THE BRIDGE

Mobile

Cooliris doubles down on Asia with Android push

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Back in December we met with the folks from Cooliris, who at the time were making big efforts to push their photo sharing service in Asia. That initiative included bringing a localized version of their iOS app to Japan. And this past week Cooliris has doubled down on its Asia push, with a new Android app (see video demo here) that will certainly help its cause in a number of markets around Asia. The new app, we’re told, also features Japanese localization, so if you’re on an Android handset in Japan, do check it out. Japan is already one of Cooliris’s top markets, so this effort should help solidify that. The company is hoping to achieve a broader reach in China as well, with a partnership with app search platform Wandoujia, and it is exploring possibilities in Korea as well. For more on Cooliris, check out our brief chat with the company’s VP of business development Sebastian Blum when we met with him back around Christmas time.

cooliris

Back in December we met with the folks from Cooliris, who at the time were making big efforts to push their photo sharing service in Asia. That initiative included bringing a localized version of their iOS app to Japan. And this past week Cooliris has doubled down on its Asia push, with a new Android app (see video demo here) that will certainly help its cause in a number of markets around Asia.

The new app, we’re told, also features Japanese localization, so if you’re on an Android handset in Japan, do check it out. Japan is already one of Cooliris’s top markets, so this effort should help solidify that.

The company is hoping to achieve a broader reach in China as well, with a partnership with app search platform Wandoujia, and it is exploring possibilities in Korea as well.

For more on Cooliris, check out our brief chat with the company’s VP of business development Sebastian Blum when we met with him back around Christmas time.

Line Rangers tops 10M downloads, gets TV promo boost in Japan

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Line Corportation corporation recently announced that its Line Rangers game has surpassed 10 million downloads worldwide. The title was initially released back on February 28th, reaching the milestone in just 61 days. Such a feat is not so uncommon for a Line game, but it’s interesting to see that the company has decided to support this one with a TV commercial in Japan, especially considering that 70% of its downloads came from outside of Japan (it’s currently the top overall iOS app in Thailand and Laos). You can check out that promotional video which we have included below. As we noted in a previous post, Line Rangers is indeed a great game, but it is very much a rip-off of Battle Cats, the popular tower defense game from Kyoto-based Ponos. If you’d like to try it out, you can get Line Rangers for free on iOS or on Google Play.

line-rangers

Line Corportation corporation recently announced that its Line Rangers game has surpassed 10 million downloads worldwide. The title was initially released back on February 28th, reaching the milestone in just 61 days.

Such a feat is not so uncommon for a Line game, but it’s interesting to see that the company has decided to support this one with a TV commercial in Japan, especially considering that 70% of its downloads came from outside of Japan (it’s currently the top overall iOS app in Thailand and Laos). You can check out that promotional video which we have included below.

As we noted in a previous post, Line Rangers is indeed a great game, but it is very much a rip-off of Battle Cats, the popular tower defense game from Kyoto-based Ponos.

If you’d like to try it out, you can get Line Rangers for free on iOS or on Google Play.

Japanese company unveils mobile UI component generator

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Tokyo-based system developer Asial announced today that it has launched a component generator for mobile app developers called Onsen CSS components. It’s available in English and Japanese. While HTML5 technology lets developers create for multiple platforms, it remains difficult to develop the kind of user experience found in native apps. To address this problem, their solution lets you to generate user interface components and download them for free. So you don’t need to develop a user interface from scratch when you develop a HTML5 app. The component generator has more than 20 design framework patterns, and you can choose your prefered color scheme for the interface, with an the inspection function that lets you inspect HTML and CSS code. You can migrate the interface to your app under development by simply copying the generated codes. Asial is perhaps best known for having created the mobile development environment Monaca, which won the second place in pitch competition at Global Brain’s showcase event last year.

onsen-css-components_featuredimage

Tokyo-based system developer Asial announced today that it has launched a component generator for mobile app developers called Onsen CSS components. It’s available in English and Japanese.

While HTML5 technology lets developers create for multiple platforms, it remains difficult to develop the kind of user experience found in native apps. To address this problem, their solution lets you to generate user interface components and download them for free. So you don’t need to develop a user interface from scratch when you develop a HTML5 app.

