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Japanese startup offers A/B testing for mobile push notifications

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See the original story in Japanese. CyberAgent subsidiary Sirok, the startup behind mobile photo app My365, announced yesterday that it has launched a tool for app developers to analyze user responses to push notifications. The service is called Growth Push, and allows you to conduct an A/B testing to measure user responses by implementing their SDK. The setup is free, and there is no monthly fee required for the first 50,000 notification testings. It is currently available (in Japanese) for iOS, but it will be coming to Android soon. This kind of growth hacking tool typically helps marketers increase their user base. In this space we’ve already seen AppSocially, which is now under the 500 Startups umbrella. We heard from the Sirok’s COO Yuto Mukoyama about their expectations for this tool. We learned that app developers need this kind of tool through our experience managing our apps My365 and Pipul (an avatar-based RPG). Developers need to focus on how they can efficiently retain users. Conventional web services typically have an e-mail notification feature, and a push notification is [the mobile] equivalent to that, and it is important in terms of keep users engaged in this mobile era. The startup tested…

growth-push

See the original story in Japanese.

CyberAgent subsidiary Sirok, the startup behind mobile photo app My365, announced yesterday that it has launched a tool for app developers to analyze user responses to push notifications. The service is called Growth Push, and allows you to conduct an A/B testing to measure user responses by implementing their SDK.

The setup is free, and there is no monthly fee required for the first 50,000 notification testings. It is currently available (in Japanese) for iOS, but it will be coming to Android soon.

This kind of growth hacking tool typically helps marketers increase their user base. In this space we’ve already seen AppSocially, which is now under the 500 Startups umbrella.

We heard from the Sirok’s COO Yuto Mukoyama about their expectations for this tool.

We learned that app developers need this kind of tool through our experience managing our apps My365 and Pipul (an avatar-based RPG). Developers need to focus on how they can efficiently retain users. Conventional web services typically have an e-mail notification feature, and a push notification is [the mobile] equivalent to that, and it is important in terms of keep users engaged in this mobile era.

The startup tested this tool trying to improve the app launch rate of their game Pipul, and they confirmed that it had a positive impact. It lets you to conduct A/B testing to show different messages to both free users and to paying users. Mukoyama adds:

You can refine your app based on A/B test results and your measurement of the app launch rate or conversion rate. The tool primarily targets startups developing iOS-based gaming apps and community services. I believe we can help them improve user retention based on analytics.

Sirok was founded last year by many student entrepreneurs, and they went on to became a subsidiary of CyberAgent. The internet company helped them learn how to market app services, since the internet company has much experience launching its own apps in the past. Mukoyama elaborated on how his team foresees working with CyberAgent.

Ameba (CyberAgent’s blogging and virtual world platform) has released more than a few games, many with several million downloads. We expect to start acquiring users with this base. We’re aiming to have 1,000 apps using the tool worldwide in three months, sending out about 100 million notifications for their testings.

To date, photo app My365 has seen three million downloads, at a pace of about new 3,000 users a day. Their daily active users total reached 60,000 and is still rising.

growthpush_analysis

LINE reports solid Q2 earnings, aims for 300M users by year’s end

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See also our Japanese report on Line’s Q2 earnings Line Corporation has announced its second quarter earnings for 2013, highlighted by revenue of 12.8 billion yen (or about $132 million). That amounts to 348.9% growth over the same time the previous year, and 45.3% over the previous quarter. The company attributed most of this to its core LINE business, which alone accounted for 9.77 billion yen (or just over $100 million), growing 66.9% over first quarter revenue as you can see in the chart above. The announcement notes that 53% of its revenue was in-game purchases, and 27% through sticker purchases. Line Corporations CEO Akira Morikawa expects more good things for his company as the year progresses: We will continue to actively invest in new opportunities and conduct new challenges so as to become a common piece of communication infrastructure worldwide, and aim to achieve 300 million users within 2013. This news is pretty solid validation of the company’s gaming business especially, which includes titles like Line Pop, Wind Runner, Neko Copter, and recent addition Fluffy Diver. We’re looking forward to following Line in its effort to become the world’s preferred mobile portal, and we’ll keep up updated on its…

line-q2

See also our Japanese report on Line’s Q2 earnings

Line Corporation has announced its second quarter earnings for 2013, highlighted by revenue of 12.8 billion yen (or about $132 million). That amounts to 348.9% growth over the same time the previous year, and 45.3% over the previous quarter.

