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Live-streaming app TwitCasting surpasses 2 million users, but founder is a little distressed

SCORE 1,681

Takeshi Hirano 2013.03.29

See the original story in Japanese. TwitCasting is an app that allows you to stream videos from iPhone or Android handsets. The service was launched early in 2010, and there have been good numbers in terms of user acquisition: reaching 250,000 users in 2010, 750,000 in 2011, and 1.75 million in 2012. On Thursday, we had a chance to speak with Yoski Akamatsu, the CEO of Moi Corp., the company behind the app. He explained more about the services sudden growth: I feel it rapidly shifted gears last November. Since the beginning of this year, we are acquiring almost 200,000 users a month. We may surpass 4 million users by the end of this year. […] The livecast channel has 200,000 to 300,000 visitors a day, and they usually stay for about 4 to 5 minutes on average. While I invented the service, I can’t really explain what has caused the recent rapid user growth. More than a half of our entire user base is people who are younger than 25 years old. He showed us a list of livecast programs, where thumbnail portrait of users livecasting can be seen for each one. As the CEO mentioned, they are pretty…

See the original story in Japanese.

TwitCasting is an app that allows you to stream videos from iPhone or Android handsets. The service was launched early in 2010, and there have been good numbers in terms of user acquisition: reaching 250,000 users in 2010, 750,000 in 2011, and 1.75 million in 2012. On Thursday, we had a chance to speak with Yoski Akamatsu, the CEO of Moi Corp., the company behind the app. He explained more about the services sudden growth:

I feel it rapidly shifted gears last November. Since the beginning of this year, we are acquiring almost 200,000 users a month. We may surpass 4 million users by the end of this year. […] The livecast channel has 200,000 to 300,000 visitors a day, and they usually stay for about 4 to 5 minutes on average. While I invented the service, I can’t really explain what has caused the recent rapid user growth. More than a half of our entire user base is people who are younger than 25 years old.

He showed us a list of livecast programs, where thumbnail portrait of users livecasting can be seen for each one. As the CEO mentioned, they are pretty young – probably high school students, junior high school students, and teenagers. When we opened one program, it was explaining about how to put on make-up. Viewers then would leave comments on the video via Twitter.

[The sudden influx of] younger users might be caused by Atsushi Tamura, a comedian known for using the Twitcasting app on his TV show. Users visit our service with the expectation of making new friends online. They’re using it as a chat app.

The service is getting so popular so that has been featured in some magazines for teenagers, but it seems the CEO can’t keep up with this unforeseen popularity.

Compared to other similar services like Ustream or the live channels of Nico Nico Douga, the service pursues quality user communication. Instead of video quality, they are focusing on gaining real time capabilities like live radio programming, aligning the direction for the user community by adopting a real name-based membership system. But now that the younger generation shares a big portion of the user base, he has to intensify monitoring of video posts to ensure there’s no illegal activity involving minors.

TwitCasting was launched as a part of Yoski’s other startup, Sidefeed. It was spun-off in February of 2012 and incorporated as a new startup called Moi Corp.

They intend to monetize with advertising and paid-subscriptions, and currently revenue is roughly split between these two streams. The paid subscription from the Android app is showing good growth too.

The startup is now in talks with big companies exploring possible business partnerships.

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Japan’s Kolor app brings you mission-based rewards on your mobile

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.03.29

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Interest Marketing just jumped into the O2O market with a mobile app called Kolor. Kolor is a marketing promotion tool for stores that works in a manner not unlike the Scavngr app. For Scvngr users, you can earn rewards when you take a snapshot of yourself drinking a beer at a bar, and the rewards earned can then be redeemed for discounts. Such campaigns are intended to capitalize on social network platforms such as Twitter and Facebook for greater reach. So what does Kolor do exactly? It’s a mission-based gamification app that uses social media analytics to measure a user’s influence across his or her social network, sort of like Klout does. Users are invited to participate in missions when they receive a campaign notification from a participating advertiser. Which advertiser contacts you is determined by your ‘like’ accumulation on Facebook as well as your favorites registered on the Kolor app. For example, if you have ever liked a cosmetic maker’s Facebook page, you could receive a notification for a mission by a participating cosmetic company. Missions come in many varieties: check-in to a location, join a contest, send a tweet, get…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup Interest Marketing just jumped into the O2O market with a mobile app called Kolor.

