THE BRIDGE

Business

Yelp launches in Japan, aspires to be household name by 2020 Olympics

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This is a part of our coverage of the Japan New Economy Summit 2014. You can follow our updates on Twitter as well at @thebridge_e. Yelp CEO and founder Jeremy Stoppelman spoke at the Japan New Economy Summit today, giving a brief introduction to his service and how it works. Somewhat surprisingly, he announced that Yelp is now available in Japan, and you can find its service online right now at yelp.co.jp as of this morning. During his talk, Jeremy explained that Yelp has about 120 million monthly users, with over 53 million reviews logged. He explained that with over 59% of Yelp searches coming from mobile, that they have truly become a mobile company. Stoppelman says that Yelp wants to be in every country (they are now available in 26 markets), and it has a big challenge ahead in Japan, with services like Tabelog and Cookpad being so dominant already. It will be interesting to see how they fare. He explains: We’ve always taken a one city at a time approach. […] You need high quality local data. You need locals to participate, not just tourists. He said that this process really takes time, but that’s the nature of…

yelp

This is a part of our coverage of the Japan New Economy Summit 2014. You can follow our updates on Twitter as well at @thebridge_e.

Yelp CEO and founder Jeremy Stoppelman spoke at the Japan New Economy Summit today, giving a brief introduction to his service and how it works. Somewhat surprisingly, he announced that Yelp is now available in Japan, and you can find its service online right now at yelp.co.jp as of this morning.

During his talk, Jeremy explained that Yelp has about 120 million monthly users, with over 53 million reviews logged. He explained that with over 59% of Yelp searches coming from mobile, that they have truly become a mobile company.

Stoppelman says that Yelp wants to be in every country (they are now available in 26 markets), and it has a big challenge ahead in Japan, with services like Tabelog and Cookpad being so dominant already. It will be interesting to see how they fare. He explains:

We’ve always taken a one city at a time approach. […] You need high quality local data. You need locals to participate, not just tourists.

He said that this process really takes time, but that’s the nature of local. Singapore was their first exploration in Asia, but Jeremy said that they have long known that Japan is a very attractive market.

He cited some friendly nagging from SalesForce CEO Marc Benioff who always asked him “Why aren’t you in Japan?” But he says that on his last few trips it became apparent to him that it would work. He still thinks it will take time, but hopes that by the time the Olympics roll around they can be a household name.

yelp-japan

Canadian game publisher Big Blue Bubble partners with SourceNext to sell Android titles in Japan

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Japanese software vendor SourceNext recently announced that it would partner with Canadian game developer Big Blue Bubble Inc. to handle sales of the latter’s Android games in Japan, including its Burn the Rope Worlds title. SourceNext is based in Tokyo and has previously established localization partnerships with the likes of Backblaze and Splashtop. SourceNext (PDF)

burn

Japanese software vendor SourceNext recently announced that it would partner with Canadian game developer Big Blue Bubble Inc. to handle sales of the latter’s Android games in Japan, including its Burn the Rope Worlds title.

SourceNext is based in Tokyo and has previously established localization partnerships with the likes of Backblaze and Splashtop.

SourceNext (PDF)

Japanese crowdsourcing startup Lancers launches matchmaking platform for regional businesses

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Tokyo-based Lancers operates one of Japan’s most popular crowdsourcing platforms. The company recently announced it has also launched a business matchmaking platform in closed beta, with the goal of connecting non-IT and regional business operators with potential clients. The new site is called Lancers Place, developed as a part of an effort to explore new business with Japanese telco KDDI. By leveraging crowdsourced online workers, Lancers has been helping clients fulfill their IT needs in areas like web design, brochure layouts, and mobile app coding. But the company has been planning to expand beyond IT. KDDI has had a program for small and medium-sized enterprises since 2010, helping members find appropriate business fulfillment services. By connecting their user bases each other, the two companies expect to create more business opportunities that span geographical locations and business sectors. Lancers aims to get about 100,000 regional businesses listed on the platform by the end of FY2014, and will work on member acquisition prior to launching the matchmaking function. Via CNET Japan

lancers-placed_featuredimage

Tokyo-based Lancers operates one of Japan’s most popular crowdsourcing platforms. The company recently announced it has also launched a business matchmaking platform in closed beta, with the goal of connecting non-IT and regional business operators with potential clients. The new site is called Lancers Place, developed as a part of an effort to explore new business with Japanese telco KDDI.

By leveraging crowdsourced online workers, Lancers has been helping clients fulfill their IT needs in areas like web design, brochure layouts, and mobile app coding. But the company has been planning to expand beyond IT. KDDI has had a program for small and medium-sized enterprises since 2010, helping members find appropriate business fulfillment services. By connecting their user bases each other, the two companies expect to create more business opportunities that span geographical locations and business sectors.

