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TeamLab technology to make televised events more social in Japan

Yukari Mitsuhashi Yukari Mitsuhashi
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Japan’s Nippon Television Network is making the first ever attempt to make the experience of watching a music performance on TV into an extremely social experience. The creative team responsible for making this happen is TeamLab, with its ‘TeamLab Social Instrument’ technology. On July 6th, Nippon Television Network will mark its 60th anniversary. A TV program called The Music Day, Power of Music will be aired on that day for 12 hours. Japanese pop group Arashi will give performance that can be enjoyed as a real time sound game. Viewers in front of the TV can access a special web page on their mobile phones, computers, or even using their TV remote control. On the web page, they can choose an instrument and tap on the button whenever the instrument’s icon appears on TV during the performance. TeamLab’s social instrument technology has been used for real live performances before (check out the video below), but it has been enhanced to compensate for possible network delays. Each performance is given a score for rhythm accuracy after performance, and I assume that there will be some sort of social element to share the score on the internet. For those eager to join…

teamlab-socialinstrument

Japan’s Nippon Television Network is making the first ever attempt to make the experience of watching a music performance on TV into an extremely social experience. The creative team responsible for making this happen is TeamLab, with its ‘TeamLab Social Instrument’ technology.

On July 6th, Nippon Television Network will mark its 60th anniversary. A TV program called The Music Day, Power of Music will be aired on that day for 12 hours. Japanese pop group Arashi will give performance that can be enjoyed as a real time sound game. Viewers in front of the TV can access a special web page on their mobile phones, computers, or even using their TV remote control. On the web page, they can choose an instrument and tap on the button whenever the instrument’s icon appears on TV during the performance.

TeamLab’s social instrument technology has been used for real live performances before (check out the video below), but it has been enhanced to compensate for possible network delays.

Each performance is given a score for rhythm accuracy after performance, and I assume that there will be some sort of social element to share the score on the internet. For those eager to join the nation wide interactive event, you can access the special website here.

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Where are the startup incubators and accelerators in Asia? Here’s 100 of ’em

SCORE 2,674 Rick Martin Rick Martin
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Over on our Japanese site, my colleague Takuya has put together a very informative list of incubators and accelerators from around the Asia region. This follows his previous list of Japanese seed accelerators and VC firms, which I encourage you to check out as well. We thought that since there aren’t many places online where you can find such information all in one place, it might be a good idea to publish it here too. So with that, I present to you the list below, which despite its size is not meant to be totally comprehensive — so we welcome any suggestions for places we might have missed in the comments [1]. [Credits] Startmate (Australia): This accelerator has a five-month program that includes a trip to Silicon Valley. Ignition Labs (Australia): A three month program that focuses on clean tech. Pollenizer (Australia): Offers funding via Pollenizer Ventures, and menturing from the founders and others. PushStart (Australia): A three-month program. Incubated startups receive some funding as well as office space and mentorship. Venture Incubator Space (Australia): A one-year incubation period, subsidized working space. BlueChilli (Australia): This incubator has presences in Sydney and Melbourne. Angel Cube Melb (Australia): Based in Melbourne, this…

accelerators-incubators-asia-pacific

Over on our Japanese site, my colleague Takuya has put together a very informative list of incubators and accelerators from around the Asia region. This follows his previous list of Japanese seed accelerators and VC firms, which I encourage you to check out as well.

We thought that since there aren’t many places online where you can find such information all in one place, it might be a good idea to publish it here too. So with that, I present to you the list below, which despite its size is not meant to be totally comprehensive — so we welcome any suggestions for places we might have missed in the comments [1].

[Credits]

    Flag_of_Australia.svg

  1. Startmate (Australia): This accelerator has a five-month program that includes a trip to Silicon Valley.
  2. Ignition Labs (Australia): A three month program that focuses on clean tech.
  3. Pollenizer (Australia): Offers funding via Pollenizer Ventures, and menturing from the founders and others.
  4. PushStart (Australia): A three-month program. Incubated startups receive some funding as well as office space and mentorship.
  5. Venture Incubator Space (Australia): A one-year incubation period, subsidized working space.
  6. BlueChilli (Australia): This incubator has presences in Sydney and Melbourne.
  7. Angel Cube Melb (Australia): Based in Melbourne, this three month intensive incubator accepts four teams, awarding $20,000 to each one.
  8. York Butter Factory (Australia): Focused on digital media. It also provides co-working space.
  9. Gen Innovation Australia (GENIAUS) (Australia): Focused on interactive media and digital art. Mentoring is peer-based, with assistance from experienced entrepreneurs.
  10. iLab (Australia): A paid incubator for early stage companies.
  11. Brisbane Technology Park (Australia): Provides access to business mentors and VCs.
  12. Gold Coast Innovation Centre (Australia): Focuses on early stage startups with mentorship provided.
  13. Innovation Centre (Australia): Focused on things like clean tech, health, and creative.
  14. Startup Tasmania (Australia): Focuses on fast-growth startups. There is a co-working space that also provides networking opportuities to meet investors.
  15. Innovyz (Australia): Offers a 12-week accellerator program, which includes cash, mentoring, and more.
  16. iCentre Brunei (Brunei): Focuses on ICT startups, and provides mentorship and networking.
  17. EME Business Incubator (Cambodia): Mentors high-potential entrepreneurs in the country.