Kolor is a marketing promotion tool for stores that works in a manner not unlike the Scavngr app. For Scvngr users, you can earn rewards when you take a snapshot of yourself drinking a beer at a bar, and the rewards earned can then be redeemed for discounts. Such campaigns are intended to capitalize on social network platforms such as Twitter and Facebook for greater reach.

So what does Kolor do exactly? It’s a mission-based gamification app that uses social media analytics to measure a user’s influence across his or her social network, sort of like Klout does. Users are invited to participate in missions when they receive a campaign notification from a participating advertiser. Which advertiser contacts you is determined by your ‘like’ accumulation on Facebook as well as your favorites registered on the Kolor app. For example, if you have ever liked a cosmetic maker’s Facebook page, you could receive a notification for a mission by a participating cosmetic company.

Missions come in many varieties: check-in to a location, join a contest, send a tweet, get coupons, or answer a quiz answer on Facebook. Interestingly there’s a gamified mission that earn rewards only when you achieve the mission earlier than your friends.

When you clear a given mission, you receive ‘Value Point’ incentives, badges, or graduate to a higher user level. Value Points can be redeemed for experience-focused rewards such as parties and even round-the-world trips. The app’s Personal Media Value metric (or PMV for short) is set according to your social influence and the quality of your postings to social networks, and that changes the Value Points you earn when you achieve a mission.

In terms of differentiation from other conventional marketing apps, Kolor lets users target an appropriate niche of potential customers, says the startup’s CEO Hikari Sakai. The company has already established agreements with almost 20 companies including ItoHam Foods, Sapporo Beer, Tokyu Hands department store, and Parco for using the app in their marketing efforts. The clients can receive an analysis of participating users and insights about the democraphics. The service uses a performance-based fee model, and a client will be charged every time a promoted mission is achieved by a user.

The iOS app is already live, and Android and desktop versions will follow next month.

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DeNA launches ‘Groovy’ music distribution platform, adding social to the listening experience

Masaru Ikeda 2013.03.29

DeNA (TYO:2432), the Japanese internet giant behind the Mobage social gaming platform and the Comm messaging app, has unveiled its Groovy music player app for the Android platform. An iOS version will follow soon. It was developed using an app framework from Discodear, the music player app developed by Tokyo-based web conglomerate United. It allows users to play their favorites from a selection of more than 1 million songs, in partnership with 39 music labels including Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music, and Victor Entertainment. When you signs up for an account, you receive complimentary tickets worth 30 credits, with one credit allowing you to listen to a song up to three times a month. Tickets worth 17 credits are available for 99 yen (or about a dollar), and complimentary tickets will be given when you invite your friends to the service as well. Prior to the purchase of a song, users are allowed a 45-second preview. The app has also a social media function, which lets you be a ‘fan’ of a song when you listen to it more than three times. The interest graph lets you see what other users with similar tastes are listening to. This feature is…

DeNA (TYO:2432), the Japanese internet giant behind the Mobage social gaming platform and the Comm messaging app, has unveiled its Groovy music player app for the Android platform. An iOS version will follow soon.

It was developed using an app framework from Discodear, the music player app developed by Tokyo-based web conglomerate United. It allows users to play their favorites from a selection of more than 1 million songs, in partnership with 39 music labels including Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music, and Victor Entertainment.

When you signs up for an account, you receive complimentary tickets worth 30 credits, with one credit allowing you to listen to a song up to three times a month. Tickets worth 17 credits are available for 99 yen (or about a dollar), and complimentary tickets will be given when you invite your friends to the service as well. Prior to the purchase of a song, users are allowed a 45-second preview.

The app has also a social media function, which lets you be a ‘fan’ of a song when you listen to it more than three times. The interest graph lets you see what other users with similar tastes are listening to. This feature is also intended to promote live performances to users [1].

