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This startup wants to attract Greater China with livecast marketing, secures seed round

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See the original story in Japanese. Taiwan-based Shiryouko Studio, offering online video marketing for mobile game developers and other companies, unveiled on Friday that it has fundraised 30 million yen ($256,000) from Accord Ventures, Adways (TSE:2489), and Spicemart. Accord Ventures was launched back in November by Fumihiko Ishimaru, the former CEO of Tokyo-based startup accelerator Open Network Lab, while Spicemart is a mobile game-focused research firm spun off from Japanese mobile game developer (The) One of Them. Shiryouko Studio is being managed by Capsule, a startup launched back in 2013 by Shusei Hanibuchi (a.k.a. Xiaoha in Mandarin) who used to work with Shanghai-based Adways China as an account managing director. Doing business mainly in Taiwan, the company streamcasts live programs every day from their satellite studio in Ximending, Taiwan’s busiest shopping district and the source of local fashion and subculture. In their interactive show, popular YouTubers as emcees feature gameplays of participating players in the studio involving spectators passing by to help Japanese game developers expose their product to the local market. According to Hanibuchi, the program production cost varies depending on the size or the frequency of the show but their client can order producing a show starting at…

shiryouko-studio-ximending
Shiryouko Studio is located just in front of Ximen Station of Taipei Metro (Image: Google Street View)

See the original story in Japanese.

Taiwan-based Shiryouko Studio, offering online video marketing for mobile game developers and other companies, unveiled on Friday that it has fundraised 30 million yen ($256,000) from Accord Ventures, Adways (TSE:2489), and Spicemart. Accord Ventures was launched back in November by Fumihiko Ishimaru, the former CEO of Tokyo-based startup accelerator Open Network Lab, while Spicemart is a mobile game-focused research firm spun off from Japanese mobile game developer (The) One of Them.

Shiryouko Studio is being managed by Capsule, a startup launched back in 2013 by Shusei Hanibuchi (a.k.a. Xiaoha in Mandarin) who used to work with Shanghai-based Adways China as an account managing director. Doing business mainly in Taiwan, the company streamcasts live programs every day from their satellite studio in Ximending, Taiwan’s busiest shopping district and the source of local fashion and subculture. In their interactive show, popular YouTubers as emcees feature gameplays of participating players in the studio involving spectators passing by to help Japanese game developers expose their product to the local market.

shusei-hanibuchi_portrait
Shusei Hanibuchi, Founder of Capsule / Shiryouko Studio

According to Hanibuchi, the program production cost varies depending on the size or the frequency of the show but their client can order producing a show starting at hundreds of thousand dollars including fees for emcees, performers and directors. Shiryouko Studio wants to use the funds to enhance a platform to analyze video marketing effects, acquire clients from other verticals beyond mobile gaming, and start working on the expansion to mainland China.

Hanibuchi explained:

We already have an online dashboard for in-house use so that our team members can measure and analyze performance to report to our clients. However, we will enhance it so that our clients can log onto it by themselves to check out the performance of their sponsored shows.

In addition, we will be expanding to mainland China. In China, they typically use messaging apps to find and hire online video show emcees but we want to build an online marketplace dealing with them.

In China, there’s no YouTuber because YouTube is unavailable there, however, many video show emcees are actively performing on local video sharing sites like BiliBili and Youku Todou (NYSE:YOKU). As seen in an example like China-based cross-border e-commerce platform Bolome, it is obvious that the demand of such video show emcees or LP-ers is steadily increasing. The recent Asian expansion of Kamcord and other gameplay video sharing platforms is boosting such trends.

Reference:

studio_picSiryouko Studio now has about 30 staffers in Taipei for studio management and program production as well as expanding to the Cantonese speaking market represented by Hong Kong. They plan to strengthen sales in Tokyo to serve more Japanese companies from other verticals than game developers, which typically expect inbound demands from the Greater China market.

Hanibuchi is well known in Taiwan as an entrepreneur doing his business all across Asia, presenting at IdeasShow and other many startup conferences out there.

