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CyberAgent joins the mobile chat app war with Decolink

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.02.26

We’ve covered the cutthroat chat application war in the Japanese market in a recent post, illustrating how NHN Japan’s Line leads the game so far, with DeNA’s Comm and KakaoTalk as distant runners-up. As if there weren’t enough chat apps already, CyberAgent (TYO:4751) just launched yet another player, but this one has a slightly different angle. Decolink (yes, it’s another Deco-something app!) is CyberAgent’s newly minted application for iOS and Android, which is aming to snag teenage girls as its target users. The app lets you chat with a maximum of 100 friends, and you can also change the background image and fonts for different chat windows. This latter ability to customize the look of a product is essential when the primarily target market is younger girls. What’s even more essential perhaps are the decorative stamps, of which Decolink provides over 10,000. Stamps are often cited as the major reason behind Line’s huge success so far. Sort of like emoji on steriods, people often use stamps in chat to express themselves instead of using text. In much the same way that a Facebook Like is a sort of mindless response that doesn’t require any words, stamps are often used…

We’ve covered the cutthroat chat application war in the Japanese market in a recent post, illustrating how NHN Japan’s Line leads the game so far, with DeNA’s Comm and KakaoTalk as distant runners-up. As if there weren’t enough chat apps already, CyberAgent (TYO:4751) just launched yet another player, but this one has a slightly different angle.

Decolink (yes, it’s another Deco-something app!) is CyberAgent’s newly minted application for iOS and Android, which is aming to snag teenage girls as its target users. The app lets you chat with a maximum of 100 friends, and you can also change the background image and fonts for different chat windows. This latter ability to customize the look of a product is essential when the primarily target market is younger girls.

What’s even more essential perhaps are the decorative stamps, of which Decolink provides over 10,000. Stamps are often cited as the major reason behind Line’s huge success so far. Sort of like emoji on steriods, people often use stamps in chat to express themselves instead of using text. In much the same way that a Facebook Like is a sort of mindless response that doesn’t require any words, stamps are often used in the same way among many Japanese users.

Deco-disrupter?

CyberAgent does have a competitive advantage, as the company runs the huge Ameba Blog platform which had more than 20 million users as of January 2012. The platform is widely used by Japanese people including celebrities. Through cross-promotions with other products under the Ameba umbrella, Decolink might be able to eclipse some of the other chat app competitors — although it’s unlikely that it could catch Line.

Decolink was developed by a team within CyberAgent that creates products dedicated for teens. I have to wonder if these cute, more feminine stamps are a key differeciator from Line, and if any teenage girls will take the bait. We’ll find out sooner or later, so stay tuned.

(h/t Chiho Komoriya over at VS Media)

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Have a bubble wrap fetish? New iPhone 5 case from Japan has you covered!

Rick Martin 2013.02.26

Few among us can resist the simple pleasure of popping bubble wrap. Japan’s Bandai capitalized on this widespread public fetish a few years back when it produced its Mugen Puchipuchi keychain. And now, phone accessory vendor Strapya has just released a similar product, as its new Puchipuchi iPhone 5 case brings bubble wrap goodness to the backside of the Apple’s latest smartphone. Like Bandai’s keychain, the bubbles can be popped an infinite number of times, so you can keep popping for as long as you want — or until someone comes along and punches you in the face for making a racket, whichever comes first. Check out the demo video below, which shows some lucky fellow in bubble-popping ecstacy. The case is priced at 2,100 yen (or about $23) and can be ordered from the Strapya website. Of course that case only gives you bubble popping on the back of your iPhone. But if you’d like to take care of the front too, check out the Puchipuchi kibun application for iOS which lets you pop virtual bubbles on your screen. Similarly for Android users, there’s the Hatsune Miku-themed bubble pack + miku application available on Google Play.

Few among us can resist the simple pleasure of popping bubble wrap. Japan’s Bandai capitalized on this widespread public fetish a few years back when it produced its Mugen Puchipuchi keychain. And now, phone accessory vendor Strapya has just released a similar product, as its new Puchipuchi iPhone 5 case brings bubble wrap goodness to the backside of the Apple’s latest smartphone.

