This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. Until recently, space industry around the world has been propelled by government but private companies’ roles are gaining momentum in a movement called “New Space.” On May 10, SPACETIDE Association of Japan held its third event underscoring the role of private sector in space-related activities at Nihombashi Mitsui Hall, in central Tokyo. Supported by the Japanese government and in cooperation with the realtor Mitsui Fudosan and newspaper publisher Asahi Shimbun, it was sponsored (monetarily, for the first time) by ANA, JAL, SKY Perfect JSAT, Keio University System Design and Management Faculty and TBS plus Asahi Shimbun. See also: Riding the Startup Wave in Space The morning events comprised a panel overview at space business through 2030 followed by a presentation from OneWeb (SoftBank-backed startup) by Hidebumi Kitahara, then followed by a panel session with Infostellar and Axelspace representing Japanese space startups being joined by AWS and Orbital Insight plus Japanese government program outlined by a Keio professor. The latter panel had space Big Data as the theme. The afternoon saw presentations by Space Frontier Foundation chief Jeff Feige and former…
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.
Panel session: Shaping the Future of Space Industry towards 2030 and beyond Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy
Until recently, space industry around the world has been propelled by government but private companies’ roles are gaining momentum in a movement called “New Space.” On May 10, SPACETIDE Association of Japan held its third event underscoring the role of private sector in space-related activities at Nihombashi Mitsui Hall, in central Tokyo.
Supported by the Japanese government and in cooperation with the realtor Mitsui Fudosan and newspaper publisher Asahi Shimbun, it was sponsored (monetarily, for the first time) by ANA, JAL, SKY Perfect JSAT, Keio University System Design and Management Faculty and TBS plus Asahi Shimbun.
Hidebumi Kitahara, Director of OneWeb Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy
The morning events comprised a panel overview at space business through 2030 followed by a presentation from OneWeb (SoftBank-backed startup) by Hidebumi Kitahara, then followed by a panel session with Infostellar and Axelspace representing Japanese space startups being joined by AWS and Orbital Insight plus Japanese government program outlined by a Keio professor. The latter panel had space Big Data as the theme.
Panel session: Space Big Data brings new markets Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy
The afternoon saw presentations by Space Frontier Foundation chief Jeff Feige and former astronaut Koichi Wakata, representing JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), as well as a panel discussion on a new era of spaceflight. Another panel on New Space Economy, with ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada of Hakuto X Prize challenge fame, took place. The day ended with a panel on space as growth driver for other industries, after a Startup Pitch.
Dr. Koichi Wakata, Japanese engineer and JAXA astronaut Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy
The Startup Pitch actually turned out not to be a competitive one, including a special pitch-like talk by an ANA employee who had won a government award for an innovative idea related to the aerospace field (though her presentation, along with those of Telexistence COO Yuichiro Hikosaka and Space BD CEO Masatoshi Nagasaki, would likely have been one of Top Three). WARPSPACE, ALE, Space Bio-Laboratories and Institute for Q-Shu Pioneers of Space also took part in the “Pitch.”
MC and pitch presenters at SPACETIDE 2018 Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. d10e — dubbed “The Leading Conference On Decentralization” — held the 21st Global Edition from April 28 to May 1, 2018. The venue, Hilton Tokyo Bay Hotel located near Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea, gathered numerous participants who foresee far-reaching changes being brought on by adoption of blockchain technology, especially by localities and businesses. The first and second days were spent by Blockchain Investors Consortium (BIC), one of the main event sponsors, familiarizing d10e-goers with Tokyo. Keynote speeches were presented on the third day. On the final day, 22 teams gathered to present their revolutionary wares during the 1st Edition in Japan Startup Pitch (MC: Ms. Naomi Brockwell). Leonardo Render Chief Strategy Officer Delon de Metz, the energetic (enough to jump off the stage and safely too) young man with the winning message at this year’s inaugural Japan pitch competition, got First Prize. The visual rendering services company headquartered on Madison Avenue in New York convinced all that their business is ready to roll. The runner-up was Ms. Liina Laas-Billson, Chief Business Development Officer for Black Insurance, the digital insurance company on blockchain….
This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.
