Hitting number one in Japan and China this week was a game called Dokuro, a fun puzzle scroller from mobile game giant GungHo Online Entertainment. Already a popular title on PlayStation Vita, the game just hit the top overall spot on the Android here in Japan after being released last week. On iOS, it was also the country’s top app for a few days this week [1]. Interestingly, it also became China’s iOS top app/game on December 7th, a position it still holds now as I write this. For those not familiar with the title, it stylistically has the same sort of whitewashed macabre cartoon art as The Nightmare before Christmas, with a similar skull-headed hero. The story has our rescuing the princess from the Dark Lord’s castle, after he kidnapped and locked her in a dungeon. This boney, but sympathetic, henchman guard decides to escort the princess through elaborate stages, employing a number of tools and strategies to bring her safely past treacherous obstacles and traps. The princess is far from the model of an independent woman, walking mindlessly forward like a lemming, depending on you to clear the path. The hero can move boxes, pull levers and push…
Hitting number one in Japan and China this week was a game called Dokuro, a fun puzzle scroller from mobile game giant GungHo Online Entertainment. Already a popular title on PlayStation Vita, the game just hit the top overall spot on the Android here in Japan after being released last week. On iOS, it was also the country’s top app for a few days this week [1].
Interestingly, it also became China’s iOS top app/game on December 7th, a position it still holds now as I write this.
For those not familiar with the title, it stylistically has the same sort of whitewashed macabre cartoon art as The Nightmare before Christmas, with a similar skull-headed hero. The story has our rescuing the princess from the Dark Lord’s castle, after he kidnapped and locked her in a dungeon.
This boney, but sympathetic, henchman guard decides to escort the princess through elaborate stages, employing a number of tools and strategies to bring her safely past treacherous obstacles and traps. The princess is far from the model of an independent woman, walking mindlessly forward like a lemming, depending on you to clear the path. The hero can move boxes, pull levers and push buttons to toggle gates, and even drink a potion to temporarily transform into a swashbuckling prince.
I’ve been playing the game for a few days now, and it seems to stay fresh as you go along with lots of new tactics and tools as the game progresses. The stages are short enough that you can pick up the game and try a new stage at any time during your day, sort of the same kind of mini challenge as Angry Birds in a way. So it will be interesting to see if Japan’s legion of on-train smartphone gamers latch on to this one or not.
Dokuro has some merchandising potential as well, with many of the early reviews here in Japan commenting on how cute the characters are. The game isn’t dependent in language in any way, so it’s a pretty accessible title that anyone can enjoy.
If you’d like to try out Dokuro, you can pick it up for 100 yen over on the App Store or for 105 yen on Google Play.
Until at Dragon Quest VIII knocked it out of the top spot today. ↩
Occasionally the folks from Palo Alto-based Cooliris swing through Tokyo as part of efforts to promote their photo sharing service in Asia. Our readers may recall that we spoke with them back in March, when they were making good progress in China with an early partnerships with social service Renren. So I was curious to see how Cooliris has progressed since then, both in China and Japan, and in surrounding Asian regions. CEO Soujanya Bhumkar tells me that China has seen particularly solid growth, with a 30% increase in downloads in the last quarter making the Middle Kingdom their number two install base after the US. They’ve made significant localization efforts in China, now with Sina Weibo on board as a connected service. Users can browse Weibo photos using the slick Cooliris interface, diving deep to explore pictures from various users, as well as those from people they follow or are followed by. Tencent Weibo and Baidu Yun are now also supported Cooliris services, having been added over the past year. Interestingly, India has been a new growth market for them thanks to increased smartphone adoption there, now suddenly a top ten country for Cooliris. Japan, which previously was Cooliris’s…
Occasionally the folks from Palo Alto-based Cooliris swing through Tokyo as part of efforts to promote their photo sharing service in Asia. Our readers may recall that we spoke with them back in March, when they were making good progress in China with an early partnerships with social service Renren. So I was curious to see how Cooliris has progressed since then, both in China and Japan, and in surrounding Asian regions.
CEO Soujanya Bhumkar tells me that China has seen particularly solid growth, with a 30% increase in downloads in the last quarter making the Middle Kingdom their number two install base after the US. They’ve made significant localization efforts in China, now with Sina Weibo on board as a connected service. Users can browse Weibo photos using the slick Cooliris interface, diving deep to explore pictures from various users, as well as those from people they follow or are followed by. Tencent Weibo and Baidu Yun are now also supported Cooliris services, having been added over the past year.
