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GungHo’s Princess Punt Sweets passes 8M downloads in Japan, still no English version

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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Japanese gaming powerhouse GungHo Online Entertainment, the maker of the hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons, announced this week that Princess Punt Sweets – its second most popular smartphone game – has has surpassed eight million downloads in Japan. The only other region where this title is available is in Korea, having launched back in July of 2013 (iOS and Android). I’m surprised that GungHo has not expanded this game to English regions [1], because I think it really has the kind of cute appeal that has helped so many other Japanese apps succeed in overseas markets in the past year or two. It might be an easier sell to overseas markets than Puzzle & Dragons, I think. If you’d like to try out the Japanese version, you can get it as a free download for iOS and Android. GungHo, CNet Japan Note, I’m not counting the game’s prequel, which GungHo has published in English.  ↩

princess-punt-sweets

Japanese gaming powerhouse GungHo Online Entertainment, the maker of the hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons, announced this week that Princess Punt Sweets – its second most popular smartphone game – has has surpassed eight million downloads in Japan.

The only other region where this title is available is in Korea, having launched back in July of 2013 (iOS and Android). I’m surprised that GungHo has not expanded this game to English regions [1], because I think it really has the kind of cute appeal that has helped so many other Japanese apps succeed in overseas markets in the past year or two.

It might be an easier sell to overseas markets than Puzzle & Dragons, I think.

If you’d like to try out the Japanese version, you can get it as a free download for iOS and Android.

GungHo, CNet Japan

  1. Note, I’m not counting the game’s prequel, which GungHo has published in English.  ↩

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Mynd: Japan’s latest news app is one of its prettiest

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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This week we witnessed yet another entrant into Japan’s mobile news app space. It’s called Mynd, and it comes from Tokyo-based TomyK, led by Tomihisa Kamada. The app has a very beautiful UI with a number of slick translucent elements (pictured below). It also supports a wide range of external services, including Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Pocket, and Hatena. Users can opt to read news at any time, or have a summary delivered to them every morning (like Gunosy does, for example). The single article view defaults to the source’s own web view rather than stripped down text view [1], which is a mistake in my view – but this appears to be common practice among news apps in Japan. It’s interesting to see more and more new apps emerging in this space to challenge the likes of Gunosy and SmartNews. I hope to bring you a closer look at this sector in the near future, so stay tuned for that. For now, if you’d like to give Mynd a try, it’s available as a free download for iOS and Android. Think Instapaper, Readability, or even SmartNews’s ‘Smartmode’.  ↩

mind-feat

This week we witnessed yet another entrant into Japan’s mobile news app space. It’s called Mynd, and it comes from Tokyo-based TomyK, led by Tomihisa Kamada.

The app has a very beautiful UI with a number of slick translucent elements (pictured below). It also supports a wide range of external services, including Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Pocket, and Hatena. Users can opt to read news at any time, or have a summary delivered to them every morning (like Gunosy does, for example). The single article view defaults to the source’s own web view rather than stripped down text view [1], which is a mistake in my view – but this appears to be common practice among news apps in Japan.

It’s interesting to see more and more new apps emerging in this space to challenge the likes of Gunosy and SmartNews. I hope to bring you a closer look at this sector in the near future, so stay tuned for that.

For now, if you’d like to give Mynd a try, it’s available as a free download for iOS and Android.

mind-feat

  1. Think Instapaper, Readability, or even SmartNews’s ‘Smartmode’.  ↩

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Line rolls out ‘Sticons’, first on Android

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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With its new 4.2.0 Android update today, Japanese messaging app Line rolled out something that it’s calling ‘Sticons’. The company says that these can be used like emoticons inline in text messages, and also as the sort of larger stickers that current users of the service are already familiar with. You can read more about this new feature over on the Line blog.

With its new 4.2.0 Android update today, Japanese messaging app Line rolled out something that it’s calling ‘Sticons’. The company says that these can be used like emoticons inline in text messages, and also as the sort of larger stickers that current users of the service are already familiar with.

You can read more about this new feature over on the Line blog.

line-sticons

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Popular Korean app ‘Noon Date’ launches in Japan

SCORE 1,095 Rick Martin Rick Martin
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The Korean dating app ‘Noon Date’, which has over 700,000 downloads in its home country thus far, is now launching in the Japanese market through a partnership with Tokyo-based Waku+. It will be called OhiruDate, and it requires Facebook authorization for a more reliable identity verification. OhiruDate delivers two profile cards to you each day at noon, and if you and that person mutually like each other, you can become friends and chat. The idea is similar to MatchAlarm (backed by CyberAgent Ventures), which recommends a new person every morning at 8am. Ohirudate is available for iOS and Google Play.

noondate

The Korean dating app ‘Noon Date’, which has over 700,000 downloads in its home country thus far, is now launching in the Japanese market through a partnership with Tokyo-based Waku+. It will be called OhiruDate, and it requires Facebook authorization for a more reliable identity verification.