Randy Hencken, Co-founder of floating seasteading company Blue Frontiers, delivered his keynote speech. Image credit: Kurt Hanson / The Bridge
d10e — dubbed “The Leading Conference On Decentralization” — held the 21st Global Edition from April 28 to May 1, 2018. The venue, Hilton Tokyo Bay Hotel located near Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea, gathered numerous participants who foresee far-reaching changes being brought on by adoption of blockchain technology, especially by localities and businesses.
Image credit: d10e
The first and second days were spent by Blockchain Investors Consortium (BIC), one of the main event sponsors, familiarizing d10e-goers with Tokyo. Keynote speeches were presented on the third day. On the final day, 22 teams gathered to present their revolutionary wares during the 1st Edition in Japan Startup Pitch (MC: Ms. Naomi Brockwell).
Delon de Metz, Chief Strategy Offier of Leonardo Render Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy / The Bridge
Leonardo Render Chief Strategy Officer Delon de Metz, the energetic (enough to jump off the stage and safely too) young man with the winning message at this year’s inaugural Japan pitch competition, got First Prize. The visual rendering services company headquartered on Madison Avenue in New York convinced all that their business is ready to roll.
Liina Laas-Billson, Chief Business Development Officer of Black Insurance Image credit: d10e
The runner-up was Ms. Liina Laas-Billson, Chief Business Development Officer for Black Insurance, the digital insurance company on blockchain. The demure pitch for the Estonian outfit gained Second Prize as it explained elegantly how its platform connects insurance brokers directly with capital, enabling them to launch their own virtual insurance agencies.
Cereal Finance CEO Sergey Vart (left) and a pitch judge Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy / The Bridge
Third Prize was garnered by Cereal Finance Co-founder & CEO Sergey Vart, who heads the St. Petersburg-based provider of blockchain ecosystem for asset-based loans. Finally, the Audience Award went to ZPER (according to Marketing Manager DK Yoon, pronounced ‘Zee-per’) of Singapore, offering a decentralized ecosystem for P2P finance.
George Hahn, co-founder and CGO of ZPER Image credit: d10e
The Bridge announced today that it has agreed to be acquired by Tokyo-based PR Times (TSE:3922), the Japanese promotion agency focused on distributing press releases on behalf of client companies. See also: Japanese startup-focused promotion agency PR Times files for IPO As a result of the deal, The Bridge will continue covering and serving startups and ecosystems as the media outlet have been doing to date. Both parties will strengthen publishing news articles, organize community events, and launch other joint programs for encouraging startups and entrepreneurs. Our announcement in Japanese Press release by PR Times (in Japanese)
The Bridge announced today that it has agreed to be acquired by Tokyo-based PR Times (TSE:3922), the Japanese promotion agency focused on distributing press releases on behalf of client companies.
As a result of the deal, The Bridge will continue covering and serving startups and ecosystems as the media outlet have been doing to date.
Both parties will strengthen publishing news articles, organize community events, and launch other joint programs for encouraging startups and entrepreneurs.
See the original story in Japanese. Japanese major crowdfunding platform Makuake and Fukuoka, the western Japanese city known for having been designated as a special economic zone for encouraging global entrepreneurship, announced today that they will jointly help foreign startups expand into the Japanese market by helping launch their crowdfunding campaigns. Fukuoka City will help foreign startups, that have their own product, launch their crowdfunding campaign by recommending them to Makuake while the city looks to utilize existing schemes to help these startups gain funds, office locations and business opportunities. Startups having launched their crowdfunding campaign can typically enjoy the benefits of improving their public awareness and gaining necessary funds, in addition to making it easier to obtain loans on their own from financial institutions and cultivate distribution channels through user validation results. See also: Cities of Japan’s Fukuoka, Taiwan’s Taipei agree on mutual startup support initiatives Cities of Japan’s Fukuoka, France’s Bordeaux shake hands to support drone startups Makuake has dealt with more than 100 crowdfunding campaigns from foreign enterprises and startups. Meanwhile, led by its startup support arm called Global Startup Center, Fukuoka City has been focused on inviting foreign startups to set up shop there. As part…
Japanese major crowdfunding platform Makuake and Fukuoka, the western Japanese city known for having been designated as a special economic zone for encouraging global entrepreneurship, announced today that they will jointly help foreign startups expand into the Japanese market by helping launch their crowdfunding campaigns.