Japanese interface
Interestingly, India has been a new growth market for them thanks to increased smartphone adoption there, now suddenly a top ten country for Cooliris.
Japan, which previously was Cooliris’s second biggest market, still remains one of their top five markets. But with the latest update of the Cooliris iOS app, Japanese localization has been added. I understand that the company isn’t going to be making significant marketing efforts, but the localization at least makes it more accessible here. They’ll continue to try to serve Japanese users in later versions.
Considering that Cooliris now supports integration with so many social services, the missing puzzle piece for the company here in Japan is obviously Line. The team couldn’t tell me too much on this point, but obviously users here would definitely like to see such an integration. So Line users should keep their fingers crossed, and stay tuned [1].
The Cooliris app has a few other significant changes recently, as Soujanya and his VP of business development Sebastian Blum (he’s the guy in the video above) inform me that the app’s group function is now the number one driver of user acquisition and user retention. Groups could be as small as just two people sharing photos privately, or it could be many more. Groups can be based around certain activities like weddings, vacations, with discussion happening on Cooliris even before that event takes place.
As I was speaking with Soujanya, I happened to have Yammer open on my Mac, as that’s one of the collaborative tools that we use here at The Bridge. He pointed out to me that while there are many corporate collaborative tools like this, there are few collaborate options for consumers. People’s photo experience is typically fragmented across multiple service and multiple friends, and Cooliris gives people a chance to bring them together in one place.
In total they have seen over 3 billion photos brought into the Cooliris app, and over 1 billion photo engagements [2]. And for those who share photos in many different online places, it will continue to be a useful service. Whether it can pick up some more steam in photo-crazy Japan remains to be seen, but this new localization is an encouraging first step.
I confess, I used Cooliris for a while this year, but eventually drifted away from it. My mobile photo use is primarily restricted to Notabli, a family-focused photo app. I use Flickr as storage for pictures taken with my DSLR, but the majority of them are private. But I can see the potential of Cooliris for people more social than myself. ↩
I understand that an engagement is when you tap on a photo and view it in higher resolution. ↩
Youtube recently unveiled its Youtube Rewind 2013, a look back at some of the most viewed videos and YouTubers on the site. In Japan, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu nabbed a bunch of top spots (first, third and fourth place) among all music videos. Looking at the top ten Youtube channels overall in Japan, we can see huge entertainment entities like the agency Avex and idol supergroup AKB48. But surprisingly the fifth spot is occupied by the only individual performer to make the list, Hikakin TV. He is a 24-year-old human beatbox performer who has been active on YouTube since 2006. His channel now has over 2.3 million subscribers with a whopping 400 million total views. Although he initially began performing just his human beatbox routine and techniques (which you can check out in the video below), Hikakin now broadcasts a variety of short performances on four different channels. One YouTube channel is dedicated a live report of himself playing games called HikakinGames. Considering that the majority of his fans are young digital natives who also play games, this sort of content makes sense. His online popularity eventually led to appearances on TV and other media. His published book, entitled My Job…
Youtube recently unveiled its Youtube Rewind 2013, a look back at some of the most viewed videos and YouTubers on the site. In Japan, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu nabbed a bunch of top spots (first, third and fourth place) among all music videos.
Looking at the top ten Youtube channels overall in Japan, we can see huge entertainment entities like the agency Avex and idol supergroup AKB48. But surprisingly the fifth spot is occupied by the only individual performer to make the list, Hikakin TV. He is a 24-year-old human beatbox performer who has been active on YouTube since 2006.
His channel now has over 2.3 million subscribers with a whopping 400 million total views. Although he initially began performing just his human beatbox routine and techniques (which you can check out in the video below), Hikakin now broadcasts a variety of short performances on four different channels.
One YouTube channel is dedicated a live report of himself playing games called HikakinGames. Considering that the majority of his fans are young digital natives who also play games, this sort of content makes sense.
His online popularity eventually led to appearances on TV and other media. His published book, entitled My Job is Youtube, came out back in July. Hikakin has also released an Android app,HikakinBeat, which lets anyone become a creative and platful DJ.
His is the story of a salaryman turned into an online star. Hikakin is definitely a digital pioneer, whose online popularity gave him the chance to expand to traditional media.
Here he is making Super Mario beatbox sounds in the video below.