For more than 900,000 out of the million songs in the archive, the app can shows you lyrics while you listen. This obviously would be great preparation for Karaoke sessions, for anyone who is into that sort of thing!

Spotify-like flat-rate subscription models are attracting a lot of customers in the overseas market [2]. But DeNA figures that such models would be harder in terms of user acquisition, this according to the company’s CEO Isao Moriyasu. They have no intention to integrate the service with their gaming platform or other services, but they expect to create a social network platform specifically designed for sharing music experiences.

Korean music startup, Mironi, who we’ve recently featured in Japanese, has a very similar concept. The DeNA music app will be a formidable competitor for them in the Japanese market. ↩
Spotify is still unavailable here in Japan. ↩

news

Widgely: Community Factory and Yahoo Japan team up on multi-purpose girlie app

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.03.28

Community Factory, the company behind the popular purikura app Decopic, and its parent company Yahoo [1] have released their first joint widget app on the Android platform. It’s called Widgely. The theme of the app is is “Kawaii, Easy, Useful,” and as you may have guessed by now, it’s targeting young women. The app includes what are (supposedly) all the features necessary for a girl’s daily life including a clock, weather, horoscope, a camera, and a mirror (i.e. an inward-facing camera). The visual theme of the widget app can be switched between four types, allowing users to dress up their smartphone according to their mood. Users are able to start searching right from the homescreen, and they can check a variety of articles from Yahoo News within the app, integrating well with one of Yahoo Japan’s prime services. From Widgely, users can also access Decopic directly and easily. The Decopic app has over 12 million downloads and is available for both iOS and Android. This project is likely only the beginning of more collaborative efforts between Yahoo and Community Factory, and we can certainly hope to see more Kawaii apps from the team in the future. Community Factory was acquired by…

Community Factory, the company behind the popular purikura app Decopic, and its parent company Yahoo [1] have released their first joint widget app on the Android platform. It’s called Widgely.

The theme of the app is is “Kawaii, Easy, Useful,” and as you may have guessed by now, it’s targeting young women. The app includes what are (supposedly) all the features necessary for a girl’s daily life including a clock, weather, horoscope, a camera, and a mirror (i.e. an inward-facing camera). The visual theme of the widget app can be switched between four types, allowing users to dress up their smartphone according to their mood.

Users are able to start searching right from the homescreen, and they can check a variety of articles from Yahoo News within the app, integrating well with one of Yahoo Japan’s prime services. From Widgely, users can also access Decopic directly and easily. The Decopic app has over 12 million downloads and is available for both iOS and Android.

This project is likely only the beginning of more collaborative efforts between Yahoo and Community Factory, and we can certainly hope to see more Kawaii apps from the team in the future.

Community Factory was acquired by Yahoo! in September of last year ↩

news

TeamLabBody 3D iPad app is a medical student’s dream

Rick Martin 2013.03.27

I recently had a chance to visit Team Lab, the folks behind a number of incredible digital projects, such as the fun TeamLab hangers which we recently featured. And this month recently the company has released an amazing app for iPad called TeamLab Body. The app presents a 3D representation of the entire human body, including the skeletal, muscle, nervous, circulatory systems and even ligaments. You can toggle the visibility of each system on the side panel, depending on which area you would like to explore. So for example, if you select only the skeletal system, you have a complete 3D human skeleton at your fingertips. Using the search function, you can also find parts of the body according to their medical name, as well as view a detailed text description if their function. If you’d like to make your own notes you can do that too. Amazingly the app accurately reproduces motion as well, and does so in three dimensions. In the video below you can get a general idea for how it works. This, they claim, is the world’s first analysis and 3D reproduction of living human joints. Using the iPad, they can be viewed from any angle….

I recently had a chance to visit Team Lab, the folks behind a number of incredible digital projects, such as the fun TeamLab hangers which we recently featured. And this month recently the company has released an amazing app for iPad called TeamLab Body.

The app presents a 3D representation of the entire human body, including the skeletal, muscle, nervous, circulatory systems and even ligaments. You can toggle the visibility of each system on the side panel, depending on which area you would like to explore. So for example, if you select only the skeletal system, you have a complete 3D human skeleton at your fingertips. Using the search function, you can also find parts of the body according to their medical name, as well as view a detailed text description if their function. If you’d like to make your own notes you can do that too.

