Masaru started his career as a programmer/engineer, and previously co-founded several system integration companies and consulting firms. He’s been traveling around Silicon Valley and Asia exploring the IT industry, and he also curates event updates for the Tokyo edition of Startup Digest.
In China, you can find lots of internet cafes in just about any city. Even after broadband or mobile devices have been widely adopted, internet cafes still attract many people. One of the reasons behind this popularity is that students can enjoy games a little more freely without parents around to nag them. Well over 100,000 internet cafes exist in the country, and out of those, around 30,000 are i8 cafes, using a system developed by Goyoo. That means, there’s an i8 for every 10,000 people in China. Just as a comparison, Korea is famous for having many internet cafes, and there’s an internet cafe for every 2500 people. According to the CEO, Jerry Wang, Goyoo’s system consists of launcher software on the PCs, games, and routers and servers to to support their distribution system. The company operates an advertising network, AdPro, which serves advertisements to the monitors of the PCs in these cafes. That’s the main source of revenue for the company. The maximum impressions achieved in a single day is 150 million, and that came just after four months after the launch of AdPro. The difference between AdPro and the other existing ad networks is that it can…
CEO Jerry Wang
In China, you can find lots of internet cafes in just about any city. Even after broadband or mobile devices have been widely adopted, internet cafes still attract many people. One of the reasons behind this popularity is that students can enjoy games a little more freely without parents around to nag them. Well over 100,000 internet cafes exist in the country, and out of those, around 30,000 are i8 cafes, using a system developed by Goyoo. That means, there’s an i8 for every 10,000 people in China. Just as a comparison, Korea is famous for having many internet cafes, and there’s an internet cafe for every 2500 people.
According to the CEO, Jerry Wang, Goyoo’s system consists of launcher software on the PCs, games, and routers and servers to to support their distribution system. The company operates an advertising network, AdPro, which serves advertisements to the monitors of the PCs in these cafes. That’s the main source of revenue for the company. The maximum impressions achieved in a single day is 150 million, and that came just after four months after the launch of AdPro.
The difference between AdPro and the other existing ad networks is that it can pick up very detailed user attributes. It can identify which site each user views because of the identification card required by law in China for people to internet cafes. So advertisers can control the advertisements they serve to each user. It is also possible to track users’ movement across different websites.
Goyoo is also the world-biggest partner DSP (demand-side platform) for Baidu, covering about 25 million users.
The company plans to launch a new service, LeWifi, which will be distributed to other internet cafes (besides i8) and fast-food restaurants for free. The router of LeWifi can be controlled completely in the cloud, just like Cisco’s Meraki. The company plans to share revenue with outlets based on the amount of traffic to the router. They expect to reach $30 million in annual sales and 100 million daily users in 2014. LeWifi routers will be set up in as many as 200,000 outlets all over in China.
For university students who want to manage their class schedule, the default iOS calendar doesn’t quite have enough features. To address this shortcoming issue, Tianfang Li spent 10 days to prototype an app, which soon after attracted 3000 students. That’s how ClassBox got started. He released a second version of his app in September, 2012. This version could automatically extract the lecture data from most university websites in China. Even though similar apps existed, ClassBox excelled in ease of use, requiring only one minute to set up. A month after its launch, the app attracted a million students from over 500 universities across China. Going beyond just management of class schedules, the app became essential for students who wanted to coordinate their campus life. Coinciding with the beginning of classes in September of 2013, a third version of the app was released this year, this time helping students build plans for their future. ClassBox has come to be recognized as means of efficiently reaching university students in China. This led the company to get the sponsorship from popular fashion commerce site, Vancl, and some promotion on posters by Evernote (see below). Li says that the next step for the app…
For university students who want to manage their class schedule, the default iOS calendar doesn’t quite have enough features. To address this shortcoming issue, Tianfang Li spent 10 days to prototype an app, which soon after attracted 3000 students. That’s how ClassBox got started.
He released a second version of his app in September, 2012. This version could automatically extract the lecture data from most university websites in China. Even though similar apps existed, ClassBox excelled in ease of use, requiring only one minute to set up.