    18. Flag_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China.svg

  18. Axlr8r (China): Established in 2010, helping companies improve their products for US and Chinese markets.
  19. Innovation Works (China): Established by Kaifu Lee back in 2009. The Innovation Works Development Fund is an early stage development fund co-managed with WI Harper Group.
  20. HAXLR8R (China): HAXLR8R is a seed program that offers mentorship for international hardware startups.

    21. Flag_of_Hong_Kong.svg

  21. SOFTLAYER CATALYST (Hong Kong): This virtual incubator from SoftLayer helps startups with hosting, development and support. It is based in Hong Kong, but covers all of the Asia Pacific region.
  22. NEST (Hong Kong): Holds monthly pitch days, and startups receive office space, some funding, and mentoring.
  23. StartupsHK.com (Hong Kong): Non-profit startup community.
  24. AcceleratorHK (Hong Kong): Provides co-working space and mentorship. It is run by entrepreneurs Stephen Forte and Paul Orlando.

    25. Flag_of_India.svg

  25. The Morpheus (India): Focused on early stage startups, and incubates companies for four months.
  26. T-Labs (India): Operated by Times Internet Limited, provides mentorship from entrepreneurs and angel investors.
  27. The Startup Centre (India): Has a resident program as well as an accelerator program.
  28. Microsoft Accelerator India (India): This program runs for four months, and brings in new batches in May and November.
  29. iAccelerator (India): Targets mobile and internet startups, providing them with capital as well as mentoring, networking opportunities, and a demo day.
  30. VentureNursery (India): Runs for 13 weeks with 8 startups selected, and is held twice a year.
  31. GSF India (India): This Delhi-based accelerator is actually a multi-city effort with presences in Mumbai and Bangalore as well. It is led by Rajeshi Sawhney, the former president of Reliance Entertainment.
  32. The Hatch (India): Has physical and virtual programs for startups. The incubator program runs for 52 weeks; accelerator for 13 weeks.
  33. INFUSE Ventures (India): Focuses on startups doing work in the areas of sustainable energy and clean tech. Has a partnership with the Indian government.
  34. Gemini New Media Ventures (India): Offers startups assistance with their business strategy, helping them grow to a sustainable state.
  35. Rural Technology & Business Incubator (India): Funded by both the World Bank’s InfoDev Project as well as DST. It has a rural focus.
  36. Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship(SINE), IIT Bombay (India): Focuses on entrepreneurial research, with financial assistance coming from DST.
  37. New Ventures India (India): This Indian incubator targets the ‘green business’ space.
  38. Technopark TBI (India): A joint initiative between Technopark and the DST.
  39. IIIT-Bangalore Innovation Centre (India): Targets seed-stage startups, providing support in the form of a work space and consultation.
  40. Startup Village (India): Supports student entrepreneurs in the Kerala region.
  41. 5ideas (India): Founded by Pearl Uppal and Gaurav Kachru, and aims to support entrepreneurship among women.
  42. Freemont Partners (India): India’s first global incubator and accelerator, focusing on tech startups
  43. MyfirstCheque (India): Invests in local startups, and provides mentorship. It is organized by a group of experienced entrepreneurs.
  44. Indian Angel Network Incubator (India): Supported by the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, the Department of Science and Technology, and the government of India.
  45. Technology Business Incubator, IIT Delhi (India): Accepting proposals by students, academic staff, or alumni.
  46. Veddis (India): Offers office space, insfrastructure, and support to startups. Investments range from $250,000 to $10M.
  47. Khosla Labs (India): Run by Srikanth Nadhamuni, the head of technology at the Unique Identificantion Authority of India.