The company attributed most of this to its core LINE business, which alone accounted for 9.77 billion yen (or just over $100 million), growing 66.9% over first quarter revenue as you can see in the chart above. The announcement notes that 53% of its revenue was in-game purchases, and 27% through sticker purchases.

Line Corporations CEO Akira Morikawa expects more good things for his company as the year progresses:

We will continue to actively invest in new opportunities and conduct new challenges so as to become a common piece of communication infrastructure worldwide, and aim to achieve 300 million users within 2013.

This news is pretty solid validation of the company’s gaming business especially, which includes titles like Line Pop, Wind Runner, Neko Copter, and recent addition Fluffy Diver.

We’re looking forward to following Line in its effort to become the world’s preferred mobile portal, and we’ll keep up updated on its progress in the future.

For more information on the growth of Line and its vast repertoire of apps, please check out our interactive Line Timeline which chronicles its growth from its launch back in 2011 up until now.

CyberAgent launches its own crowdfunding platform

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Today Japanese internet giant CyberAgent launched a crowdfunding platform called Makuake (meaning ‘beginning’). The company started the service as a rewards-type crowdfunding service, but plans to enhance it to become an investment-type platform in the future. As you may already know, CyberAgent also runs one of Japan’s biggest blogging platforms, Ameba, where many celebrities or entertainers post updates for fans and promote themselves. In collaboration with such celebrities, the company plans to launch many notable crowdfunding projects, thus attracting more users. At the time of launch, we can find seven projects on site. This includes an initiative from a Japanese soccer player to assist young athletes in the country master English so they can better partake in international activities. The company is also inviting a fundraising project to manufacture Raspberry Pi-enabled robot Rapiro, and that will go live later this month. The platform is currently available for PC, and a smartphone version will go live this coming fall. It is expected that Makuake will transact $1 million in deals monthly by next March. Via CNET and IT Media

makuake

Today Japanese internet giant CyberAgent launched a crowdfunding platform called Makuake (meaning ‘beginning’). The company started the service as a rewards-type crowdfunding service, but plans to enhance it to become an investment-type platform in the future.

As you may already know, CyberAgent also runs one of Japan’s biggest blogging platforms, Ameba, where many celebrities or entertainers post updates for fans and promote themselves. In collaboration with such celebrities, the company plans to launch many notable crowdfunding projects, thus attracting more users.

At the time of launch, we can find seven projects on site. This includes an initiative from a Japanese soccer player to assist young athletes in the country master English so they can better partake in international activities. The company is also inviting a fundraising project to manufacture Raspberry Pi-enabled robot Rapiro, and that will go live later this month.

The platform is currently available for PC, and a smartphone version will go live this coming fall. It is expected that Makuake will transact $1 million in deals monthly by next March.

Via CNET and IT Media

makuake_screenshot

Top 10: Fun Facebook apps from Japan that tell you more about yourself

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Some of our readers may remember our April Fool’s Day post on crazy apps from Japan. Since then I’ve come across another series of interesting apps which in many cases leverage Facebook and peoples’ relationships on the social network. Behind them all is a single company called Eureka. And here are the apps that they’ve come up with, in no particular order. 1. Group Date Forecast¶ In Japan people don’t often go on blind dates, but instead they opt for group dates called ‘Go-kon’. There’s a person in charge of the girls side and and one for the boys side, and they are the ones responsible for bringing the hottest friends to group date. Group Date Forecast is an app that tells you who you should bring among all your Facebook friends, creating the ultimate go-kon team. 2. Facebook Invoice Checker ¶ ‘Facebook Ryokin Checker’ can roughly translates as ‘Facebook Invoice Checker’. The app calculates how much your usage fee would amount to if Facebook were a paid service. Japanese people tend to be a little more willing to pay for web and mobile services, so this idea really makes you appreciate a free service like Facebook. My invoice was…

Some of our readers may remember our April Fool’s Day post on crazy apps from Japan. Since then I’ve come across another series of interesting apps which in many cases leverage Facebook and peoples’ relationships on the social network. Behind them all is a single company called Eureka. And here are the apps that they’ve come up with, in no particular order.

1. Group Date Forecast

In Japan people don’t often go on blind dates, but instead they opt for group dates called ‘Go-kon’. There’s a person in charge of the girls side and and one for the boys side, and they are the ones responsible for bringing the hottest friends to group date. Group Date Forecast is an app that tells you who you should bring among all your Facebook friends, creating the ultimate go-kon team.