A month after its launch, the app attracted a million students from over 500 universities across China. Going beyond just management of class schedules, the app became essential for students who wanted to coordinate their campus life. Coinciding with the beginning of classes in September of 2013, a third version of the app was released this year, this time helping students build plans for their future.
ClassBox has come to be recognized as means of efficiently reaching university students in China. This led the company to get the sponsorship from popular fashion commerce site, Vancl, and some promotion on posters by Evernote (see below).
Li says that the next step for the app is a communication element where students can ask classmates when they have free time, for example.
This ClassBox poster above was put up in many Chinese universities, sponsored by Vancl and Evernote
Japan’s Nikkei reported today that Silicon Valley-based investment company WiL (World Innovation Lab) has formed a new fund focused on startups in Japan and the Valley, raising $300 million from a number of Japanese companies: All Nippon Airways, NTT Group, Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, Hakuhodo DY Group, Daiwa Securities, JVC Kenwood, Benesse Holdings, and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan [1]. Their potential investees are startups developing new products and services in fields like consumer electronics, e-commerce, or motor vehicles, making the most of smartphone and big data technologies. They expect the size of each investment to be in the range from $5 million to $50 million, with about six to eight investments being made per year. The Nikkei says that $300 million is a figure that equate to 30% of all startup investments in Japan in FY 2012. The investment fund was founded by Japanese venture capitalist Gen Isayama, who previously worked at the investment firm DCM, where he invested in Renren, a social network service in Mainland China. According to his recent Facebook posting, this new effort was made possible by working with co-founding members Shiichi Saijo and Masataka Matsumoto [2]. Innovation Network Corporation of Japan is the country’s state-run…
Image credit: Big Stock Photo
Japan’s Nikkei reported today that Silicon Valley-based investment company WiL (World Innovation Lab) has formed a new fund focused on startups in Japan and the Valley, raising $300 million from a number of Japanese companies: All Nippon Airways, NTT Group, Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, Hakuhodo DY Group, Daiwa Securities, JVC Kenwood, Benesse Holdings, and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan [1].
Their potential investees are startups developing new products and services in fields like consumer electronics, e-commerce, or motor vehicles, making the most of smartphone and big data technologies. They expect the size of each investment to be in the range from $5 million to $50 million, with about six to eight investments being made per year. The Nikkei says that $300 million is a figure that equate to 30% of all startup investments in Japan in FY 2012.
The investment fund was founded by Japanese venture capitalist Gen Isayama, who previously worked at the investment firm DCM, where he invested in Renren, a social network service in Mainland China. According to his recent Facebook posting, this new effort was made possible by working with co-founding members Shiichi Saijo and Masataka Matsumoto [2].
Shinichi Saijo was previously the CEOs of CyberAgent Ventures and CyberAgent America. He was appointed director at Japanese payment startup Coiney earlier this year, and has been helping Japanese startups expand their businesses. Masataka Matsumoto co-founded a web service company called P.I.M. in late 1990 and sold it off to Yahoo Japan back in 2000. He has held several executive posts at the portal company for almost ten years, but quit in 2012. ↩
See the original article in Japanese, posted earlier this year I recently had a chance to visit Bangkok, and the following is a conversation with many locals who have unique insights into the Thai startup scene [1]. Oranuch Lerdsuwankij (Mimee) from ThumbsUp Mimee is the cofounder of ThumbsUp, a partner media for The Bridge with whom we often exchange articles. ThumbsUp was founded in 2011 by a team of five, and currently there are seven members who run the Thai and English editions. While Mimee works as a consultant at another company, she operates ThumbsUp, organizes startup events, and hosts an IT-focused TV program call Thailand Can Do. Thailand has three telecommunications carriers: AIS, DTAC and TRUE. And all of them have startup programs. But the problem is that there is little difference among these three programs, and consequently the same startups tend to occupy the programs. So Mimee thinks it is necessary to expand the startup community, and she focuses on helping startups in Thailand expand overseas. Vincent Sethiwan & Permsiri Tiyavutiroj from Launchpad Tokyo-based Animation Crowd Funding platform, Anipipo was launched in 2013. The board members, Vincent Sethiwan and Permsiri Tiyavutiroj (Sam) are in Thailand most of time,…
I recently had a chance to visit Bangkok, and the following is a conversation with many locals who have unique insights into the Thai startup scene [1].