    48. Flag_of_Indonesia.svg

  48. MerahPutih (Indonesia): Provides working space and capital to early to mid-stage startups.
  49. investidea (Indonesia): Focused on early stage tech/web startups, providing funding, advice, and other support.
  50. Bandung Ventures (Indonesia): Bandung Ventures makes seed-stage investments in the Bandung region.
  51. Raja Capital (Indonesia): VC that focuses on tech startups in the seed/early/growth stages.
  52. Ideosource (Indonesia): Run by Andi S. Boediman, focusing on see investment. It launched in June of 2011.
  53. Project Eden (Indonesia): Claiming to be Indonesia’s first startup accelerator, this one is supported by Jardintech Capital.
  54. Batavia Incubator ( Indonesia): Joint venture run by Takeshi Ebihara, who is very experienced in the tech startup scene.

    55. Flag_of_South_Korea.svg

  55. SparkLabs (Korea): An accelerator focused on tech companies, with mentorship, office space, and advisors available.
  56. Strong Ventures (Korea): Targets young entrepreneurs and startups in the seed stage.
  57. KStartup (Korea): KStartup operates under AppCenter, and is a partner with Google for Entrepreneurs.
  58. Primer (Korea): Initiated by Primer Group, and headed by by CEO Douglas Guen.
  59. IgniteSpark (Korea): This incubator/accelerator is led by David Choi.
  60. Fast Track Asia (Korea): Initiated by same investors who backed TickerMonster.
  61. TJ Heaven(Startup Party) (Korea): Focuses primarily on mentoring for young startups, and is led by Gyumin Cho.
  62. Founders Camp (Korea): This accelerator is led by Heeseung Kang.

    63. Flag_of_Malaysia.svg

  63. Grey Attic (Malasya): Aspires to create new businesses and match them with business opportunities. It provides them with valable mentoring along the way. Update: We’re told this isn’t active these days.
  64. MAD Incubator (Malaysia): Makes assistance and incubation affordable to most entrepreneurs via its MAD programs.
  65. MVP’s Incubator (Philippines): Supported by a wide range of business interests.
  66. Launchgarage (Philippines): Early stage funding program supported by Globe Telecom.
  67. IdeaSpace (Philippines): Incubator and accelerator that aims to support entrepreneurship in the Philippines.
  68. Kickstart (Philippines): Began in March of 2012 to support tech entrepreneurship in the Philippines.

    69. Flag_of_Singapore.svg

  69. Seed Accelerator (Singapore (AUS)): An early stage VC/incubator targeting startups in Sydney and Singapore.
  70. Azione Capital (Singapore): This seed stage VC focuses on digital media and mobile communications.
  71. Golden Gate Ventures (Singapore): This incubator helps internet startups across Southeast Asia,
  72. Jungle Ventures (Singapore): Focuses on seed and Series A investments in the Asia Pacific region.
  73. IncuVest (Singapore): Focuses on mentoring young startup companies in the information technology space.
  74. TNF Ventures (Singapore): Includes many established individuals in the tech community, highly experienced in founding and mentoring young startups.
  75. Red Dot Ventures (Singapore): Operated by entrepreneur Leslie Loh. It provides support in the form of financing, mentoring, etc.
  76. Get2Volume Accelerator (Singapore): Focused on building companies in the microelectronics and semiconductor industries.
  77. The Biofactory (Singapore): This incubator creates biomedical companies.
  78. WaveMaker Labs (Singapore): Focuses on digital media and tech startups.
  79. Clearbridge Accelerator (Singapore): Clearbridge Partner’s incubator arm, comprised of Singaporean tech entrepreneurs and scientists.
  80. I2G Tech Accelerator (Singapore): Accelerator focused on clean energy, wireless, and medical technologies for B2B.
  81. Neoteny Labs Silicon Straits (Singapore): Early stage incubator founded by Joichi Ito.
  82. Plug and Play Singapore (Singapore): Established in 2006, invests in high tech startups.
  83. Social Slingshot (Singapore): Founded by MySpace.com founder Brad Greenspan, invests in social, mobile, clean tech.
  84. Small World Group (Singapore): Focused on clean tech and optical systems.
  85. Stream Global (Singapore): Venture ‘catalyst’ for tech startups.
  86. TechCube8 (Singapore): Private technology investor and incubator to promote entrepreneurship and high tech R&D.
  87. Gobi Partners (Singapore): Early stage VC firm for IT and digital media in China.
  88. JFDI.Asia (Singapore): Seed accelerator focusing on mobile and digital products for Asia.
  89. Expara (Singapore): Established in 2003, it invests in and nurtures entrepreneurs, mostly in the interactive and digital media spaces.
  90. Base@muvee (Singapore): An incubator and a co-working space.
  91. Founder Institute Singapore (Singapore): A four month training program for entrepreneurs in a range of industries.
  92. I.JAM INCUBATOR (Singapore): Supports startups with great ideas that can be developed into products and services.
  93. NUS Enterprise Incubator (Singapore): For both early and late stage startups, providing advice, mentoring, facilities and more.
  94. Crystal Horse Investment (Singapore): Primarily involved in angel investments, also providing advice, support, funding and expertise.
  95. Ruvento Ventures (Singapore): Manages RUVENTO’s venture funds. Focuses on incubating companies in Singapore, then giving them market access to Asia Pacifc and Greater China.
  96. NTU Ventures (Singapore): A greenlane incubator for a number of grant schemes.
  97. Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) (Singapore): Works with many plaers in ICT, focusing on things like digital media, cloud computing, etc.
  98. QuestAccelerator (Singapore): Team is made up of people experienced in the Chinese market.
  99. Fatfish MediaLab (Singapore): Focused on mobile and social media apps.
  100. FocusTech Ventures (Singapore): Focused on hardware startups and manufacturing technologies.
  101. Angels Gate Advisory (Singapore): Manages the incubation of companies from the Angels Gate platform.
  102. PARCO next NEXT (Singapore): A fashion incubator that selects fashion designers for an 18-month training program.
  103. East Ventures (Singapore): First investments company for tech startups in Indonesia.

