See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Fablic, the startup behind flea market app Fril, announced that it will start airing a TV commercial on Friday. Coinciding with this, the company will also launch a promotion campaign giving away costumes used in the commercial film. Four actresses from Fuji TV’s popular drama series First Class – Erika Sawajiri, Kavka Shishido, Tomoe Shinohara, and Mirei Tanaka – are featured in this film, where they perform as close friends giving and taking their fashion items from each others. The Fablic team said they do not intend to look into cross-marketing with the drama series but this casting makes it easier for viewers to understand the story’s background. By casting high-fashion actresses, the company wants to present their vision and brand image to potential users through this campaign. Fashion magazine Numero Tokyo editorial director Sayumi Gunji and popular fashion stylist Tetsuro Nagase participated in creating the film. Since its launch in July 2012, the Fril app has acquired over 2 million downloads, generating a monthly transaction volume of $5 million. The company fundraised about $10 million from Japanese internet companies like Cookpad and Colopl in September.
Tokyo-based Fablic, the startup behind flea market app Fril, announced that it will start airing a TV commercial on Friday. Coinciding with this, the company will also launch a promotion campaign giving away costumes used in the commercial film.
Four actresses from Fuji TV’s popular drama series First Class – Erika Sawajiri, Kavka Shishido, Tomoe Shinohara, and Mirei Tanaka – are featured in this film, where they perform as close friends giving and taking their fashion items from each others.
The Fablic team said they do not intend to look into cross-marketing with the drama series but this casting makes it easier for viewers to understand the story’s background.
By casting high-fashion actresses, the company wants to present their vision and brand image to potential users through this campaign. Fashion magazine Numero Tokyo editorial director Sayumi Gunji and popular fashion stylist Tetsuro Nagase participated in creating the film.
Since its launch in July 2012, the Fril app has acquired over 2 million downloads, generating a monthly transaction volume of $5 million. The company fundraised about $10 million from Japanese internet companies like Cookpad and Colopl in September.
According to several news sources, Line, the Japanese messaging app company and a subsidiary of Korea internet company Naver (TSE:035420), was reported today that it has submitted an IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company and its potential underwriter Nomura Securities have not approved the report. Bloomberg reported last month that Line has been in talk with Morgan Stanley and Nomura Securities to explore possibilities to go IPOs at Tokyo Stock Exchange as well as New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ simultaneously.
According to several news sources, Line, the Japanese messaging app company and a subsidiary of Korea internet company Naver (TSE:035420), was reported today that it has submitted an IPO application to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company and its potential underwriter Nomura Securities have not approved the report.
Bloomberg reported last month that Line has been in talk with Morgan Stanley and Nomura Securities to explore possibilities to go IPOs at Tokyo Stock Exchange as well as New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ simultaneously.
Today Pinterest Japan announced that it will ally with Japanese advertising giant Dentsu to expand its business in Japan, as the social image curation service would potentially offer a new marketing alternative to local advertisers. Pinterest recently localized for Japan a few months back, and CEO Ben Silbermann recently expressed a hope that Japanese people can try to express more about their culture (things like art, food, and architecture) through pinned images. Ostensibly, Silbermann has that very same hope for Japanese advertisers, who might more effectively reach global audiences in a more visual manner. Pinterest has tested promoted pins over the past year in the US market, and looks poised to charge top dollar from advertisers. Via Venture News
Today Pinterest Japan announced that it will ally with Japanese advertising giant Dentsu to expand its business in Japan, as the social image curation service would potentially offer a new marketing alternative to local advertisers.
Pinterest recently localized for Japan a few months back, and CEO Ben Silbermann recently expressed a hope that Japanese people can try to express more about their culture (things like art, food, and architecture) through pinned images. Ostensibly, Silbermann has that very same hope for Japanese advertisers, who might more effectively reach global audiences in a more visual manner.
Pinterest has tested promoted pins over the past year in the US market, and looks poised to charge top dollar from advertisers.
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.
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.