Oranuch Lerdsuwankij (Mimee) from ThumbsUp
Mimee is the cofounder of ThumbsUp, a partner media for The Bridge with whom we often exchange articles. ThumbsUp was founded in 2011 by a team of five, and currently there are seven members who run the Thai and English editions. While Mimee works as a consultant at another company, she operates ThumbsUp, organizes startup events, and hosts an IT-focused TV program call Thailand Can Do.
Thailand has three telecommunications carriers: AIS, DTAC and TRUE. And all of them have startup programs. But the problem is that there is little difference among these three programs, and consequently the same startups tend to occupy the programs. So Mimee thinks it is necessary to expand the startup community, and she focuses on helping startups in Thailand expand overseas.
Vincent Sethiwan & Permsiri Tiyavutiroj from Launchpad
Launchpad entrance
Tokyo-based Animation Crowd Funding platform, Anipipo was launched in 2013. The board members, Vincent Sethiwan and Permsiri Tiyavutiroj (Sam) are in Thailand most of time, founding a co-working space called Launchpad in November of 2012. The space is about a 10-minute walk from Chong Nonsi station, only two stations away from the downtown Bangkok. While many co-working spaces often use a room in a small building, Launchpad has its space on the first floor Sethiwan Tower, a fairly large building. I was quite surprised to see such a great location, and Sethiwan tells me that it’s a property owned by his family, as we might have guessed from the name!
Permsiri Tiyavutiroj (left) and Vincent Sethiwan (right)
Vincent previously participated in Alpha Lab, an accelerator program in Pittsburg. After he came back to Thailand, he got to know Sam while he was working at a Japanese consulting firm. They explained:
Although the three telecom carriers have startup programs, the startups participating in those programs are the same. What Thailand’s startups scene needs is not a pitch contest. Thai startups don’t really know how to do business. Then we got the idea of starting an incubation program. We’d like to offer hands-on training, and we will first accept only around three startups. […] We have a two-hour time difference between Tokyo and Bangkok though, and it would be great if we can do networking or share our pitches over Skype or something.
Amarit Charoenphan from Hubba
Another co-working space, Hubba is a renovated house with a garden located in the east of Bangkok, at Thong Lo, an area where many Japanese and western people live. The co-founder and director of Hubba, Amarit Charoenphan (pictured below, left), said he wanted to create a comfortable and relaxing atmosphere. Hubba is operated though organized events and paid membership. In the past, it was the organizer of Echelon Ignite, a localized vesion of the Singapore-based Echelon tech conference.
Hubba even has a shower, so for long events like the 54-hour Startup Weekend Bangkok, participants can refresh themselves. There are many Japanese restaurants and pubs around this area, a taste of home for any Japan’s startups who would like an office in Thailand.
Hubba’s backyard
Jon Russell of The Next Web & Paul Srivorakul from Ardent Capital
Jon Russel on the right, Photo by Elisha Ong
The last time I met Jon Russell was at Echelon, a tech conference held in Singapore. He often reports on Asia-based startups from his base in Bangkok. He referred us to Paul Srivorakul as a key person in the city. Paul is the founder of Ardent Capital and he co-invested in Asian tech media site e27. He founded NewMedia Edge, Admax Network, Ensogo Group and sold each business to STW Group, Kimil Media and LivingSocial respectively.
Most entrepreneurs in Thailand have little knowledge of management. So Paul sends those who have management experience in major companies to be startup board members and let entrepreneurs learn from them. He focuses on Southeast Asia’s fast-growing market, and has shown interest in meeting Japanese startups who are willing to do business in Southeast Asia.