Go-kon-startingmembers

2. Facebook Invoice Checker

Facebook Ryokin Checker’ can roughly translates as ‘Facebook Invoice Checker’. The app calculates how much your usage fee would amount to if Facebook were a paid service. Japanese people tend to be a little more willing to pay for web and mobile services, so this idea really makes you appreciate a free service like Facebook. My invoice was 112,900 yen!

Facebook-invoice-checker

3. What if I was the Heroine?

This app creates a correlation diagram for an imaginary TV drama that casts you as the hero or heroine. Based on your interactions with friends on Facebook, it creates this fun diagram. In the three weeks after its release, the app was liked by 140,000 users, creating attractive illustrated diagrams with funny and catchy titles to boot.

Drama-correlation

4. What is your May Blues?

Titled ‘What is your May Blues?’, this app diagnoses what sickness you might have in the month of May. Why May? Well, ‘May Blues’ is a term commonly used by Japanese people, and it refers to the lack of motivation or passion that people often feel in May. April marks a new year at school or work, and after a busy first month, people sort of burn out. This app helps you deal with the affliction with a positive attitude.

May-Blues

5. Excuse for tardiness

Excuse for tardiness is a Facebook app that gives you good excuses for being late for work or other important occasions. The app gives you three questions to answer, like ‘do you watch the late night comedy shows?’ or ‘how many alarm clocks do you have in your room?’ Upon answering these questions, it tells you which excuse you should use — but it is presented in manga form! The app was developed for a female skin care company Dr. Ci:Labo, so the excuses tend to be a little on the cute side. When I tried it, I got “Because the cat I saw on the way to work was soooo cute”.

Excuse-for-tardiness

6. Facebook Omikuji

‘Omikuji’ is a paper fortune that you get at the beginning of the New Year at shrines in Japan. The app is no longer is service since it was provided only at the beginning of the year, but it’s a pretty interesting idea all the same. Although ‘Hatsumode’ (or the first shrine visit of the year) is a common ritual for many Japanese people, some might not be able to make it. For these people, the Omikuji app lets them to do so online. The app racked up over 250,000 Facebook likes within ten days after its release.

Facebook-Omikuji

7. Choose Friends with Flawless Skin

To help launch a new makeup powder from Clinique, Eureka developed an app called ‘Chose a friend with flawless skin’. The app works very simply. It asks you to choose five of your friends who you think have amazing skin. This made for great viral content because no one is unhappy to hear compliments about their complexion. The app has been since taken down from Facebook too, since it was for a time-specific campaign.

Tamago-hada

8. Honest Valentine Forecast

‘Honest Valentine Forecast’ analyzes your friendships on Facebook, and creates a map of how this year’s Valentine’s Day will turn out. In Japan, typical Valentine’s gifts have always been chocolates, and in Japan, girls give it to boys instead of the other way around. Since there’s a culture of even giving Valentine’s chocolates to co-workers at the office (a gesture called ‘giri-choko’, where ‘giri’ means ‘a sense of duty’). Honest Valentine Forecast predicts who your secret crush is, and who you should give some chocolate to.

Valentines-chocolate

9. Todofuken Love Map

‘Todofuken’ means ‘prefecture’ in Japanese, and this Todofuken Love Map alllows users to ask questions about love that they would hesitate to ask openly. Questions such as ‘what is your breast size?’ or ‘do you have lucky underwear?’. Interestingly, the user generated results of the questionaire are shown on a map. This app is mobile only, and is the only one on our list not integrated with Facebook.

love-map

10. How many would confess love to you?

This app hypothesizes a world that consists of only 100 men, and shows how many of these men will profess their love to you (referred to as ‘‘Kokuhaku’’ in Japanese) — possibly taking inspiration from the famous book If the World were a Village.

Kokuhaku

For many of these apps, the company will require you to you like their page first before you try them out. This is not a tactic I’m particulary fond of, but the ideas are sort of fun and they’re sure to bring you and your friends some laughs.

Can GungHo replicate Puzzle & Dragons’ success with more TV ads?