Innovation Weekend is a monthly showcase and meet-up event organized by Tokyo-based startup incubator Sunbridge Global Ventures. Every December there is a big one, where the monthly winners from the year compete in a pitch session. This year, Osaka-based startup Quadcept won the finale with its printed circuit board design solutions. Quadcept – Top prize winner Typical factories in the electronics manufacturing industry have to purchase a tool for designing printed circuit boards, usually provided in the form of packaged software, with costs of up to $80,000 for the initial fee and as much as $10,000 for annual fees per user license. But many factories don’t have the budget to distribute that kind of package to all their employees. And collectively, that problem can slow the entire industry. Quadcept looked to the cloud for a solution. Pricing depends on how many licenses you need in your company, with payment possible on a yearly or monthly basis, requiring no initial fee. Quadcept proposes that you only pay for the licenses you need, when you need them, and not waste money on idle seat licenses. The startup wants to be aggressive in helping device makers by sponsoring events like Maker Faire and…
Innovation Weekend is a monthly showcase and meet-up event organized by Tokyo-based startup incubator Sunbridge Global Ventures. Every December there is a big one, where the monthly winners from the year compete in a pitch session. This year, Osaka-based startup Quadcept won the finale with its printed circuit board design solutions.
Typical factories in the electronics manufacturing industry have to purchase a tool for designing printed circuit boards, usually provided in the form of packaged software, with costs of up to $80,000 for the initial fee and as much as $10,000 for annual fees per user license. But many factories don’t have the budget to distribute that kind of package to all their employees. And collectively, that problem can slow the entire industry.
Quadcept looked to the cloud for a solution. Pricing depends on how many licenses you need in your company, with payment possible on a yearly or monthly basis, requiring no initial fee. Quadcept proposes that you only pay for the licenses you need, when you need them, and not waste money on idle seat licenses. The startup wants to be aggressive in helping device makers by sponsoring events like Maker Faire and Gugen. They expects to start global business expansion next year.
Quadcept
More than a dozen startups from Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand pitched their apps and services to a crowd from in Tokyo. Here is a quick rundown on some of the new faces.
VisasQ is a platform for consulting that takes advantage of relationships in your social graph, letting users get advice from experts. The company’s founder, Eiko Hashiba, is very experienced, including time working as an investment banker. The concept is inspired by Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG for short), a company providing consultation and advice from over 250,000 subject matter experts worldwide. Hashiba aims to provide such ‘spot consulting’ services for as little as 1% of the price of conventional services. Their team includes engineers from notable Japanese groupware solution Rakumo.
When you want to hang out at a karaoke bar in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, you might first turn to Google Search or Google Maps, inputting keywords like ‘karaoke’ and ‘Shibuya’. But that typically yields irrelevant information like a list of shops you don’t really care about.
But Tokyo-based startup Tritrue has developed a ‘spatial search engine’ called Pathee, which provides more relevant information by narrowing results to buildings within a five-minute walk from where you are, and to certain trending topics as well. So for example, when you arrive at a train/subway station near an event venue, you check how to get there by just entering the name of the event, with no need for the address. The startup is based at Samurai Incubate’s startup space, Startup Island.
ClickonCake delivers birthday cakes to any part of Japan, based on orders collected from their website. The company’s founder is Shintaro Naganuma, whose family business is a confectionery based in northern Japan. To make the business more profitable, he rolled out a delivery service specializing in birthday cakes. It currently earns 8 million yen ($80,000) in revenue every month.
Typical cake buyers will purchase a cake for someone on or near their birthday. And with this in mind, Naganuma’s team is planning to establish distribution centers all across the Tokyo metropolitan area. He has also invented a frozen type of cake that can be preserved at these centers. In this way, they can give users the option of same-day delivery cakes with unique designs. That would certainly pose stiff competition to conventional cake shops around town.
Waygooapp is a mobile translation application that uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology. For western visitors who come to Asia, one of biggest obstacles is typically reading Chinese characters, since signs and menus usually aren’t in English. And checking them on mobile is hard too, if you haven’t mastered the input method.
But with this app, all you need is to place your phone’s camera over it and let the app figure it out. You will see then English subtitles overlaid on the image. The app is currently available only for Chinese-to-English translation on iOS, but an Android version and Japanese-to-English version will follow soon.