At Khaosan Road
Even though I spent just a weekend there, I met so many key people in Bangkok and learned a lot from them. My overall impression is that Thailand’s startup scene is just beginning. Startups like Oakbee, Wangnai or Builk are often mentioned as success stories. But success for Thai startups, according to Vincent Sethiwan, is to fundraise in Singapore and expand overseas. The mindset is very far from that of Silicon Valley’s startups and might be closer to the outlook of Japanese startups.
I found that many people have a good impression of Japanese people and products. While there are 18.3 million Facebook users in Thailand, Line has already attracts 12.3 million [2]. There are some great examples of implementing Japanese apps such as the case where Thailand’s police started using LINE for sharing investigation information with members.
For Japanese startups looking to do business in Asian countries, I hope they can consider Thailand as a possible choice.
This article was first published back in February, and has been slightly modified to create this English version. ↩
The Facebook data is according to research data by Cereja Technology, released on Januarty 8th, 2013. Line’s numbers are based on an infographic from Line’s blog, released on Januarty 18th, 2013. ↩
BearTail, the startup behind the cloud-based household accounting solution Dr. Wallet, announced today that it has raised $100 million yen (approximately $955,000) from three Japanese investment firms: Incubate Fund, Nissay Capital, and SMBC Venture Capital. The service lets you keep track of your personal finances by simply scanning your receipts. It was officially launched back in August, and is now available for the Android and iOS platforms, as well on the desktop. To differentiate from similar services, the app does not use OCR (optical character recognition), but instead depends on human-powered data entry to ensuring accuracy. It also automatically sorts and classifies your purchases. With this human-powered processing, the startup could reach data entry accuracy of up to 99.98%, likely enough to ease any user concerns over erroneous inputs. Using the funds raised this time, they hope to develop a function that lets you know the best products to buy from partnering supermarkets or groceries, based on your purchase history. This feature resembles another budget app, Zaim, which started providing back in July. Also operating in this space is Toppan Printing, with its Shufoo service, allowing households to check the latest supermarket discounts online. BearTail was chosen for the fifth…
The service lets you keep track of your personal finances by simply scanning your receipts. It was officially launched back in August, and is now available for the Android and iOS platforms, as well on the desktop. To differentiate from similar services, the app does not use OCR (optical character recognition), but instead depends on human-powered data entry to ensuring accuracy. It also automatically sorts and classifies your purchases. With this human-powered processing, the startup could reach data entry accuracy of up to 99.98%, likely enough to ease any user concerns over erroneous inputs.
Using the funds raised this time, they hope to develop a function that lets you know the best products to buy from partnering supermarkets or groceries, based on your purchase history. This feature resembles another budget app, Zaim, which started providing back in July. Also operating in this space is Toppan Printing, with its Shufoo service, allowing households to check the latest supermarket discounts online.
BearTail was chosen for the fifth batch of KDDI’s incubation program, and will be featured at the program’s demo day event, along with four other startups, on January 24th.
Japanese internet company Netprice.com (TSE:3328) announced today that its Singapore-based investment arm, Beenos Asia, has invested in Indian payment processor Citrus. The investment was jointly made with Hong Kong-based econtext Asia (1390:HK), a payments solution company under Digital Garage (TSE:4819). Specific financial details of the investment are not disclosed. India is showing rapid growth in internet businesses these days, and broadband internet has been growing at an annual rate of 25% as of early 2013 [1]. The e-commerce market in India is growing by over 30% every year [2], and that trend has been helping Mumbai-based Citrus grow rapidly, as it provides e-commerce platforms and public service providers with credit card payments, bank transfers, debit payments, cash on delivery, and installment payments. Through this partnership, Netprice.com expects to stay ahead e-commerce trends and payment needs in the region. Our readers may recall that the company also recently invested in Turkish payment processor Iyzi Payments back in July, and made a joint investment in Jakarta-based payments processor PT MidTrans last year in partnership with Digital Garage. Citrus was founded back in 2011 by a group of software, UX, and finance professionals. They raised series B funding worth $5.5 million from Sequoia…
Japanese internet company Netprice.com (TSE:3328) announced today that its Singapore-based investment arm, Beenos Asia, has invested in Indian payment processor Citrus. The investment was jointly made with Hong Kong-based econtext Asia (1390:HK), a payments solution company under Digital Garage (TSE:4819). Specific financial details of the investment are not disclosed.