Amazingly the app accurately reproduces motion as well, and does so in three dimensions. In the video below you can get a general idea for how it works. This, they claim, is the world’s first analysis and 3D reproduction of living human joints. Using the iPad, they can be viewed from any angle.

TeamLab body was created using data from professor and orthopedic surgeon Kazuomi Sugamoto and his laboratory at Osaka University, who had collected all this interesting anatomical data from living humans over 10 years through magnetic resonance imaging an CT scans, resulting in the potential for such amazing 3D motion graphics.

For anyone in the field of medicine, this would surely be an invaluable tool. It’s a little bit pricey as far as apps go, at a cost of $29.99, but I’m sure that’s a small price to pay for such a robust and handy reference. There is a lite version of the app available for $0.99, restricted to the head only of you’d like to test it out.

You can learn more about the project over at TeamLabBody.com.

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Japanese tower defense hit ‘Battle Cats’ marches on, now with 4 million downloads

Rick Martin 2013.03.27

The Japanese tower defense game Battle Cats from Kyoto-based developer Ponos has just surpassed 4 million downloads, this according to Gamebiz.jp. This comes shortly after the title passed the 2 million downloads milestone just last month. The game was initially released for iOS back in November, with the Android version following at the end of December. The title has been a top 50 iOS app in Japan for the majority of 2013, and a top 5 stallworth in the strategy category. The Android version has done even better, starting out a little slow, but staying in the top 25 of all Android apps for Japan since early January, with the exception of a few days. Personally I’m a huge fan of this game, and I’m really glad to see it doing well. I confess, that Puzzle & Dragon’s has displaced Battle Cats somewhat in my gaming time, but if I can ever get past chapter 3, round 48, then I expect my addiction will re-kindle pretty quickly. While I haven’t yet cracked the problem of beating chapter 3, some readers have inquired about beating chapter 2. So here’s a short video (above) which gives an overview of that round. I…

The Japanese tower defense game Battle Cats from Kyoto-based developer Ponos has just surpassed 4 million downloads, this according to Gamebiz.jp. This comes shortly after the title passed the 2 million downloads milestone just last month. The game was initially released for iOS back in November, with the Android version following at the end of December.

The title has been a top 50 iOS app in Japan for the majority of 2013, and a top 5 stallworth in the strategy category. The Android version has done even better, starting out a little slow, but staying in the top 25 of all Android apps for Japan since early January, with the exception of a few days.

Personally I’m a huge fan of this game, and I’m really glad to see it doing well. I confess, that Puzzle & Dragon’s has displaced Battle Cats somewhat in my gaming time, but if I can ever get past chapter 3, round 48, then I expect my addiction will re-kindle pretty quickly.

While I haven’t yet cracked the problem of beating chapter 3, some readers have inquired about beating chapter 2. So here’s a short video (above) which gives an overview of that round. I hope it helps!

If you’re a fan of Battle Cats, feel free to share your tips or invite codes in the comment section below.

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With over 25 million downloads, FX Camera is one of Japan’s most successful photo apps

Rick Martin 2013.03.25

We’ve written a lot about unusual photo apps from Japan here on SD. There are decorative purikura apps like Decopic or Snapeee, or off-the-wall apps like Face Stealer or the stealthy Ninja Camera. But one of the most successful photo apps from Japan is not nearly a niche as these. FX Camera is more straightforward, with a repertoire of photo filters and effects, plus simple social sharing. It doesn’t over-complicate things. I finally took the plunge and spent some serious time with FX Camera over the past few weeks. Given the relatively normal feature set I didn’t have huge expectations. But there were a few things that pleasantly surprised me: the filters consistently produce photos of an unexpected quality, especially the ‘Oldie’ filter under the ‘toy camera’ filter collection [1]. There’s also the fun symmetry effect collection, which can make for some great images if you use it wisely (see my attempt, lower right). Recently the company behind FX Camera, Bit Cellar, announced that their app has surpassed 25 million downloads, which is certainly an impressive feat. Although it should be noted that the app was first released for Android all the way back in 2009, a big head start…

We’ve written a lot about unusual photo apps from Japan here on SD. There are decorative purikura apps like Decopic or Snapeee, or off-the-wall apps like Face Stealer or the stealthy Ninja Camera. But one of the most successful photo apps from Japan is not nearly a niche as these. FX Camera is more straightforward, with a repertoire of photo filters and effects, plus simple social sharing. It doesn’t over-complicate things.

