There are a lot of online dating apps and services out there. Here in Japan, many domestic services are limited to Japanese users due to the language barrier. But one iPhone app is looking beyond Japan. GooLook is a social networking app that lets its users see if people in other countries find you attractive. Choose a country where you want your face to be rated The app is available in eight different languages, spanning 168 countries. Users are required to login using Facebook or Twitter credentials, or by creating an account within the app. After than you can choose a country where you want your face to be rated. Your photo will be sent out to 50 people in that country, and your popularity measured by the number of responses (or ‘smiles’) you receive. One fun feature of this app is that it displays the results in a graph, showing at glance which country finds you most attractive. In the near future GooLook plans to add a ranking feature, showing off the most popular faces in the whole world. The app already lets users see your popularity work ranking with its ‘Smile Rank’. GooLook was initially released in beta…
There are a lot of online dating apps and services out there. Here in Japan, many domestic services are limited to Japanese users due to the language barrier. But one iPhone app is looking beyond Japan. GooLook is a social networking app that lets its users see if people in other countries find you attractive.
Choose a country where you want your face to be rated
The app is available in eight different languages, spanning 168 countries. Users are required to login using Facebook or Twitter credentials, or by creating an account within the app.
After than you can choose a country where you want your face to be rated. Your photo will be sent out to 50 people in that country, and your popularity measured by the number of responses (or ‘smiles’) you receive.
One fun feature of this app is that it displays the results in a graph, showing at glance which country finds you most attractive. In the near future GooLook plans to add a ranking feature, showing off the most popular faces in the whole world. The app already lets users see your popularity work ranking with its ‘Smile Rank’.
GooLook was initially released in beta back in June of 2012 and was downloaded over 22,000 times within its first two weeks. Initially 95% of the downloads came from Japan, but soon after folks in the United States and Korea caught on, as well as other countries in Europe. The app ended up attracting users from over 100 countries, and a year later, the app emerged from the beta stage to make its official debut.
GooLook can be downloaded for free over on the App Store.
Startup Sauna is a startup accelerator from Helsinki Finland, now touring 25 cities around the world, with an upcoming stop here in Tokyo on September 17th at Open Network Lab. The event will feature a panel including Taizo Son, the CEO of Movida Japan and founder/chairman of GungHo ; Peter Vesterbacka, the chief marketing officer of Rovio ; Hironao Kunimitsu, the founder and CEO of Gumi, and Naoki Aoyagi, the CEO of GREE International. But many of our readers will be pleased to hear that there will be a pitch event as well, with the winner receiving an invitations as well as free airfare (courtesy of the event sponsor Finnair) to attend Slush 2013 in November in Helsinki. That two-day event is expected to host 1,000 startups 5,000 attendees, and more than 600 international investors. So it certainly looks like a great opportunity. Miki Kuusi, the director of Startup Sauna, noted in the event announcement: Our two countries [Japan and Finland] have always had a lot in common. We share strong educational institutions that produce leading technical talent, a culture that has yet to warm to neither entrepreneurship nor failure, plus economies that must lessen their dependency on established electronics…
Startup Sauna is a startup accelerator from Helsinki Finland, now touring 25 cities around the world, with an upcoming stop here in Tokyo on September 17th at Open Network Lab.
The event will feature a panel including Taizo Son, the CEO of Movida Japan and founder/chairman of GungHo ; Peter Vesterbacka, the chief marketing officer of Rovio ; Hironao Kunimitsu, the founder and CEO of Gumi, and Naoki Aoyagi, the CEO of GREE International. But many of our readers will be pleased to hear that there will be a pitch event as well, with the winner receiving an invitations as well as free airfare (courtesy of the event sponsor Finnair) to attend Slush 2013 in November in Helsinki. That two-day event is expected to host 1,000 startups 5,000 attendees, and more than 600 international investors. So it certainly looks like a great opportunity.