India is showing rapid growth in internet businesses these days, and broadband internet has been growing at an annual rate of 25% as of early 2013 [1]. The e-commerce market in India is growing by over 30% every year [2], and that trend has been helping Mumbai-based Citrus grow rapidly, as it provides e-commerce platforms and public service providers with credit card payments, bank transfers, debit payments, cash on delivery, and installment payments.
Through this partnership, Netprice.com expects to stay ahead e-commerce trends and payment needs in the region. Our readers may recall that the company also recently invested in Turkish payment processor Iyzi Payments back in July, and made a joint investment in Jakarta-based payments processor PT MidTrans last year in partnership with Digital Garage.
Citrus was founded back in 2011 by a group of software, UX, and finance professionals. They raised series B funding worth $5.5 million from Sequoia Capital earlier this month, following the previous $2 million in funding from the investment firm back in March.
We recently featured Cameron Beccario’s Tokyo Wind Map, a visualization created from publicly available weather data. This sort of presentation is made through ‘Open Government’ initiatives that encourage developers to create services that serve civic needs. In response to global open data initiatives like data.gov, data.gov.uk, and PublicData.eu, the Japanese government recently launched a test version of its own public data site, Data.go.jp. The government hopes to catch up with the US and European countries in developing uses for such data by the end of FY2015. The site provides data with the aim of giving all businesses and citizens access to demographical, geographical, and spacial statistics, as well as disaster prevention advisories, guidelines for governmental procurements, and white paper announcements. The portal is currently being operated on a trial basis, but the government expects to improve it based on feedback from users, with the official launch coming in FY2014. The official version may allow you to access the data via APIs. In the Asian region, such initiatives have already started in nations like Singapore, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Korea.
We recently featured Cameron Beccario’s Tokyo Wind Map, a visualization created from publicly available weather data. This sort of presentation is made through ‘Open Government’ initiatives that encourage developers to create services that serve civic needs.
In response to global open data initiatives like data.gov, data.gov.uk, and PublicData.eu, the Japanese government recently launched a test version of its own public data site, Data.go.jp. The government hopes to catch up with the US and European countries in developing uses for such data by the end of FY2015.
The site provides data with the aim of giving all businesses and citizens access to demographical, geographical, and spacial statistics, as well as disaster prevention advisories, guidelines for governmental procurements, and white paper announcements.
The portal is currently being operated on a trial basis, but the government expects to improve it based on feedback from users, with the official launch coming in FY2014. The official version may allow you to access the data via APIs. In the Asian region, such initiatives have already started in nations like Singapore, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Korea.
Recently Google acquired Schaft, a Japanese robotics company that grew out of the University of Tokyo. The company won the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials this weekend in Miami, an event aimed at encouraging engineers across the world to develop disaster relief robots, in response to the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. During the competition, robots were tested to measure their motor capabilities in eight different tasks like climbing up-and-down a ladder, removing obstacles and debris, and driving a car. 16 teams competed to advance to the 2014 Finals in an effort to win the $2 million grand prize. The Schaft team took top place, beating out tough competitors like IHMC, Carnegie Mellon University, and MIT. The company was launched by humanoid scientists Yuto Nakahishi and Junichi Urata back in 2012. Prior to its acquisition by Google, it was backed by Tokyo-based startup incubator TomyK [1] and Tsuneishi Partners, the investment arm of a leading shipbuilding company in Japan. TomyK is focused on incubating hardware startups, and was launched by Tomihisa Kamada, the inventor of the Japanese feature phone web browser ‘i-mode‘. ↩
From the Left: Schaft COO Narito Suzuki, CEO Yuto Nakanishi, and the Schaft robot (from DARPA video)
Recently Google acquiredSchaft, a Japanese robotics company that grew out of the University of Tokyo. The company won the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials this weekend in Miami, an event aimed at encouraging engineers across the world to develop disaster relief robots, in response to the accident at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
During the competition, robots were tested to measure their motor capabilities in eight different tasks like climbing up-and-down a ladder, removing obstacles and debris, and driving a car. 16 teams competed to advance to the 2014 Finals in an effort to win the $2 million grand prize. The Schaft team took top place, beating out tough competitors like IHMC, Carnegie Mellon University, and MIT.