Lancers aims to get about 100,000 regional businesses listed on the platform by the end of FY2014, and will work on member acquisition prior to launching the matchmaking function.

Via CNET Japan

Inside HAXLR8R, Shenzhen’s hardware startup incubator

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See the original article in Japanese Located just adjacent to Hong Kong, Shenzhen China is known as global manufacturing center, with an abundance of electronics manufacturers in particular. Even in the startups scene, Shenzhen is recognized as one of the best places to do be in the hardware business. I recently had the opportunity to attend Infinity Venture Partners’ LP Summit. I’ll report on the interesting startups introduced during this event, but today I’d like to focus on HAXLR8R, the Shenzhen accelerator specializing in hardware startups. IVP has had a partnership with HAXLR8R and Dalian-based incubator Chinaccelerator for the last few years. It was nearly 20 years ago when I first visited Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Shenzhen has since grown to become the fourth biggest economic center in China, behind Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. HAXLR8R has its office conveniently located in the center of Shenzhen, high above street level on the 10th floor. We were welcomed by founder and the managing director Cyril Ebersweiler and general partner Benjamin Joffe. Cyril is also a venture partner at Ireland-based SOS Ventures, and many readers may remember Benjamin from his involvement with the futuristic space memorial service Elysium Space. After entrepreneurs pass screening…

shenzhen-town2

See the original article in Japanese

Located just adjacent to Hong Kong, Shenzhen China is known as global manufacturing center, with an abundance of electronics manufacturers in particular. Even in the startups scene, Shenzhen is recognized as one of the best places to do be in the hardware business.

I recently had the opportunity to attend Infinity Venture Partners’ LP Summit. I’ll report on the interesting startups introduced during this event, but today I’d like to focus on HAXLR8R, the Shenzhen accelerator specializing in hardware startups. IVP has had a partnership with HAXLR8R and Dalian-based incubator Chinaccelerator for the last few years.

shenzhen-town1

It was nearly 20 years ago when I first visited Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Shenzhen has since grown to become the fourth biggest economic center in China, behind Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. HAXLR8R has its office conveniently located in the center of Shenzhen, high above street level on the 10th floor.

haxlr8r-entrance

We were welcomed by founder and the managing director Cyril Ebersweiler and general partner Benjamin Joffe. Cyril is also a venture partner at Ireland-based SOS Ventures, and many readers may remember Benjamin from his involvement with the futuristic space memorial service Elysium Space.

After entrepreneurs pass screening to join HAXLR8R, they have an opportunity to create a simple prototype in their first week. The aim of this process is to enhance communication with other members and with mentors as well. Participating entrepreneurs must create a prototype based on a given theme, and this creates an opportunity to meet other entrepreneur who they might collaborate with in the future.

The accelerator holds a demo day on the 30th, 60th, and 90th day for startups. Participants enhance their product and business based on feedback from other entrepreneurs and investors in attendance.

In order to prevent others from building copycats, the details of the products currently being built are not disclosed. So regrettably, I can’t go into details about the startups and products that I saw there on this trip. But on the plus side, I could speak with a startup from the accelerator’s previous batch. The American startup Helios develops a sort of bike navigation system and corresponding iOS app. You just input a destination, and then the flashing lights on the handlebars will the rider to the destination.

Helios
Helios

HAXLR8R オフィスから見える深圳市街。大気汚染が心配なところが、Benjamin によれば、サンフランシスコよりも空気はキレイらしい。
City view from HAXLR8R. We tend to worry about the air pollution in China, but according to Benjamin, the air in Shenzhen is cleaner than in San Francisco.

HAXLR8R also coordinates with local manufacturing services for participants. So some startups stay in Shenzhen (including Helios) even after the incubation program. The accelerator occupies the 10th and 11th floor of the building, with startups and administrative staff on the 11th, and the 10th reserved for events and startups alumni.

haxlr8r-inside2

Almost half of the participating startups are from the US, with the remainder from Europe and Asia. From the two past batches of startups, the only Japanese startup has been Sassor, a company developing its so-called Energy Literacy Platform [1].

Cyril and Benjamin have both lived in Japan before, and both are fluent in Japanese and strongly hope that more Japanese hardware startups can come join their incubation program. The next batch will start on July 16th, and the application deadline is on May 25th. If you have strong interest in hardware, this would be great opportunity. The application form can be found here.