In the video below, a local news channel reports how Siryouko Studio’s livecast attracts local game players and viewers.

Japanese data analysis startup pLucky raises funds from Adways and Global Brain

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based pLucky, the company behind service analysis platform Logbook, announced today it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from Japanese internet company Adways (TSE:2489) and startup-focused investment firm Global Brain. Logbook helps internet companies to conduct a data-driven improvement on their web services, offering easy-to-use tools for service analysis such as auto-setting performance indicators and object values in addition to proposing countermeasures for improvement according to the web service category. Since its launch in Alpha version back in April, pLucky has improved Logbook for almost a year and acquired over 300 users. See also: LogBook makes data analysis more accessible to startups Japanese data analysis startup pLucky raises funds from CyberAgent Ventures Supporting mobile apps Using the funds, pLucky plans to enhance the Logbook platform to service analysis in the mobile app space. While there are an increased number of players offering service analysis platforms for web services, very few platforms support mobile apps. In view of the recently increased number of web service companies developing mobile apps, pLucky wants to enhance Logbook so that people can easily make service analysis for their mobile apps without expertise. Following adding mobile app support to Logbook earlier this month, the…

logbook_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based pLucky, the company behind service analysis platform Logbook, announced today it has fundraised an undisclosed sum from Japanese internet company Adways (TSE:2489) and startup-focused investment firm Global Brain.

Logbook helps internet companies to conduct a data-driven improvement on their web services, offering easy-to-use tools for service analysis such as auto-setting performance indicators and object values in addition to proposing countermeasures for improvement according to the web service category.

Since its launch in Alpha version back in April, pLucky has improved Logbook for almost a year and acquired over 300 users.

See also:

Supporting mobile apps

Using the funds, pLucky plans to enhance the Logbook platform to service analysis in the mobile app space. While there are an increased number of players offering service analysis platforms for web services, very few platforms support mobile apps.

In view of the recently increased number of web service companies developing mobile apps, pLucky wants to enhance Logbook so that people can easily make service analysis for their mobile apps without expertise. Following adding mobile app support to Logbook earlier this month, the company started accepting sign-ups from Android and iOS app developers.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Adways ties up with Taiwan’s VMFive, lets users demo app on pre-registration platform

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See the original story in Japanese. Japanese Internet company Adways (TSE:2489) announced today that it has secured a comprehensive business partnership with Taiwanese startup VMFive, the company behind AdPlay. AdPlay lets users demo an app before purchasing it with no pre-installed software or SDKs required from developers. As part of this effort, Adways has integrated its app pre-registration platform Yoyaku Top 10 (also known in English as PreLaunch Party) with VMFive’s AdPlay, which lets users demo an app before its launch. The new feature based on this integration is called Teaser Play. See also: Japan’s Adways launches pre-registration platform in US, helping game developers better monetize Adways plans to integrate AdPlay into the company’s app tracking tool PartyTrack as well, aiming to better support game developers from the pre-launch phase to the post-landing phase for their titles. See also: Adways’ Party Track begins integration with 5Rocks to create one-stop mobile analytics solution The Teaser Play feature is available in the Japanese edition of Yoyaku Top 10, but will soon expand to the Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, and US editions.

adways-vmfive_logos

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese Internet company Adways (TSE:2489) announced today that it has secured a comprehensive business partnership with Taiwanese startup VMFive, the company behind AdPlay. AdPlay lets users demo an app before purchasing it with no pre-installed software or SDKs required from developers.

As part of this effort, Adways has integrated its app pre-registration platform Yoyaku Top 10 (also known in English as PreLaunch Party) with VMFive’s AdPlay, which lets users demo an app before its launch. The new feature based on this integration is called Teaser Play.

See also:

Adways plans to integrate AdPlay into the company’s app tracking tool PartyTrack as well, aiming to better support game developers from the pre-launch phase to the post-landing phase for their titles.