The company was launched by humanoid scientists Yuto Nakahishi and Junichi Urata back in 2012. Prior to its acquisition by Google, it was backed by Tokyo-based startup incubator TomyK[1] and Tsuneishi Partners, the investment arm of a leading shipbuilding company in Japan.
TomyK is focused on incubating hardware startups, and was launched by Tomihisa Kamada, the inventor of the Japanese feature phone web browser ‘i-mode‘. ↩
See the original article in Japanese Early this year, we reported on 14 Japanese startups that provide accounting or financial services. Many of them have launched new services or raised funds this year. The recent news that Hottolink, the company behind Hottoscope, went public on the TSE Mothers market shows that this field is rapidly growing. One of the startups we mentioned in that article, Crowd Cast, was founded in 2011 to develops financial solutions for small businesses, including its cloud-based accounting app, BizNote (iOS／Android). The company recently announced a new app for startups called BizNote Expense, which is to be released next month. If you follow the Japan startup scene, you might wonder how the app is different from alternatives like Freee or Money Forward. This field is no longer a Blue Ocean market, so how can Crowd Cast differentiate from competitors? We spoke with Takashi Hoshikawa, the company’s CEO and founder, about their future strategy. After Hoshikawa worked at Microsoft and Digital Equipment Corporation as a project manager, he enrolled in business school to acquire an MBA in 2009. Since then, he had been considering the idea of starting an accounting service. In the fall of 2011, he…
Early this year, we reported on 14 Japanese startups that provide accounting or financial services. Many of them have launched new services or raised funds this year. The recent news that Hottolink, the company behind Hottoscope, went public on the TSE Mothers market shows that this field is rapidly growing. One of the startups we mentioned in that article, Crowd Cast, was founded in 2011 to develops financial solutions for small businesses, including its cloud-based accounting app, BizNote (iOS／Android). The company recently announced a new app for startups called BizNote Expense, which is to be released next month.
If you follow the Japan startup scene, you might wonder how the app is different from alternatives like Freee or Money Forward. This field is no longer a Blue Ocean market, so how can Crowd Cast differentiate from competitors? We spoke with Takashi Hoshikawa, the company’s CEO and founder, about their future strategy.
CEO Takashi Hoshikawa
After Hoshikawa worked at Microsoft and Digital Equipment Corporation as a project manager, he enrolled in business school to acquire an MBA in 2009. Since then, he had been considering the idea of starting an accounting service. In the fall of 2011, he won first prize at the Yayoi App Contest, operated by Yoyoi, Japan’s largest accounting software company. He succeeded in raising 25 million yen ($250,000) from Yayoi in May of 2013.
In addition to raising funds from Yayoi, Crowd Cast has a business partnership with the company. While Yayoi has 74% market share of accounting software in Japan, Crowd Cast focuses on streamlining the process of entering expenses during the accounting process. Hoshikawa explained:
We developed a smartphone app, BizNote Expense, whose feature is focused on entering expenses. By letting employees enter expenses on their smartphones, BizNote Expense reduces work for those in charge of accounting. In small businesses, this is often the CEO himself. Utilizing the network I built while I was at Microsoft, the app was developed in Europe and has a sophisticated design. Development is almost finished. After minor adjustment of the UI/UX, we plan to release the product in January.
The data entered on the app can be viewed on the BizNote dashboard, used in Yayoi’s package software or on its online cloud-based platform for tax returns. Yayoi and Crowd Cast each have different strengths, and they can both enhance their core competencies.
The unknown market for expenses processing
According to Hoshikawa, in the area of expense processing, there are a number of key players:
For large companies with more than 1000 employees, Concur is the biggest competitor. Initial fee: 2.5 million yen ($25,000), Monthly fee: around 500,000 yen ($5000).
