THE BRIDGE

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New partnerships announced in Japanese payments processing space

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Recruit Life Style, a subsidiary of Japan’s Recruit Holdings, and US-based payment processing company Square announced yesterday they will integrate Recruit’s register tablet app AirRegi and Square’s payment service Square Register later this month. Both companies jointly started accepting applications from store owners for a combination of these services. At the same time, Japanese payment company Coiney also announced yesterday that it has partnered with NTT East. Coiney’s card-swiping solution will be integrated NTT East’s tablet-based register app Raku Regi, and through this partnership store owners using a combination of their technologies will no longer need to enter the billing amount into two different terminals. On a related note, tabled-based register app Yubiregi partnered with cloud-based accounting solution Freee last October, providing convenience for their users in a somewhat similar way. These integrations can reduce time-consuming work when closing the register at the end of the day, helping retail store owners concentrate on more primary tasks.

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Recruit Life Style, a subsidiary of Japan’s Recruit Holdings, and US-based payment processing company Square announced yesterday they will integrate Recruit’s register tablet app AirRegi and Square’s payment service Square Register later this month. Both companies jointly started accepting applications from store owners for a combination of these services.

At the same time, Japanese payment company Coiney also announced yesterday that it has partnered with NTT East. Coiney’s card-swiping solution will be integrated NTT East’s tablet-based register app Raku Regi, and through this partnership store owners using a combination of their technologies will no longer need to enter the billing amount into two different terminals.

On a related note, tabled-based register app Yubiregi partnered with cloud-based accounting solution Freee last October, providing convenience for their users in a somewhat similar way. These integrations can reduce time-consuming work when closing the register at the end of the day, helping retail store owners concentrate on more primary tasks.

Dash Labs proposes a sort of FitBit for cars, attracts investment from CyberAgent

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Japanese internet giant CyberAgent announced today that it has invested in New York-based Dash Labs (Dash.by), a young startup whose service is billed as a sort of FitBit for cars. Details of the investment were not disclosed. Dash works through the installation of a low-cost on-board diagnostic unit that connects your smartphone to your car via Bluetooth. In this way, it enables a range of features, such as giving you a driving score, providing alerts for engine issues or feedback on maintenance issues, or gamified social functions where you can compare your driving to friends. Dash’s Android app was just recently launched, and an iPhone version will follow soon. Even though they are just getting their mobile apps out now, the company claims to have tested its technology for over 18 months, driving a million miles in 30 countries. Dash is part of the 2013 TechStars NYC class of startups. CyberAgent didn’t specify the time of its investment, but it looks like it was part of a $1.2 million financing round from December.

Japanese internet giant CyberAgent announced today that it has invested in New York-based Dash Labs (Dash.by), a young startup whose service is billed as a sort of FitBit for cars. Details of the investment were not disclosed.

Dash works through the installation of a low-cost on-board diagnostic unit that connects your smartphone to your car via Bluetooth. In this way, it enables a range of features, such as giving you a driving score, providing alerts for engine issues or feedback on maintenance issues, or gamified social functions where you can compare your driving to friends.

Dash’s Android app was just recently launched, and an iPhone version will follow soon. Even though they are just getting their mobile apps out now, the company claims to have tested its technology for over 18 months, driving a million miles in 30 countries.

Dash is part of the 2013 TechStars NYC class of startups. CyberAgent didn’t specify the time of its investment, but it looks like it was part of a $1.2 million financing round from December.

DASH LABS, INC. SMARTPHONE APP

Hulu sells its Japan operations to Nippon Television

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Online streaming video company Hulu has announced (English/Japanese) that it will sell it’s service to Nippon Television. Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins noted in a blog post: We have now reached a point in the growth of the business in Japan where we feel the best path forward is to sell the company to a strategic buyer. I’m announcing today that Hulu’s Japan business is to be acquired by Nippon Television Network Corporation (Nippon TV), who will assume the day-to-day operations and management of the business at the closing of the transaction. There was actually some foreshadowing to this, as more and more Nippon TV content had been making it onto Hulu recently. As a subscriber I’ve noticed this happen, but I’m not certain whether I will still be a subscriber in the future. Hopkins expressed confidence that Hulu Japan is “in very good hands”. However I’m skeptical as to whether or not Nippon TV will strive to obtain a diverse range IP, instead of just showing mostly their own. We don’t know any subscriber numbers for Hulu Japan, but of course, if the numbers were good, we’d have heard about it. So I’ll assume they’re poor. To give you another…

Aggressive advertising for Hulu Japan in Shibuya, 2012.
Aggressive advertising for Hulu Japan in Shibuya, 2012.