See also:

The Teaser Play feature is available in the Japanese edition of Yoyaku Top 10, but will soon expand to the Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, and US editions.

teaserplay_featuredimage
The screen transition of the Teaser Play-enabled PreLaunch Party platform.

Japan’s Adways launches pre-registration platform in US, helping game developers better monetize

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Adways Interactive, a San Francisco-based subsidiary of Japanese internet company Adways (TSE:2489), announced last week that it has released the beta version of a pre-registration platform in the US, called PreLaunch Party. The platform is aimed to serve mid-core Android game developers and help them improve their user retention rate, ARPU (average revenue per user) as well as LTV (user lifetime value). From a user perspective, pre-registration platforms make you register before the launch of a game title, and subsequently can get rewards when the title finally launches. You can get not only the latest game information but also rewards such as rare items or draw gacha rewards for free which typical users need to pay for. In this way, game developers can help promoting their titles and reach potential users before its launch. PreLaunch Party was launched in 2013 in Japan under the name of Yoyaku Top 10, and has expanded to Korea, China, and Taiwan to date. Currently used by 500,000 registered users, it has recorded LTV and retention rate of over 1.5 times higher than that of organic users. In Japan, there are several pre-registration platforms available now, which are obviously competitors for PreLaunch Party, including Ichihaya,…

prelaunch-party_featuredimage

Adways Interactive, a San Francisco-based subsidiary of Japanese internet company Adways (TSE:2489), announced last week that it has released the beta version of a pre-registration platform in the US, called PreLaunch Party. The platform is aimed to serve mid-core Android game developers and help them improve their user retention rate, ARPU (average revenue per user) as well as LTV (user lifetime value).

From a user perspective, pre-registration platforms make you register before the launch of a game title, and subsequently can get rewards when the title finally launches. You can get not only the latest game information but also rewards such as rare items or draw gacha rewards for free which typical users need to pay for. In this way, game developers can help promoting their titles and reach potential users before its launch.

PreLaunch Party was launched in 2013 in Japan under the name of Yoyaku Top 10, and has expanded to Korea, China, and Taiwan to date. Currently used by 500,000 registered users, it has recorded LTV and retention rate of over 1.5 times higher than that of organic users.

In Japan, there are several pre-registration platforms available now, which are obviously competitors for PreLaunch Party, including Ichihaya, Flying Gatcha, and Game Gift.

prelaunch-party-arpu
Source: Adways
prelaunch-party-retention-rate
Source: Adways

Adways’ Party Track begins integration with 5Rocks to create one-stop mobile analytics solution

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Back in January we reported that Tokyo-based digital advertising network and game publisher Adways has invested in and partnered with Korean growth hacking startup 5Rocks. At the time we mentioned that Adways planned to integrate 5Rocks segment-specific user behavior analytics into its own app tracking tool Party Track, in an effort to make it a one-stop analytics solution for marketing attribution and insights into in-app user behavior. According to a brief announcement today, that integration has now finally begun. Adways CEO Haruhisa Okamura made a brief statement: Adways is always seeking the way to support our clients to maximize the profit by using our service – last year we released Party Track and realized the need to focus on not only ad-analysis but more detailed analysis on user basis. I believe this business tie-up with 5Rocks will help app developers to solve more issues.

Party Track

Back in January we reported that Tokyo-based digital advertising network and game publisher Adways has invested in and partnered with Korean growth hacking startup 5Rocks. At the time we mentioned that Adways planned to integrate 5Rocks segment-specific user behavior analytics into its own app tracking tool Party Track, in an effort to make it a one-stop analytics solution for marketing attribution and insights into in-app user behavior.

According to a brief announcement today, that integration has now finally begun. Adways CEO Haruhisa Okamura made a brief statement:

Adways is always seeking the way to support our clients to maximize the profit by using our service – last year we released Party Track and realized the need to focus on not only ad-analysis but more detailed analysis on user basis. I believe this business tie-up with 5Rocks will help app developers to solve more issues.