Waygoapp
Other guests from the overseas
At a panel on Singapore’s startup ecosystem. From the left: Yuji Horiguchi (IMJ Fenox), Kenny Lew (Entreport Asia), Vinnie Lauria (Golden Gate Ventures), and Ikuo Hiraishi (Sunbridge Global Ventures)At a panel on how to launch a global startup. From the left: Yusuke Takahashi (AppSocially) and Tak Harada (Peatix)
We’ve written about Cinemacraft’s Videogram solution a few times before here on The Bridge. It is a player that lies of top of existing web video, giving a visual paneled preview of different portions of that video. The startup received investment from 500 Startups, and this year began working with Turner Broadcasting by way of its 12-week Media Camp, and subsequently when it became an investor as well. Founder Sandeep Casi explained to me that although they started out strictly as a technology company, they have now grown to become more of a media company. And not just any media company either. Recently they were one of five TVOT nominees for the best TV and video user interface / user experience, right alongside the likes of Netflix, Dish Network, and Showtime Network. They’re building for the future too, announcing Leap Motion integration today. Much of their recent progress, says Sandeep, has come about thanks to the alliance with Turner. “Turner has been fantastic,” he explains. He says that the connection with Turner really helped them get official embed status for Twitter, their player now white-listed for viewing. What that means is that now Videogram clips can be shared in the…
Videogram is now Leap Motion enabled
We’ve written about Cinemacraft’s Videogram solution a few times before here on The Bridge. It is a player that lies of top of existing web video, giving a visual paneled preview of different portions of that video. The startup received investment from 500 Startups, and this year began working with Turner Broadcasting by way of its 12-week Media Camp, and subsequently when it became an investor as well. Founder Sandeep Casi explained to me that although they started out strictly as a technology company, they have now grown to become more of a media company.
And not just any media company either. Recently they were one of five TVOT nominees for the best TV and video user interface / user experience, right alongside the likes of Netflix, Dish Network, and Showtime Network. They’re building for the future too, announcing Leap Motion integration today. Much of their recent progress, says Sandeep, has come about thanks to the alliance with Turner.
“Turner has been fantastic,” he explains. He says that the connection with Turner really helped them get official embed status for Twitter, their player now white-listed for viewing. What that means is that now Videogram clips can be shared in the Twitterstream, and function as they normally would.
Having made solid progress with presentation of video on the web, Sandeep is looking ahead to what he says was his vision all along: Television. He’d like to make electronic program guides more interactive, and Videogram can be a pathway to doing that. By integrating their service into smart TVs, not only do you bring the paneled functionality of Videogram, but you also bring the capability to socially share portions of television shows in a more granular manner via the sharing function on those panels. You can check out some Videogram Smart TV interfaces here if you’d like to learn more.
As for the business side of things, Videogram panels also enable banner ad placement within videos for advertisers. Sandeep showed me an example using an NBA clip (see below), where panels visually previewed highlights of a Knicks game, with one panel showing a banner ad for a basketball shoe. That banner, when clicked, gave an option to buy via the Nike website [1]. Obviously this sort of hyper-relevant product placement holds a lot of potential in the video advertising space, especially for TV. Sandeep explains:
We’re trying to make the industry think about engagement, not views. For advertisers this is important, because they now know their video is being eyeballed.
When I talked with Sandeep, he showed me a number of Videogram mockups and samples for a wide range of notable entertainment properties. To be honest, it was hard to keep up with which companies were already clients, and which ones were just mockups. But it’s hard not to admire Videogram having the confidence to overhaul a given company’s online video presence on spec, and take it to their offices to sell them on its potential. Sandeep adds:
This is our business development scheme. This is what we do. And I really can’t believe that more startups don’t do it. Clients get it immediately. We give them a link, and they can convince internally with that link.
Videogram’s iOS app has come a long was as well, recently getting an upgrade that lets users capture multiple clips, combining them as a composite video. This is a function we see in many video apps these days, but the technique lends itself especially well to Videogram since different clips could be represented by different panel previews.
Cinemacraft has already deployed Videogram across a number of properties, including CBS, ABC, FOX , Sony, and even in India’s Bollywood. I expect NTT group will also be assisting the company to reel in some big fish here in Japan as well. I’m told that their service has grown in popularity in Korea as well, so I look forward to hearing news from that front too.