Online streaming video company Hulu has announced (English/Japanese) that it will sell it’s service to Nippon Television. Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins noted in a blog post:

We have now reached a point in the growth of the business in Japan where we feel the best path forward is to sell the company to a strategic buyer. I’m announcing today that Hulu’s Japan business is to be acquired by Nippon Television Network Corporation (Nippon TV), who will assume the day-to-day operations and management of the business at the closing of the transaction.

There was actually some foreshadowing to this, as more and more Nippon TV content had been making it onto Hulu recently. As a subscriber I’ve noticed this happen, but I’m not certain whether I will still be a subscriber in the future. Hopkins expressed confidence that Hulu Japan is “in very good hands”. However I’m skeptical as to whether or not Nippon TV will strive to obtain a diverse range IP, instead of just showing mostly their own.

We don’t know any subscriber numbers for Hulu Japan, but of course, if the numbers were good, we’d have heard about it. So I’ll assume they’re poor. To give you another perspective, the Hulu Plus app is currently ranked a lowly 806th overall in the Japan iOS App Store, compared to 252nd overall in the US.

In the early days of the Hulu Japan I recall seeing advertising installations for Hulu Japan in Tokyo’s busy Shibuya station. But over the past year or so I can’t recall seeing any such advertising anywhere.

Hulu Japan launched back in late 2011, initally at a monthly subscription price of 1480 yen (about $15). That price was subsequently dropped to 980 yen in April of 2012. As you can see by Hulu Plus’s rise in the rankings (see middle of the chart below) that move did have a positive effect, but apparently it was not enough.

See also: Nippon TV press release

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Rakuten announces acquisition of VoIP and messaging app company Viber

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Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten held a business strategy briefing today, unveiling that it has acquired VoIP and messaging app company Viber for $900 million. Viber has acquired over 300 million users worldwide, with 550,000 new users signing up every day. And Rakuten’s founder and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani expects to bring much of that user base to Rakuten’s e-commerce business, which already has 200 million users worldwide. To commemorate the acquisition, the two companies started a promotion that lets users worldwide to make a call to any landline phones in Japan for free.

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Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten held a business strategy briefing today, unveiling that it has acquired VoIP and messaging app company Viber for $900 million.

Viber has acquired over 300 million users worldwide, with 550,000 new users signing up every day. And Rakuten’s founder and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani expects to bring much of that user base to Rakuten’s e-commerce business, which already has 200 million users worldwide.

To commemorate the acquisition, the two companies started a promotion that lets users worldwide to make a call to any landline phones in Japan for free.

Japan’s Mixi to appoint new CEO (again!), Yusuke Asakura to step down

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Japanese internet company Mixi today announced its financial report for the previous quarter. But they also announced that their CEO, Yusuke Asakura, will step down, appointing Hiroki Morita, general manager of the game department as the new CEO, effective after the scheduled shareholder meeting on June 24th. According to the company, the huge success of its gaming apps (like Monster Strike) have helped them return to profit, despite the prediction that the company might show a $10 million loss in the fiscal year ending this March. They appointed the new CEO as part of their shifting from a recovery phase to a “re-growth” stage. Asakura was appointed as the CEO just last June. Prior to joining Mixi back in 2011, he had been running the startup Naked Technology, subsequently acquired by Mixi. His former colleagues include Miku Hirano, whose startup Spicy Cinnamon recently announced a new round of funding, as well as a new photo app.

From the left: Co-founder Kenji Kasahara and the current CEO Yusuke Asakura
From the left: Co-founder Kenji Kasahara and the current CEO Yusuke Asakura

Japanese internet company Mixi today announced its financial report for the previous quarter. But they also announced that their CEO, Yusuke Asakura, will step down, appointing Hiroki Morita, general manager of the game department as the new CEO, effective after the scheduled shareholder meeting on June 24th.

According to the company, the huge success of its gaming apps (like Monster Strike) have helped them return to profit, despite the prediction that the company might show a $10 million loss in the fiscal year ending this March. They appointed the new CEO as part of their shifting from a recovery phase to a “re-growth” stage.

Asakura was appointed as the CEO just last June. Prior to joining Mixi back in 2011, he had been running the startup Naked Technology, subsequently acquired by Mixi. His former colleagues include Miku Hirano, whose startup Spicy Cinnamon recently announced a new round of funding, as well as a new photo app.