OhiruDate delivers two profile cards to you each day at noon, and if you and that person mutually like each other, you can become friends and chat. The idea is similar to MatchAlarm (backed by CyberAgent Ventures), which recommends a new person every morning at 8am.

Ohirudate is available for iOS and Google Play.

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Japanese food app Teriyaki partners with Matcha, available in 6 languages for international visitors

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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Our readers may recall Teriyaki, the restaurant recommendation app launched by Japanese internet tycoon Takafumi Horie last year. The service has tied up with Matcha, a multilingual information portal for international visitors to Japan, and will start listing high-profile restaurants (selected by foodies) in Japanese [1], English, Korean, and Chinese (simplified and traditional). Matcha was launched back in February, and the company is expecting to surpass one million page views by the end of this month. Teriyaki recently received major investment from Japanese online learning platform developer Hitomedia. via ValuePress And also in grammatically simplified Japanese for non-native Japanese speakers.  ↩

matcha_featuredimage

Our readers may recall Teriyaki, the restaurant recommendation app launched by Japanese internet tycoon Takafumi Horie last year. The service has tied up with Matcha, a multilingual information portal for international visitors to Japan, and will start listing high-profile restaurants (selected by foodies) in Japanese [1], English, Korean, and Chinese (simplified and traditional).

Matcha was launched back in February, and the company is expecting to surpass one million page views by the end of this month. Teriyaki recently received major investment from Japanese online learning platform developer Hitomedia.

via ValuePress

  1. And also in grammatically simplified Japanese for non-native Japanese speakers.  ↩

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Japan’s Cookpad boasts 20M app downloads, 40M monthly users

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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Cookpad, the operator of Japan’s leading recipe sharing website, announced today that downloads of its mobile apps (for iOS and Android) have surpassed 20 million. In addition, the service now boasts 40 million monthly users, of which six percent engage using smartphones. You can see the chart above for a more detailed breakdown of Cookpad user access across devices. Cookpad

cookpad
From Cookpad

Cookpad, the operator of Japan’s leading recipe sharing website, announced today that downloads of its mobile apps (for iOS and Android) have surpassed 20 million.

In addition, the service now boasts 40 million monthly users, of which six percent engage using smartphones. You can see the chart above for a more detailed breakdown of Cookpad user access across devices.

Cookpad

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Colopl’s ‘Quiz RPG’ notches 23M downloads, ‘Slingshot Braves’ off to fast start

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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Japanese game developer Colopl announced today that its hit mobile game Quiz RPG now has 23 million downloads in Japan. The game is also available in English (see our video demo below), but hasn’t received the attention – nor the promotion – that it has in its home market. Meanwhile one of the company’s newer games, Slingshot Braves, notched its first million downloads on April 2nd. I’ve played it just a little so far, but for a smartphone title the graphics are really great, and the slingshot controls (reminiscent of Mixi’s Monster Strike) are super fun as well. This is a pretty hot start considering that the title initially launched on Android on February 27, and just recently on iOS on March 29th. For those who haven’t heard of Colopl, it’s because the company appears to not really care about its global business just yet, even though the company has games in English and is talking about other markets [1]. They clearly understand gaming, but as for branding, Colopl has my personal nomination for the worst-named company ever. How the hell is an English-speaking person expected to pronounce ‘Colopl’? Seriously.  ↩

colopl-quiz-rpg

Japanese game developer Colopl announced today that its hit mobile game Quiz RPG now has 23 million downloads in Japan. The game is also available in English (see our video demo below), but hasn’t received the attention – nor the promotion – that it has in its home market.

Meanwhile one of the company’s newer games, Slingshot Braves, notched its first million downloads on April 2nd. I’ve played it just a little so far, but for a smartphone title the graphics are really great, and the slingshot controls (reminiscent of Mixi’s Monster Strike) are super fun as well. This is a pretty hot start considering that the title initially launched on Android on February 27, and just recently on iOS on March 29th.

For those who haven’t heard of Colopl, it’s because the company appears to not really care about its global business just yet, even though the company has games in English and is talking about other markets [1].

  1. They clearly understand gaming, but as for branding, Colopl has my personal nomination for the worst-named company ever. How the hell is an English-speaking person expected to pronounce ‘Colopl’? Seriously.  ↩

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Japan’s Zeppelin brings vibrant filters to your mobile video

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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Tokyo-based design house Zeppelin was one of many Japanese companies that made the trip to SXSW in Austin, Texas last month. The company has previously done UI/UX work for many large clients in Japan and around Asia, but recently it is venturing to create some products of its own. The most notable of these is perhaps its VideoShader iOS app, which lets you apply photo filters on top of your mobile videos. What’s fun about this is that when you pick a filter, your viewfinder video is previewed in realtime, along with the option to increase or decrease the intensity with a slider tool. I particularly enjoyed the ‘red detector’ filter, which enables you to do some really creative stuff, as you can see in the rough test clip below. Note that I’m adjusting the effects slider as I record, which is making the effect do different things during video capture. There are a number of other attractive filters like ‘motion blur’ and ‘tilt shift’, although those are available as premium add-ons. There is also a VideoShader pro version available, which the company says enables users to create their custom filters without knowing any code, but I’ve not tested that…

videoshader

Tokyo-based design house Zeppelin was one of many Japanese companies that made the trip to SXSW in Austin, Texas last month. The company has previously done UI/UX work for many large clients in Japan and around Asia, but recently it is venturing to create some products of its own.