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While Japanese game publisher GungHo is most famous for its Puzzle & Dragons game, its other well-known title Princess Punt Sweets surpassed 6 million downloads earlier this summer. And now it looks like GungHo is ready to give Princess a boost, with a TV commercial set to air beginning this Saturday, August 10th, according to Gamebiz.jp. As Serkan Toto points out, Puzzle & Dragons’ meteoric growth in Japan didn’t really kick in until October of 2012 when its first television ad campaign began: So assuming that the Princess campaign has a similar effect, it would not be unreasonable for the game to hit at least 10 million downloads before year’s end if things go well. I don’t foresee P&D-like success, but there’s certainly lots of potential here. The commercial is just as delightful as the game itself, with the kick-happy princess interrupting some kids in a park by kicking their can sky high. Check out the fun 30-second ad spot above. Princess Punts Sweets is still only available in Japan and Korea, although a previous title in the franchise is available in English if you’d like to give it a try.

While Japanese game publisher GungHo is most famous for its Puzzle & Dragons game, its other well-known title Princess Punt Sweets surpassed 6 million downloads earlier this summer. And now it looks like GungHo is ready to give Princess a boost, with a TV commercial set to air beginning this Saturday, August 10th, according to Gamebiz.jp.

As Serkan Toto points out, Puzzle & Dragons’ meteoric growth in Japan didn’t really kick in until October of 2012 when its first television ad campaign began:

serkan-toto-pazudora

So assuming that the Princess campaign has a similar effect, it would not be unreasonable for the game to hit at least 10 million downloads before year’s end if things go well. I don’t foresee P&D-like success, but there’s certainly lots of potential here.

The commercial is just as delightful as the game itself, with the kick-happy princess interrupting some kids in a park by kicking their can sky high. Check out the fun 30-second ad spot above.

Princess Punts Sweets is still only available in Japan and Korea, although a previous title in the franchise is available in English if you’d like to give it a try.

RoadMovies creates cool retro videos, is now Japan’s top iPhone app

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Here’s another intriguing addition to our growing list of Japanese camera apps. This time it comes courtesy of the folks at Honda, and despite the name of the app, RoadMovies, it’s not just for use while driving. Originally launched late last year, the app has been climbing the iOS charts ever since, and is now the top free app in Japan. It also tops the photo and video category in Korea right now too. The app allows you to shoot a collection of very short video clips – either 24 x 1 second, 12 x 2 seconds, or 8 x 3 seconds – which are then stitched together to create a composite 24 second clip. Of course, this sort of function would work especially well while driving on a long road trip, and there’s an interval camera function that can automate the entire process if you don’t want to press the shutter button manually. You can set the interval settings to record a short clip every minute, or every 60 minutes, or any value in between. There’s also a handy distance interval function that lets you record clips after you’ve moved a specified distance, although you’ll need a GPS enabled…

Here’s another intriguing addition to our growing list of Japanese camera apps. This time it comes courtesy of the folks at Honda, and despite the name of the app, RoadMovies, it’s not just for use while driving. Originally launched late last year, the app has been climbing the iOS charts ever since, and is now the top free app in Japan. It also tops the photo and video category in Korea right now too.

The app allows you to shoot a collection of very short video clips – either 24 x 1 second, 12 x 2 seconds, or 8 x 3 seconds – which are then stitched together to create a composite 24 second clip.

honda-roadmovies-icon

Of course, this sort of function would work especially well while driving on a long road trip, and there’s an interval camera function that can automate the entire process if you don’t want to press the shutter button manually. You can set the interval settings to record a short clip every minute, or every 60 minutes, or any value in between. There’s also a handy distance interval function that lets you record clips after you’ve moved a specified distance, although you’ll need a GPS enabled device for this (i.e. it won’t work with an iPod Touch).

After you’ve shot your 24 total seconds of video, you can then opt to add one of eight available filters to give your composite clip some extra pop. The next step is perhaps the most fun, as you can choose one of 14 available background music tracks included in the app, all of which are pretty snazzy.

The overall effect is super retro, especially if you apply a filter. For a preview of the end result, you can see many examples of videos created with RoadMovies over on YouTube. Or you can check out Honda’s own promo video above which demonstrates how it works, with a sample video at the end.

If you’d like to check out RoadMovies, it’s available as a free download over on the App Store. From what I’ve seen of it so far, I recommend you pick it up.

movie-type-roadmovies roadmovies

Japanese shoe company asks: Which woman has the prettiest feet?