    104. twlarge

  104. Appworks Venture (Taiwan): Focses in Chinese internet and mobile phone applications, founded in 2009.
  105. YSeed (Taiwan): Incubation program from Yushan Ventures, supporting startups by helping them with user acquisition, funding, and internationalization.
  106. M8VC (Thailand): Offers an accelerator program with seed funding, offices space, and mentorship.
  107. AIS (Thailand): A top startup incubator in Thailand.
  108. NSTDA BIC (Thailand): Thailand’s national business incubator supporting entrepreneurs.

    109. Flag_of_Vietnam.svg

  109. 5Desire (Vietnam): Incubator and conssulting firm focused on various sectors.
  110. FICO by FPT (Vietnam): This incubator primarily targets students.
  111. Topica Founder’s Institute (Vietnam): This is a 15-week program for leaders from successful startups.

  1. Ok, this list actually has 110 items. But that makes for a somewhat awkward headline.  ↩

Credits

In case you’d like to dig further, here are the places from which we gathered most of this info. These are all quality resources and we encourage you to check them out.

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Japan’s Forkwell launches job search engine for coders, now ready to monetize

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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See the original story in Japanese. I first met up with folks from Japanese startup Garbs at Echelon 2011 in Singapore. They launched a engineer-focused social network called Forkwell back in April of that year, and subsequently unveiled the service to a crowd at our weekly salon event. At the time I thought it was an interesting idea, but I couldn’t help but feel there was something lacking — perhaps more monetization potential. In the last year, many similar services have launched, including Qiita, Wantedly, JobShare, Gunosy Career, and Grrefer. So Garbs has had to come up with a way for its service continue to attract new users. So the startup announced today that it has renewed its Forkwell app, and it has also launched a job search engine called Forkwell Jobs. On the Forkwell main site (for system developers) you can tag yourself with whatever skills you’ve acquired. Your profile will be automatically associated with your company’s profile, which is based on your own Facebook page (the service uses Facebook authentication). As a result, the service can qualitatively show you the details of practically any tech company or startup, in terms of what technological background its employees have. In short, you can see…

See the original story in Japanese.

forkwell_logoI first met up with folks from Japanese startup Garbs at Echelon 2011 in Singapore. They launched a engineer-focused social network called Forkwell back in April of that year, and subsequently unveiled the service to a crowd at our weekly salon event.

At the time I thought it was an interesting idea, but I couldn’t help but feel there was something lacking — perhaps more monetization potential. In the last year, many similar services have launched, including Qiita, Wantedly, JobShare, Gunosy Career, and Grrefer. So Garbs has had to come up with a way for its service continue to attract new users.

So the startup announced today that it has renewed its Forkwell app, and it has also launched a job search engine called Forkwell Jobs.

forkwelljobs_screenshotOn the Forkwell main site (for system developers) you can tag yourself with whatever skills you’ve acquired. Your profile will be automatically associated with your company’s profile, which is based on your own Facebook page (the service uses Facebook authentication). As a result, the service can qualitatively show you the details of practically any tech company or startup, in terms of what technological background its employees have. In short, you can see the company’s characteristics at a glance.

A company’s profile is linked to a job post on the job search engine. For developers, when you are searching for a new company to work with, you can base your choice not only on company profiles, but you can also factor in what kind of developers you’d like to work with. This is an intriguing way for workers in this field to very deliberately choose their own career path.