Like Bandai’s keychain, the bubbles can be popped an infinite number of times, so you can keep popping for as long as you want — or until someone comes along and punches you in the face for making a racket, whichever comes first. Check out the demo video below, which shows some lucky fellow in bubble-popping ecstacy.

The case is priced at 2,100 yen (or about $23) and can be ordered from the Strapya website.

Of course that case only gives you bubble popping on the back of your iPhone. But if you’d like to take care of the front too, check out the Puchipuchi kibun application for iOS which lets you pop virtual bubbles on your screen. Similarly for Android users, there’s the Hatsune Miku-themed bubble pack + miku application available on Google Play.

news

Japanese startup turns oversized greeting cards into an unlikely digital business

SCORE 1,175

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.02.25

In Japan, when someone leaves a company, or if there’s a special occasion like a new baby or someone’s birthday, very often people will add personal notes on a big card to convey best wishes. In Japanese this is called yosegaki which means “to gather” and “write”. But the problem is that you can only gather messages from people you’re physically with, so if you need to collect messages from people who are not in the same place, it can be difficult, if not impossible. But a relatively new company called Yosetti has created a digital yosegaki card service. You can now go to Yosetti’s mobile-optimized website, and sign up using Facebook, Twitter, or email. Cards are available for many occasions including birthdays, farewells, marriages, new babies, and more. Each category comes with corresponding design templates, and once you’ve selected one, the service provides you with a unique URL which you can then share with friends so they can contribute messages. The resulting card can be sent for free as a link that can be browsed on the web. There are also options to download the card as a PDF for 300 yen (about $3), or print it on a…

In Japan, when someone leaves a company, or if there’s a special occasion like a new baby or someone’s birthday, very often people will add personal notes on a big card to convey best wishes. In Japanese this is called yosegaki which means “to gather” and “write”.

But the problem is that you can only gather messages from people you’re physically with, so if you need to collect messages from people who are not in the same place, it can be difficult, if not impossible. But a relatively new company called Yosetti has created a digital yosegaki card service.

You can now go to Yosetti’s mobile-optimized website, and sign up using Facebook, Twitter, or email. Cards are available for many occasions including birthdays, farewells, marriages, new babies, and more. Each category comes with corresponding design templates, and once you’ve selected one, the service provides you with a unique URL which you can then share with friends so they can contribute messages.

The resulting card can be sent for free as a link that can be browsed on the web. There are also options to download the card as a PDF for 300 yen (about $3), or print it on a fancy piece of cardboard for 2800 yen (about $30).

Check out the the promotional video below to learn more about how the site works.

news

Japan’s Gungho Entertainment is winning at home, but will global gamers get it?

Rick Martin 2013.02.25

Among the Japanese mobile gaming companies that have made regular international headlines in recent years (most notably GREE and DeNA), Gungho Entertainment is perhaps the one that has yet to make a really significant splash overseas. But its hit game Puzzles & Dragons, commonly described as a sort of Pokemon/Bejeweled hybrid, now has over 9 million users, the majority of those from its home market – although GungHo’s U.S. arm is doing its best to change that. P&D has been a mainstay at or near the top of grossing charts for iOS and Android (practically) since its launch [1], and I don’t expect its popularity to wane anytime soon. Interestingly Gungho plans to launch an online store for P&D merchandise on March 15, and in April it will be holding an event for fans at the Tokyo Dome. You can check out a TV ad for P&D below, and the importance of that continued marketing push – as Serkan Toto points out – cannot be understated. Nevertheless, global users have yet to really warm to the English version of the game (iOS, Android), and it will be interesting to see if the company can change that this year. GungHo also…

puzzles-and-dragon-store — Online shop coming soon at pazudoraya.com

Among the Japanese mobile gaming companies that have made regular international headlines in recent years (most notably GREE and DeNA), Gungho Entertainment is perhaps the one that has yet to make a really significant splash overseas. But its hit game Puzzles & Dragons, commonly described as a sort of Pokemon/Bejeweled hybrid, now has over 9 million users, the majority of those from its home market – although GungHo’s U.S. arm is doing its best to change that.