I finally took the plunge and spent some serious time with FX Camera over the past few weeks. Given the relatively normal feature set I didn’t have huge expectations. But there were a few things that pleasantly surprised me: the filters consistently produce photos of an unexpected quality, especially the ‘Oldie’ filter under the ‘toy camera’ filter collection [1]. There’s also the fun symmetry effect collection, which can make for some great images if you use it wisely (see my attempt, lower right).

Recently the company behind FX Camera, Bit Cellar, announced that their app has surpassed 25 million downloads, which is certainly an impressive feat. Although it should be noted that the app was first released for Android all the way back in 2009, a big head start on its competitors, especially here in Japan.

If you try out the app these days, you’ll find that there is a new ‘water’ effect section. I understand that if you use these photo effects that BitCellar will donate a penny for each photo to the Japan Water Forum. Check out their promo video below for more on that.

FX Camera is not my primary photo app (that honor goes to Big Lens) but I expect I’ll continue to use it as one of my favorites. My only complaint so far is that it kills my podcast player when I open it, which is a little annoying.

If you’d like to give FX Camera a try for yourself, it’s available over on the App Store as well as on Google Play.

A photo took of my new daughter ended up bearing a bit of a resemblance to ‘The Girl with the Pearl Earring’. ↩

With contributions from Rick Martin

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So you’re the new Japanese prime minister, eh? There’s an app for that!

Masaru Ikeda 2013.03.23

On Friday the Japanese prime minister’s office unveiled smartphone apps for Android and iOS, with aim of giving the country’s leader more reach to among Japanese nationals. It uses a smartphone app framework called News Agent, which was developed by Tokyo-based smartphone app developer Brave Soft. The end result gives smartphone users easy access to announcements from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as well as a stream of news photos from summits and diplomatic conferences he has been attending. The app has no especially impressive features from a technical point of view, and often redirects you to the PMO’s Facebook page or Abe’s own Facebook page. However, for the younger generation who don’t subscribe to physical newspapers or watch TV news shows, it could be a good touch point for them to stay up to speed on Japanese politics. In addition, when the government has an important announcement, it will be published on the app as an official update from the prime minister, and you’ll get a notification as well. Last October, the PMO has set up an account on the Line messaging platform, which gives access to potentially over 40 million Japanese people, almost one-third of Japan’s entire population. On…

On Friday the Japanese prime minister’s office unveiled smartphone apps for Android and iOS, with aim of giving the country’s leader more reach to among Japanese nationals. It uses a smartphone app framework called News Agent, which was developed by Tokyo-based smartphone app developer Brave Soft. The end result gives smartphone users easy access to announcements from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as well as a stream of news photos from summits and diplomatic conferences he has been attending.

The app has no especially impressive features from a technical point of view, and often redirects you to the PMO’s Facebook page or Abe’s own Facebook page. However, for the younger generation who don’t subscribe to physical newspapers or watch TV news shows, it could be a good touch point for them to stay up to speed on Japanese politics. In addition, when the government has an important announcement, it will be published on the app as an official update from the prime minister, and you’ll get a notification as well.

Last October, the PMO has set up an account on the Line messaging platform, which gives access to potentially over 40 million Japanese people, almost one-third of Japan’s entire population.