We heard from the startup’s co-founder and chief executive Yukihiro Ikemi, who explained more about this renewal:

When I heard the news last July that GitHub had raised $100 million, an idea came to me. They’ve acquired 3 million users worldwide. And in Japan, there are 550,000 programmers and 120,000 creators, so it’s a market that consists of about 670,000 people. So I made up my mind to have our service attract 30% of that (about 200,000 people).

Rails contributor Akira Matsuda serves the company as a director, and standout programmer Yuka Ooka is administrating the overall development of Forkwell and Forkwell Jobs. Personally, I like both services since they have been designed from the perspective of system developers.

The startup intends to add more features which allows users to put references on their online resumes. Mr. Ikemi adds:

In western countries, when you visit a company looking for a job, they will typically take a reference from your previous workplace. Many online resume services, like LinkedIn, have features like recommendations or endorsements from past colleagues. However, in Japan, personnel management typically relies only on your resume or what you’ve said in the interview. In order to help companies find more fitting people, and help system developers find a more appropriate workplace, we’d like to develop a system that encourages people to use references when finding a new job or new talent.

Garbs was launched back in January of 2011. It raised an undisclosed amount of investment from CyberAgent Ventures back in November of 2011, and 60 million ($611,000) from Nippon Venture Capital. To date, the startup has introduced Social Job Posting, which allows you to add a job posting tab on your Facebook fan page, and an iOS app to keep you updated with the latest study meeting events.

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In Japan, creative trash can mod yields faux Mac Pro

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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Many of you may have seen the now famous ‘Tubelor’ trash can selling on Amazon Japan that bears a striking resemblance to the new Mac Pro. Well, it was probably inevitable that this would happen, but someone has taken that trash can and turned it into a PC case, effectively making a very cheap, but still very slick looking faux Mac Pro computer. The folks over at Ascii.jp have outlined the process undertaken by a former PC parts shop worker. The guts of his machine are a 2.5 GHz i3 processor, two sticks of DDR3 RAM (2GB each), an Intel DH67CF system board, and two 120GB solid state drives. Also included in the build were a 150W FlexATX power supply, a 12-centimeter fan, and an aluminum plate base which will be vertically oriented within the trash-can casing. I’ve included a few pictures below, but to view the whole series of steps, do check out the Ascii post in its entirety (Google Translate). It’s a pretty great hack that will certainly turn some heads among your Mac-loving friends if you can pull it off. Of course, this isn’t the first time that Japan has been inspired by the new Mac Pro’s…

mac-pro-fauz
Faux Mac Pro made from Tubelor garbage can (photo via Ascii.jp)

Many of you may have seen the now famous ‘Tubelor’ trash can selling on Amazon Japan that bears a striking resemblance to the new Mac Pro. Well, it was probably inevitable that this would happen, but someone has taken that trash can and turned it into a PC case, effectively making a very cheap, but still very slick looking faux Mac Pro computer.

The folks over at Ascii.jp have outlined the process undertaken by a former PC parts shop worker. The guts of his machine are a 2.5 GHz i3 processor, two sticks of DDR3 RAM (2GB each), an Intel DH67CF system board, and two 120GB solid state drives. Also included in the build were a 150W FlexATX power supply, a 12-centimeter fan, and an aluminum plate base which will be vertically oriented within the trash-can casing.

I’ve included a few pictures below, but to view the whole series of steps, do check out the Ascii post in its entirety (Google Translate). It’s a pretty great hack that will certainly turn some heads among your Mac-loving friends if you can pull it off.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that Japan has been inspired by the new Mac Pro’s unusual appearance. You may recall the many creative photoshop interpretations that many Japanese netizens published just after the Mac Pro was announced at WWDC. So much fun!

(Via @freaklabs on Twitter)

garbage can mac pro
The ‘Tubelor’ garbage can, as seen on Amazon Japan. 3465 yen, or $35
Faux Mac Pro
Faux Mac Pro made from Tubelor garbage can (photo via Ascii.jp)

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Tokyo startup 7-bites raises $295,000, will create Japan subculture-focused marketplace

Junya Mori Junya Mori
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See the original story in Japanese. 7-bites is a Tokyo-based startup known for having developed the SaaS-based invoicing platform Noroshi. That service was acquired by its competitor MakeLeaps back in August of 2012. But today 7-bites announced that it has raised 29 million yen (about $295,000) from East Ventures, I-SHIN [1] , and an individual angel investor. We heard from the startup’s co-founder and CEO Shota Sawada, who explained a little more about this funding: We’ve been focusing on providing SME-focused SaaS services, but as this funding comes in, we will pivot to build a (Japanese) subculture-focused marketplace. In this space, we can find many advantages around Japan’s unique content, and we think there’s huge market potential. [People these days are] in the middle of switching over from featurephones to smartphones, and this makes us more excited to get into this new field. We’ll be disclosing more business details in the future as we go. This funding is to pursue expanding business opportunities. […] If we can develop a service which is loved by consumers, we can open the door to the next stage. We’ll do our best to develop a service that will meet their needs. In addition to the C2C…

7-bites_logo

See the original story in Japanese.