Japanese online printing startup Raksul fundraises $14.3 million

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Raksul, a Tokyo-based startup providing online printing services, announced today that it has raised 1.45 billion yen (approximately $14.3 million) from WiL (World Innovation Lab), Global Brain, Itochu Technology Ventures, Plus (an office stationary company), GMO Venture Partners, and Mixi. Raksul is a fabless company that provides printing services in partnership with more than 1,600 printing facilities across Japan (as of November of 2013). Users can place printing orders at affordable rates because the company takes advantage of downtime at participating printers to complete those orders. According to Nikkei Business, Raksul will use the funds raised this time to prepare for global service operations, and to launch a new service that allows merchants to distribute their flyers via newspapers to consumers for affordable rates. By making the most of the internet and removing middleman costs, their flyer distribution service gives local merchants a better chance to promote their services for less than 10% of the price usually seen in this sector. Raksul was founded in 2009 and raised a total of 230 million yen ($2.4 million) during the last year from Nissay Capital, Yahoo Japan, and Anri.

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From their Facebook page

Raksul, a Tokyo-based startup providing online printing services, announced today that it has raised 1.45 billion yen (approximately $14.3 million) from WiL (World Innovation Lab), Global Brain, Itochu Technology Ventures, Plus (an office stationary company), GMO Venture Partners, and Mixi.

Raksul is a fabless company that provides printing services in partnership with more than 1,600 printing facilities across Japan (as of November of 2013). Users can place printing orders at affordable rates because the company takes advantage of downtime at participating printers to complete those orders.

According to Nikkei Business, Raksul will use the funds raised this time to prepare for global service operations, and to launch a new service that allows merchants to distribute their flyers via newspapers to consumers for affordable rates. By making the most of the internet and removing middleman costs, their flyer distribution service gives local merchants a better chance to promote their services for less than 10% of the price usually seen in this sector.

Raksul was founded in 2009 and raised a total of 230 million yen ($2.4 million) during the last year from Nissay Capital, Yahoo Japan, and Anri.

Sekai Lab: Crowdsourcing platform lets Japanese companies find developer teams around Asia

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See the original article in Japanese Sekai Lab, a company under Singapore-based music/game company Monstar Lab, has launched a crowdsourcing platform. It lets companies in Japan find engineers from all around the world, but still using Japanese. With the rapid spread of smartphones in Japan, more and more app developers are needed these days. Sekai Lab COO Ikkei Okuma thought that the company could provide a solution to match Japanese companies with skilled engineers in Asian countries such as China and Vietnam. Okuma explains: There are many great engineers in Asia. But there is no platform in Japanese to match them with companies in Japan, making it very difficult for companies to outsource their work. Workers registered on most crowdsourcing platforms are individuals, which makes it hard to outsource a big project using crowdsourcing platforms. Sekai Lab aims to address these issues. The cost of human resources on Sekai Lab are relatively low. And by providing Asian engineers with high skill sets, the company hopes to alleviate the shortage of engineers currently plaguing Japan. So how does it work? Development processes are executed through communication between the developer team and the company that outsourced the work. And depending on the…

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See the original article in Japanese

Sekai Lab, a company under Singapore-based music/game company Monstar Lab, has launched a crowdsourcing platform. It lets companies in Japan find engineers from all around the world, but still using Japanese.

With the rapid spread of smartphones in Japan, more and more app developers are needed these days. Sekai Lab COO Ikkei Okuma thought that the company could provide a solution to match Japanese companies with skilled engineers in Asian countries such as China and Vietnam. Okuma explains:

There are many great engineers in Asia. But there is no platform in Japanese to match them with companies in Japan, making it very difficult for companies to outsource their work. Workers registered on most crowdsourcing platforms are individuals, which makes it hard to outsource a big project using crowdsourcing platforms. Sekai Lab aims to address these issues.

The cost of human resources on Sekai Lab are relatively low. And by providing Asian engineers with high skill sets, the company hopes to alleviate the shortage of engineers currently plaguing Japan.

So how does it work? Development processes are executed through communication between the developer team and the company that outsourced the work. And depending on the project, Monstar Lab can provide support as well.

On the Sekai Lab website, you can find engineers across many different categories, such as the type of app required, cost, and the past experience of the team.

sekailabo team

Okuma also told us a little about how they screen teams for registration.

For the time being, we only register companies who have an office in Japan, in addition to their developer base outside Japan. We meet the team face-to-face and confirm their past experience. We gather information about the team leader and put it on our website.

In Japan, crowdsourcing service is getting lots of attention these days, with Lancers and Crowdworks showing remarkable growth. Can crowdsourcing beyond Japan’s borders be successful as well? We’ll keep watching Sekai Lab, so stay tuned.