Miki Kuusi, the director of Startup Sauna, noted in the event announcement:
Our two countries [Japan and Finland] have always had a lot in common. We share strong educational institutions that produce leading technical talent, a culture that has yet to warm to neither entrepreneurship nor failure, plus economies that must lessen their dependency on established electronics industries and seize huge opportunities in fast-moving companies.
If you’d like to apply to pitch at the event, you can do so here. The last day to apply is September 13th. Good luck!
Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister of Finland Jyrki Katainen visited Startup Sauna’s entrepreneurial co-working space
Japan has always valued attention to detail, and that spirit has delivered many wonderfully designed products to the world. Here are just a few modern designs from Japan that we’ve stumbled upon recently. These kind of creations really show that Japan’s still got it when it comes to inspired product design. Ori-Crane This is a single earring made in the shape of an origami crane. These cranes have many meanings, such as a wish for a speedy recovery in times of poor health, or simply a wish safety in general. Ori-Crane was designed by Kana Muraki can be purchased for 2,625 yen here. Banboo Bamboo is an important symbol in Japanese ‘Wa’ culture, and is common in many locations around the country including the bamboo forest in Kyoto. This glass brings that breathtaking bamboo right into the palm of your hands. These drinking glasses come in both clear and green, though I think the green makes for a more authentic bamboo look. The set of three is available for 6,300 yen. TOUCH DOG Retriever Here’s a cute tablet pen that takes the shape of a retriever or dachshund. The tiny dog comes in three colors: yellow, pink, and white. The…
Japan has always valued attention to detail, and that spirit has delivered many wonderfully designed products to the world. Here are just a few modern designs from Japan that we’ve stumbled upon recently. These kind of creations really show that Japan’s still got it when it comes to inspired product design.
Ori-Crane
This is a single earring made in the shape of an origami crane. These cranes have many meanings, such as a wish for a speedy recovery in times of poor health, or simply a wish safety in general. Ori-Crane was designed by Kana Muraki can be purchased for 2,625 yen here.
Banboo
Bamboo is an important symbol in Japanese ‘Wa’ culture, and is common in many locations around the country including the bamboo forest in Kyoto. This glass brings that breathtaking bamboo right into the palm of your hands. These drinking glasses come in both clear and green, though I think the green makes for a more authentic bamboo look. The set of three is available for 6,300 yen.
TOUCH DOG Retriever
Here’s a cute tablet pen that takes the shape of a retriever or dachshund. The tiny dog comes in three colors: yellow, pink, and white. The dog’s neck bracelet can be inserted into the an iPhone or iPad earphone jack, letting you bring your dog for a walk wherever you are. The product can be purchased for 1,260 yen over on the Tent Stores.jp shop.
Ashiato Foot-Print Sandals
Kids will love this one. These geta (tradional Japanese footwear normally worn with kimono) makes unusual footprints on sand, imitating the footprints of dogs, cats, or even dinosaurs. They are available over on AplusRstore for about $32.
Photo via. AplusRstore
Tabisuru Sekken
This next item looks like yummy caramels, but it is actually mini-soap that you can bring when you travel. These lavender scented soap cubes will make for a cute gift too. Tabisuru Sekken (meaning ‘traveling soap’) can be purchased for 1,050 yen plus shipping over on Rakuten.
Book on Book
Don’t you hate it when a book doesn’t stay open, and you have to keep folding it backwards? This problem can be solved by this neat ‘Book on Book’ transparent paperweight that keeps your page open at all times. Designed by Tent, this item can be purchased over on Stores.jp for 5,880 yen. Overseas users can buy the product here.
Keora Keora Smartphone Case
This fluffy smartphone cover, makes it look like you’re carrying a cute stuffed animal. The case comes in both dog and cat forms, satisfying both dog and cat people! it’s available for 3,000 yen over on Maindish.