There’s also a play button, so buy link appears to be not too intrusive. ↩
See the original article in Japanese Line, Japan’s popular mobile messenger app, has recently launched a new service. It’s called Line Q, and it provides a platform where users can interact each other by asking and answering questions on a range of topics. Users can post questions that they immediately need an answer for, at anytime and from anywhere using their smartphone. Other users can answer by posting text, pictures, videos, location information, and stickers – all in a mobile chat-format screen. There are some choices for those who post questions: they can choose a category related to their question, they can make their question open to all users, or they can restrict questions only to their friends, with both public and private options. Another unique function is the I want to know too! button, enabling users to share others’ questions on their timelines. Using their Line network, the posted questions can be shown to friends or experts with particular knowledge or skill. Private questions, however, cannot be shared using the “I want to know too!” button. Users can get points by answering the questions or being chosen as giving the “best answer”. When user points reach a certain level,…
Line, Japan’s popular mobile messenger app, has recently launched a new service. It’s called Line Q, and it provides a platform where users can interact each other by asking and answering questions on a range of topics. Users can post questions that they immediately need an answer for, at anytime and from anywhere using their smartphone. Other users can answer by posting text, pictures, videos, location information, and stickers – all in a mobile chat-format screen.
There are some choices for those who post questions: they can choose a category related to their question, they can make their question open to all users, or they can restrict questions only to their friends, with both public and private options.
Another unique function is the I want to know too! button, enabling users to share others’ questions on their timelines. Using their Line network, the posted questions can be shown to friends or experts with particular knowledge or skill. Private questions, however, cannot be shared using the “I want to know too!” button.
Users can get points by answering the questions or being chosen as giving the “best answer”. When user points reach a certain level, they can then convert them to cash. Users can even win bonus points depending on the number of times they’ve give the best answer. There is a monthly ranking system for users in each category, and in order to motivate users to answer questions, several schemes are being implemented. For example, top-rated users can be reward with double points for the following month.
In the past, many companies have attempted to build a Q&A service for mobile. But most of them had difficulty acquiring users and encouraging engagement. Line expects to solve the both problems with Line Q.
In the future, we might also see corporate accounts participating in Line Q. If companies can conduct surveys or find enhanced user participation, it could even replace some existing market-research services.
Line Q is currently available both iOS and Google Play. It’s in Japanese only for the time being.
See the original article in Japanese Pixiv, Japan’s popular online social illustration platform, has just announced a new service. It’s called Booth, and it enables anyone – even those new to web design – to create online stores. The concept somewhat similar to Base, often referred as the Japanese Shopify, and Stores.jp. Booth has just opened to registration, with plans to launch officially on December 19th. So what is the difference between Booth and the other store-creating solutions like Base and Stores.jp? Booth’s strength lies in its integration with Pixiv, letting users promote products directly on the site, with searchable tags and notification of new products for Pixiv followers. Online stores will be connected to the existing community of the shop owners, making it easy to attract users. The stores will of course specialize in digital content such as illustrations, pictures, movies, music, and books. It will also be possible to offer the products for free so that shop owners can easily provide samples. Booth is being billed as a “creator friendly service”, which means that creators won’t need to pay any initial costs, monthly fees, or sales fees. Only transaction fees on credit card payments will be charged. So…
Pixiv, Japan’s popular online social illustration platform, has just announced a new service. It’s called Booth, and it enables anyone – even those new to web design – to create online stores. The concept somewhat similar to Base, often referred as the Japanese Shopify, and Stores.jp. Booth has just opened to registration, with plans to launch officially on December 19th.
So what is the difference between Booth and the other store-creating solutions like Base and Stores.jp? Booth’s strength lies in its integration with Pixiv, letting users promote products directly on the site, with searchable tags and notification of new products for Pixiv followers. Online stores will be connected to the existing community of the shop owners, making it easy to attract users.
The stores will of course specialize in digital content such as illustrations, pictures, movies, music, and books. It will also be possible to offer the products for free so that shop owners can easily provide samples.
Booth is being billed as a “creator friendly service”, which means that creators won’t need to pay any initial costs, monthly fees, or sales fees. Only transaction fees on credit card payments will be charged. So creators will be paid nearly the full amount of the product price.
Also if the user stores products in Booth’s warehouse, the company will assist the user in storing, packaging, and shipping. By providing these services, Pixiv hopes to help eliminate these problems to let creators focus on making better products.