Japanese loyalty program startup Hyper8 raises $510,000

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See the original article in Japanese Tokyo-based Hyper8 Inc., the startup that operates Mespo, a loyalty program platform for restaurants and retail stores, recently announced that it has raised 51 million yen ($510,000) from MID Venture Capital, East Ventures, and two individual investors. Restaurants and retailers who implement Mespo can use the platform for 980 yen ($9.80) per month. When users make a purchase, they can earn points and collect them using their smartphones. A tablet device that incorporates the platform is distributed to each store, with an LTE connection as well since some stores don’t have wi-fi. At checkout, customers can collect the points by scanning a QR code displayed on the tablet. Until now over 300 establishments, including restaurants, massage salons and hair salons, have been using the platform. The company aims to tie up with publicly-listed companies who may already have a large network of retailers. There are already some similar services in Japan, including Gurunavi touch and Recruit point. We spoke to the CEO of Hyper8, Keiji Isogimi, about how his company can differentiate from the competitors. The loyalty programs provided by Gurunavi and Recruit add points common among member stores. The system doesn’t motivate each…

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See the original article in Japanese

Tokyo-based Hyper8 Inc., the startup that operates Mespo, a loyalty program platform for restaurants and retail stores, recently announced that it has raised 51 million yen ($510,000) from MID Venture Capital, East Ventures, and two individual investors.

Restaurants and retailers who implement Mespo can use the platform for 980 yen ($9.80) per month. When users make a purchase, they can earn points and collect them using their smartphones. A tablet device that incorporates the platform is distributed to each store, with an LTE connection as well since some stores don’t have wi-fi. At checkout, customers can collect the points by scanning a QR code displayed on the tablet.

Until now over 300 establishments, including restaurants, massage salons and hair salons, have been using the platform. The company aims to tie up with publicly-listed companies who may already have a large network of retailers.

There are already some similar services in Japan, including Gurunavi touch and Recruit point. We spoke to the CEO of Hyper8, Keiji Isogimi, about how his company can differentiate from the competitors.

The loyalty programs provided by Gurunavi and Recruit add points common among member stores. The system doesn’t motivate each store to recommend a loyalty program to customers. That’s one reason why Gurunavi touch is not widely recognized even though its member stores amounts to over 8000 in total.

But with Mespo, each store can offer customers their own points, specific to that store. Of course, if a store is part of a chain, it can use the same points. There are smart features in the app, like a feature to update users in real time about how busy a store is, and send push-notifications of special offers. Those features add motivation for stores to use Mespo.


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Given that retailers can borrow the LTE tablet for free, the monthly rate of 980 yen is incredibly low. I can’t help but wonder if Hyper8 could really make a profit from this. Isogimi told us:

We are now focusing on increasing our total member stores. Currently the tablet devices are not on lease. We purchase them and lend them to stores. So most of the funds we raised this time will be used to buy tablet devices.

We aren’t thinking of growing our sales only through Mespo. We noticed that the IT literacy of workers in restaurants and retail stores is getting higher. So we want to add more services based on the network we will build through Mespo, making the business more profitable in that way.

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From Left: CEO Keiji Isogimi, board member Shota Morikawa

Until now Hyper8 has been expanding Mespo through profits earned by operating social events. In addition to this fundraising, Shota Morikawa from East Ventures will join the company’s board, aiming to strengthen the team.

The company will relocate Startup Dojo, an incubation space run by Movida Japan in Shibuya. It is said that growing e-commerce platform, Base, will have an office there too.

Japanese personal accounting startup Money Forward launches enterprise version

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See the original article in Japanese There are more cloud tools than ever available to support small scale or personal businesses. In Japan such services include things like Evernote, Talknote, Github, and Qitta. But for many small businesses, there’s a bottleneck in areas like accounting, and it is inevitable that freelancers and small businesses must handle such work slowly and carefully. But Tokyo-based Money Forward, the startup behind the personal accounting app of the same name, has a solution that might work for them. On January 27th, Money Forward released its official version of “Money Forward Kakutei-shinkoku” (Kakutei-shinkoku is Japanese for “filing the final tax return”) and “Money Forward for Business”. The basic plan for “Money Forward Kakutei-shinkoku” for personal users is free, and with a paid plan at 800 yen ($8) per month for those who want to enter more than 15 items a month. “Money Forward for Business” is available for free for the first 45 days, and users who want to continue the service need to pay 1800 yen ($18) per month. A variety of features, including online communication with tax accountants, will be added later. One of the most remarkable features of the app is that…

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See the original article in Japanese

There are more cloud tools than ever available to support small scale or personal businesses. In Japan such services include things like Evernote, Talknote, Github, and Qitta. But for many small businesses, there’s a bottleneck in areas like accounting, and it is inevitable that freelancers and small businesses must handle such work slowly and carefully. But Tokyo-based Money Forward, the startup behind the personal accounting app of the same name, has a solution that might work for them.