YourGolf Online is a Tokyo-based startup that provides a GPS-enabled golf logging app. Jupiter Golf Network, Japan’s only golf-focused TV network, announced today that it has taken a full stake that company, with neither party disclosed the specific figures around the acquisition. Since its launched back in 2011, the app (available on both iOS and Android ) has seen more than 1.6 million downloads from over 390,000 users in Japan and around the world. Based on an accumulation of course data from over 2,500 domestic courses and 30,000 courses beyond Japan, the app lets you record at which courses you’ve played, how you made approach shots, and what scores you earned. By acquiring YourGolf Online, Jupiter Golf Network plans to explore possible synergies around their business by attracting amateur golfers to their network, perhaps providing golf-related video programs via mobile or tablet apps. via Nikkei IT Pro
YourGolf Online is a Tokyo-based startup that provides a GPS-enabled golf logging app. Jupiter Golf Network, Japan’s only golf-focused TV network, announced today that it has taken a full stake that company, with neither party disclosed the specific figures around the acquisition.
Since its launched back in 2011, the app (available on both iOS and Android ) has seen more than 1.6 million downloads from over 390,000 users in Japan and around the world. Based on an accumulation of course data from over 2,500 domestic courses and 30,000 courses beyond Japan, the app lets you record at which courses you’ve played, how you made approach shots, and what scores you earned.
By acquiring YourGolf Online, Jupiter Golf Network plans to explore possible synergies around their business by attracting amateur golfers to their network, perhaps providing golf-related video programs via mobile or tablet apps.
The Hello World Open is world programming competition that takes the form of a virtual race, with teams participating from all around the world. Organized by Finland based creative firm Reaktor and game developer Supercell, the race will require teams to program an artificial intelligence to drive the race faster than the competition, hopefully without any serious crashes! [1] Teams can include one to three members from the same country, but the same person can only participate on one team. Sign ups are accepted starting today (as of 1900 JST), and will run until April 7th. The actual coding goes from April 15th to the 29th, with regional qualifying rounds to follow in May (see map below). Six teams will travel to Helsinki, Finland (all expenses paid) for the finals. I’m really hoping we can see many entrants here from Japan, but I have a sneaking suspicion that won’t be the case [2]. But the folks from Reaktor were kind enough to pass along a Japanese translation of their announcement, which you can find below. Please check out out and sign up if you think you can outrun the competition to the (ahem) Finnish line! ハローワールドオープン : 史上初のコーディング世界選手権への申し込み受付が始まります。 この春は、コード裏に隠れた未来のスーパースターを見い出すチャンスです。ハローワールドオープンでは、史上初のコーディング世界選手権にて、トップコーダー達が自国の名誉をかけて挑みます。 創造力に富んだテクノロジー企業…
The Hello World Open is world programming competition that takes the form of a virtual race, with teams participating from all around the world. Organized by Finland based creative firm Reaktor and game developer Supercell, the race will require teams to program an artificial intelligence to drive the race faster than the competition, hopefully without any serious crashes! [1]
Teams can include one to three members from the same country, but the same person can only participate on one team.
Sign ups are accepted starting today (as of 1900 JST), and will run until April 7th. The actual coding goes from April 15th to the 29th, with regional qualifying rounds to follow in May (see map below). Six teams will travel to Helsinki, Finland (all expenses paid) for the finals.
I’m really hoping we can see many entrants here from Japan, but I have a sneaking suspicion that won’t be the case [2].
But the folks from Reaktor were kind enough to pass along a Japanese translation of their announcement, which you can find below. Please check out out and sign up if you think you can outrun the competition to the (ahem) Finnish line!
「コーディングのような掴みにくいコンセプトを簡潔化することによって、コーディングにアピール力を与え、一般の人々も楽しめるレベルに持ってくるのが意図です」と語るのはハローワールドオープンの主催者、Reaktor社の Ville Valtonenです。「我々の狙いはコーディングにおけるセバスチャン・ヴェッテルやジェフ・ゴードン、つまり尊敬に値する国民的スーパーヒーローを作り上げることです。観客の皆さんには自国の競合者に誇りをもち、勝利に向かって彼らを応援していただきたいのです。」
Besides this website, I’m not sure if there will be many ways for Japanese programmers to learn about this event, unless they read English news regularly. ↩
We had the pleasure of attending e27’s Echelon Tokyo Satellite event today, where Taiwan-based startup ICHEF won the judges prize at the events pitch competition. They explained that conventional point-of-sales solutions are slow and heavy, and they result in bottlenecks during peak restaurant hours. But in contrast, their app is much quicker and versatile, using one iPad or multiple synchronized iPads. Currently they have 100 restaurants using their solution in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and they are planning to expand to Japan as well. They will charge a monthly fee to restaurants for use, which is their main monetization model, but the data that they can collect about purchases and orders is something that they could potentially use as well, in an anonymized or aggregate form.