I often visit the Pixiv site, as well as Tokyo Otaku Mode, a website curating content about Japanese Otaku/geek culture. Otaku Mode is divided into galleries that presents creators’ works and pictures, and online shops to sell Otaku-focussed products. Unlike Tokyo Otaku Mode, Pixiv previously had only a gallery. As a user of both services, I think Booth will add much value for Pixiv, in the same way that it added value for Otaku Mode, bringing more exciting experiences to users.
See the original article in Japanese If you regularly read The Bridge, it’s not unlikely that you might be a programmer or have at least some peripheral interest in coding. You may have also heard of the Japanese website Dotinstall, where you can find many resources to help you learn to code. This service was launched by the well-known blogger, Gen Taguchi (@taguchi), who runs popular weblogs like 100SHIKI and IDEA*IDEA. Dotinstall offers short three-minute tutorial videos for beginners. The service is very popular, surpassing 100,000 members in October of 2013. Now two years since its initial launch, Dotinstall recently announced it that it will add a premium service as part of its monetization. This premium service allows users to read the text captions of videos and also to read and search through related source code. The differences between this and the regular service is described in the following table. The premium service comes with many benefits, such as the ability to overview contents without watching the entire video, or skip forward to key points. The monthly fee for the new service is 880 yen (about $9), which is lower than many similar services from overseas. We have previously reported…
If you regularly read The Bridge, it’s not unlikely that you might be a programmer or have at least some peripheral interest in coding. You may have also heard of the Japanese website Dotinstall, where you can find many resources to help you learn to code. This service was launched by the well-known blogger, Gen Taguchi (@taguchi), who runs popular weblogs like 100SHIKI and IDEA*IDEA.
Dotinstall offers short three-minute tutorial videos for beginners. The service is very popular, surpassing 100,000 members in October of 2013.
Now two years since its initial launch, Dotinstall recently announced it that it will add a premium service as part of its monetization. This premium service allows users to read the text captions of videos and also to read and search through related source code. The differences between this and the regular service is described in the following table.
The premium service comes with many benefits, such as the ability to overview contents without watching the entire video, or skip forward to key points. The monthly fee for the new service is 880 yen (about $9), which is lower than many similar services from overseas.
We have previously reported (on our Japanese site) about a high school that provides programming classes. In Japan, as with everywhere else, coding can be a great asset to just about anyone.
If Dotinstall succeeds in the monetizing its premium service, it will be possible to add even more educational content. I am sure this will be a welcome service to aspiring programmers in this country.
Madrid’s IE Business School and the Graduate School of Media Design at Keio University (KMD) jointly held their first Venture Day event for entrepreneurs in Tokyo. The former is well known for being one of the top producers of MBA graduates, and for its many entrepreneurship events. KMD is based in Tokyo, encouraging people to solve societal problems and create new businesses using cutting-edge digital media technologies. The event featured a number of talks from both Japanese and European entrepreneurs, as well as a pitch competition where 10 startups competed to win a round-trip ticket to Madrid, presented by Turkish Airlines. I won’t go through all the startups here as we have featured many of them before. But it was good to several new faces with fresh ideas. Let’s have a look. CompiTechnology If you work in the startup industry, how many devices do you bring in your bag to work each day? A tablet, and a smartphone too perhaps — but for programmers, you likely need a laptop too. All that can be heavy, and you probably need a lot of money to buy everything. CompiTechnology aims to develop a smart device that lets you what typically requires many…
Madrid’s IE Business School and the Graduate School of Media Design at Keio University (KMD) jointly held their first Venture Day event for entrepreneurs in Tokyo. The former is well known for being one of the top producers of MBA graduates, and for its many entrepreneurship events. KMD is based in Tokyo, encouraging people to solve societal problems and create new businesses using cutting-edge digital media technologies.
The event featured a number of talks from both Japanese and European entrepreneurs, as well as a pitch competition where 10 startups competed to win a round-trip ticket to Madrid, presented by Turkish Airlines.
I won’t go through all the startups here as we have featured many of them before. But it was good to several new faces with fresh ideas. Let’s have a look.
MoneyTree wins the top award in the pitching session.
If you work in the startup industry, how many devices do you bring in your bag to work each day? A tablet, and a smartphone too perhaps — but for programmers, you likely need a laptop too. All that can be heavy, and you probably need a lot of money to buy everything.