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On January 27th, Money Forward released its official version of “Money Forward Kakutei-shinkoku” (Kakutei-shinkoku is Japanese for “filing the final tax return”) and “Money Forward for Business”.

The basic plan for “Money Forward Kakutei-shinkoku” for personal users is free, and with a paid plan at 800 yen ($8) per month for those who want to enter more than 15 items a month. “Money Forward for Business” is available for free for the first 45 days, and users who want to continue the service need to pay 1800 yen ($18) per month.

A variety of features, including online communication with tax accountants, will be added later.

One of the most remarkable features of the app is that it can automatically acquire data from a bank account at over 1400 financial institutions. Based on past records, the app helps automatically add tags to entries. The goal is to dramatically improve the process of creating reports, including things like cash flow statements and financial statements.

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By automatization data entry and journalizing, the app makes your accounting work much more efficient.

CEO Yosuke Tsuji told us that his company plans to tie up with other services like iPad POS systems, and other departments that deal with employees’ salary and attendance, aiming to reduce manual work.

In Japan, more and more small e-commerce sites are emerging, through e-commerce platforms like Base and Stores.jp. It’s logical to assume that there will be more C2C transactions in the future. It is exciting to picture the whole accounting processes taken care of with cloud accounting apps.

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According to Tsuji, a few thousands of people have used the test version of the app. He says that around 12% of Money Forward users say that they would want to use Money Forward for Business too.

When I visited their new office recently, I found that the developer team had expanded to over 20 members. I asked Tsuji about the recruiting process and what kind of qualifications he is looking in new members.

We have six-person recruiting team. For engineers, we are often referred to a new engineer by engineers that we know. Good engineers tend to be connected with each other. We are looking for someone good at teamwork, with the right skills and an interest in our service.

The team has to figure out how to evolve the product based on user feedback. In order to establish its priorities, members need to share the company’s vision and values. Tsuji adds that it is very important to grow a positive culture within the company.

In order to be a sort of infrastructure in the future, Money Forward will be expected not only to provide good products at reasonable prices, but also to make contributions to public good through their service.

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Japan’s Showcase Gig secures series A funding, starts nationwide operations

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based digital marketing startup Showcase Gig, the startup behind ‘O:der’ (apparently pronounced ‘order’), announced today that it has raised funds from Nissay Capital and Nippon Venture Capital. The exact details of the funding were not disclosed but we understand that the amount is in the millions (US dollars). According to the startup’s CEO Takefumi Nitta, this is series A funding to follow their angel round secured at the company’s began back in February of 2012. Since the launch of O:der back in July, the company has been providing a suite of CRM solutions for small-sized retailers, comprising of two iOS apps, one for consumers and the other for merchants. The consumer app has a mobile wallet feature that lets you pay by credit card before picking up a product at the shop. Nitta told us they have implemented their solutions at 25 stores to date, and they expected to expand to 50 stores by the end of February. They’ve taken their time to carefully select stores to implement their solution. About 70% of their initial users have used the tool more than twice, which convinced them that it was a solid CRM tool for…

showcasegig_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based digital marketing startup Showcase Gig, the startup behind ‘O:der’ (apparently pronounced ‘order’), announced today that it has raised funds from Nissay Capital and Nippon Venture Capital. The exact details of the funding were not disclosed but we understand that the amount is in the millions (US dollars).

According to the startup’s CEO Takefumi Nitta, this is series A funding to follow their angel round secured at the company’s began back in February of 2012.

Since the launch of O:der back in July, the company has been providing a suite of CRM solutions for small-sized retailers, comprising of two iOS apps, one for consumers and the other for merchants. The consumer app has a mobile wallet feature that lets you pay by credit card before picking up a product at the shop. Nitta told us they have implemented their solutions at 25 stores to date, and they expected to expand to 50 stores by the end of February.

They’ve taken their time to carefully select stores to implement their solution. About 70% of their initial users have used the tool more than twice, which convinced them that it was a solid CRM tool for small businesses. With the funds raised this time around, the company plans to expand their operations beyond Tokyo prefecture. Nitta adds:

Rather than expanding our business, we are currently focusing on validating our product with stores that are more conscious about digital technologies for retail sales. In addition to small independent stores, we’d like to acquire larger store chains to use our solutions in the future.

Our readers may recall that he has been involved in notable offline businesses too, producing Tokyo Girls Collection, one of the country’s biggest fashion events, and mixiXmas, a campaign run by Mixi.