Fukuoka City will help foreign startups, that have their own product, launch their crowdfunding campaign by recommending them to Makuake while the city looks to utilize existing schemes to help these startups gain funds, office locations and business opportunities. Startups having launched their crowdfunding campaign can typically enjoy the benefits of improving their public awareness and gaining necessary funds, in addition to making it easier to obtain loans on their own from financial institutions and cultivate distribution channels through user validation results.
Makuake has dealt with more than 100 crowdfunding campaigns from foreign enterprises and startups. Meanwhile, led by its startup support arm called Global Startup Center, Fukuoka City has been focused on inviting foreign startups to set up shop there.
Partnering scheme
As part of the partnership, both parties have just started helping to run two crowdfunding campaigns: Coffee Pixels – a solid coffee bar from Latvia (see this for campaign) – and Hope English – an English e-learning service from Taiwan (see this for campaign).
Celebrating its fifth year since the launch, Makuake has been cultivating potential crowdfunding projects from rural areas in Japan in partnership with regional banks. In the meantime they set up a branch office in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido last month. Through the partnership with Fukuoka City, we can expect they will further cultivate crowdfunding campaigns from Fukuoka and Kyushu regions as well as to help foreign startups gain more exposure in the Japanese market.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Japanese smart consumer electronics startup Cerevo announced on Monday that it has set up a subsidiary specialized in agile hardware manufacturing called Shiftall. In addition, the company has also sold the subsidiary’s entire stake to Panasonic. Takuma Iwasa will step down as CEO of Cerevo to be appointed as that for the new company. Prior to launching Cerevo back in 2007, Iwasa was being involved in developing connected consumer electronics products like Lumix (digital camera) and Diga (video recorder) at Panasonic. We’ve seen Cerevo has been collaborating with the consumer electronics giant in supporting hardware startups. Meanwhile, Panosonic is celebrating the 100th anniversary this year while launching several initiatives so that they can rejuvenate their organization to keep producing innovations. In addition to establishing a startup collaboration space called 100BANCH in partnership with Loftwork and Cofe Company, Panasonic started working with Tokyo-based Creww, a key driver helping enterprises conduct open innovation initiatives, to run the Panasonic Accelerator program in Japan. Furthermore, our readers may recall that the company’s in-house new business initiative Game Changer Catapult showcased several innovative products at SXSW in Austin last month. For Panasonic, the Shiftwall acquisition with Iwasa can been…
Takuma Iwasa (Former CEO of Cerevo, new CEO of Shiftall) Image credit: Rick Martin / The Bridge
Japanese smart consumer electronics startup Cerevo announced on Monday that it has set up a subsidiary specialized in agile hardware manufacturing called Shiftall. In addition, the company has also sold the subsidiary’s entire stake to Panasonic. Takuma Iwasa will step down as CEO of Cerevo to be appointed as that for the new company.
Prior to launching Cerevo back in 2007, Iwasa was being involved in developing connected consumer electronics products like Lumix (digital camera) and Diga (video recorder) at Panasonic. We’ve seen Cerevo has been collaborating with the consumer electronics giant in supporting hardware startups.
Meanwhile, Panosonic is celebrating the 100th anniversary this year while launching several initiatives so that they can rejuvenate their organization to keep producing innovations. In addition to establishing a startup collaboration space called 100BANCH in partnership with Loftwork and Cofe Company, Panasonic started working with Tokyo-based Creww, a key driver helping enterprises conduct open innovation initiatives, to run the Panasonic Accelerator program in Japan. Furthermore, our readers may recall that the company’s in-house new business initiative Game Changer Catapult showcased several innovative products at SXSW in Austin last month.
For Panasonic, the Shiftwall acquisition with Iwasa can been seen as a trump card to boost these open innovation activities from within the company.