We had the pleasure of attending e27’s Echelon Tokyo Satellite event today, where Taiwan-based startup ICHEF won the judges prize at the events pitch competition.
They explained that conventional point-of-sales solutions are slow and heavy, and they result in bottlenecks during peak restaurant hours. But in contrast, their app is much quicker and versatile, using one iPad or multiple synchronized iPads.
Currently they have 100 restaurants using their solution in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and they are planning to expand to Japan as well.
They will charge a monthly fee to restaurants for use, which is their main monetization model, but the data that they can collect about purchases and orders is something that they could potentially use as well, in an anonymized or aggregate form.
See the original article in Japanese The partnership between investors and entrepreneurs is an interesting one. In the seed money round, investors not only invest funds, but they cooperate with entrepreneurs on many aspects of the business. But what’s actually going during the very early funding round? We spoke with an investor and an entrepreneur to find out more about this. Kentaro Sakaibara is the CEO of Samurai Incubate, a pioneer among independent incubators in Japan. Naoki Yamada is the CEO of Anydoor, the startup behind crowdsourced translation service Conyac, a portfolio startup of Samurai Incubate. In the previous article, they talked about how they cooperated on the Conyac translation service early on. This conversation is the third and final part, where Sakakibara talked about his long term goals. History of Anydoor Feburary 2009: Naoki Yamada and Tomohiro Onuma founded Anydoor. May 2009: Conyac, crowdsourced translation service, was launched. March 2010: Yamada met Sakakibara, and became one of the first portfolios of Samurai Incubate. December 2011: Anydoor fundraised from United. February 2013: Conyac for Business was launched. October 2013: Anydorr fundraised from three VCs. Yamada: How do you support young startups recently? Sakakibara: For the first half a year after…
The partnership between investors and entrepreneurs is an interesting one. In the seed money round, investors not only invest funds, but they cooperate with entrepreneurs on many aspects of the business. But what’s actually going during the very early funding round? We spoke with an investor and an entrepreneur to find out more about this. Kentaro Sakaibara is the CEO of Samurai Incubate, a pioneer among independent incubators in Japan. Naoki Yamada is the CEO of Anydoor, the startup behind crowdsourced translation service Conyac, a portfolio startup of Samurai Incubate.
In the previous article, they talked about how they cooperated on the Conyac translation service early on. This conversation is the third and final part, where Sakakibara talked about his long term goals.
History of Anydoor
Feburary 2009: Naoki Yamada and Tomohiro Onuma founded Anydoor. May 2009: Conyac, crowdsourced translation service, was launched. March 2010: Yamada met Sakakibara, and became one of the first portfolios of Samurai Incubate. December 2011: Anydoor fundraised from United. February 2013: Conyac for Business was launched. October 2013: Anydorr fundraised from three VCs.
Yamada: How do you support young startups recently?
Sakakibara: For the first half a year after investment, I use more schemes when I give advice, more than before. Hands-on for half a year, and then changing the meetings to twice a week… things like that.
Yamada: It’s more formulated rather than working together through trial and error.
Sakakibara: Right.
Yamada: Do you still have the Excel spreadsheet we used before?
Sakakibara: Yes, the form has changed though.
Yamada: Wow, I miss that. I struggled with filling out the tables, but I think that sheet helped me a lot in finding the next investor. The template made it easier for me to pitch in front of investors.
Sakakibara: Actually, some don’t like the sheet. They feel like they’re being controlled.
Yamada: Will you continue to support startups this way? Will you look at startups in Japan from a broader point of view?
Sakakibara: I think both perspectives are important. Some startups, incubators and CVCs were founded because of our influence. But I personally feel I shouldn’t be in Japan; I should create successful startups overseas.
Yamada: Are you going overseas? I remember when we were in the US, you’d been saying you want to try there.
Sakakibara: I’d rather go to Israel than the US, actually. I’d like to move on from Kobayashi-san to take a chance in Silicon Valley, and make connections on my own with investors in the Middle East and create a chance for startups in Japan to get investment from them.
Yamada: What is your final goal?
Sakakibara: The Nobel Peace Prize.