Hiracle
When soy sauce is poured into this soy sauce dish, a beautiful sakura flower appears. The size of the flower depends on the amount you pour in, but whether it’s a little or a lot it looks great. This famous porcelain craftsmanship is called Kutaniyaki, and it has a 350-year history. Hiracle is available on Rakuten shop for 1,500 yen each.
Cable Reel
This earphone cable reel takes form of traditional Japanese sweets ‘Taiyaki’ and ‘Dorayaki’. They both have sweetened mashed red beans inside and are popular with Japanese people young and old. Cable Reel is available for 420 yen over on Rakuten shop.
Saki-Nerune Light
This clever light actually consists of two lights, one on the right and one on the left. Your partner can be sound asleep in darkness, while you’re still finishing up reading your mystery novel. Saki-Nerune roughly means ‘I’m going to bed first’, an appropriate moniker for such a product. You can check more photos over on the company’s Tent’s website.
Today a really neat service for busy mothers was released here in Japan. My Chef is a website that brings professional chefs to people’s home for a reasonable price. Whether you’re throwing a home party or just craving a delicious meal for dinner, the chefs come right to your door to cook at your house. The site limits its users to females only, and requires login via Facebook authentication. On the website users can enter the train station nearest to their location, as well as the date when they would like to use the service. After that it will provide a list of available chefs. After a chef is chosen the site sends out a short questionnaire, and based on the answers the chef will create a menu that suits the user’s preferences. The chef takes care of everything including buying the necessary ingredients, cooking, and even cleaning up afterwards. All of this can be enjoyed for a very affordable price, starting at 3,000 yen (or about $30), which is the minimum order for four people. My Chef is available in bigger cities in the Kanto area like Tokyo, Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Saitama. At the time of release, the number…
Today a really neat service for busy mothers was released here in Japan. My Chef is a website that brings professional chefs to people’s home for a reasonable price. Whether you’re throwing a home party or just craving a delicious meal for dinner, the chefs come right to your door to cook at your house.
The site limits its users to females only, and requires login via Facebook authentication. On the website users can enter the train station nearest to their location, as well as the date when they would like to use the service. After that it will provide a list of available chefs. After a chef is chosen the site sends out a short questionnaire, and based on the answers the chef will create a menu that suits the user’s preferences. The chef takes care of everything including buying the necessary ingredients, cooking, and even cleaning up afterwards. All of this can be enjoyed for a very affordable price, starting at 3,000 yen (or about $30), which is the minimum order for four people.
My Chef is available in bigger cities in the Kanto area like Tokyo, Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Saitama. At the time of release, the number of chefs registered on the site is still limited to roughly 30, but we can expect this number to grow as the service expands. There are a variety of professional chefs on the site, including some restaurant chefs and cooking class Instructors.
Women’s lives change enormously after they have kids, with fewer opportunities to go out and enjoy meals. My Chef was started as a solution for such women to enable them to experience great food in the comfort of their own home. My Chef hopes to make this new dining experience a viable and affordable option for a wide user base in less than three years.
The number and variety of websites on the net are practically endless. Looking at the top trafficked sites for Japan, we see internet giants like Yahoo, Google, Youtube, Amazon, and Rakuten. But the beauty of the internet is that there is always room for more, and so even niche websites can find a strong following. I recently came across a fun list of such websites, a collection of Japanese photo sites dedicated to different kinds of girls. Here are some of the more notable websites we found in the list, in no particular order. 1. TwinTail The name of this website says it all. Its concept is to make Japanese women more beautiful, more ‘energetic’, and more fun by the power of twintails, or pig-tails. Twintails was a bit of a trend for fashionable young girls, particularly those that hang out in the famous Harajuku district. Japanese anime likely heavily impacts this trend, as famous characters like Sailor Moon and Hatsune-Miku have their hair up in twintails. Of course, if pig-tails aren’t your thing, there is a site for ponytails too. 2. Megane Joshi ‘Megane Joshi’ means ‘girls with glasses’ in Japanese. This website exists as an inbound-marketing tool for…
The number and variety of websites on the net are practically endless. Looking at the top trafficked sites for Japan, we see internet giants like Yahoo, Google, Youtube, Amazon, and Rakuten. But the beauty of the internet is that there is always room for more, and so even niche websites can find a strong following.
