THE BRIDGE

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Japan-based Wantedly brings its social job platform to Android

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Back in February we told you about the release of a new iOS application from Japan-based Wantedly, allows you to access the startup’s online social job platform on mobile. At the time, the team mentioned to us that they’d like to do a version for Android as well. And just after the iOS launch, it I understand they brought in a new engineer to do just that. Skip to today and Wantedly for Android is now available as a free download from Google Play. I encourage you to check it out.

wantedly-android

Back in February we told you about the release of a new iOS application from Japan-based Wantedly, allows you to access the startup’s online social job platform on mobile.

At the time, the team mentioned to us that they’d like to do a version for Android as well. And just after the iOS launch, it I understand they brought in a new engineer to do just that.

Skip to today and Wantedly for Android is now available as a free download from Google Play. I encourage you to check it out.

wantedly-a wantedly-a

Users spend 30% more time on Cookpad’s Android app than before. Here’s why?

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See the original article written in Japanese Cookpad, the Japanese online recipe platform, is largely recognized as a “user first” service. The Cookpad app recently surpassed 20 million downloads, and their latest data shows nearly 70% of access to the service comes from smartphones. This past February, the company built a mobile-first team. Among the company’s 70 engineers, about 10% joined the team. Aside from app development and operations, the company is pushing towards a mobile-first policy, encouraging web engineers to focus on mobile-related work. I spoke with Toshihiro Yagi and Kentaro Takiguchi, who have just joined this mobile-first team. Both have experience developing Android apps, and both came to Cookpad less than a year ago. The development of the Android app started within the device division of the media department, which later turned into the mobile-first team. The project started in October of last year, and after half a year of development, the Android app officially launched this past March. The mobile version of Cookpad originally started as a website formatted for smartphones. At that time, even though the division had dozens of web engineers, it had only one Android engineer. To adapt to the increasing number of users…

Cookpad-Mobile-First-members-1024x768
Toshihiro Yagi and Kentaro Takiguchi from the mobile-first team

See the original article written in Japanese

Cookpad, the Japanese online recipe platform, is largely recognized as a “user first” service. The Cookpad app recently surpassed 20 million downloads, and their latest data shows nearly 70% of access to the service comes from smartphones.

This past February, the company built a mobile-first team. Among the company’s 70 engineers, about 10% joined the team. Aside from app development and operations, the company is pushing towards a mobile-first policy, encouraging web engineers to focus on mobile-related work.

I spoke with Toshihiro Yagi and Kentaro Takiguchi, who have just joined this mobile-first team. Both have experience developing Android apps, and both came to Cookpad less than a year ago.

The development of the Android app started within the device division of the media department, which later turned into the mobile-first team. The project started in October of last year, and after half a year of development, the Android app officially launched this past March.

The mobile version of Cookpad originally started as a website formatted for smartphones. At that time, even though the division had dozens of web engineers, it had only one Android engineer. To adapt to the increasing number of users on smartphones, it was decided to offer Cookpad as a native app.

The team of four (three Android engineers and one designer) worked together to develop the Android app. They collaborated on the app’s UI and usability, using the engineer’s knowledge of things like OS guidelines. Based on the mockup created by the designer, they worked towards creating the best app they could.

Consistent UX/UI

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The iOS app for Cookpad had been already released, so the team had to be careful that the Android app design would not be influenced too much by that. To ensure that the app was easy to use, the team continued releasing small, incremental updates. One such update, for example, had the menu icon located in the left-top corner. The team learned that some users don’t recognize that the icon can be tapped to display a menu, and so they they implemented a tutorial message a the initial log-in to address the issue.

Takiguchi: It took much time to figure out to what extent the usability and UI of our iOS and Android apps should be unified. Many people say there should be a consistent user experience for iOS and Android, and the UI should be designed differently. But that’s a very difficult thing to do.

Through these small improvements, eventually the amount of time users spent on the Android app increased 30% more than they had seen with the previous version, which looked more like the service’s web interface. Swifter movement through content inside the app and improved tab display (such as today’s recipe and top recipe) also contributed much to this success. Yagi explained that one of the most important things to keep in mind during this kind of development is to keep asking if a feature is really necessary, and if it is easy to use.

Results that get attention

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Cookpad has an internal blog where members share ideas. Since last November the company has also organized a meeting called Potechi where engineers outside and inside the company get together to share technical tips. Potechi takes place every week within the company, and every month for the external meet. Each iOS or Android engineer is given five minutes to present their tips.

Yagi: Engineers at Cookpad are all highly motivated and have great technical skills. When we find a problem, we all do our best to solve it.

