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Asia has an appetite for Line’s Cookie Run

Rick Martin 2014.04.07

Line’s ‘Cookie Run’ game (trailer above) has surpasses the 20 million downloads mark (as of April 4th), with strong performance across the Asia region. On Google Play, it’s currently the top game in Thailand and Taiwan, and on iOS it’s the top game in Laos and Indonesia. Such milestones are pretty common for Line’s repertoire of casual games, but Cookie Run (released in late January) has been rather quick, picking up 10 million in its first month and another 10 million in 36 days after that. Via Gamebiz.jp

Line’s ‘Cookie Run’ game (trailer above) has surpasses the 20 million downloads mark (as of April 4th), with strong performance across the Asia region. On Google Play, it’s currently the top game in Thailand and Taiwan, and on iOS it’s the top game in Laos and Indonesia.

Such milestones are pretty common for Line’s repertoire of casual games, but Cookie Run (released in late January) has been rather quick, picking up 10 million in its first month and another 10 million in 36 days after that.

Via Gamebiz.jp

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Japan’s Jorte aspires to be a calendar for everyone

Rick Martin 2014.04.07

With over 20 million downloads under its belt, Jorte is perhaps Japan’s most successful calendar app. Speaking as more of a power user who integrates a number of tools – Fantastical and Drafts – as a composite solution for my daily schedule, Jorte is not for me. I think it’s a mobile design disaster of overcrowded text [1], but interestingly, it seems makes a lot of sense to mainstream users. And that’s who Jorte is trying to serve. When I spoke to Jorte representatives recently, including founder and CEO Koichi Shimohana, I was told that their aim is not to appeal to geeks, but rather to build a calendar app that the general public would use. And that approach appears to have been very successful considering its large userbase [2]. By implementing a more accessible, traditional-looking calendar design, Jorte is casting its net very wide. Here in Japan that strategy already has brought in a big catch, with still some room to grow domestically. Jorte started on Android in 2010, and so far 90% of their users are on that platform. The Jorte iOS app, released in late 2012, is just catching up to its Android counterpart in terms of…

With over 20 million downloads under its belt, Jorte is perhaps Japan’s most successful calendar app. Speaking as more of a power user who integrates a number of tools – Fantastical and Drafts – as a composite solution for my daily schedule, Jorte is not for me. I think it’s a mobile design disaster of overcrowded text [1], but interestingly, it seems makes a lot of sense to mainstream users.

And that’s who Jorte is trying to serve.

When I spoke to Jorte representatives recently, including founder and CEO Koichi Shimohana, I was told that their aim is not to appeal to geeks, but rather to build a calendar app that the general public would use. And that approach appears to have been very successful considering its large userbase [2]. By implementing a more accessible, traditional-looking calendar design, Jorte is casting its net very wide. Here in Japan that strategy already has brought in a big catch, with still some room to grow domestically.

Jorte started on Android in 2010, and so far 90% of their users are on that platform. The Jorte iOS app, released in late 2012, is just catching up to its Android counterpart in terms of features, but iPhone users certainly represent a growth opportunity. I’m told that the company is shooting for 35 million users overall by the end of this year.

Unlike most calendar apps, Jorte has taken more of a content-based approach with its product. There are an incredible amount of things that you can import and track, such as the schedule of your favorite baseball team, your neighborhood’s garbage/recycling pick-up schedule, or a DVD rental release calendar. The company has more than 50 partners providing 10,000 of such ‘interest calendars’. I understand that one of their possible business models is to give a priority listing position to a company or content provider in a certain category [3].

As for Jorte’s overseas performance, it’s global user breakdown is as follows:

Obviously in order to do well abroad, proper localization will be key. And to date Jorte has wisely made use of its user community assist with that effort over on its translation project home page. In the app’s English version, certain UI text still needs work before they can make a serious push to US and European markets. Jorte faces competition from Naver and Daum in Korea, but the size of the Android market there is obviously a very attractive one.

If you’d like to try out Jorte for yourself, I encourage you to give it a try. You can get it for free over on the App Store or on Google Play.