The component generator has more than 20 design framework patterns, and you can choose your prefered color scheme for the interface, with an the inspection function that lets you inspect HTML and CSS code. You can migrate the interface to your app under development by simply copying the generated codes.

Asial is perhaps best known for having created the mobile development environment Monaca, which won the second place in pitch competition at Global Brain’s showcase event last year.

Kamcord raises $7M in funding, now lets users share game videos to Line, WeChat

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San Francisco-based Kamcord announced this morning that it has raised $7.1 million in series A funding, in a round led by Silicon Valley-based TransLink Capital. Other participants included DeNA, SV Angel, Innovation Works, KLab, M&Y Growth Partners, and XG Ventures. Kamcord’s SDK enables game developers to put a ‘movie’ button in game, and when it is pressed, users can then share video clips/replays of game play. Namco Bandai was the first Japanese company to use the localized version of Kamcord’s SDK, as we mentioned back in February. But now we understand that it’s also used in games from DeNA and Colopl. When we spoke with Kamcord co-founder Adi Rathnam last December in Kyoto (see below), he emphasized the importance of Asian markets, including Japan, Korea, and China. We wondered about the possibility of sharing Kamcord videos to Asian message services Line and WeChat, and the sharing functionalities to those networks has now been added. In their announcement this time around, Adi had this to say: In order to build a truly global platform for sharing and watching gameplay videos, we prioritized strengthening our presence in Asia. The partnerships we’ve formed with this round of funding will help us tremendously in…

kamcord

San Francisco-based Kamcord announced this morning that it has raised $7.1 million in series A funding, in a round led by Silicon Valley-based TransLink Capital. Other participants included DeNA, SV Angel, Innovation Works, KLab, M&Y Growth Partners, and XG Ventures.

Kamcord’s SDK enables game developers to put a ‘movie’ button in game, and when it is pressed, users can then share video clips/replays of game play. Namco Bandai was the first Japanese company to use the localized version of Kamcord’s SDK, as we mentioned back in February. But now we understand that it’s also used in games from DeNA and Colopl.

When we spoke with Kamcord co-founder Adi Rathnam last December in Kyoto (see below), he emphasized the importance of Asian markets, including Japan, Korea, and China. We wondered about the possibility of sharing Kamcord videos to Asian message services Line and WeChat, and the sharing functionalities to those networks has now been added. In their announcement this time around, Adi had this to say:

In order to build a truly global platform for sharing and watching gameplay videos, we prioritized strengthening our presence in Asia. The partnerships we’ve formed with this round of funding will help us tremendously in that effort.

As for Kamcord’s recent progress, we understand that users are now sharing at a pace of one video every two seconds, and that rate is sure to grow with more support for games and gamers here in Asia. The company has also recently launched a new Kamcord app (screenshots above) where you can watch fun mobile gameplay videos all in one place. You can get it for free over on the App Store.

Japan’s love affair with photo apps

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This morning I met with Canadian research student Laurel Hart who is currently in Tokyo studying mobile photography communities in Japan. Even though we’ve written about mobile photo apps significantly on this site (which is how she found me), I needed to take some time to think about what information I might be able to offer her. I thought I’d share some of those thoughts here, just in case it might be of interest to readers as well. While there has been some indication that Japanese mobile users love photo apps more than other regional markets (see this chart from Flurry Analytics) [1], it’s a little bit more difficult to identify what kinds of things they are doing and what sorts of photos they are taking. In a purely non-scientific exercise, I thought I’d review a few of the kinds of apps we see trending here in Japan, in an effort to dive deeper this area. Here a few genres of photo apps (and photo-related apps [2]), in no particular order: Collage apps (Petapic, Cameran Collage, Papelook) Photo decorations apps (DecoAlbum, Snapeee) Food apps (SnapDish, Miil) Fashion apps (Wear, Nailbook, Stulio, In My Bag ) Manga/Anime effects (Manga Camera, Otaku…

jpmobile

This morning I met with Canadian research student Laurel Hart who is currently in Tokyo studying mobile photography communities in Japan. Even though we’ve written about mobile photo apps significantly on this site (which is how she found me), I needed to take some time to think about what information I might be able to offer her. I thought I’d share some of those thoughts here, just in case it might be of interest to readers as well.