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Cyber Security Cloud (CSC), the Japanese startup behind a cloud-based web application firewall (WAF) called Shadankun (originally called Kougeki Shadankun in Japanese), announced on Monday that it has partnered with Future Spirits to expand the solution into Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Future Spirits is a Japanese cloud solution company serving Southeast Asian markets through their regional subsidiary Future Spirits Asia, planning to sell the Shadanukun WAF solution in bundle with Future Spirit’s dedicated server or virtual private server solutions. CSC has been specialized in developing cloud-based WAF solutions to secure cloud-based web servers, launching Shadankun in December of 2013. The service has seen a steady increase in clients, including NTT Docomo, ANA (All Nippon Airways) and SBI Securities, and has been adopted by 4,000 websites in about three and a half years since the launch as of September in 2017. In response to our question about the latest trends on cyber attacks, CSC CEO Hikaru Ono told us that more than 1,121 cyber attacks had been detected on Future a Spirits Thailand’s corporate web server in February this year alone. To avoid these attacks, he said more preparation for server management and more…
From left: Hikaru Ono (CEO of Cyber Security Cloud), Takahiro Tani (CEO of Future Spirits) Image credit: Cyber Security Cloud
Tokyo-based Cyber Security Cloud (CSC), the Japanese startup behind a cloud-based web application firewall (WAF) called Shadankun (originally called Kougeki Shadankun in Japanese), announced on Monday that it has partnered with Future Spirits to expand the solution into Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Future Spirits is a Japanese cloud solution company serving Southeast Asian markets through their regional subsidiary Future Spirits Asia, planning to sell the Shadanukun WAF solution in bundle with Future Spirit’s dedicated server or virtual private server solutions.
CSC has been specialized in developing cloud-based WAF solutions to secure cloud-based web servers, launching Shadankun in December of 2013. The service has seen a steady increase in clients, including NTT Docomo, ANA (All Nippon Airways) and SBI Securities, and has been adopted by 4,000 websites in about three and a half years since the launch as of September in 2017.
In response to our question about the latest trends on cyber attacks, CSC CEO Hikaru Ono told us that more than 1,121 cyber attacks had been detected on Future a Spirits Thailand’s corporate web server in February this year alone. To avoid these attacks, he said more preparation for server management and more secure coding efforts are needed. According to Future Spirits CEO Takahiro Tani, however, his company often receives requests for consulting or advice from Japanese companies in the Southeast Asia region after they face a security issue since many of them have no in-house IT personnel.
The dashboard for “Kougeki Shadan-kun” Image credit: Cyber Security Cloud
Regarding how to promote global expansion, both companies will focus on expanding into Japanese companies in the aforementioned markets first, subsequently set up local subsidiaries as their users increase. CSC and Future Spirits are planning to promote the Shadankun solution as prevention countermeasure for possible cyber attacks, especially to local subsidiaries of Japanese companies in need of adjusting their security level with that of their headquarters in Japan.
Future Spirits also considering provision of IT infrastructure consulting in addition to proposing security countermeasures with the Shadankun solution. The two are targeting to acquire 500 companies as users out of all 4,800 Japanese companies in the region within two years.
Established in August of 2010 (under the name of Amitie), CSC raised around 100 million yen (about $883K US) from Ambition, Legend Partners, Epsilon Group, Real World and SBI Investment plus other investors in January of 2016. In October of last year, the company launched WafCharm, which uses artificial intelligence to automatically apply a WAF signature (rule set) setting for websites hosted on Amazon Web Services.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” POmeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Airporter (previously known as Willer), the Japanese startup offering the same-day travel luggage delivery service to/from Tokyo airports under the same name, announced on Monday that it has raised several tens of million yen (hundreds of thousands of US dollars) in an estimated seed round from Base Partners and Beenos (TSE:3328). Base Partners is a VC firm managed by Minoru Togawa (founder and former CEO of CA Mobile) and Takehiro Yamaguchi (former strategic investment department manager). Airporter offers a low-cost luggage delivery service for visitors to Tokyo between their accommodation and Narita/Haneda airports so that they can enjoy hands-free travel in the city after or before their accommodation check-in. We have seen several airports like Hong Kong or Incheon/Gimpo airports in Seoul, offering complimentary city check-in services so that visitors can drop their baggage before going to the airport, which gains good reputation among international travelers. Using the Airporter service, visitors to Japan can also enjoy a similar user experience in Japan (however, they will need to check-in for flight at the airport). Airporter recently won the special award at an innovation encouragement initiative run by the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and…
Tokyo-based Airporter (previously known as Willer), the Japanese startup offering the same-day travel luggage delivery service to/from Tokyo airports under the same name, announced on Monday that it has raised several tens of million yen (hundreds of thousands of US dollars) in an estimated seed round from Base Partners and Beenos (TSE:3328). Base Partners is a VC firm managed by Minoru Togawa (founder and former CEO of CA Mobile) and Takehiro Yamaguchi (former strategic investment department manager).