There are options to adjust and customize, but for me, it’s a bit too troublesome. ↩
On iOS, my guess if that that more people use the default calendar app. But I always see Jorte ranking quite high among calendar apps in the productivity category, typically in the top three. ↩
Other monetization methods include paid icon sets, background sets, and more. ↩

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Korean growth hacking tool 5Rocks comes out of beta, planning global expansion

5Rocks
Korea

Masaru Ikeda 2014.04.06

See the original version of this article, written in Japanese We have mentioned 5Rocks, a Korean-based growth hacking tool for mobile apps many times before. In August of 2013, the startup raised $2.3 million from Japanese venture capital Global Brain, and it expanded the business to Japan [1]. The product has been adopted by many game developers such as Gumi, Pokelabo, MyNet, Mutations Studio, KLab and NewsTech. The beta version has been operating for more than a half year now, but recently on April 2nd, the official version of 5Rocks was finally released, and is available in five languages, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, English, and Russian. The pricing for the Japanese market was announced as well. There is a charge of one yen (about $0.01) is charged for each monthly active user for an app. If you have less than 10,000 MAU, then it’s free. The maximum fee would be 300,000 yen ($3000), for any app that has more than 30,000 MAU. 5Rocks offers a SDK as well, which game developers can implement into their app to acquire and analyze users activity data. In this new official version, 5Rocks added some new features based on the feedback from their beta phase,…

See the original version of this article, written in Japanese

We have mentioned 5Rocks, a Korean-based growth hacking tool for mobile apps many times before. In August of 2013, the startup raised $2.3 million from Japanese venture capital Global Brain, and it expanded the business to Japan [1]. The product has been adopted by many game developers such as Gumi, Pokelabo, MyNet, Mutations Studio, KLab and NewsTech. The beta version has been operating for more than a half year now, but recently on April 2nd, the official version of 5Rocks was finally released, and is available in five languages, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, English, and Russian.

The pricing for the Japanese market was announced as well. There is a charge of one yen (about $0.01) is charged for each monthly active user for an app. If you have less than 10,000 MAU, then it’s free. The maximum fee would be 300,000 yen ($3000), for any app that has more than 30,000 MAU.

5Rocks offers a SDK as well, which game developers can implement into their app to acquire and analyze users activity data. In this new official version, 5Rocks added some new features based on the feedback from their beta phase, including the ability to chart correlation of user activity (who log-in regularly) and sales.

The chart indicates the variation of users, according to frequency of gameplay

A chart showing sales

The chart showing the number of the users playing a game in real time was particularly interesting (see below). I hear that some game developers even project this chart on a big screen in their office just to help motivate employees.

A growth hacking tool needs more than just data acquisition and the analysis. It needs to let game developers take action based on results. For that purpose, 5Rocks provide two added features: promotion and push-notification. Both functions target specific clusters of users based on certain attributes and lets game developers to send messages to those users’ smartphones by uploading images or text to 5Rocks’ dashboard. These features are adopted in the SDK, so members in charge of marketing can proceed with promotions or A/B tests without requiring support from engineers.

Promotion page: Select user attributes on the left. The image on the right is the ad for the promotion.

The promotion displayed in the app

According to Japan country manager, Yasuo Sato, 5Rocks has been adopted by about 80 game developers in Korea and Japan and about 200 apps. The company plans to expand to elsewhere in Asia, with the goal of being used by 3000 apps by the end of this year.

The competition in this field is quite fierce, with Kaizen’s planBCD just announcing that it has raised $5 million, and will expand to the US. There’s also Singapore-based Unicon which operates Fello, and CyberAgent subsidiary Sirok which operates Growth Push, Growth Replay, and Growth Point.

The startup began as an online reservation application, but has since evolved to different business. ↩

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Japanese movie app SlideStory surpasses 1M downloads

Masaru Ikeda 2014.04.04

See the original story in Japanese. SlideStory is an iOS app that lets you create a 32-second movie clip from still images on your mobile. Tokyo-based Nanameue, the startup behind the app, has announced that it has recently surpassed a million downloads, a promising total for the still very young service. The app is usually ranked high in the ‘photo/video’ category on the App Store, especially in the Asia region. We understand that they intend to add some new features in an effort to improve user acquisition. The company’s Atsushi Takishima tells us that 45% of their users comes from Japan, but the rest are from abroad, with fans in Thailand and Taiwan in particular. They’ve been relatively successful in acquiring many users across Asia since the app supports nine languages, including Japanese, English, Korean, simplified and traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay, and Indonesian. Takishima explained: We have not yet deployed any significant advertising or marketing effort. However, Kazuhiro Mizuno, the founder and CEO of Quan Inc, who I previously worked for, advised us on what to do and linked us up with many key people around Asia. Mizuno has strong connections among notable internet companies in the region, and…

See the original story in Japanese.