  1. We will follow up with a report on Sassor’s HAXLR8R experience in the near future. ↩

Japan’s fashion coordination app Wear hits 2M downloads, aspires to be fashion infrastructure

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Largely driven by heavy television promotion with a fun new commercial that began on March 19th, Wear (wear.jp), a fashion coordination app from Tokyo-based Start Today, has surpassed 2 million downloads. Start Today, is of course, the company behind Japanese mega fashion commerce site Zozotown. The app has been online for just five months, and its trajectory looks promising. The recent commercial starts popular model Emi Suzuki, who is also one of Wear’s many prominent ‘Wearistas’ on the fashion platform (pictured above). In total there have been more than 400,000 fashion coordinations posted on Wear, with a current average of 10,000 posted per day. Start Today stated in its announcement that it is shooting for five million domestic downloads, and it would be good to see global expansion follow after that. The company aspires to evolve Wear into a sort of infrastructural service in the fashion sector, an ambitious goal even for this Japanese fashion powerhouse. Start Today (PDF)

emi-suzuki-wear

Largely driven by heavy television promotion with a fun new commercial that began on March 19th, Wear (wear.jp), a fashion coordination app from Tokyo-based Start Today, has surpassed 2 million downloads. Start Today, is of course, the company behind Japanese mega fashion commerce site Zozotown. The app has been online for just five months, and its trajectory looks promising.

The recent commercial starts popular model Emi Suzuki, who is also one of Wear’s many prominent ‘Wearistas’ on the fashion platform (pictured above). In total there have been more than 400,000 fashion coordinations posted on Wear, with a current average of 10,000 posted per day.

Start Today stated in its announcement that it is shooting for five million domestic downloads, and it would be good to see global expansion follow after that. The company aspires to evolve Wear into a sort of infrastructural service in the fashion sector, an ambitious goal even for this Japanese fashion powerhouse.

Start Today (PDF)

Wearable technology and the new normal

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Last week at the 2014 Wearable Tech Expo here in Tokyo, we had a chance to hear a brief talk from Cary Bran, the senior director of innovation and new ventures at Santa Cruz-based Plantronics. The headset manufacturer has been doing some interesting work with smart sensors, and so I though I’d share a few of the insights that Cary presented on the future of wearable tech. Cary opened by emphasizing the fact that innovation in wearable technologies needs to be much more than the initial technological breakthrough. Citing the automobile as an example, he explained that incremental improvements are needed in order for a product to properly evolve. In the case of wearable technologies, one of the key obstacles we need to overcome is the fact that information is siloed on various devices right now. Wearable tech is an essential part of the industry but it’s not the only thing. Wearable technology is just the cornerstone. Universal or ubiquitous internet connectivity, this ability is key for wearable tech. He explained that the next aspect is virtual computing, after data is offloaded to the web, when data analytics can come into play. Users can be at the center of all…

cary-bran
Cary Bran demonstrates the head-orientation detection of a concept headset

Last week at the 2014 Wearable Tech Expo here in Tokyo, we had a chance to hear a brief talk from Cary Bran, the senior director of innovation and new ventures at Santa Cruz-based Plantronics. The headset manufacturer has been doing some interesting work with smart sensors, and so I though I’d share a few of the insights that Cary presented on the future of wearable tech.

Cary opened by emphasizing the fact that innovation in wearable technologies needs to be much more than the initial technological breakthrough. Citing the automobile as an example, he explained that incremental improvements are needed in order for a product to properly evolve. In the case of wearable technologies, one of the key obstacles we need to overcome is the fact that information is siloed on various devices right now.

Wearable tech is an essential part of the industry but it’s not the only thing. Wearable technology is just the cornerstone. Universal or ubiquitous internet connectivity, this ability is key for wearable tech.

He explained that the next aspect is virtual computing, after data is offloaded to the web, when data analytics can come into play. Users can be at the center of all that information, which is very personalized, with various streams of data working for them. The combination of wearable tech, smart sensors, plus software and context – all these will result in an enhanced experience that we have never seen before.

Cary also briefly demonstrated one of their concept headsets from their PLTlabs team, which has nine-axis sensor capabily using an acceleromer, gyroscope, and a compass. It can capture a wide range of data, including whether its being worn or not, tap detection events, steps taken via a pedometer, and even free-fall detection. The company has been taking these devices to hackathons as well, in an effort to see what developers can build around it. You can learn more about this in the video below.

The new normal, says Cary, will be a very interesting experience. Wearable technologies can be used in wide range of industries (games, entertainment, fitness, health, business, military, etc) to enhance our overall awareness of ourselves and the world around us.

Cena, Japan’s answer to OpenTable, hits half a million reservations

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Japanese restaurant reservation website Cena (think Japan’s answer to OpenTable) has surpassed 500,000 total online reservations as of April 2nd. The service initially began on a trail basis in early 2012, moving to full-scale operations in January of 2013. It is operated by Kakaku.com on a subdomain of its popular food review portal Tabelog (at yoyaku.tabelog.com). There are about 2,600 restaurants listed on Cena, and the hope is that this can be increased via the connection with Tabelog. That’s still a modest base of restaurants, so they’ll need to improve that significantly in order to grow this reservation business. Kakaku.com (pdf)

cena

Japanese restaurant reservation website Cena (think Japan’s answer to OpenTable) has surpassed 500,000 total online reservations as of April 2nd.