While there has been some indication that Japanese mobile users love photo apps more than other regional markets (see this chart from Flurry Analytics) [1], it’s a little bit more difficult to identify what kinds of things they are doing and what sorts of photos they are taking.

In a purely non-scientific exercise, I thought I’d review a few of the kinds of apps we see trending here in Japan, in an effort to dive deeper this area. Here a few genres of photo apps (and photo-related apps [2]), in no particular order:

These represent just a few of the more popular clusters of photos apps that we have seen here in Japan. Of course, everyone makes use of their mobile camera for different reasons, so we cannot claim that there is any sort of trend among consumers here. But perhaps we can assume that the apps that Japanese developers produce are at least partially indicative of the market’s demands.

As for mobile photography communities, I confess I’ve never seen such groups gathering offline [4]. But we often see people come together online around common ideas or themes. For example, the Nailbook app mentioned above is an intriguing community where people exchange pictures of nail art. And then their are mobile photographers who share photos around a suddenly viral meme, such as the ‘Cups Fuchiko-san’ meme where a tiny figure is posed on cups or glasses in strange ways, or the Makankosappo (literally translated as “Magic Penetrating Killing Ray”) meme, upon which the Kame-Camera app is based.

The world of smartphone photography obviously runs far deeper than what I’ve outlined above. If you there’s something that we’ve overlooked, don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments.


  1. This chart doesn’t seem to be on Flurry’s site any longer. But thankfully, we still have a version here.  ↩

  2. I say photo-related, because some photo apps might technically be classified by an App Store as a photography app, but it might have a different primary purpose. The mobile flea market app Fril is an example of this.  ↩

  3. These are interesting considering the aging demographic in Japan, giving you the ability to send prints to older folks who may not use smartphones.  ↩

  4. It seems rather silly to me to define a photography community by device.  ↩

Hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons invades Japanese arcades

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Japanese hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons has been released as an coin-operated arcade game, thanks to a collaboration between GungHo Online Entertainment and Square Enix. It’s called Puzzle & Dragons Battle Tournament, and it lets players take on their peers in real time. One of the most appealing aspects of the mobile version of Puzzle & Dragons is the ability to build and collect a team over time. So I was skeptical of an arcade version of P&D. But as VS Media points out, players in Japan can use an IC card to save their data, and pick up where they left off later. There are a number of promo movies over on the game’s official padbt.com site. But the video below from YouTube user Frank Moers gives perhaps the best overview of the actual gameplay. So I encourage you to give it a look. Gameplay costs 100 yen, or about a dollar. A list of locations where you can play can be found here.

pd

Japanese hit mobile game Puzzle & Dragons has been released as an coin-operated arcade game, thanks to a collaboration between GungHo Online Entertainment and Square Enix. It’s called Puzzle & Dragons Battle Tournament, and it lets players take on their peers in real time.

One of the most appealing aspects of the mobile version of Puzzle & Dragons is the ability to build and collect a team over time. So I was skeptical of an arcade version of P&D. But as VS Media points out, players in Japan can use an IC card to save their data, and pick up where they left off later.

There are a number of promo movies over on the game’s official padbt.com site. But the video below from YouTube user Frank Moers gives perhaps the best overview of the actual gameplay. So I encourage you to give it a look.

Gameplay costs 100 yen, or about a dollar. A list of locations where you can play can be found here.

Line’s homescreen customization app sees 100M downloads… In 23 days!

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Remember that Line Deco homescreen customization app we told you about last month? Well Line Corporation announced today that just 23 days after its April 22nd release, the app has surpassed 100 million downloads. That’s a pretty good month, even by Line’s standards. It’s available for both iOS and Android if you’d like to take it for a spin. Check out some of the screens below for examples of what you can do in the app, or check out the newly added gallery feature to explore even more.

line-deco

Remember that Line Deco homescreen customization app we told you about last month? Well Line Corporation announced today that just 23 days after its April 22nd release, the app has surpassed 100 million downloads. That’s a pretty good month, even by Line’s standards.