SlideStory is an iOS app that lets you create a 32-second movie clip from still images on your mobile. Tokyo-based Nanameue, the startup behind the app, has announced that it has recently surpassed a million downloads, a promising total for the still very young service. The app is usually ranked high in the ‘photo/video’ category on the App Store, especially in the Asia region. We understand that they intend to add some new features in an effort to improve user acquisition.

The company’s Atsushi Takishima tells us that 45% of their users comes from Japan, but the rest are from abroad, with fans in Thailand and Taiwan in particular. They’ve been relatively successful in acquiring many users across Asia since the app supports nine languages, including Japanese, English, Korean, simplified and traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay, and Indonesian. Takishima explained:

We have not yet deployed any significant advertising or marketing effort. However, Kazuhiro Mizuno, the founder and CEO of Quan Inc, who I previously worked for, advised us on what to do and linked us up with many key people around Asia.

Mizuno has strong connections among notable internet companies in the region, and has succeeded in partnering with China’s Tencent and Thai mobile telco AIS to promote his company’s mobile apps in these markets.

Speaking of mobile video apps, you may recall that Japanese mobile streaming app TwitCasting has acquired a promising amount of users in Brazil. While the two video apps are very different in nature, Nanameue thinks TwitCasting is a good role model for doing business internationally.

The next challenge

When creating and sharing a movie clip on SlideStory, the current version lets you upload the clip to third-party platforms like Twipple and then share that link on other social media. In this way, the company doesn’t need a backend environment for storage, and can concentrate on giving users a better experience, with things like custom SlideStory embed code for blogs, for example. But there’s a limit in the variety of functions they can provide without their own storage. Nanameue is currently working on that, and they expect to launch that in about a month.

Considering the fact that more than a half of their entire user base is from South East Asia, they are also planning to launch an Android version, since that platform is more widely used in that region.

SlideStory was initially launched back on October 3rd, 2013. Six months have passed since then, and it’s really encouraging that they have a clear vision of the future. The company raised seed funding of about $300,000 from Skyland Ventures late last year, and they are making efforts to raise more funds soon.

news

Line provides free calls to phones in Chile after 8.2 magnitude quake

Rick Martin 2014.04.03

In the wake of the massive earthquake in Chile this week, Japan’s Line Corporation is allowing users of Line Call to make free phone calls to the country between now and April 10, with a call duration limit of between 15 and 20 minutes [1]. From the company’s announcement: In order to enable LINE users to check on the safety of their relative and loved ones in Chile and aid in disaster relief efforts, we will be making all calls made to landlines and cellular phones in Chile through our service LINE Call free of charge for one week. Users in countries where the service is offered will not have to worry about telephone fees or charges. For more details, check out Line’s official blog. From countries where Line Call is available. ↩

In the wake of the massive earthquake in Chile this week, Japan’s Line Corporation is allowing users of Line Call to make free phone calls to the country between now and April 10, with a call duration limit of between 15 and 20 minutes [1]. From the company’s announcement:

In order to enable LINE users to check on the safety of their relative and loved ones in Chile and aid in disaster relief efforts, we will be making all calls made to landlines and cellular phones in Chile through our service LINE Call free of charge for one week. Users in countries where the service is offered will not have to worry about telephone fees or charges.

For more details, check out Line’s official blog.

From countries where Line Call is available. ↩

news

Japan’s Voltage boasts 22M users of its dating-sim games for women

Rick Martin 2014.04.02

Japanese app developer Voltage has announced this week that its catalogue of dating simulation apps [1] for women (there are about 60 in total) has surpassed 22 million users. The milestone was reached back in February, according to the company (PDF). Included in the company’s repertoire are Sudden Kiss for a Promise, Office Secrets (also available in English if you’d like to try), as well as Gossip Girl, a title based on the popular American TV show. We interviewed Voltage representative Emiri Okawa last year at the Tokyo Game Show, as you may recall (see below). An explanation on translation: Voltage calls this genre of apps love/romance drama apps. We’ll opt for ‘dating simulation’, in the interests of clarity. ↩

Japanese app developer Voltage has announced this week that its catalogue of dating simulation apps [1] for women (there are about 60 in total) has surpassed 22 million users. The milestone was reached back in February, according to the company (PDF).