CompiTechnology aims to develop a smart device that lets you what typically requires many smart devices to do. The company hasn’t disclosed too many details about this, but we do know that they are devoting $1 million for the R&D efforts for the production of their next product.
Smart Lab Module (by Molcure)
For many scientific researchers, you will need different devices for difference experimental purposes. This costs a lot. There is a multi-functional device that can be adopted for many experiments, but it can require millions of dollars [1].
A University of Tokyo graduate student had the idea to develop a lighter version of this kind of devices, making the most of smartphone technology, a hardware module, and an SDK. For researchers, one of the key advantages is that it would untether you from your lab, as it gives you the ability to check the status of an experiment using your smartphone regardless of where you are.
Studio4word provides a multilingual narration and translation service. Our readers may recall startups Voip and Creofuga who offer solutions in this space. But Studio4word is different in its easy-to-understand pricing structure. Regardless of what language you choose, their pool of native speakers will receive your job offer for 1,000 yen (about $10) for every 100 words in non-Japanese languages, or for every 100 characters in Japanese.
They also provide translation and proofreading often needed for foreign language narration. I assume the service will target startups who want to create promotional videos for their services for the global market.
Sharebu Kids is a flash-sales e-commerce site focused on kids’ fashion. Their strategy is to partnering with baby fashion brands from overseas that have no presence in Japan, buying their products for Japanese consumers, and presenting them at affordable rates. At the same time, it gives brands the opportunity to get their name out in the Japanese market.
The company is not interested in working with well-known baby brands, since they typically have local distributors or their own flagship stores, and they would usually force retailers to sell at non-discounted prices. By giving brands benefits besides just revenue, Sharebu Kids hopes to provide a unique user experience for consumers.
For example, there’s the Mahoro lab Android developed by the Japanese National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. ↩
When it comes to tablet pens, there are so many options available for consumers. But recently here in Japan, one tablet stylus called Touch Pen Pro has been getting more and more popular. In fact, to accommodate to the growing demand, the company behind the product began distributing to major electronics stores, as opposed to just selling online. The pen’s maker may come as a surprise to you, however. The company, Akaishi, is a shoe maker that was founded way back in 1946. Yes, you heard me right. A shoe maker. Akaishi has long specialized in making practical shoes based on biomechanics, and they are now sold in overseas markets as well. In the 1990s, the company also began developing reasonably priced health and fitness products, but it was constantly searching new businesses that leverage both its technology and its factory facilities. And so back in December of last year, Akaishi launched its new product, the Touch Pen Pro. The fluffy tip of the pen is made of conductive fiber, which differentiates the pen from regular silicon pens. Because of this special fiber, there is less friction when the pen is stroked on screen, only 20% as much as a…
When it comes to tablet pens, there are so many options available for consumers. But recently here in Japan, one tablet stylus called Touch Pen Pro has been getting more and more popular. In fact, to accommodate to the growing demand, the company behind the product began distributing to major electronics stores, as opposed to just selling online.
The pen’s maker may come as a surprise to you, however. The company, Akaishi, is a shoe maker that was founded way back in 1946.
Yes, you heard me right. A shoe maker.
Akaishi has long specialized in making practical shoes based on biomechanics, and they are now sold in overseas markets as well. In the 1990s, the company also began developing reasonably priced health and fitness products, but it was constantly searching new businesses that leverage both its technology and its factory facilities. And so back in December of last year, Akaishi launched its new product, the Touch Pen Pro.
The fluffy tip of the pen is made of conductive fiber, which differentiates the pen from regular silicon pens. Because of this special fiber, there is less friction when the pen is stroked on screen, only 20% as much as a regular pen. The fiber allows for a smoother writing experience on screens, requiring only about half the strength needed to write with regular pens.
Back in Feburary, we introduced another Japanese manufacturer, Hiyoshi Packing Corporation, who leveraged its existing technologies to make sleek card cases. Its core business, in contrast, is auto parts and electronics processing.
Our readers may also recall the Japanese startup Factelier which is collaborating with Japanese factories to bring interesting products to consumers.
Japan’s technological craftsmanship is too precious to fade and die out. So we really hope to see more creativity and inventions such as the Touch Pen Pro, which help old businesses rebound into modern markets.
Touch Pen Pro is currently available to purchase online over on Amazon or on Rakuten for 1,575 yen (or about $15). Check out the video below to see how Akaishi’s tablet pen works.
Rick Martin
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Masaru Ikeda
Junya Mori