Adways launches its app pre-registration service for the Korean market

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See our report in Japanese Adways Korea, the subsidiary of Tokyo-based Adways Inc, has announced the official launch of its Yoyaku Top 10 service in Korea. It lets users pre-register for mobile game apps, and has been available in Korea in the beta phase since January. For developers, it serves as a medium to reach fans before the launch of an app, or even provide push notifications for new updates or events. During that three month beta, the service has been used by 150 apps from 50 different developers, with as many as 10,000 pre-registrations coming on a single app. The company claims a 56% conversion rate, which they say is far better than PC-based pre-registration services [1]. Yoyaku Top 10 was initially launched for the Japanese market in January of 2013, and Adways apparently has experienced enough success with it to warrant localization into Korean to explore that market. After Korea, the company aspires to expand service elsewhere in Asia. Adways says this figure is 20% for PC services, though we don’t have any verification for this.  ↩

adways

See our report in Japanese

Adways Korea, the subsidiary of Tokyo-based Adways Inc, has announced the official launch of its Yoyaku Top 10 service in Korea. It lets users pre-register for mobile game apps, and has been available in Korea in the beta phase since January. For developers, it serves as a medium to reach fans before the launch of an app, or even provide push notifications for new updates or events.

During that three month beta, the service has been used by 150 apps from 50 different developers, with as many as 10,000 pre-registrations coming on a single app. The company claims a 56% conversion rate, which they say is far better than PC-based pre-registration services [1].

Yoyaku Top 10 was initially launched for the Japanese market in January of 2013, and Adways apparently has experienced enough success with it to warrant localization into Korean to explore that market.

After Korea, the company aspires to expand service elsewhere in Asia.


  1. Adways says this figure is 20% for PC services, though we don’t have any verification for this.  ↩

Japan’s Adways invests in Gumi, looks to conquer Asia mobile app market

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See the original story in Japanese. Japanese internet company Adways (TSE:2489) announced yesterday that it has invested in mobile gaming developer Gumi (also from Japan), taking a 1.0% stake. Adways provides a reward-based ad platform for mobile app developers (in Japan and around the world) called AppDriver. Gumi is seeing good results in user acquisition, not only for its own game titles but also with Brave Frontier, a game developed by its subsidiary Alim. It is said that the app has acquired more than 2 million users in Japan as well as a million users from around the rest of the world. Through this investment, Adways expects to create a synergy with Gumi to expand its business in global mobile markets. Adways also recently announced it has partnered with InMovi Japan and five Japanese startups providing crowdsourcing services, helping AppDriver users improve and promote their apps using these services for free or at discounted rates.

gumi-adways_logos

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese internet company Adways (TSE:2489) announced yesterday that it has invested in mobile gaming developer Gumi (also from Japan), taking a 1.0% stake.

Adways provides a reward-based ad platform for mobile app developers (in Japan and around the world) called AppDriver. Gumi is seeing good results in user acquisition, not only for its own game titles but also with Brave Frontier, a game developed by its subsidiary Alim. It is said that the app has acquired more than 2 million users in Japan as well as a million users from around the rest of the world. Through this investment, Adways expects to create a synergy with Gumi to expand its business in global mobile markets.

Adways also recently announced it has partnered with InMovi Japan and five Japanese startups providing crowdsourcing services, helping AppDriver users improve and promote their apps using these services for free or at discounted rates.

appdriver_banner

Japan’s Adways partners with Korean growth hacking startup 5Rocks

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See the original story in Japanese. Japanese internet company Adways (TSE:2849) announced on Thursday that it has invested an undisclosed sum in and partnered with Korean startup 5Rocks. The latter develops growth hacking solutions for mobile apps, and launched services for Japanese app developers last year. Our readers may recall that 5Rocks raised 230 million yen (approximately $2.3 million) from Japanese VC Global Brain. It was reported last month that 5Rocks had sold its restaurant booking app Poing to fellow Korean startup Trust Us so it could focus more on its growth hacking tool business. Adways has developed a performance analytics solution for mobile apps called PartyTrack, and they plan to integrate their suite with 5Rocks’ solution, aiming to provide more efficient mobile ad marketing services for clients. Another Japanese startup, Sirok, also introduced a growth hacking tool called Growth Point last month. A series of such service launches indicates this sector will likely be a trending space this year.

partytrack

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese internet company Adways (TSE:2849) announced on Thursday that it has invested an undisclosed sum in and partnered with Korean startup 5Rocks. The latter develops growth hacking solutions for mobile apps, and launched services for Japanese app developers last year.