The service initially began on a trail basis in early 2012, moving to full-scale operations in January of 2013. It is operated by Kakaku.com on a subdomain of its popular food review portal Tabelog (at yoyaku.tabelog.com).

There are about 2,600 restaurants listed on Cena, and the hope is that this can be increased via the connection with Tabelog. That’s still a modest base of restaurants, so they’ll need to improve that significantly in order to grow this reservation business.

Kakaku.com (pdf)

Line passes 400M users, but is there room to further innovate in mobile messaging?

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Japan’s Line Corporation announced today that its total registered users for its Line messaging app have surpassed the 400 million mark. The company has also released an informative graphic showing the geographical breakdown of where its users are (see below). Still no official word from the company on active user numbers. It will be interesting if the company can make a significant splash in the US market. They haven’t really made such a push there to date, but it’s likely to happen this year. I’m still not such a heavy Line user, even though I live here in Japan. And I can’t help but wonder if new apps like FireChat, that use iOS’s Multipeer Connectivity Framework, could represent opportunity for even further innovation in this space. Messaging apps are cool. But offline messaging is even cooler than cool.

Japan’s Line Corporation announced today that its total registered users for its Line messaging app have surpassed the 400 million mark. The company has also released an informative graphic showing the geographical breakdown of where its users are (see below). Still no official word from the company on active user numbers.

It will be interesting if the company can make a significant splash in the US market. They haven’t really made such a push there to date, but it’s likely to happen this year.

I’m still not such a heavy Line user, even though I live here in Japan. And I can’t help but wonder if new apps like FireChat, that use iOS’s Multipeer Connectivity Framework, could represent opportunity for even further innovation in this space.

Messaging apps are cool. But offline messaging is even cooler than cool.

line-infographic-400-million

Amazon Japan launches new storefront to better serve women

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Today Amazon Japan launched a storefront focused on females, dubbed ‘Amazon Woman’ (amazon.co.jp/woman), catering to women and mothers specifically. According to CNet Japan (Japanese), it’s the first time that Amazon Japan had a project team driven by a core of female employees. The site will focus on fashions, cosmetics, food, lifestyle goods, etc, with over 6000 items currently listed. While women may not be treated so fairly in Japan, many internet companies in the country are starting to realize the opportunities in providing custom services to women. Even here at The Bridge we have a special category dedicated to women on our Japanese site. CNet Japan

amazon-women

Today Amazon Japan launched a storefront focused on females, dubbed ‘Amazon Woman’ (amazon.co.jp/woman), catering to women and mothers specifically. According to CNet Japan (Japanese), it’s the first time that Amazon Japan had a project team driven by a core of female employees. The site will focus on fashions, cosmetics, food, lifestyle goods, etc, with over 6000 items currently listed.

While women may not be treated so fairly in Japan, many internet companies in the country are starting to realize the opportunities in providing custom services to women. Even here at The Bridge we have a special category dedicated to women on our Japanese site.

CNet Japan

Japanese app ‘YourGolf Online’ acquired by TV network

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YourGolf Online is a Tokyo-based startup that provides a GPS-enabled golf logging app. Jupiter Golf Network, Japan’s only golf-focused TV network, announced today that it has taken a full stake that company, with neither party disclosed the specific figures around the acquisition. Since its launched back in 2011, the app (available on both iOS and Android ) has seen more than 1.6 million downloads from over 390,000 users in Japan and around the world. Based on an accumulation of course data from over 2,500 domestic courses and 30,000 courses beyond Japan, the app lets you record at which courses you’ve played, how you made approach shots, and what scores you earned. By acquiring YourGolf Online, Jupiter Golf Network plans to explore possible synergies around their business by attracting amateur golfers to their network, perhaps providing golf-related video programs via mobile or tablet apps. via Nikkei IT Pro

yourgolfonline-golfnetwork_logos

YourGolf Online is a Tokyo-based startup that provides a GPS-enabled golf logging app. Jupiter Golf Network, Japan’s only golf-focused TV network, announced today that it has taken a full stake that company, with neither party disclosed the specific figures around the acquisition.

Since its launched back in 2011, the app (available on both iOS and Android ) has seen more than 1.6 million downloads from over 390,000 users in Japan and around the world. Based on an accumulation of course data from over 2,500 domestic courses and 30,000 courses beyond Japan, the app lets you record at which courses you’ve played, how you made approach shots, and what scores you earned.

By acquiring YourGolf Online, Jupiter Golf Network plans to explore possible synergies around their business by attracting amateur golfers to their network, perhaps providing golf-related video programs via mobile or tablet apps.

yourgolf_screenshot1

yourgolf_screenshot2

via Nikkei IT Pro