Airporter offers a low-cost luggage delivery service for visitors to Tokyo between their accommodation and Narita/Haneda airports so that they can enjoy hands-free travel in the city after or before their accommodation check-in.
We have seen several airports like Hong Kong or Incheon/Gimpo airports in Seoul, offering complimentary city check-in services so that visitors can drop their baggage before going to the airport, which gains good reputation among international travelers. Using the Airporter service, visitors to Japan can also enjoy a similar user experience in Japan (however, they will need to check-in for flight at the airport).
Airporter recently won the special award at an innovation encouragement initiative run by the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Ecbo Cloak, an on-demand luggage storage service run by another Japanese startup, also started luggage delivery service from selected railway terminals to traveler’s accommodations on a testing basis, and further service expansion into delivery to/from airports are also expected in the future.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Ascent Robotics, the Japanese startup developing AI (Artificial Intelligence) training software for autonomous driving, announced on Monday that it has raised about 1.1 billion yen (about $10.3 million US) in a series A round. This round was led by SBI Investment with participation from multiple angel investors including Bart Joseph Broadman. Regarding funding from SBI Investment, this is the first investment case from the company’s AI and Blockchain-focused fund. Following this funding, Ascent Robotics will prepare to set up new offices in Japan and the rest of the world to hire prominent researchers as well as engineers globally, aiming to realize PoC (proof-of-concept) on public roads in addition to accelerating R&D activities on their proprietary AI technologies. The firm has been developing autonomous driving software for Level 4 capable-vehicle (fully autonomous driving including steering, acceleration and braking without human input) under the Japanese road environment. The Tokyo company launched a beta version of the Atlas AI learning environment last November. By using both real and pseudo data for learning AI, the learning efficiency is increased to more than 50 times compared to that when using only real data. Utilizing the superiority of Atlas,…
Tokyo-based Ascent Robotics, the Japanese startup developing AI (Artificial Intelligence) training software for autonomous driving, announced on Monday that it has raised about 1.1 billion yen (about $10.3 million US) in a series A round. This round was led by SBI Investment with participation from multiple angel investors including Bart Joseph Broadman. Regarding funding from SBI Investment, this is the first investment case from the company’s AI and Blockchain-focused fund.
Following this funding, Ascent Robotics will prepare to set up new offices in Japan and the rest of the world to hire prominent researchers as well as engineers globally, aiming to realize PoC (proof-of-concept) on public roads in addition to accelerating R&D activities on their proprietary AI technologies. The firm has been developing autonomous driving software for Level 4 capable-vehicle (fully autonomous driving including steering, acceleration and braking without human input) under the Japanese road environment.
Since the Japanese or Asian road environment differ considerably from Western ones that DeepMind, Waymo and Uber are dealing with, Ascent Robotics focuses on Level 4 autonomy applicable for narrow streets with much traffic as is the case for conventional Japanese streets, and the team expects to lead the global market in this field. In particular, the industry’s expectation for the company will be increased because of the recent pedestrian fatality due to Uber’s autonomous driving vehicle.