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Locondo is a Japanese online shoes retailer that we have mentioned a few times before. It provides the same sort of experience you’ll find at real stores, allowing users to try on shoes before they actually buy them 1. The company is taking a unique approach to user acquisition, recently partnering with Bijin-Tokei. This is a popular site among men that features 50,000 good-looking ladies holding cards that tell what time it is. That’s a different girl for every minute. Together two companies are holding a ‘prettiest feet’ contest called Ashimoto-Bijin General Election. ‘Ashimoto’ means ‘foot’ in Japanese, and Bijin means ‘beautiful woman’. The contest began on August 5th, and a total of 102 Bijin Tokei models are running as candidates to become the party leader for the ‘Ashimoto‘ (a playful name that can mean both ‘foot’ and ‘foot party’). The chosen winner will be a model at Locondo for their shoes. For anyone with a thing for shoes – or even for those of you with a foot fetish – the pictures collected over on Locondo will make for interesting browsing. From sneakers to sandals to high heels, it’s all there. At first glance they are just photos of…

Locondo-ashimoto-bijin

Locondo is a Japanese online shoes retailer that we have mentioned a few times before. It provides the same sort of experience you’ll find at real stores, allowing users to try on shoes before they actually buy them 1. The company is taking a unique approach to user acquisition, recently partnering with Bijin-Tokei. This is a popular site among men that features 50,000 good-looking ladies holding cards that tell what time it is. That’s a different girl for every minute.

Together two companies are holding a ‘prettiest feet’ contest called Ashimoto-Bijin General Election. ‘Ashimoto’ means ‘foot’ in Japanese, and Bijin means ‘beautiful woman’. The contest began on August 5th, and a total of 102 Bijin Tokei models are running as candidates to become the party leader for the ‘Ashimoto‘ (a playful name that can mean both ‘foot’ and ‘foot party’). The chosen winner will be a model at Locondo for their shoes.

For anyone with a thing for shoes – or even for those of you with a foot fetish – the pictures collected over on Locondo will make for interesting browsing. From sneakers to sandals to high heels, it’s all there. At first glance they are just photos of shoes and feet, but by mousing over the photo, you can see a profile pic of the girl model. Most of the shoes that the girls are wearing are available for purchase on the site.

Voting in this general election will be closed on August 26th. Anyone with a Facebook account can cast a ballot.

This tactic of holding ‘general elections’ is becoming an increasingly common marketing tactic among brands here in Japan. We recently wrote about how beer maker Sapporo used a similar sort of vote to drum up some attention for a new flavor lager.


  1. Readers may recall that back in June the company announced that it had successfully raised 6.3 million yen.

Because plants can’t swing a sword: Shinobi vs Zombie for iPhone

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Thanks to the folks over at Axel Games for pointing out this gem. I thought I had enough of the ‘____ vs Zombies’ game genre. But then a small Japanese developer had to go and make Shinobi vs Zombie for iPhone – so I guess I can try one more! In terms of controls, this is a super simple game. It makes use of your accelerometer, as you tilt your handset in whatever direction you wish your ninja to run. He will automatically attack a zombie whenever there is one in his path, but he’s vulnerable from the sides and the back, so you need to make sure to keep the zombies in front. If your life runs low, you can replenish it by collecting pink orbs which emerge when you knock off a zombie. There are also green, yellow, red, and blue orbs to collect, each of which represents a different type of ninjitsu or special skill. When the fighting gets a little tight, you can activate these using the menu on the bottom. If you’d like to learn more, you can check out our short ideo demo above. Or go download the game for free (it’s ad supported)…

Thanks to the folks over at Axel Games for pointing out this gem. I thought I had enough of the ‘____ vs Zombies’ game genre. But then a small Japanese developer had to go and make Shinobi vs Zombie for iPhone – so I guess I can try one more!

In terms of controls, this is a super simple game. It makes use of your accelerometer, as you tilt your handset in whatever direction you wish your ninja to run. He will automatically attack a zombie whenever there is one in his path, but he’s vulnerable from the sides and the back, so you need to make sure to keep the zombies in front.

If your life runs low, you can replenish it by collecting pink orbs which emerge when you knock off a zombie. There are also green, yellow, red, and blue orbs to collect, each of which represents a different type of ninjitsu or special skill. When the fighting gets a little tight, you can activate these using the menu on the bottom.

