Beatrobo of San Francisco, with its wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan, is charged with hardware development. Apart from this, Beatrobo also develops and sells an instant media gadget using the earphone plug called PlugAir, which adopts the same technologies as those in Picocassette. See also: Beatrobo raises $1.1M, has ambitions to replace the CD The two firms have tied up with video game developers who had created famous titles in the past and will provide such games through the Picocassette device. Sirok will engage in development of Picocassette as a new challenge, although it is to continue app developments for businesses as its core business. Meanwhile Beatrobo aims…
Surely there are more than a few men in their 30s whose hearts won’t skip three beats upon espying this device. Its design reminds one of the Nintendo NES, the home video game released by the Japanese game maker in July of 1983.
However, this is a new smartphone-use game device called Picocasette, jointly developed by Japan’s Sirok and U.S.-incorporated Beatrobo. One can play the game inside by inserting the device into the earphone plug of a smartphone.
Tokyo-based Sirok is in charge of app development while Beatrobo of San Francisco, with its wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan, is charged with hardware development. Apart from this, Beatrobo also develops and sells an instant media gadget using the earphone plug called PlugAir, which adopts the same technologies as those in Picocassette.
The two firms have tied up with video game developers who had created famous titles in the past and will provide such games through the Picocassette device. Sirok will engage in development of Picocassette as a new challenge, although it is to continue app developments for businesses as its core business. Meanwhile Beatrobo aims to nurture this into its mainline business.
From the left: Beatrobo CEO Hiroshi Asaeda, Sirok CCO Takahiro Ishiyama
Sirok CCO Takahiro Ishiyama comments:
Once license management of a game has been permitted, Sirok optimizes the property for playing with smartphones. By adopting touch operation or swiping, we can fine tune the product offerings from the game feature perspective. Development of original games is also planned for the future.
While some “old favorite” game remakes for smartphones tend to be avoided by game geeks due to differences in the operation feel, their optimization may reduce mismatches in platform porting.
Beatrobo CEO Hiroshi Asaeda outlines the vision of Picocassette:
To provide games as smartphone apps, we need to have users search them from among a million titles on App Store or Google Play. Being limited to this market alone is too restrictive. Picocassette enables game sales at a variety of locations. It can also be used as a premium for making a certain purchase so the purchasers for play it on a trial basis. I foresee future use of Picocassette as a sales promotion tool too.
Asaeda added that it would be interesting if games within Picocassette can be sold at events like Comiket (“flea markets” for comics buffs in Japan); it could possibly be handled like CD-Rs of yore.
Today, when just a smartphone and apps are needed to play games, the Picocassette approach of aiming to develop a game software device may appear irrational. Yet, the goal set by Asaeda and Ishiyama appears to be the redesign of the “game purchase” experience itself. Godspeed!
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
Masaru Ikeda
Shintaro Eguchi
Junya Mori