For middle-size companies with 200 to 1000 employees, there are about 10 software companies offering services, including Rakurakuseisan. Average initial fee: 30,000 yen ($300), monthly fee: around 10,000 ($100).
For small companies with less than 200 employees, there are several companies like Expensify and Shoeboxed. Monthly fee: 1000 – 10,000 yen
(Note that the listed fees here are just for a reference. They could differ depending on the conditions.)
Crowd Cast aims to expand its client base among small companies with less than 200 employees. Hoshikawa adds:
For these kinds of companies, few of them have an independent department for accounting. In many cases, the management or workers in the general affairs department take care of accounting. With BizNote Expense, companies can automate everything from processing expenses to collecting to accounting, and as a result, they can save time to focus on more important matters.
The fee for BizNote Expense starts from 390 yen ($4) per month. The smartphone app is intentionally minimal in order to provide a reasonable price for small companies, and to make it easy for workers to use.
I had one simple question as I spoke with Hoshikawa. If the expense processing platform is tied up with Yayoi, why doesn’t Yayoi develop such a platform on its own? Could not such a big company form a project team with experienced engineers, and develop a platform quicker and better?
But developing a smartphone app or establishing a cloud service business model is not really what Yayoi is typically good at. Major companies in this kind of situation can find an advantage to tie up with startups. That is open innovation.
Accounting systems differ drastically across regions because of different accounting standards and tax systems. Yayoi used to be under Intuit, but later broke away in 2003 in a management buyout, and was subsequently acquired by livedoor. One of the reasons that Intuit and Yayoi couldn’t find synergies was the difference of accounting systems between countries.
But expense processing doesn’t differ much by country, so that means BizNote Expense could expand globally with minimum localization efforts. The Crowd Cast website already has both Japanese and English versions.
While Crowd Cast has tied up with Yoyoi in Japan, it could be possible for them to partner with Intuit in the future. As more and more startups operate across borders, this solution by Crowd Cast could help make business much more convenient.
The iOS version of BizNote Expense will be available for download in January, and the Android version is to be released in the first quarter of 2014.
Japanese recipe sharing site Cookpad announced today that it has acquired two companies doing similar business: US-based Allthecooks and Spain-based Mis Recetas. Cookpad has no intention to integrate its services with these two, but plans to share knowledge about providing better user experiences and explore possible business synergies. Mis Recetas is a user-generated content platform for sharing recipes. It has 400 million users with about 6 million monthly visitors across Mexico, Argentina, Spain and other countries. Their iOS app is ranked tops in food and drink iOS category in 17 Spanish-speaking countries. It also provides an Android version. Allthecooks is a US-based recipe site that launched back in December of 2012, and their smartphone app has over 1 million users and is ranked number one in the recipe app category on Google Play. According to Japanese tech news sites CNet Japan and IT Media, Cookpad reportedly took over the Spanish company for 1.12 billion yen ($10.7 million), and the US company for a price ranging from $5 million to $10 million.
Japanese recipe sharing site Cookpad announced today that it has acquired two companies doing similar business: US-based Allthecooks and Spain-based Mis Recetas. Cookpad has no intention to integrate its services with these two, but plans to share knowledge about providing better user experiences and explore possible business synergies.
Mis Recetas is a user-generated content platform for sharing recipes. It has 400 million users with about 6 million monthly visitors across Mexico, Argentina, Spain and other countries. Their iOS app is ranked tops in food and drink iOS category in 17 Spanish-speaking countries. It also provides an Android version.
Allthecooks is a US-based recipe site that launched back in December of 2012, and their smartphone app has over 1 million users and is ranked number one in the recipe app category on Google Play.
According to Japanese tech news sites CNet Japan and IT Media, Cookpad reportedly took over the Spanish company for 1.12 billion yen ($10.7 million), and the US company for a price ranging from $5 million to $10 million.
Mimee is the cofounder of ThumbsUp, a partner media for The Bridge with whom we often exchange articles. ThumbsUp was founded in 2011 by a team of five, and currently there are seven members who run the Thai and English editions. While Mimee works as a consultant at another company, she operates ThumbsUp, organizes startup events, and hosts an IT-focused TV program call 