It’s available for both iOS and Android if you’d like to take it for a spin. Check out some of the screens below for examples of what you can do in the app, or check out the newly added gallery feature to explore even more.

gallery

Duolingo adds English courses for Japanese, Chinese, & Hindi speakers in new 4.0 update

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A few weeks ago we heard from a Duolingo rep that they had some big news coming for us soon. We haven’t heard from them since, but today we know what it is (via TechCrunch), as the company has launched version 4.0 of its language learning iOS app. The good news? There are now English courses for Chinese, Japanese, and Hindi speakers. We encourage you to give them a try and let us know if they are any good. The bad news? Still no Japanese or Chinese courses for English speakers [1]. Bad news for me at least, as these are two I was hoping would be added.  ↩

A few weeks ago we heard from a Duolingo rep that they had some big news coming for us soon. We haven’t heard from them since, but today we know what it is (via TechCrunch), as the company has launched version 4.0 of its language learning iOS app.

The good news? There are now English courses for Chinese, Japanese, and Hindi speakers. We encourage you to give them a try and let us know if they are any good.

The bad news? Still no Japanese or Chinese courses for English speakers [1].

duolingo


  1. Bad news for me at least, as these are two I was hoping would be added.  ↩

DeNA’s latest mobile puzzle game is a real peach!

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Japan’s DeNA launched a very unusual mobile game today. The title is really hard to translate [1], but suffice to say that it includes ‘Peach butts’, reflecting the fun, rotund characters featured in this title. DeNA seems pretty focused on its domestic activity these days (as our friend Serkan Toto recently pointed out), but I hope that a game as quirky as this one can someday make it into English too. Check out their video trailer for the title below. If you’d like to try it out (and if you’re in Japan), you can get it as a free download for iOS or Android. Give it a try, if for nothing else than to see the fun characters for yourself! So much awesome… The name is ももじりぞくの ぷるるんバルーン. Peach butts jelly shake balloon? I give up…  ↩

peach-butts

Japan’s DeNA launched a very unusual mobile game today. The title is really hard to translate [1], but suffice to say that it includes ‘Peach butts’, reflecting the fun, rotund characters featured in this title.

DeNA seems pretty focused on its domestic activity these days (as our friend Serkan Toto recently pointed out), but I hope that a game as quirky as this one can someday make it into English too.

Check out their video trailer for the title below. If you’d like to try it out (and if you’re in Japan), you can get it as a free download for iOS or Android. Give it a try, if for nothing else than to see the fun characters for yourself! So much awesome…


  1. The name is ももじりぞくの ぷるるんバルーン. Peach butts jelly shake balloon? I give up…  ↩

Line raises $370K for Japanese quake relief in 6 weeks. With stickers.

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This past March saw the three year anniversary of the tragic 3.11 earthquake here in Japan. At the time, Line Corporation released a set of stickers to sell on its platform, drawn by kids from the affected regions. The set of 24 stickers, pictured below, were to be sold for 100 yen (or about $1) with proceeds going towards ongoing recovery efforts. According to japan.internet.com this evening, that set of stickers has now raised over 38 million yen (about $370,000) in the six short weeks that they have been available for purchase. Line apparently doesn’t make any money from this, taking only what it needs to handle transaction fees on Apple and Google app stores. The stickers can still be purchased if you’d like to do so, as they’ll be available until September 10 of this year. Line did something similar to assist with Typhoon Haiyan relief in the Philippines last year, raising over $500,000 in that effort. via japan.internet.com

This past March saw the three year anniversary of the tragic 3.11 earthquake here in Japan. At the time, Line Corporation released a set of stickers to sell on its platform, drawn by kids from the affected regions. The set of 24 stickers, pictured below, were to be sold for 100 yen (or about $1) with proceeds going towards ongoing recovery efforts.

According to japan.internet.com this evening, that set of stickers has now raised over 38 million yen (about $370,000) in the six short weeks that they have been available for purchase. Line apparently doesn’t make any money from this, taking only what it needs to handle transaction fees on Apple and Google app stores.

The stickers can still be purchased if you’d like to do so, as they’ll be available until September 10 of this year.

Line did something similar to assist with Typhoon Haiyan relief in the Philippines last year, raising over $500,000 in that effort.

via japan.internet.com

line-stickers