7-bites is a Tokyo-based startup known for having developed the SaaS-based invoicing platform Noroshi. That service was acquired by its competitor MakeLeaps back in August of 2012. But today 7-bites announced that it has raised 29 million yen (about $295,000) from East Ventures, I-SHIN [1] , and an individual angel investor.

We heard from the startup’s co-founder and CEO Shota Sawada, who explained a little more about this funding:

We’ve been focusing on providing SME-focused SaaS services, but as this funding comes in, we will pivot to build a (Japanese) subculture-focused marketplace. In this space, we can find many advantages around Japan’s unique content, and we think there’s huge market potential. [People these days are] in the middle of switching over from featurephones to smartphones, and this makes us more excited to get into this new field. We’ll be disclosing more business details in the future as we go.

This funding is to pursue expanding business opportunities. […] If we can develop a service which is loved by consumers, we can open the door to the next stage. We’ll do our best to develop a service that will meet their needs.

In addition to the C2C marketplace business, the startup is also expected to launch a sort of ‘app media’ business. We look forward to hearing more about their efforts in the future.

  1. I-SHIN is an investment fund jointly managed by Japanese tech companies United and Aeria. ↩

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Trendy Japanese photo app Cameran expands to become a social network

Takeshi Hirano Takeshi Hirano
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See the original story in Japanese. Some of our readers may have heard a little about a mobile camera app from Japan called Cameran. It has a variety of filter effects, and is available for iOS and Android in 10 different languages. To date the app has recorded an impressive 3.6 million downloads worldwide since its launch back in October, 2012. The app was created by Media Technology Lab, the research arm of Japanese human resource company Recruit. And today the group announced that it has added a photo sharing feature, effectively expanding the photo app into a brand new social network. The company feature user accounts of celebrity guest users such as Mika Ninagawa, the Japanese film director who supervised the creation of the app. According to the app’s developer lead Tetsuya Oshiro, this change is based on feedback from users. Personally, I think that the strategy of building a user base and then adding social features is a smart choice in terms of marketing. There is no shortage of quality photo apps in Japan, making the market extremely competitive right now. One source told us that the Cameran app is not yet in the money-making phase, but they’re…

fc2946dec5a81929632b632c6b9fea92

See the original story in Japanese.

Some of our readers may have heard a little about a mobile camera app from Japan called Cameran. It has a variety of filter effects, and is available for iOS and Android in 10 different languages. To date the app has recorded an impressive 3.6 million downloads worldwide since its launch back in October, 2012.

The app was created by Media Technology Lab, the research arm of Japanese human resource company Recruit. And today the group announced that it has added a photo sharing feature, effectively expanding the photo app into a brand new social network. The company feature user accounts of celebrity guest users such as Mika Ninagawa, the Japanese film director who supervised the creation of the app.

According to the app’s developer lead Tetsuya Oshiro, this change is based on feedback from users. Personally, I think that the strategy of building a user base and then adding social features is a smart choice in terms of marketing. There is no shortage of quality photo apps in Japan, making the market extremely competitive right now.

One source told us that the Cameran app is not yet in the money-making phase, but they’re still pushing to increase the user base.

Even in such a saturated space, there’s still some rooms for unqiue apps like this one to win over users. We’ve never seen photo apps using celebrities for marketing efforts, so it will be interesting to see how this tactic affects user acquisition.

c9a219902804aac0bf0642f84803b5da d97c50263c64191b4a87e849b78211fe

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Japan’s most successful mobile game is picking up steam in the US market

SCORE 1,240 Rick Martin Rick Martin
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Earlier in the week we wrote that the cross-promotional collaboration between Clash of Clans and Puzzle & Dragons had proven fruitful for Finnish developer Supercell, as their CoC game became the top ranked free app in Japan on Monday. Since then the app has remained in the top spot, and it will be interesting to see how long it can stay there. But has the cross-promotion helped Puzzle & Dragons in its effort to win over the US market? P&D also saw a big jump on Monday, and since then it has been hovering in the top 20 overall apps in the US app store. Of course, the more important metric is how it places in the top grossing charts, and that’s gradually on the rise as well (see chart below). Thanks primarily to its huge fan base in its home market in Japan, GungHo’s Puzzle & Dragons already has over 15 million downloads under its belt. But its position at or near the top of Japan’s top grossing charts (since February 2012 for iOS, and since October 2012 on Google Play [1]) makes it the most successful mobile game of all time — not just in Japan, but anywhere….

puzzle-dragons-clash-of-clans

Earlier in the week we wrote that the cross-promotional collaboration between Clash of Clans and Puzzle & Dragons had proven fruitful for Finnish developer Supercell, as their CoC game became the top ranked free app in Japan on Monday. Since then the app has remained in the top spot, and it will be interesting to see how long it can stay there.