If you’d like to learn more, you can check out our short ideo demo above. Or go download the game for free (it’s ad supported) over on the App Store.

shinobi-vs-zombie-2 shinobi-vs-zombie-1

shinobi zombie

How ScaleOut plans to evolve Japan’s ad-tech market [Interview]

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See the original story in Japanese. There was a big move in the Japanese ad-tech market yesterday. Mediba, an ad-focused subsidiary of Japan’s second largest telco KDDI, announced its takeover of ad-tech startup ScaleOut. The purchase price was not disclosed but it’s reportedly worth more than 1 billion yen (10 million dollars). Some of our readers may recall that Mediba acquired smartphone-focused ad network startup Nobot back in August of 2011. ScaleOut’s CEO Daisuke Yamazaki previously worked with Yahoo Japan where he launched behavioral targeting and rich media ads. Yuzuru Honda, the founding CEO of competing ad-tech startup FreakOut is also known for having sold content-matching ad platform Brainer to Yahoo Japan. Yahoo Japan seems to have produced many men of talent in the space. There were very few platforms that could provide 10 billion monthly impressions when we launched our company When Mr. Yamazaki launched ScaleOut back in 2006, the market was not as mature as it is today. He explains: There were very few platforms that could provide 10 billion monthly impressions when we launched our company. Since the market has no concept about RTB (real-time bidding) advertising, we developed an ad distribution platform which can steadily provide…

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From the left: Nobot CEO Kiyotaka Kobayashi, Mediba CEO Takashi Ohasa,
ScaleOut CEO Daisuke Yamazaki, and ScaleOut CMO Kenichi Sugawara

See the original story in Japanese.

There was a big move in the Japanese ad-tech market yesterday. Mediba, an ad-focused subsidiary of Japan’s second largest telco KDDI, announced its takeover of ad-tech startup ScaleOut. The purchase price was not disclosed but it’s reportedly worth more than 1 billion yen (10 million dollars). Some of our readers may recall that Mediba acquired smartphone-focused ad network startup Nobot back in August of 2011.

ScaleOut’s CEO Daisuke Yamazaki previously worked with Yahoo Japan where he launched behavioral targeting and rich media ads. Yuzuru Honda, the founding CEO of competing ad-tech startup FreakOut is also known for having sold content-matching ad platform Brainer to Yahoo Japan. Yahoo Japan seems to have produced many men of talent in the space.

There were very few platforms that could provide 10 billion monthly impressions when we launched our company

When Mr. Yamazaki launched ScaleOut back in 2006, the market was not as mature as it is today. He explains:

There were very few platforms that could provide 10 billion monthly impressions when we launched our company. Since the market has no concept about RTB (real-time bidding) advertising, we developed an ad distribution platform which can steadily provide ad impressions for media companies.

Subsequently we launched a RTB-enabled DSP (demand-site platform) service since the market trend was being shifting to RTB advertising. In terms of focusing our resources on our core business, we wondered if we should stop receiving outsourced business. Based on discussions with with Mr. Hiroyuki Watanabe [1], we made up our mind to concentrate on providing DSP services.

IMGP0035

Scale Out was founded back in 2006, and launched DSP services back in 2012. That means they have been working on it for about five years. In terms of focusing on DSP services, B Dash Ventures helped them make the significant decisions. Yamazaki added:

Our system development didn’t proceed as expected, and we had some money problems. But Watanabe helped us a lot both mentally and financially. Up until we invited CMO Sugawara to our board, everything around our business was decided based on discussion with me and Watanabe.

Watanabe knows the ad-tech startup industry since he also helped other startups in this space, such as Nobot. Mr. Watanabe explained:

Prior to investing in the startup, I shared my perspective on the future of the Japanese ad business and ad-tech industry. Based on that, Mr. Yamazaki and I completed the startup’s management policy and business plan together. To bring more talent to the board, we invited Mr. Sugawara as a supervisor for sales and marketing.

Why has ScaleOut partnered with Mediba? Yamazaki raised the recent smartphone shift as a reason. He explained:

To date, online advertising has been targeting PC users, and smartphone ads have no big share in the market. A smartphone ad is typically placed in a limited space but shares much space on the screen. For users, you typically check information resources briefly with a smartphone, and maybe dig deeper on a PC.

If we can provide clients with solutions that allow them to see user behaviors across multiple platforms, that would be a significant differentiation point. For clients, in terms of drawing user attention, smartphones will definitely work better than PCs. We learned this after we’ve switched to DSP services, and also learned this meets the KDDI-Mediba ‘3M’ strategy [2]. That’s one of major reasons why we’ve partnered with Mediba.