Yamada: You are very consistent about that. At our first meeting at Tully’s Coffee, you mentioned that. I thought you might be a crazy…
Sakakibara: Really? Did I say that then?
Yamada: And you mentioned Eiichi Shibusawa half a year later [1].
Sakakibara: Actually when I looked up business people related to the Nobel Peace Prize, I found information about Eiichi Shibusawa. He founded 521 companies, so I thought I would create 522 companies by the year 2020. You know, if I become a successful incubator in developing countries and contribute to making those countries richer, then it would be possible to win the prize.
Yamada: Quite a simple plan.
The Bridge: How do you spend your free time?
Yamada: When I used to spend weekends in Samurai House, I asked Sakakibara-san what he does. I remember he said that he watched DVDs, and I thought he was sort of introverted. We went to a rental video shop together, and I recommended him all the good DVDs for half an hour. But every time he replied he’d already watched them.
Yamada: The rental fee was very low, like 50 yen for each. He watched them all and had nothing left to watch.
Sakakibara: Haha. Right.
Yamada: I’m sure you will miss those days 10 years later. You will look back at the old days from Israel. Don’t you have a partner?
Sakakibara: No. Startups are my girlfriend.
Yamada: Ahhhh….
The Bridge: You got married, Yamada-san. Right?
Yamada: We started our relationship when I was 18 years old. We went to the US together. Quite a long relationship. A bit complicated though.
Sakakibara: Onuma-san told me that this subject is taboo.
Yamada: The funny thing is when we got investment from Sakakibara-san, Onuma’s marriage was then fixed. And when the next investment was settled, I got married. After our recent capital increase, the marriage of our CTO was fixed.
Our readers may remember a feature that we did on Japan’s Weathernews (TSE:4825) back in April. The company has made a major business in the area of weather information, and now has offices in 27 cites across 13 countries. Recently the company has been working to develop a sort of ‘polar routing’ service, to help marine traffic navigate icy Arctic waters. To date, they have relied on data from government satellites, but in order to get their service going they need a dedicated satellite. To that end, Japanese startup Axelspace has been enlisted to help with the project, as a company offering micro-satellites whom Weathernews deemed preferable to outsourcing to the government or a large manufacturer. They’ve produced an ultra-compact satellite that is 27 cubic centimeters, and weighs just 10kg. Dubbed the WNISAT–1, the tiny satellite launched today from Yasny Cosmodrome in Russia, piggybacking on top of a Dnepr–1 rocket [1]. According to the Axelspace blog this evening the launch was successful, and the satellite’s signal was successfully received. It is expected to pass over Japan at 20:40 tonight. The device will make 15 orbits of the earth every day, equipped with optical and infrared cameras, which it will use…
Our readers may remember a feature that we did on Japan’s Weathernews (TSE:4825) back in April. The company has made a major business in the area of weather information, and now has offices in 27 cites across 13 countries.
Recently the company has been working to develop a sort of ‘polar routing’ service, to help marine traffic navigate icy Arctic waters. To date, they have relied on data from government satellites, but in order to get their service going they need a dedicated satellite.
To that end, Japanese startup Axelspace has been enlisted to help with the project, as a company offering micro-satellites whom Weathernews deemed preferable to outsourcing to the government or a large manufacturer. They’ve produced an ultra-compact satellite that is 27 cubic centimeters, and weighs just 10kg. Dubbed the WNISAT–1, the tiny satellite launched today from Yasny Cosmodrome in Russia, piggybacking on top of a Dnepr–1 rocket [1]. According to the Axelspace blog this evening the launch was successful, and the satellite’s signal was successfully received. It is expected to pass over Japan at 20:40 tonight.
The device will make 15 orbits of the earth every day, equipped with optical and infrared cameras, which it will use to take shots covering 500km² of the Arctic Seas ice. These images will be sent back to Weathernews’ own Global Ice Center where they will be analyzed and put to use as part of their polar routing system. It’s expected that the WNISAT–1 will have a lifespan of one to three years.
As a provider of micro-satellites, Axelspace is an interesting company. They’re capable of producing these tiny satellites at a fraction of the cost, also using just a fraction of the development time necessary with conventional satellites. They design their satellites specifically to their customer’s needs as well, which is another competitive advantage.
Amazingly, this is not the only startup to venture into space recently. Back in October we’ve also seen San Francisco-based startup Elysium Space roll out its space burial service here in Japan, following its initial US-launch in August.