P&D has been a mainstay at or near the top of grossing charts for iOS and Android (practically) since its launch [1], and I don’t expect its popularity to wane anytime soon. Interestingly Gungho plans to launch an online store for P&D merchandise on March 15, and in April it will be holding an event for fans at the Tokyo Dome.

You can check out a TV ad for P&D below, and the importance of that continued marketing push – as Serkan Toto points out – cannot be understated. Nevertheless, global users have yet to really warm to the English version of the game (iOS, Android), and it will be interesting to see if the company can change that this year. GungHo also recently acquired standout game developer Grasshopper Manufacture, so I expect that will surely help its efforts in all markets.

More recently, GungHo also has a hit in Princess Punt Sweets, as the game just surpassed the 2 million user mark since its release back in November. That title still hasn’t been released for global gamers, although I expect that we’ll an English version sometime soon.

See App Annie for details (iOS, Android.

news

Tokyo Otaku Mode keeps improving its manga photo app [Video]

Rick Martin 2013.02.25

Just last week we reported that the up-and-coming Japanese startup Tokyo Otaku Mode had raised a new round of funding from three VC firms. And while the company’s progress on the web appears to be going well (see our feature on TOM from a few weeks back) the company has also made some recent updates on its most prominent mobile initiative, Otaku Camera. If you haven’t tried it yet, the basic feature of the app is that it turns any photo into a manga-style picture. But earlier in the month, the company announced new downloadable Hello Kitty photo frames for the app, and today it’s rolling out Tiger & Bunny photo frames, from the famous anime TV series. Currently all frame sets are marked as ‘Free’ in Otaku Camera, but I expect that in the future we’ll see paid photo frames rolling out as well, as Tokyo Otaku Mode makes and effort to monetize. When we last heard from Tokyo Otaku Mode, we were informed that Otaku Camera has over 500,000 downloads. I think this figure will get larger, given the company’s enthusiastic base, with over 10 million fans on Facebook. For a quick video overview of Otaku Camera, check…

Just last week we reported that the up-and-coming Japanese startup Tokyo Otaku Mode had raised a new round of funding from three VC firms. And while the company’s progress on the web appears to be going well (see our feature on TOM from a few weeks back) the company has also made some recent updates on its most prominent mobile initiative, Otaku Camera.

If you haven’t tried it yet, the basic feature of the app is that it turns any photo into a manga-style picture. But earlier in the month, the company announced new downloadable Hello Kitty photo frames for the app, and today it’s rolling out Tiger & Bunny photo frames, from the famous anime TV series. Currently all frame sets are marked as ‘Free’ in Otaku Camera, but I expect that in the future we’ll see paid photo frames rolling out as well, as Tokyo Otaku Mode makes and effort to monetize.

When we last heard from Tokyo Otaku Mode, we were informed that Otaku Camera has over 500,000 downloads. I think this figure will get larger, given the company’s enthusiastic base, with over 10 million fans on Facebook.

For a quick video overview of Otaku Camera, check out our video demo above. If you’d like to try the app for yourself, it’s available on both iOS and Android.

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Japanese iPhone spy game turns English study into exciting covert mission

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.02.22

When it comes to English language skills, Japanese people tend to be more book-smart. We learn English as a second language starting in elementary school, but it was only in April of 2011 that English became mandatory for elementary school students. Before that, English study began in middle school. As an island nation, there are a limited number of foreigners in Japan [1], and for the most part, you can pretty much live here without needing any other language except Japanese. Of course a lack of practice invariably results in a corresponding lack of skills. And to help address Japan’s English problems, a company called Roll & Move is trying to make English learning more fun. How? Its app Choho-Listening E.I.A. (E.I.A. stands for English Intelligence Spying Agency) is encouraging users to become spies on a secret mission! After starting the app, you’re welcomed by your secret agent boss who helps you jump into the plot. After some preliminary questions about your current English skills, you’re given a passport corresponding to your proficiency level. From there, you’re off on a secret mission to spy on people’s conversations and report back (answering questions about the conversation) to your boss about your…

When it comes to English language skills, Japanese people tend to be more book-smart. We learn English as a second language starting in elementary school, but it was only in April of 2011 that English became mandatory for elementary school students. Before that, English study began in middle school. As an island nation, there are a limited number of foreigners in Japan [1], and for the most part, you can pretty much live here without needing any other language except Japanese.