Takiguchi: Our CEO often says that each member has to keep a career goal in our mind when we work. He says we should create results that will attract headhunters’ attention.

Cookpad currently look for mobile engineers. To work on the mobile-first team, the most important thing is to have strong passion for app development rather than technical skills and experiences.

Yagi: We look to see if the candidate codes at home or outside the work place. We look for someone who looks like they cannot help but code at any occasion.

The value of female engineers

At present, all members of mobile-first team are men. Even in the company as a whole, female engineers amount to only 10% of the total. Engineers are expected to see things from the user’s perspective in order to find the best usability and UI by working with designers. Therefore, they hope they can add a force of female engineers as well.

Yagi: We interview users and hear their opinion. But when we reflect on app design, we might need to filter out perspectives that come from the male point of view. I believe that if the engineer is a woman, then it can effect the app design a lot. So we really hope female engineers can join our team.

It is not going to far to say that a major service like Cookpad could set the standard for app usability and UI. If you are passionate about creating apps, you might want to join their Potechi meeting. The next one takes place on May 14th.

Cookpad-ochame-mobile-team-1024x768

After starting hot on iOS, Japanese profile exchange app ‘iam’ launches on Google Play

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Back in January we told you about Fogg Inc’s new profile exchange app ‘iam’, which at the time had just launched for iOS. Earlier this month it hit number one in the ‘lifestyle’ category of the Japanese app store, just after its version 1.5 release (see chart below). And now today the company has finally launched (pdf) an Android version of their app. If you’d like to try it out, you can get it for free over on Google Play The company previously stated they were aiming for 1.3 million downloads in total by the end of May.

iam

Back in January we told you about Fogg Inc’s new profile exchange app ‘iam’, which at the time had just launched for iOS. Earlier this month it hit number one in the ‘lifestyle’ category of the Japanese app store, just after its version 1.5 release (see chart below).

And now today the company has finally launched (pdf) an Android version of their app. If you’d like to try it out, you can get it for free over on Google Play

The company previously stated they were aiming for 1.3 million downloads in total by the end of May.

iam-app-annie
Source: App Annie

Before the Filter: Improving mobile pics by improving the photographer

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Earlier this week we told you about the Back to the Future web app, which was the first prize winner at the recent Photo Hack Day Japan event, held by Aviary [1] . The second place winner from the event was perhaps an equally clever idea, shifting the focus from improving your photos with filters and effects to honing the user’s composition skills. It’s called ‘Before the Filter’, and it introduces users to basic photography concepts like the rule of thirds, showing some examples of that technique in use. It then uses a grid or template overlay on your phones’s screen/viewfinder to help you use the same technique yourself, providing editing tips after the picture is taken. Subsequent edits can be made using the Aviary editor, which the team implemented using the Aviary API. The pair of developers who made the app – Ben Watanabe and Antony Tran – managed to get a working app up on Google Play before the hackathon was even finished. I was curious to find out how the two could pull this off so quickly. So I got in touch with them by mail after briefly meeting at the event. Ben explains that it was…

Antony Tran and Ben Watanabe, with Shutterstock VP
Antony Tran and Ben Watanabe, with Wyatt Jenkins of Shutterstock

Earlier this week we told you about the Back to the Future web app, which was the first prize winner at the recent Photo Hack Day Japan event, held by Aviary [1] . The second place winner from the event was perhaps an equally clever idea, shifting the focus from improving your photos with filters and effects to honing the user’s composition skills.

It’s called ‘Before the Filter’, and it introduces users to basic photography concepts like the rule of thirds, showing some examples of that technique in use. It then uses a grid or template overlay on your phones’s screen/viewfinder to help you use the same technique yourself, providing editing tips after the picture is taken. Subsequent edits can be made using the Aviary editor, which the team implemented using the Aviary API.

The pair of developers who made the app – Ben Watanabe and Antony Tran – managed to get a working app up on Google Play before the hackathon was even finished. I was curious to find out how the two could pull this off so quickly. So I got in touch with them by mail after briefly meeting at the event. Ben explains that it was largely because of Antony’s ability to code for a quick paper prototype for Android:

Android is great for hackathons with just hours of review time needed to get on the store, compared to weeks (for iOS). Antony is a wizard with Android and is ridiculously fast at developing a UI. I had trouble designing in Sketch to keep up with his live coding.

before-the-filter02 before-the-filter04

Antony is actually an Android developer at Origami, an up-and-coming Japan-based startup that we have covered on this site in the past. As for Ben, has produced his own iOS photo app Cobypic in the past, but he wanted to get more familiar with Android during this hackathon. Update: Ben clarifies he is the founder of a Tokyo startup called TenTen (TenTen Tech Ltd. in Japan with its parent company in Hong Kong.