Included in the company’s repertoire are Sudden Kiss for a Promise, Office Secrets (also available in English if you’d like to try), as well as Gossip Girl, a title based on the popular American TV show.

We interviewed Voltage representative Emiri Okawa last year at the Tokyo Game Show, as you may recall (see below).

An explanation on translation: Voltage calls this genre of apps love/romance drama apps. We’ll opt for ‘dating simulation’, in the interests of clarity. ↩

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

Rick Martin 2014.04.02

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.

news

Tokyo Metro’s new subway app for tourists can mislead

SCORE 1,328

Rick Martin 2014.04.02

Tokyo Metro has launched a new English language app called ‘Tokyo Subway Navigation for Tourists’. I just wanted to take a moment to show why I would not recommend it to any tourist. Here’s a sample search and result for how to get from Shibuya to Ebisu: Most train apps will tell you that the best way is to take the Yamanote Line, operated by JR East, for one stop and you’ll be there in about three minutes. But Tokyo Metro has not included JR trains, either because it can’t or doesn’t want to. Whatever the case, its a disservice to consumers. No app should ever suggest this route to anyone. Otherwise the app looks sharp, bringing interactivity to the popular Tokyo Metro map, as well as language support for English, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Korean, and Japanese. Considering the shortcomings of the above application, it would be nice to see third party developers be better enabled to contribute in this space. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications does have an open data strategy, which is said to include public transportation such as trains and buses, but I’m not sure of its current progress. I don’t see any information…

Tokyo Metro has launched a new English language app called ‘Tokyo Subway Navigation for Tourists’. I just wanted to take a moment to show why I would not recommend it to any tourist.

Here’s a sample search and result for how to get from Shibuya to Ebisu:

Most train apps will tell you that the best way is to take the Yamanote Line, operated by JR East, for one stop and you’ll be there in about three minutes. But Tokyo Metro has not included JR trains, either because it can’t or doesn’t want to. Whatever the case, its a disservice to consumers.

No app should ever suggest this route to anyone.

Otherwise the app looks sharp, bringing interactivity to the popular Tokyo Metro map, as well as language support for English, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Korean, and Japanese.

Considering the shortcomings of the above application, it would be nice to see third party developers be better enabled to contribute in this space. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications does have an open data strategy, which is said to include public transportation such as trains and buses, but I’m not sure of its current progress. I don’t see any information for developers about APIs on Tokyo Metro’s or Japan Railways’s websites in English, and that should really change.

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Japanese app ‘YourGolf Online’ acquired by TV network

YourGolf Online

Masaru Ikeda 2014.04.01

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

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

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Google’s Pokemon Challenge would have been awesome on Google Glass

Rick Martin 2014.04.01

April Fools is often a very difficult day to spend on the internet. But I usually don’t mind Google’s tricks and web treats, and this year is no exception. Check out their Pokemon Challenge, an update to Google Maps that dares you to catch all 150 Pokemon that have been scattered throughout the world map. I’ve tried playing it for a while, and so far I have caught 22 of the 150 Pokemon, all in the Tokyo area. If you’d like to check it out, make sure you have the newest version of Google Maps on your mobile, hit the search bar, and press start. As I mentioned before in my hypothetical Nintendo product post, something like this would be way better if it were on Google Glass!

April Fools is often a very difficult day to spend on the internet. But I usually don’t mind Google’s tricks and web treats, and this year is no exception. Check out their Pokemon Challenge, an update to Google Maps that dares you to catch all 150 Pokemon that have been scattered throughout the world map.

I’ve tried playing it for a while, and so far I have caught 22 of the 150 Pokemon, all in the Tokyo area. If you’d like to check it out, make sure you have the newest version of Google Maps on your mobile, hit the search bar, and press start.

As I mentioned before in my hypothetical Nintendo product post, something like this would be way better if it were on Google Glass!

Apps

Japan’s Jorte aspires to be a calendar for everyone

Korean growth hacking tool 5Rocks comes out of beta, planning global expansion

Japanese movie app SlideStory surpasses 1M downloads

The next challenge

Line provides free calls to phones in Chile after 8.2 magnitude quake

Japan’s Voltage boasts 22M users of its dating-sim games for women

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

Tokyo Metro’s new subway app for tourists can mislead

Japanese app ‘YourGolf Online’ acquired by TV network

Google’s Pokemon Challenge would have been awesome on Google Glass

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