Of course a lack of practice invariably results in a corresponding lack of skills. And to help address Japan’s English problems, a company called Roll & Move is trying to make English learning more fun. How? Its app Choho-Listening E.I.A. (E.I.A. stands for English Intelligence Spying Agency) is encouraging users to become spies on a secret mission!

After starting the app, you’re welcomed by your secret agent boss who helps you jump into the plot. After some preliminary questions about your current English skills, you’re given a passport corresponding to your proficiency level. From there, you’re off on a secret mission to spy on people’s conversations and report back (answering questions about the conversation) to your boss about your findings.

With background noise and buzzing sounds, the audio environment seems very real. The illustrations and design of the app suits the exciting secret mission plot line, and the story settings motivate users to complete and study more. The app is not only fun but the content is very practical, created based on actual TOEIC problems.

Almost half the people I meet lament their lack of English skills. And admittedly, most study methods are pretty boring. But I definitely recommend this neat little app so aspiring students can say ‘Sayonara’ to English study of the coma-inducing variety.

The total number of immigrants was 7.1 million in 2011, minus 2.3 million from previous year. ↩

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Ninja Camera: Japan’s top iPhone photo app is perfect for perverts

SCORE 1,302

Rick Martin 2013.02.22

Ninja Camera is a very sneaky iPhone app from Japan which is intended to let the users take photos without anyone noticing. It was released this week, and has been ranked number one in the photo and video category since then [1], so it’s certainly popular with at least a few people. As you can see in our demo video above, Ninja Camera has three stealthy shooting modes: Silent camera mode: The normal viewfinder is displayed, but when you take a photo, there isn’t any shutter sound. Note that in Japan, camera phones are required to make this noise, although many apps allow users to get around this. Hidden camera mode: This is perhaps the most nefarious feature, as your camera’s screen shows fully functioning web browser, with a tiny camera viewfinder in the bottom corner. So even if someone is watching over your shoulder, it appears as though you are innocently browsing the web – when you are actually snapping photos [2]. Dark camera mode: This shooting mode blacks out the entire screen, making it appear as though your phone is off. But there are faintly visible shutter buttons on the bottom, letting you continue to snap off pictures….

Ninja Camera is a very sneaky iPhone app from Japan which is intended to let the users take photos without anyone noticing. It was released this week, and has been ranked number one in the photo and video category since then [1], so it’s certainly popular with at least a few people.

As you can see in our demo video above, Ninja Camera has three stealthy shooting modes:

Silent camera mode: The normal viewfinder is displayed, but when you take a photo, there isn’t any shutter sound. Note that in Japan, camera phones are required to make this noise, although many apps allow users to get around this.
Hidden camera mode: This is perhaps the most nefarious feature, as your camera’s screen shows fully functioning web browser, with a tiny camera viewfinder in the bottom corner. So even if someone is watching over your shoulder, it appears as though you are innocently browsing the web – when you are actually snapping photos [2].
Dark camera mode: This shooting mode blacks out the entire screen, making it appear as though your phone is off. But there are faintly visible shutter buttons on the bottom, letting you continue to snap off pictures.

Back in 2011 when such photo applications started to become more of a problem, an Apple Japan representative was cited by the Yomiuri Shimbun as saying that “There’s no problem as long as the developer’s stated purpose for the app doesn’t go against social ethics.”