To date, online advertising has been targeting PC users, and smartphone ads have no big share in the market.

We should also mention the company’s own technology called Data Management Platform, DMP for short. The startup formed a team focused on data analytics, and will launch an ad service using much accumulated user behavioral data. Yamazaki added:

I assume most ad networks will change ad distribution in the future. They will typically pick the best choice of available ads using behavioral data analytics. If we can launch a platform for ad distribution across multiple browsing devices, we can distribute the best ad optimization to every single user. Google is the biggest holder of big data accumulation, but KDDI-Mediba dominates the Japanese market in this space.

Ads may be noisy for users sometimes. And in order to provide users with ads that serve as useful information or recommendations, we need to evolve in partnership with KDDI-mediba.

Based on the analysis of enormous user data using the company’s DMP technology, their clients can distribute the best optimization of ads to their users through the platform.

Adtech startups don’t typically expose much about what they provide, but we’re glad to have a glimpse into that ScaleOut has in store. Let’s wait and see how this particular acquisition will impact the Japanese ad industry.


  1. The CEO of B Dash Ventures. He invested in the startup and joined its board back in April of 2012.
  2. This represents KDDI-mediba’s business strategy, referring to multi-device, multi-network, and multi-media.

User-generated travel plan startup Trippiece raises $2M

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based travel startup Trippiece announced today that it has raised 200 million yen (approximately $2 million) from Draper Nexus Venture Partners and other investors [1]. With the funds, the startup plans to start developing smartphone apps. The company also invited Fumiaki Koizumi to the board of directors. He previously worked with Mixi and DeNA where he helped them IPO. At Trippiece, his main role will be to strengthen the management. We expected social media could help get the word out about the website, but this wasn’t the case. It has been more than a year since Trippiece formally launched back in January of 2012. Currently there are nearly 1,400 travel plans available on the site, and 100 to 200 users take trips using those plans every week. Management operations behind the scenes have become stable, and the startup plans to further improve that with the funds. CEO Ian Ishida explained that it hasn’t been a smooth ride for the company so far. The power of social media didn’t quite live up to their expectations. Trippiece is comprised of many small travel plans. We expected social media could help get the word out about the…

be1e58d1ca5cdfdb76fe7d8542ce8633

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based travel startup Trippiece announced today that it has raised 200 million yen (approximately $2 million) from Draper Nexus Venture Partners and other investors [1]. With the funds, the startup plans to start developing smartphone apps.

The company also invited Fumiaki Koizumi to the board of directors. He previously worked with Mixi and DeNA where he helped them IPO. At Trippiece, his main role will be to strengthen the management.

We expected social media could help get the word out about the website, but this wasn’t the case.

It has been more than a year since Trippiece formally launched back in January of 2012. Currently there are nearly 1,400 travel plans available on the site, and 100 to 200 users take trips using those plans every week. Management operations behind the scenes have become stable, and the startup plans to further improve that with the funds.

CEO Ian Ishida explained that it hasn’t been a smooth ride for the company so far. The power of social media didn’t quite live up to their expectations.

Trippiece is comprised of many small travel plans. We expected social media could help get the word out about the website, but this wasn’t the case. The community only became active when we acquired 20,000 users.

If a user-generated travel plan has more than five users apply to join, the startup will arrange a tour using its partnerships with travel agencies. Right now the service has more than 50,000 users, but they need to acquire more to keep going along their planned roadmap.

IanIshida_snapshot
Trippieace CEO Ian Ishida

The startup is about to launch a corporate membership system, with intended account holders being talent agencies or other businesses that have many fans. Trippiece is also planning to arrange tours accompanying entertainers or performers. We don’t know too much about this, but we understand they are in talks with several agencies right now.

Their user base is not large enough for a social media network. But they have improved their business model enough to step forward to the next stage.

Whenever I meet up with Ishida, he usually talks about his love for the service, and it’s good to have someone like that at the helm. It will be fascinating to watch him evolve this unique travel experience moving forward.

Trippiece started out back in March of 2011, receiving seed funding worth 3.5 million yen from Samurai Incubate Fund. Subsequently, the company also received 5 million yen from Movida Japan.


  1. Technically, the service name and company name (trippieace) are different in spelling for some reason.