I recently came across a fun list of such websites, a collection of Japanese photo sites dedicated to different kinds of girls. Here are some of the more notable websites we found in the list, in no particular order.
1. TwinTail
The name of this website says it all. Its concept is to make Japanese women more beautiful, more ‘energetic’, and more fun by the power of twintails, or pig-tails. Twintails was a bit of a trend for fashionable young girls, particularly those that hang out in the famous Harajuku district. Japanese anime likely heavily impacts this trend, as famous characters like Sailor Moon and Hatsune-Miku have their hair up in twintails. Of course, if pig-tails aren’t your thing, there is a site for ponytails too.
2. Megane Joshi
‘Megane Joshi’ means ‘girls with glasses’ in Japanese. This website exists as an inbound-marketing tool for glasses manufacturer Alook. Of course, all of the glasses that the models are wearing can be purchased at the store, and there is event-related content that lets you to find glasses to match your fashion. For every Megane Joshi, there is a video, here’s one example:
3. Icecco
Icecco is a website that showcases photos of girls eating popsicles. The site is pretty simple, consisting of photos of the girls and their personal profiles. In the profile section the girls share their top three favorite kinds of ice cream. The photos are taken by various photographers. The picture below is Chihiro Fujiwara, and her favorite ice creams are Giant Cone, Yukimi Daifuku, and Ice-no-mi.
4. Hitomebore
Hitomebore is filled with photos of girls with an eye-patch. Fundamentally, the word ‘hitomebore’ means love at first sight in Japanese. But ‘Hitomi’ also means eyes, and ‘hito’ can mean one, making the website title a playful label for girls wearing eye-patch. Seiichi Sakakibara is the photographer behind these pictures, who believes that the covered eye can stir the imagination.
5. Necogirl
Necogirl’s tagline says, ‘Are you a cat person or a dog person? We’re cat people.’ On Necogirl, you can find photos of girls wearing cat-ear headsets, or girls who have their hair up the similar way. The site claims that this is an actual fashion style and introduces many ways to add Neco (or cat) taste into your fashion.
6. Hanagirl
Girls are beautiful and so are flowers. Hanagirl puts these two beautiful things together and introduces them as a photo gallery. Each girl can be viewed in photos as well as in a video. The girl below is Yui Matsumoto, and you can check out her video here.
7. Ringo-a-me
‘Ringo-a-me’ means “candy apple” in Japanese. The purpose of the website remains mysterious, but the theme is girls and candy apples. The photos are very high in quality and there are a bunch of photos where girls are dressed in yukata, a casual summer kimono commonly worn in summer festivals. And at street stalls for such events, candy apples are a common treat.
The phenomenon of virtual assistants is one of the more fascinating developments of the internet age, in a world made flat by rapid communication developments. Such assistants, often working from some remote location, can be an invaluable asset to busy people. Japan is known for having an abundance of busy people, and one Tokyo startup is hoping that this translates into a direct need for virtual assistants in the country. Kaori-san is web-based virtual assistant that allows you to submit a certain amount of requests per month and get results back quickly. It’s amazingly expensive to try and hire part time staff in Japan, the fees are insane. This initiative is led by Ejovi Nuwere, who with a very small team of three (including himself) is running this new virtual service. It enlists the help of about a dozen bilingual, remote assistants in Tokyo and Osaka, typically former or part-time office ladies. I submitted a couple of Kaori-san requests using the free trial, and I was pretty happy with the results [1]. Given that the cheapest plan is 2,980 yen per month (about $30), one request works out to be about $6 – which I think is a pretty fair…
The phenomenon of virtual assistants is one of the more fascinating developments of the internet age, in a world made flat by rapid communication developments. Such assistants, often working from some remote location, can be an invaluable asset to busy people. Japan is known for having an abundance of busy people, and one Tokyo startup is hoping that this translates into a direct need for virtual assistants in the country. Kaori-san is web-based virtual assistant that allows you to submit a certain amount of requests per month and get results back quickly.