Our readers may recall that 5Rocks raised 230 million yen (approximately $2.3 million) from Japanese VC Global Brain.

It was reported last month that 5Rocks had sold its restaurant booking app Poing to fellow Korean startup Trust Us so it could focus more on its growth hacking tool business.

Adways has developed a performance analytics solution for mobile apps called PartyTrack, and they plan to integrate their suite with 5Rocks’ solution, aiming to provide more efficient mobile ad marketing services for clients.

Another Japanese startup, Sirok, also introduced a growth hacking tool called Growth Point last month. A series of such service launches indicates this sector will likely be a trending space this year.

Japanese company to launch data sharing platform for 3D printing

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See the original story in Japanese. Adways Labot, a subsidiary of Japanese internet company Adways, has launched a teaser for its 3D printing data sharing platform, which specializes in creating figures. The service is called Delmo, and it will be available later this month. The company already started distributing several samples of 3D printed data in STL format. We’ve recently seen many vendors introducing inexpensive 3D printers for individual users, and peripheral services have been springing up at the same time. Adways Labot is taking advantage of this trend, unveiled their sharing platform to allow users to share knowledge and exchange 3D printing data. We’ve also seen many communities where pictures of figures can be shared, including Pixiv and Wonder. When 3D printers attain higher penetration, there could be a huge need for sharing knowledge and data among users. Japanese news site Toyo Keizai Online recently interviewed David Reis, the CEO of Stratasys, where he unveiled some interesting user metrics. He says their 3D data library (available on the Stratasys website) sees a million visitors and 80,000 downloads every month. Makerbot has been strong in the education space, but it will also be interesting to see how it can evolve…

delmo_featured

See the original story in Japanese.

Adways Labot, a subsidiary of Japanese internet company Adways, has launched a teaser for its 3D printing data sharing platform, which specializes in creating figures. The service is called Delmo, and it will be available later this month. The company already started distributing several samples of 3D printed data in STL format.

We’ve recently seen many vendors introducing inexpensive 3D printers for individual users, and peripheral services have been springing up at the same time. Adways Labot is taking advantage of this trend, unveiled their sharing platform to allow users to share knowledge and exchange 3D printing data.

We’ve also seen many communities where pictures of figures can be shared, including Pixiv and Wonder. When 3D printers attain higher penetration, there could be a huge need for sharing knowledge and data among users.

Japanese news site Toyo Keizai Online recently interviewed David Reis, the CEO of Stratasys, where he unveiled some interesting user metrics. He says their 3D data library (available on the Stratasys website) sees a million visitors and 80,000 downloads every month. Makerbot has been strong in the education space, but it will also be interesting to see how it can evolve in the figure space.

For Delmo, it will be probably hard to generate traffic in Japan since the platform targets a very niche group. They will probably need to expand globally like Tokyo Otaku Mode, which is now developing a strong following from users worldwide.

3D printing technology has been used at design studios and architectural offices for the purpose of rapid prototyping. These days, many startups including Makerbot, Cubify, and PP3DP are developing cheaper but more user-friendly 3D printers. Makerbot was acquired by the major 3D printer vendor Stratasys for $403 million. And here in Asia, Pirate3DP received funding amounting to $482,000 from Singapore-based Red Dot Ventures.

When we look at the Japanese market, electronics retail chain Bic Camera recently started selling Robotama.com’s’ CellP 3D printer. Another Japanese chain Yamada Denki also started 3Dsystem’s Cube and its high-end CubeX model, and Nojima has started selling the CubeX series on its e-commerce channel.

delmo