But has the cross-promotion helped Puzzle & Dragons in its effort to win over the US market? P&D also saw a big jump on Monday, and since then it has been hovering in the top 20 overall apps in the US app store. Of course, the more important metric is how it places in the top grossing charts, and that’s gradually on the rise as well (see chart below).

Thanks primarily to its huge fan base in its home market in Japan, GungHo’s Puzzle & Dragons already has over 15 million downloads under its belt. But its position at or near the top of Japan’s top grossing charts (since February 2012 for iOS, and since October 2012 on Google Play [1]) makes it the most successful mobile game of all time — not just in Japan, but anywhere.

pnd-top-grossing
Puzzle & Dragons moving up in top grossing ranks in US (App Annie)

I think that even before the Clash of Clans cross promotion, P&D already had a decent fan base in Japan, as the official Facebook page has more than 32,000 fans. There is also an unofficial Puzzle & Dragons database, an active chat forum, and a useful sub-Reddit.

And as I explained before, I’m still pretty hooked on the game myself. If you haven’t tried Puzzle & Dragons, check out our demo video that shows the basics of gameplay.

  1. The app was released in mid-September 2012 on Google Play, and sharply rose to the top of the grossing rankings by October 10.  ↩

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In Japan, some seniors turn to crowdsourcing job platforms for work

Takeshi Hirano Takeshi Hirano
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See the original story in Japanese. How many years can a human adult keep working? The concept of a lifetime employment system or retirement at 60 is no longer what it used to be in Japan. So finding work on online marketplaces is fast becoming an option for many older citizens in the country. Japanese crowdsoucing marketplace Crowdworks released an interesting report on Monday, showing how seniors (specifically workers over 50) use the crowdsourced platform for work. Some people are using it to make a living, and others do it to find a sense of fulfillment. We’d like to share some portions of the report and explore how a platform like Crowdworks can provide alternative working options. Please note that this report is based on 129 responses from 2,649 users aged over 50, just a fraction of Crowdworks 40,000 users. For convenience, currencies in this post are converted at a rate of 100 yen for one US dollar. More than 30% of the users over 50 earn $2,000 monthly from projects on CrowdWorks 73% receive $100 a month, and 34% earn more than $2,000 a month. 12% earn an annual income worth $50,000. Crowdsourcing gives people more ways to work…

japan-seniors

See the original story in Japanese.

How many years can a human adult keep working? The concept of a lifetime employment system or retirement at 60 is no longer what it used to be in Japan. So finding work on online marketplaces is fast becoming an option for many older citizens in the country.

Japanese crowdsoucing marketplace Crowdworks released an interesting report on Monday, showing how seniors (specifically workers over 50) use the crowdsourced platform for work. Some people are using it to make a living, and others do it to find a sense of fulfillment. We’d like to share some portions of the report and explore how a platform like Crowdworks can provide alternative working options.

Please note that this report is based on 129 responses from 2,649 users aged over 50, just a fraction of Crowdworks 40,000 users. For convenience, currencies in this post are converted at a rate of 100 yen for one US dollar.

More than 30% of the users over 50 earn $2,000 monthly from projects on CrowdWorks

73% receive $100 a month, and 34% earn more than $2,000 a month. 12% earn an annual income worth $50,000.

crowdworks_piecharts2

Crowdsourcing gives people more ways to work

It’s really interesting to see how users integrate crowdsourcing work into their lifestyle. The report shows us that almost half of the users are working on crowdsourced projects as freelancers, and the rest are working on projects as a supplement to their primary jobs.

crowdworks_piecharts3

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More than a few people in Tokyo are keen to settle in countryside some day, but if they move, there are less opportunities to meet new people on business than urban areas.

The report shows that 70% of users are using the platform outside the Tokyo region. This is made possible by the high penetration of broadband internet in the country. Some users explained that the platform gives them a chance to find work, competing with the younger generation in urban areas.

In my view, crowdsourcing must be more accepted in Japanese society, and as quickly as possible. We’ve heard from Crowdworks’ CEO Koichiro Yoshita that many local governments are looking to the potential of crowdsourcing as a means of generating a new revenue stream for the elderly. I expect this kind of civic movement could be led by more assertively by governmental entities.