Ascent Robotics was founded in September of 2016 by Fred Almeida, the Canadian engineer who had successively held high-level positions at Salesforce and Pasona Tequila. According to Nikkei Robotics, the firm has already concluded a business contract with one of the major Japanese automakers. Ken Kutaragi, known as the father of PlayStation, has also joined the firm as an Outside Director.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Appbrew, the Japanese startup behind a community and word-of-mouth marketing app focused on cosmetic and beauty products called Lips, announced on Wednesday that it has secured funding in the amount of 550 million yen (about $5.2M US). Participating investors include Gunosy, Gree, Anri, as well as several angel investors. The share ratios and payment dates are undisclosed. Launched back in January of 2017, Lips is a community app that allows users to search reviews of cosmetics. Users can post reviews with photos of cosmetics or collect information on cosmetics they are interested in. As of February 2017 it had exceeded 550,000 downloads. In January of 2017 the company began recruiting for “Lips Girls” and received 2,500 applications for 50 positions. There are also some popular users who have over 20,000 followers in the Lips app. In a recent interview with The Bridge, AppBrew’s managing director Yuri Matsui explained: We took to heart that Lips Girls are not just people with many followers, but rather people who have a core group of fans. We also focused on whether or not we are communicating effectively with the atmosphere and users. Currently, the users are largely…
Tokyo-based Appbrew, the Japanese startup behind a community and word-of-mouth marketing app focused on cosmetic and beauty products called Lips, announced on Wednesday that it has secured funding in the amount of 550 million yen (about $5.2M US). Participating investors include Gunosy, Gree, Anri, as well as several angel investors. The share ratios and payment dates are undisclosed.
Launched back in January of 2017, Lips is a community app that allows users to search reviews of cosmetics. Users can post reviews with photos of cosmetics or collect information on cosmetics they are interested in. As of February 2017 it had exceeded 550,000 downloads.
In January of 2017 the company began recruiting for “Lips Girls” and received 2,500 applications for 50 positions. There are also some popular users who have over 20,000 followers in the Lips app.
In a recent interview with The Bridge, AppBrew’s managing director Yuri Matsui explained:
We took to heart that Lips Girls are not just people with many followers, but rather people who have a core group of fans.
We also focused on whether or not we are communicating effectively with the atmosphere and users.
Currently, the users are largely comprised of teens, junior high school students and high school students, but the company will attempt to expand its user base in the future. Matsui said, “The cosmetics that junior high and high school students think are good and the cosmetics that women in their thirties think are good are different,” and in the future the company is also considering adding functions such as personalized feeds and cosmetic rankings by users.
From January of 2018, Appbrew has begun offering advertising options for companies as well as sampling services for Lips users. Currently, the company has achieved actual results with more than 10 companies, and it plans to continue to monetize by acquiring more partners. The company currently has no plans to charge users, and instead is heading in the direction to carry out monetization solely through B2B (business-to-business).
Considering business expansion into C2C model
From left: Managing Director Yuri Matsui, CEO Yuta Fukazawa Image credit: Sekiko Suzuki / The Bridge
This round follows their previous funding back in February of 2017. Regarding the latest funding, CEO Fukuzawa remarked, “Make Lips a service that every girl knows, in order to try our hand at new products.” The funds raised this time will be used for recruitment and marketing expenses for service development.
Matsui added:
People who are familiar with the Internet and are fans of influencers have discovered Lips, but we need to make it an app that all girls know.
The purpose of this round of funding is to strengthen our marketing to do just that.
The company will also strengthen its in-house marketing system, as well as the utilization ratio and CPA per user, and set up a more detailed strategy. Additionally, Gunosy who participated as an investor this round will also assist by examining the company’s future efforts. The aim is to build the Lips brand and expand active users.
The current team is made up of 15 members including interns. A team of five engineers has been assembled, so Fukuzawa is now at the phase of developing a new product. This does not mean focusing on new services soon, but, “I’d like to try for a service that gains an even larger share while building prototypes.” The specific content is under consideration, but I am imagining a service development related to goods for C2C. The company also has plans to appoint a CTO in the future for the strengthening of products and new development.