The most notable of these is perhaps its VideoShader iOS app, which lets you apply photo filters on top of your mobile videos. What’s fun about this is that when you pick a filter, your viewfinder video is previewed in realtime, along with the option to increase or decrease the intensity with a slider tool.

I particularly enjoyed the ‘red detector’ filter, which enables you to do some really creative stuff, as you can see in the rough test clip below. Note that I’m adjusting the effects slider as I record, which is making the effect do different things during video capture.

There are a number of other attractive filters like ‘motion blur’ and ‘tilt shift’, although those are available as premium add-ons. There is also a VideoShader pro version available, which the company says enables users to create their custom filters without knowing any code, but I’ve not tested that particular feature myself yet.

Zeppelin is planning to expand to the US soon, in an effort to increase their reach among global consumers with projects like VideoShader. CEO and founder Kohei Torigoe explained the rationale behind driving for such an expansion:

If VideoShader can reach one million or five million users in Japan for example, it would be difficult to expand beyond that. But if we can reach that same total from the US, then would be easier to reach out to the world.

I understand that an updated version of VideoShader is coming very soon, so we can look forward to a more simplified interface coming pretty soon.

The company has a few other fun projects in the works as well, including its voice-assistant app ‘Jarvis’ (think Iron Man), and I’m looking forward to seeing how that develops.

For more on Zeppelin check out their website, or watch founder Torigoe below as he gives a brief introduction to his company.

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Line launches its kids’ movie app on iOS

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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See our report on Line Kids Movies in Japanese A few weeks back Line Corporation announced that it would be releasing a movie app for children called Line Kids Movies. That application officially went live today on iOS [1], and if you’re in Japan and have kids, you may want to check it out. Programs included on the platform include Astro Boy, Pokemon, and Doraemon. As we mentioned previously, it’s a paid subscription service. But you can also earn watching time by sharing videos to your friends as well. As you can see in the screenshot below, there’s a timer in the top corner that tracks your remaining video time, an interesting device that will likely serve as a interesting way to bring new users to the service. I personally wouldn’t pay for such a service right now, but if it were ever to become available as a dedicated app on Apple TV, I’d likely give it a try. Android will follow soon.  ↩

line-kids-movie

See our report on Line Kids Movies in Japanese

A few weeks back Line Corporation announced that it would be releasing a movie app for children called Line Kids Movies. That application officially went live today on iOS [1], and if you’re in Japan and have kids, you may want to check it out. Programs included on the platform include Astro Boy, Pokemon, and Doraemon.

As we mentioned previously, it’s a paid subscription service. But you can also earn watching time by sharing videos to your friends as well. As you can see in the screenshot below, there’s a timer in the top corner that tracks your remaining video time, an interesting device that will likely serve as a interesting way to bring new users to the service.

I personally wouldn’t pay for such a service right now, but if it were ever to become available as a dedicated app on Apple TV, I’d likely give it a try.

screenshot from Line Kids Movies
screenshot from Line Kids Movies

  1. Android will follow soon.  ↩

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TV ads march Mixi’s Monster Strike past 5M users

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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Mixi has announced today that its popular puzzle RPG game, Monster Strike, now has 5 million users. It initially launched on iOS back in September of 2013, and then on Android in December. Mixi announced in February that it would partner with Chinese internet giant Tencent to bring Monster Strike to China, ostensibly the first localization for the title when it happens. The game is still (to my knowledge) only available in Japanese, but if you’d like to give it a try, it’s a free download on iOS and Google Play. The success of Monster Strike thus far has been credited with helping the company return to profit this year, and former general manager of the game department Hiroki Morite was recently named to become Mixi’s new CEO, leading into what the company is calling a ‘regrowth’ stage. Mixi has been promoting Monster Strike heavily on television in Japan, and its commercials have resulted in the last million users coming in just 18 days. Mixi

monsterstrike

Mixi has announced today that its popular puzzle RPG game, Monster Strike, now has 5 million users. It initially launched on iOS back in September of 2013, and then on Android in December.

Mixi announced in February that it would partner with Chinese internet giant Tencent to bring Monster Strike to China, ostensibly the first localization for the title when it happens. The game is still (to my knowledge) only available in Japanese, but if you’d like to give it a try, it’s a free download on iOS and Google Play.

The success of Monster Strike thus far has been credited with helping the company return to profit this year, and former general manager of the game department Hiroki Morite was recently named to become Mixi’s new CEO, leading into what the company is calling a ‘regrowth’ stage.

Mixi has been promoting Monster Strike heavily on television in Japan, and its commercials have resulted in the last million users coming in just 18 days.

Mixi

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