On a related note, here’s some mobile apps published by governmental offices in other countries:

USA: The White House app ( iOS / Android )
UK: Official Number 10 app ( iOS )
Korea: Presidential Office “Cheong Wa Dae” app ( iOS / Olleh / TStore )

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How one Japanese fashion brand is using smartphones to connect with customers

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.03.22

The O2O market in Japan is expected to reach 50 trillion yen by the year 2017. Obviously smartphones will play a key role in this growing market, and brands already face consumer expectation to leverage mobile devices in as many ways as possible. Smartphone penetration for teens and consumers in their 20s is said to be around 30% to 50%. One apparel brand targeting young females is well aware of this, and is using mobile for promotion to increase in-store sales and customer communication. It’s called Lip Service. Credge, the company behind Lip Service, recently released an Android app that deploys an O2O service called Push Shop, developed by digital agency Bilcom. Push Shop allows brands to develop their own mobile apps with a geolocation enabled push notification feature. The service is available for a monthly fee starting at 9,800 yen (about $103). As a part of its mobile digital marketing strategy, Lip Service is actively using chat application Line to provide coupons and sales information to the tens of millions of users here in Japan. Lip Service has accumulated over 20,000 friends currently on the platform, and through its promotional activities its sales have grown 50% compared to the…

The O2O market in Japan is expected to reach 50 trillion yen by the year 2017. Obviously smartphones will play a key role in this growing market, and brands already face consumer expectation to leverage mobile devices in as many ways as possible. Smartphone penetration for teens and consumers in their 20s is said to be around 30% to 50%.

One apparel brand targeting young females is well aware of this, and is using mobile for promotion to increase in-store sales and customer communication. It’s called Lip Service.

Credge, the company behind Lip Service, recently released an Android app that deploys an O2O service called Push Shop, developed by digital agency Bilcom. Push Shop allows brands to develop their own mobile apps with a geolocation enabled push notification feature. The service is available for a monthly fee starting at 9,800 yen (about $103).

As a part of its mobile digital marketing strategy, Lip Service is actively using chat application Line to provide coupons and sales information to the tens of millions of users here in Japan. Lip Service has accumulated over 20,000 friends currently on the platform, and through its promotional activities its sales have grown 50% compared to the previous week.

Credge operates an e-commerce service called Atomicboxx, which sees 80% of its sales come from smartphones. On the e-commerce site, the company recently added a feature that provides real time inventory information, updated every 30 minutes. The company plans to release an iPhone version at the end of this month.

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A big year for Japanese card battle game Rage of Bahamut [Infographic]

Rick Martin 2013.03.22

Cygames hit card battle game Rage of Bagamut had a pretty incredible year in 2012, racking up more than 10 million users worldwide and owning top grossing charts in a number of regions, including 199 consecutive days in the US. To learn more about this wildly popular mobile game, check out the following infographic from DeNA (TYO:2432), commemorating the game’s first anniversary, which summarizes some of the game’s key accomplishments to date. Also check out our recent feature where we spoke to folks from Cygames and DeNA about their efforts to bring the game overseas. If you haven’t yet tried Rage of Bahamut, you can get it over on the App Store or on Google Play.

Cygames hit card battle game Rage of Bagamut had a pretty incredible year in 2012, racking up more than 10 million users worldwide and owning top grossing charts in a number of regions, including 199 consecutive days in the US.

To learn more about this wildly popular mobile game, check out the following infographic from DeNA (TYO:2432), commemorating the game’s first anniversary, which summarizes some of the game’s key accomplishments to date. Also check out our recent feature where we spoke to folks from Cygames and DeNA about their efforts to bring the game overseas.

If you haven’t yet tried Rage of Bahamut, you can get it over on the App Store or on Google Play.

Apps

Live-streaming app TwitCasting surpasses 2 million users, but founder is a little distressed

Japan’s Kolor app brings you mission-based rewards on your mobile

DeNA launches ‘Groovy’ music distribution platform, adding social to the listening experience

Widgely: Community Factory and Yahoo Japan team up on multi-purpose girlie app

TeamLabBody 3D iPad app is a medical student’s dream

Japanese tower defense hit ‘Battle Cats’ marches on, now with 4 million downloads

With over 25 million downloads, FX Camera is one of Japan’s most successful photo apps

So you’re the new Japanese prime minister, eh? There’s an app for that!

How one Japanese fashion brand is using smartphones to connect with customers

A big year for Japanese card battle game Rage of Bahamut [Infographic]

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