In Ninja Camera’s app description, the developer of Ninja camera lists three example purposes for its stealthy app: shooting a sleeping baby, taking pictures of pets sensitive to sound, and taking photos in a quiet place. Ultimately, I think the responsibility does lie with the user. But in my view, an app like Ninja Camera definitely looks like it was intentionally designed for snapping covert pictures of unsuspecting ladies. If you look at one of the app’s promo photo (below and to the right) it shows a photo taken of a lady from behind — so the intent isn’t really even obscured here — even though it’s not explicitly stated.

ninja-camera-2

ninja-camera-1

I write this post on a Friday, so it has been released for four days now. ↩
A little digging shows that some other applications have this function, including the similarly named Private Ninja Cam. ↩

news

Japanese prime minister takes on jumping monkey role in new iPhone game

Rick Martin 2013.02.21

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe bounced back into the public eye this past December when he became the leader of Japan for the second time after a five-year absence. But I’m not sure if he could have ever foreseen becoming the star of his own iPhone game, but that’s exactly what has happened in a popular new title Jump! Mr. Abe from Riko Design. The game is an extremely simple one, where the user must bounce Mr. Abe on a trampoline as high as possible. He starts off with small jumps in front of the National Diet Building, but if you can time his jumps correctly he flies even higher, beyond Tokyo Tower, and past the newly erected Tokyo Sky Tree. Switch to 20-jump mode, and you can send Mr. Abe to even greater heights, past iconic landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, the Notre Dame Cathedral, and Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia (apparently the game developer isn’t a stickler for accurately representing the scale of the buildings!). What’s interesting about Jump! Mr Abe is that this very casual game appears to have been a simple reinvention of Riko Design’s other recent title Jumping Monkeys, which uses the exact same type of…

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe bounced back into the public eye this past December when he became the leader of Japan for the second time after a five-year absence. But I’m not sure if he could have ever foreseen becoming the star of his own iPhone game, but that’s exactly what has happened in a popular new title Jump! Mr. Abe from Riko Design.

The game is an extremely simple one, where the user must bounce Mr. Abe on a trampoline as high as possible. He starts off with small jumps in front of the National Diet Building, but if you can time his jumps correctly he flies even higher, beyond Tokyo Tower, and past the newly erected Tokyo Sky Tree.

Switch to 20-jump mode, and you can send Mr. Abe to even greater heights, past iconic landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, the Notre Dame Cathedral, and Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia (apparently the game developer isn’t a stickler for accurately representing the scale of the buildings!).

What’s interesting about Jump! Mr Abe is that this very casual game appears to have been a simple reinvention of Riko Design’s other recent title Jumping Monkeys, which uses the exact same type of game play. I’m not sure if the developer is making any sort of hidden political commentary here by putting Mr. Abe into a role it previously reserved for monkeys — but it’s a fun casual title that many kids might like nonetheless, I think.

Currently the game is the 9th ranked free title on the Japanese app store, and but ranks first in the family category and fifth in gaming. Check it out over on the app store.

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Singapore’s Intraix partners with Smart Integration on smarter home energy management in Japan

Rick Martin 2013.02.21

Singapore-based startup Intraix has just announced a partnership with a Japanese company, Smart Integration, in the hopes of distributing its smart home energy management system to residential homes in Tokyo, Nara, and Okinawa by June of this year. Intraix’s system lets users monitor their energy consumption in a fun and easy way, keeping tabs on their usage via an iOS app or on the web. Through this partnership they aspire to install the system in 5,000 to 8,000 residential homes in its first year, and 14,000 in the following year. The solution includes energy budgeting and consumption prediction features, collecting data via an installed power meter which then sends information to the company’s proprietary data analysis engine, which it has dubbed its “Green Voices algorithm.” Intraix co-founder Darrell Zhang tells me that he has “much faith and confidence in the ability [of Smart Integration] to push the system to the market” in Japan. The Tokyo-based company, headed by CEO and founder Kazumasa Nomura, has established access to important sales channels and smart home system integrators. In fact, the company has already made partnerships with eight local agent companies in Japan to resell and integrate Intraix’s solution. There are already some…

Singapore-based startup Intraix has just announced a partnership with a Japanese company, Smart Integration, in the hopes of distributing its smart home energy management system to residential homes in Tokyo, Nara, and Okinawa by June of this year. Intraix’s system lets users monitor their energy consumption in a fun and easy way, keeping tabs on their usage via an iOS app or on the web.

Through this partnership they aspire to install the system in 5,000 to 8,000 residential homes in its first year, and 14,000 in the following year. The solution includes energy budgeting and consumption prediction features, collecting data via an installed power meter which then sends information to the company’s proprietary data analysis engine, which it has dubbed its “Green Voices algorithm.”