It’s amazingly expensive to try and hire part time staff in Japan, the fees are insane.
This initiative is led by Ejovi Nuwere, who with a very small team of three (including himself) is running this new virtual service. It enlists the help of about a dozen bilingual, remote assistants in Tokyo and Osaka, typically former or part-time office ladies.
I submitted a couple of Kaori-san requests using the free trial, and I was pretty happy with the results [1]. Given that the cheapest plan is 2,980 yen per month (about $30), one request works out to be about $6 – which I think is a pretty fair price for the work that was done. Other examples of Kaori-san requests include things like finding and booking a car to take you to the airport, or tracking down a photo studio under a given budget [2].
So who uses Kaori-san? While Ejovi couldn’t disclose any user numbers, he did say that it’s still under 500. But they do see a big opportunity in serving both small businesses and busy executives:
The small business market in Japan is one of the largest in the world. There is big market opportunity within the sub five-person startup. It’s a market totally ignored by large recruiting firms, but it’s our focus. And we really understand that market because we are that market! It’s amazingly expensive to try and hire part time staff in Japan, the fees are insane. Its almost like recruiting firms don’t want to work with startups.
When I tried the service, the interface looked very much like a tech support system, where you log a support ticket and it remains open until you get an answer. And just as with those systems, you can then provide feedback, or close the ticket if you are satisfied.
It’s all very, very simple.
User dashboard is simple and mobile friendly
So I was curious to read the claim on the Kaori-san website that “Using technology
we can provide a personalized experience for a reasonable price.”
But where is this technology? I mean, couldn’t this sort of simple ticketing be conducted with even a web form, a spreadsheet, and a group of competent Googlers? I asked Ejovi about this, and he elaborated about what happens behind the scenes:
From a technology standpoint as we have more customers we gradually build a database of common internal request, vendors related to specific request types, vendor reviews and communication tools that make our responses faster and more accurate with time. We also keep logs on customer preferences, so even with 100 assistants the experience for the customer will always feel personal. And the more the customer uses the service, the more personal it feels.
He also points out that Kaori-san features integration with services like Evernote and Gengo, and there is also a payments system that lets them pay third-party vendors on behalf of users. And there are even more integrations to come down the road.
If we can’t build something people are willing to pay for on day one, it’s not interesting to me
Currently Ejovi keeps office space at Venture Generation, noting he sold a small amount of equity to J-Seed and David Dacus as angels, since he valued their advice and wanted them involved. But he notes that he believes strongly in organic growth, saying “If we can’t build something people are willing to pay for on day one, it’s not interesting to me”. In the first three to six months, he adds, the only thing that is important is getting – and keeping – customers.
I’m told that in the future, they plan to increase the services they offer for startups and busy executives, with some new features on the way in the next three months. While he couldn’t elaborate too much on this, Ejovi noted that “assistants are only the beginning.”
As it exists right now, Kaori-san is an interesting offering. It may not be entirely obvious to some potential users how they might take advantage of the service, but if you are a busy person being slowed down by some tedious tasks, I encourage you to give it a try and see if it’s a good fit for you.