For the elderly generation, they can be reliable workers offering much experience. And for them, such platforms are a great opportunity to find a more enjoyable lifestyle, or to explore interesting work options.

crowdworks_piecharts1

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Japanese receipt recording app ‘ReceReco’ hits 1M downloads in first 145 days

SCORE 1,893 Rick Martin Rick Martin
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Back in mid-May we noted that Japanese receipt recording app ReceReco had broken through its first year target of 500,000 downloads, just three and a half months after its January 31st launch. The app lets you take pictures of your receipts with your smartphone camera, reading, analyzing, and storing data about your purchasing history, and it has been very popular here in Japan since its release. At the time, Brain Pad (the company behind the app) said that they were targeting a million downloads before the end of the year. But ReceReco, which remains a fixture at or near the top of the finance app category in Japan, topped 1 million this past Monday, the company now tells us. It took just 145 days to reach that goal, a pace that far exceeds their initial expectations. What’s remarkable here is that this growth comes only on the iOS platform, so once an Android version hits Google Play (that release is scheduled for September), similar popularity is virtually assured now that the app has gained some popularity and name recognition. ReceReco is still only available in Japan, and can be downloaded over on the app store for free, with a paid…

rece-reco

Back in mid-May we noted that Japanese receipt recording app ReceReco had broken through its first year target of 500,000 downloads, just three and a half months after its January 31st launch. The app lets you take pictures of your receipts with your smartphone camera, reading, analyzing, and storing data about your purchasing history, and it has been very popular here in Japan since its release.

At the time, Brain Pad (the company behind the app) said that they were targeting a million downloads before the end of the year. But ReceReco, which remains a fixture at or near the top of the finance app category in Japan, topped 1 million this past Monday, the company now tells us. It took just 145 days to reach that goal, a pace that far exceeds their initial expectations.

What’s remarkable here is that this growth comes only on the iOS platform, so once an Android version hits Google Play (that release is scheduled for September), similar popularity is virtually assured now that the app has gained some popularity and name recognition.

ReceReco is still only available in Japan, and can be downloaded over on the app store for free, with a paid add-ons that removes advertisements. To mark this 1 million download milestone, ReceReco has the ad removal function available at a discount (85 yen) for the rest of the month.

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DeNA may have cut back operations on its Comm messaging app [Report]

Takeshi Hirano Takeshi Hirano
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See the original story in Japanese. Nikkei Business reported today that DeNA has cut back operations for its Comm messaging app, and is planning to cease further user acquisition efforts. The report says: The Comm app was introduced by DeNA to compete against Line. We recently learned the company has cut back operations for this messaging app. At its peak, the team for the app had almost 70 engineers, but this seems to have decreased to just several team members earlier this month. The company intends to cease promotional activities for acquiring new users. We also heard from a source that they might have cut back operations earlier this month. Some of our readers may have read Serkan Toto’s report that Comm integrated casino games into the messaging app. But it looks to have made no impact in terms of user acquisition. We have reached out to DeNA this morning for comment on the report, but have not yet received a reply. Update: The company says that the size of the Comm team is always changing, and will continue to do so. A representative notes that they “naturally needed to operate in a big group at launch” but has been…

comm

See the original story in Japanese.

Nikkei Business reported today that DeNA has cut back operations for its Comm messaging app, and is planning to cease further user acquisition efforts. The report says:

The Comm app was introduced by DeNA to compete against Line. We recently learned the company has cut back operations for this messaging app. At its peak, the team for the app had almost 70 engineers, but this seems to have decreased to just several team members earlier this month. The company intends to cease promotional activities for acquiring new users.

We also heard from a source that they might have cut back operations earlier this month. Some of our readers may have read Serkan Toto’s report that Comm integrated casino games into the messaging app. But it looks to have made no impact in terms of user acquisition. We have reached out to DeNA this morning for comment on the report, but have not yet received a reply. Update: The company says that the size of the Comm team is always changing, and will continue to do so. A representative notes that they “naturally needed to operate in a big group at launch” but has been “flexibly changing the team structure.” (RM)

Nikkei Business points to Kakao Talk and CyberAgent’s Decolink as competitors to Line in Japan. GREE has also launched a messaging app back in December of 2012, but it is still not promoted much and is only available in Australia and some other countries. It was rebranded as Tellit back in March.

When we look at messaging apps in the Asian region, WeChat (from Tencent) has been showing good numbers. They have acquired more than 50 million users outside China, in addition to its existing 300 million users in its home market of China.

In contrast with the success of Line and WeChat, some players in the Asia region may be in for tough times ahead.

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