This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Osaka 2013. In the second morning session on day two of B Dash Camp Osaka, we heard a panel on the latest developments in smartphone advertising. Included in the talk on stage was Ganesan Velayathan, CEO, Fun & Cool Ventures, and Sid Bhatt, CEO of Aarki Inc. Joining the talk via Skype was Brian Wong, the co-founder of Kiip. 22-year-old Wong was an especially interesting (and charismatic) addition to this panel, since Kiip actually refuses to be called an ad company, instead preferring the moniker of ‘rewards company’. He says they are trying to redefine brand engagement, as well as connections that brands have with consumers: Kiip came from our observation that people were already engaged in ‘moments of happiness’. When people got a high score in a game, there’s an emotion. But that moment of happiness would often be abused by an ad. We wanted to instead acknowledge and reward these moments. Kiip is currently included in about 1500 apps. They started out in games but they are now in six verticals, including fitness, music, to-do, and food. Many of the ad dollars that come their way would…
In the second morning session on day two of B Dash Camp Osaka, we heard a panel on the latest developments in smartphone advertising. Included in the talk on stage was Ganesan Velayathan, CEO, Fun & Cool Ventures, and Sid Bhatt, CEO of Aarki Inc. Joining the talk via Skype was Brian Wong, the co-founder of Kiip.
22-year-old Wong was an especially interesting (and charismatic) addition to this panel, since Kiip actually refuses to be called an ad company, instead preferring the moniker of ‘rewards company’. He says they are trying to redefine brand engagement, as well as connections that brands have with consumers:
Kiip came from our observation that people were already engaged in ‘moments of happiness’. When people got a high score in a game, there’s an emotion. But that moment of happiness would often be abused by an ad. We wanted to instead acknowledge and reward these moments.
Kiip is currently included in about 1500 apps. They started out in games but they are now in six verticals, including fitness, music, to-do, and food. Many of the ad dollars that come their way would normally be spent on video, he explains:
They want the relationship with users to be a reciprocal one, starting such relationships “with a gift rather than yelling.”
We are now one of Hulu’s top three acquisition partners in the US. […] The bottom line is simple: As long as you have something relevant with a timely aspect to it, people will convert at a higher rate [than traditional ads]
Kiip is currently working with Yahoo Japan as one of their premier partners. They are also working with Lawsons, SMCC, Dell, with many more companies to come later. Japan is an especially fitting environment for a service like Kiip, as Wong explains:
Japan has a great mobile literacy. You can tap your phone and buy something, but that still science fiction in the US. In Japan, that science fiction is a reality. And I felt our platform would be accelerated there.
Like Kiip, Aarki Inc has been getting pretty creative in how it engages consumers on mobile devices. CEO Sid Bhatt showed off some really fun demos, including a rich media ad for Landrover. That ad let the user move their phone around to display a 360-degree view of the inside of a Landrover. Time spent in such rich media ads can be over two minutes, says Sid, and this is what advertisers are really looking for these days.
The traditional format, the banner ad, is quickly becoming obsolete. People still use it but it is definitely not the future.
And then there’s the Asia problem
Sid explained a little about their platform, which allows the creation of complex ads with drag and drop widgets, doing so in a better, faster, cheaper way.
He says that they are considering an office in Japan, but they are still trying hard to understand the market. What we build in the US may not be applicable in Asia.
Ganesan expressed this very same point as well, saying that In addition to the challenges that come with innovating new advertising technology, operating in the Asia region brings a whole new set of obstacles:
In Asia each country has its own style. Agencies still control the market in Japan.[…] Southeast Asia has many languages, many cultures, and different dominant market players. So [the challenge is] how to navigate that, and the agencies, and deliver the best results.
Ganesan, who operates an Asia-focused market place where developers and advertisers can connect, explained the value of their service by pointing out how it lets users choose the app where they advertise, rather than use an algorithm to select.
Moderator Tak Miyata from Scrum Ventures shared some figures to clarify the importance of the innovations these panelists have developed. Mobile ad spend, he says, was only 1 percent of all ad spend in 2011, but by 2017 it will represent about 17 percent – surpassing traditional media.
So while there will certainly be a payoff for companies who can figure out how to best engage consumers on mobile, those who can solve that riddle in regions across Asia have an especially big reward in store.