Using Kaori-san’s free trial, I made one request for a list of Japanese edu-tech companies and their URLs. This is actually something we’ve been looking into ourselves. The results were pretty quick, and turned up a few companies that we were not aware of. ↩
Currently Kaori-san is available with three monthly pricing plans: 2,980 yen for 5 requests, 8,980 yen for 15 requests, and 14,980 yen for 25 requests. ↩
Last week game developers Kabam and Gumi launched their Puzzle Trooper game for a number of markets worldwide, on iOS and Android. The game is clearly very much influenced by the wildly successful Puzzle & Dragons, but it takes advantages of one key area where P&D could have done better: localization. For Western users who play Puzzle & Dragons, including myself, it may take a while to grasp many of the game’s core concepts. I think that in the English version of the game, some things (like combo multipliers, orb manipulation, and knowing which elements are most effective against other elements) are not adequately explained to beginners. Check out my video below for a more visual comparison. This is the best game ever from the Southeast Asia region Developed by Gumi’s Singapore team, I think that Puzzle Trooper is very deliberately trying to do what Puzzle & Dragons overlooked in its localization, presenting that proven puzzle-RPG game model to global audiences in a manner which they can understand [1]. There are countless similarities with P&D, but the characters are completely different (and very much not in a Japanese style), presented as army troops that can be collected, enhanced, and evolved….
Last week game developers Kabam and Gumi launched their Puzzle Trooper game for a number of markets worldwide, on iOS and Android. The game is clearly very much influenced by the wildly successful Puzzle & Dragons, but it takes advantages of one key area where P&D could have done better: localization.
For Western users who play Puzzle & Dragons, including myself, it may take a while to grasp many of the game’s core concepts. I think that in the English version of the game, some things (like combo multipliers, orb manipulation, and knowing which elements are most effective against other elements) are not adequately explained to beginners. Check out my video below for a more visual comparison.
This is the best game ever from the Southeast Asia region
Developed by Gumi’s Singapore team, I think that Puzzle Trooper is very deliberately trying to do what Puzzle & Dragons overlooked in its localization, presenting that proven puzzle-RPG game model to global audiences in a manner which they can understand [1].
There are countless similarities with P&D, but the characters are completely different (and very much not in a Japanese style), presented as army troops that can be collected, enhanced, and evolved. I’ve been playing the game for a few days, and so far I really like it a lot. There is an interesting player-vs-player option where you can game with friends over Bluetooth, which looks fun. And the in-game text is pretty humorous, as are the fun character names.
So far the game has been made available to markets outside Japan, and it is currently number one in the role-playing category in Thailand, Malaysia, Spain, Russia, Brunei, and the Dominican Republic. I look forward to seeing how far this game can go now that Kabam is on board with Gumi. The company’s CEO Hironao Kunimitsu is pretty enthusiastic about the title, telling me that his Singapore team did a great job, adding “This is the best game ever from the Southeast Asia region.”
If you’d like to give it a try, you can get it for free over on the App Store.
It should be noted that Puzzle Trooper has not launched in the Japanese market. So if anyone is wondering why GungHo is (apparently) not upset about a game that borrows so heavily from its hit game Puzzle & Dragons, perhaps that’s one of the main reasons. In any case, as much as I like Puzzle & Dragons, I think it’s good that Gumi can build a game like this one. ↩
Megaman was one of my favorite games growing up. The iconic side scroller from Capcom is one of the greatest games ever made. The game’s creator, Keiji Inafune, broke away from Capcom back in 2010 to start over with his own studio called Comcept. And now that team is using Kickstarter to get a new game off the ground. It’s called Mighty No. 9, and if you liked Megaman, you’ll probably be excited about this. Check out Keiji’s introduction to the game in the video above. The Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter project just launched on Saturday, and is already near its fundraising goal [1]. And while the initial target of $900,000 will go towards getting the game made for Steam on PC, other ‘stretch goals’ (as you can see below) include funding Mac and Linux versions, as well as versions for PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U. Readers will no doubt notice that there is no mention of a version for mobile phones, but I hope that this falls within one of the two ‘? ? ?’ stretch goals (again, see below). The estimated release date is spring of 2015, so this is not going to be a very rapid…
Megaman was one of my favorite games growing up. The iconic side scroller from Capcom is one of the greatest games ever made. The game’s creator, Keiji Inafune, broke away from Capcom back in 2010 to start over with his own studio called Comcept. And now that team is using Kickstarter to get a new game off the ground. It’s called Mighty No. 9, and if you liked Megaman, you’ll probably be excited about this. Check out Keiji’s introduction to the game in the video above.
The Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter project just launched on Saturday, and is already near its fundraising goal [1]. And while the initial target of $900,000 will go towards getting the game made for Steam on PC, other ‘stretch goals’ (as you can see below) include funding Mac and Linux versions, as well as versions for PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U. Readers will no doubt notice that there is no mention of a version for mobile phones, but I hope that this falls within one of the two ‘? ? ?’ stretch goals (again, see below).
The estimated release date is spring of 2015, so this is not going to be a very rapid development process. But obviously gaming fans in the US are enthused about the concept. And supporters of the initiative can look forward to some really fun rewards too, including beta access (for a $99 contribution), your voice or face in the game ($1000 and $2500 respectively), or even dinner with Keiji Inafune.
It’s interesting to see yet another Japan-based initiative turn to Kickstarter to get off the ground [2]. We wish them luck!
As I write this, the project is nearing $700,000. ↩
They’ve enlisted the assistance of 8–4 for localization, PR, and translation, and it looks like their efforts with the Kickstarter page has worked out very well! ↩
SeedStars World is an initiative touring 20 cities worldwide to discover high profile startups. Here in Japan, a local preliminary competition event took place on Friday at Samurai Startup Island, an incubation office located on Tokyo’s bayfront. More than a dozen of startups from Japan and the rest of the world gave pitches in an effort to qualify for the final global competition next February in Lausanne, Switzerland. Here is a quick rundown of the three teams selected from the bunch. 1st place: Locarise Locarise is an analytics solution for retail stores. By placing small sensors inside and around your store, the system can collect metrics such as how many people passed in front of the store and how many customers you have served. The system’s web-based dashboard shows you these metrics, as well as other things like visit duration, and retention rate. For a business owner monitoring many store locations, you can easily stay up to date on real-time target rates for KPIs at many stores in a single interface. 2nd place: Eigooo Eigooo is a service that lets users learn English by chatting with a native speaker using mobile message apps such as Line. The service was launched…
SeedStars World is an initiative touring 20 cities worldwide to discover high profile startups. Here in Japan, a local preliminary competition event took place on Friday at Samurai Startup Island, an incubation office located on Tokyo’s bayfront.
More than a dozen of startups from Japan and the rest of the world gave pitches in an effort to qualify for the final global competition next February in Lausanne, Switzerland. Here is a quick rundown of the three teams selected from the bunch.
1st place: Locarise
Locarise is an analytics solution for retail stores. By placing small sensors inside and around your store, the system can collect metrics such as how many people passed in front of the store and how many customers you have served. The system’s web-based dashboard shows you these metrics, as well as other things like visit duration, and retention rate. For a business owner monitoring many store locations, you can easily stay up to date on real-time target rates for KPIs at many stores in a single interface.
2nd place: Eigooo
Eigooo is a service that lets users learn English by chatting with a native speaker using mobile message apps such as Line. The service was launched by Peter Rothenberg, who previously worked in Japan’s public schools as an English conversation teacher. Through his own experience of exchanging messages on mobile during his commutes, he was convinced that messaging using mobile apps is a good way to master foreign languages.
3rd place: Infogra.me
Infogra.me is a sort of slideshare for infographics. You can upload your infographic and share it with many users for free, or even ask the company to create an infographic from your own data. The service is available in six languages, both on the web or with its iOS app.
Their offering is comparable to Piktochart from Malaysia.
In my view, this world championship tour is well-organized, supported by global entrepreneur network SandBox. However, it’s probably too early to see how much impact the event make can have on the global startup community, since it’s still just the first batch.
On the event website, you can browse the many startups that have been selected in other participating cities. After Tokyo, the next local event will take place next Friday in Sydney, Australia.
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Rick Martin
Masaru Ikeda