Intraix co-founder Darrell Zhang tells me that he has “much faith and confidence in the ability [of Smart Integration] to push the system to the market” in Japan. The Tokyo-based company, headed by CEO and founder Kazumasa Nomura, has established access to important sales channels and smart home system integrators. In fact, the company has already made partnerships with eight local agent companies in Japan to resell and integrate Intraix’s solution.

There are already some smart energy competitors in Japan, but Darrell explains that Intraix’s system is different in that it includes a fun social element where its users can accumulate ‘Green Credits’ that can be used for rewards and rebates. There will also be weekly energy challenges as well. He believes that no competing home energy management system has such a rewards system.

Intraix provides smart energy monitor for larger buildings and data centers in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Any of our readers who attended the Myojo Waraku event in Fukuoka last year will recognize Intraix as one of the 10 startups who pitched.

You can learn more about Intraix’s residential smart home energy management solution in its promo video below.

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Japan’s mobile wars intensify: Docomo moves up ultra-high speed data launch to 2015

Masaru Ikeda 2013.02.20

We noted yesterday that even though NTT Docomo (TSE:9437) had reached 10 million LTE subscribers, it still lags behind its competitors in speed. And today – as if on cue – the telco has reportedly moved up the scheduled launch of its ultra high-speed mobile data service to 2015, according to the Asahi Shimbun. This new service will adhere to the LTE Advanced standard, and it was expected to launch in 2016. But with intensifying competition against the other major Japanese telecoms, KDDI and Softbank Mobile, it appears as though the Docomo has decided to kick it up a notch. The new mobile data standard will enable a maximum speed of 1Gbps, which is five times faster than the current LTE service in Japan. That will allow subscribers to make the most of their smartphone subscription, able to consume a variety of rich media content on mobile, such as BeeTV [1] , d-Market Video Store (inaccessible outside Japan), Hulu, and interpretation services. In a recent report by UK consultation company Open Signal, Japan was (disgracefully) ranked the worst in the mobile data speeds out of the nine countries in the study. BeeTV is an IP-based TV service for Docomo’s subcscribers, in partnership with music…

We noted yesterday that even though NTT Docomo (TSE:9437) had reached 10 million LTE subscribers, it still lags behind its competitors in speed. And today – as if on cue – the telco has reportedly moved up the scheduled launch of its ultra high-speed mobile data service to 2015, according to the Asahi Shimbun.

This new service will adhere to the LTE Advanced standard, and it was expected to launch in 2016. But with intensifying competition against the other major Japanese telecoms, KDDI and Softbank Mobile, it appears as though the Docomo has decided to kick it up a notch.

The new mobile data standard will enable a maximum speed of 1Gbps, which is five times faster than the current LTE service in Japan. That will allow subscribers to make the most of their smartphone subscription, able to consume a variety of rich media content on mobile, such as BeeTV [1] , d-Market Video Store (inaccessible outside Japan), Hulu, and interpretation services.

In a recent report by UK consultation company Open Signal, Japan was (disgracefully) ranked the worst in the mobile data speeds out of the nine countries in the study.

Source: Open Signal, Inc. http://opensignal.com/reports/state-of-lte/ — Source: Open Signal

BeeTV is an IP-based TV service for Docomo’s subcscribers, in partnership with music company Avex, actor/entertainer agency HoriPro, and Fuji Television. ↩

Mobile

CyberAgent joins the mobile chat app war with Decolink

Deco-disrupter?

Have a bubble wrap fetish? New iPhone 5 case from Japan has you covered!

Japanese startup turns oversized greeting cards into an unlikely digital business

Japan’s Gungho Entertainment is winning at home, but will global gamers get it?

Tokyo Otaku Mode keeps improving its manga photo app [Video]

Japanese iPhone spy game turns English study into exciting covert mission

Ninja Camera: Japan’s top iPhone photo app is perfect for perverts

Japanese prime minister takes on jumping monkey role in new iPhone game

Singapore’s Intraix partners with Smart Integration on smarter home energy management in Japan

Japan’s mobile wars intensify: Docomo moves up ultra-high speed data launch to 2015

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