Translated by Amanda Imasaka Edited by Masaru Ikeda
See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Souzoh operating the local community app Mercari Atte, a subsidiary of Japanese unicorn Mercari behind the c2c (consumer-to-consumer) marketplace app under the same name, announced last month that it would enter the bike-sharing business with a new service called Merchari. The firm launched the service on Tuesday within Fukuoka City. Merchari is a jointly-managed bike-sharing service. Users can rent bicycles at Merchari’s bicycle ports shown in the app and return them at ports near each destination. It charges 4 yen (about 4 cents) per minute for riding. Use time is measured from when a user unlocks the smart lock on a bicycle using QR code until when he finishes riding and locks it. The firm launches the service for iOS in advance. Gai Inoue, Product Manager of Souzoh, explained about the service: This service is assumed to be used in a short time of around 15 minutes, so we set the charge plan for promoting frequent use in a short term. The service will be provided based in Hakata, Tenjin and the waterfront area within Fukuoka City. The firm had prepared 50 ports and 400 bicycles at the time of launch and will…
L to R: Ryusuke Matsumoto (Executive Officer, Mercari / CEO, Souzoh), Gai Inoue (Product Manager in charge of Merchari, Souzoh)
Japan’s Souzoh operating the local community app Mercari Atte, a subsidiary of Japanese unicorn Mercari behind the c2c (consumer-to-consumer) marketplace app under the same name, announced last month that it would enter the bike-sharing business with a new service called Merchari. The firm launched the service on Tuesday within Fukuoka City.
Merchari is a jointly-managed bike-sharing service. Users can rent bicycles at Merchari’s bicycle ports shown in the app and return them at ports near each destination. It charges 4 yen (about 4 cents) per minute for riding. Use time is measured from when a user unlocks the smart lock on a bicycle using QR code until when he finishes riding and locks it. The firm launches the service for iOS in advance. Gai Inoue, Product Manager of Souzoh, explained about the service:
This service is assumed to be used in a short time of around 15 minutes, so we set the charge plan for promoting frequent use in a short term.
The service will be provided based in Hakata, Tenjin and the waterfront area within Fukuoka City. The firm had prepared 50 ports and 400 bicycles at the time of launch and will increase them to 200 ports and 2,000 bicycles by this summer. Ryusuke Matsumoto, CEO of Souzoh, explained the reason why they had chosen Fukuoka as a place for service launch.
That is because we already have a customer support base in Fukuoka and this city consists overall of flat terrain suitable for cycling.
Additionally, we regard Fukuoka as a place where we can fill a gap of public transportation through improvement of the convenience of town transport within midtown.
Merchari is unlockable by QR code
The spec of rental bicycle in Merchari is as follows: 20-inch wheel, three-stage gear, without motor power assistance and made in Japan. It also has smart lock unlockable by QR code, provided by Japanese connected lock developer Tsumug. In addition, GPS is mounted on the bicycle so that users can grasp the bicycle location in real time by using the app.
Joint management to handle troubles
One of the features of this service is being managed jointly with local companies or individuals. 13 partner companies participated in the port provision at the time of launch, namely, Apa Hotel, Investors Cloud (TSE:1435), Family Mart, and Shinseido. Souzoh continues to ask the public to provide vacant spaces in individual housing or retailers, as well as the same of local private companies.
By making vacant spaces in front of houses into bicycle ports, new convenient lifestyle can be expected, like leaving house by a rental bicycle and dropping it off anywhere. We also think it allows retailers to increasing opportunity for customer to visit there.
The support service including monitoring and fault / trouble handling system is provided for 365 days. Tying up with Nishi-Nippion Railroard, Souzoh runs support trucks across town in order to move / pick up left bicycles in the wrong place or disabled bicycles.
To users who cooperated in fault handling or trouble prevention, the firm gives Merchari mileage to apply a concrete joint management system. A user is given mileage by putting a left bicycle back to ports or reporting a disabled bicycle via the app.
Ito said:
We have to adjust the imbalance among ports having excess / insufficient bicycles by relocation or to take measures to left bicycles. Since there is a limit to handle these problems by one company, we plan to ask supports by individuals and companies.
To do this, we develop various systems to give users a sense of satisfaction such as, motivate stimulation by incentive, mileage giving, game-like factor to find left bicycles, or visualization of outcomes.
Merchari Image credit: Souzoh
Service collaboration in the future
Merchari mileage cannot be used as point in the flea market app Mercari as of now, but the firm will explore the possibility of the service collaboration in the future. The firm currently plans a bonus system not allowing users to use mileage as bonus points but giving them additional services or novelties according to a certain amount of mileage.
Ito added:
You see Merchari in the town at a glance and can ride it quickly. We image such a concept.
The firm is considering further service development to new areas, although when and where have not been decided.
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