The two also benefited, says Ben, from great photos contributed by his brother Alex, which Antony says “give [the app] a very polished feel […] that sets us apart from others.” Before the Filter won second place at Photo Hack Day, walking away with 200,000 yen (about $2000) in prize money, as well as $1000 from Aviary awarded for the best use of their API.

The idea of improving pictures at their very root, in the imagination of the photographer, is an intriguing and much overlooked notion in the currently mobile photography landscape packed with filter-stacking and sticker decorations. But now that smartphone cameras have improved to the point where they can produce quality images, it’s certainly a valuable service for any aspiring mobile photographer.

If you’d like to download Before the Filter, it’s available for free on Google Play.

before-the-filter01 before-the-filter03


  1. In the interests of disclosure, I should note that I volunteered to be a judge for Photo Hack Day, as a way of lending my support.  ↩

Japan’s CocoPPa adopts Metaps’ ‘Exchanger’ to help profitability and advertising

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Based on our original article in Japanese United Inc. has announced that it will implement Metaps’ Exchanger, a network for user traffic exchange, into its popular smartphone homescreen decoration app CocoPPa. The newly released Exchanger service enables developers to optimize their Android app icons for best performance. With the implementation of Exchanger, CocoPPa is looking to bolster its profitability and advertising. Recently provided by Metaps as a beta release, Exchanger is a developer platform for monetizing Android apps. In line with the official release of Exchanger, it has been designated for introduction into CocoPPa. Metaps, as many of our readers may know, is a subsidiary of United, with investment from Venture United Inc. Apps which use Exchanger can have full screen advertisements displayed at any time. Icons are displayed as advertisements in other apps where Exchanger has also been introduced. By transferring customers reciprocally between apps in this manner, the platform allows developers to acquire users at no cost. Furthermore, when a user downloads a new app via a displayed Exchanger advertisement, the developer receives advertising revenue based on the number of downloads. To learn more about the platform, Metaps has recently published some informative slides which you can check…

exchanger

Based on our original article in Japanese

United Inc. has announced that it will implement Metaps’ Exchanger, a network for user traffic exchange, into its popular smartphone homescreen decoration app CocoPPa.

The newly released Exchanger service enables developers to optimize their Android app icons for best performance. With the implementation of Exchanger, CocoPPa is looking to bolster its profitability and advertising.

Recently provided by Metaps as a beta release, Exchanger is a developer platform for monetizing Android apps. In line with the official release of Exchanger, it has been designated for introduction into CocoPPa. Metaps, as many of our readers may know, is a subsidiary of United, with investment from Venture United Inc.

Apps which use Exchanger can have full screen advertisements displayed at any time. Icons are displayed as advertisements in other apps where Exchanger has also been introduced. By transferring customers reciprocally between apps in this manner, the platform allows developers to acquire users at no cost.

Furthermore, when a user downloads a new app via a displayed Exchanger advertisement, the developer receives advertising revenue based on the number of downloads. To learn more about the platform, Metaps has recently published some informative slides which you can check out below.

On a related note, CocoPPa also recently announced that it would collaborate with Chinese search giant Baidu on the Japanese input method editor app, Simeji for Android.

Japan’s disgustingly cute ‘Alpaca Evolution’ gets a prequel

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We previously wrote about the very strange, but very cute Alpaca Evolution mobile game, which has managed to attract over 5 million downloads in Japan [1]. And now a new version has been released – or rather, to be precise it’s a prequel, appropriately titled Alpaka Nii-san Begins. If you recall the original game, you are an alpaca who beats up on your alpaca brothers, absorbing them into your body to evolve into monstrous new forms of alpaca. In this new iteration, the gameplay is essentially the same, but we have the option of choosing from two storylines (‘power’ or ‘subservient’), with four possible endings. And if you make it to the ending, you’ll know the mystery that lies behind these funny animals. So far the game is ranked 10th overall in the Japan App Store on iOS, and if the previous version is any indication, it is likely to hit the top spot too, perhaps sometime over the weekend. If you’d like give Alpaca Nii-san Begins a try, you can pick it up for free over on the App Store or on Google Play. To get an idea of how the game is played, check out our video for…

alpaca-evolution-begins

We previously wrote about the very strange, but very cute Alpaca Evolution mobile game, which has managed to attract over 5 million downloads in Japan [1]. And now a new version has been released – or rather, to be precise it’s a prequel, appropriately titled Alpaka Nii-san Begins.

If you recall the original game, you are an alpaca who beats up on your alpaca brothers, absorbing them into your body to evolve into monstrous new forms of alpaca. In this new iteration, the gameplay is essentially the same, but we have the option of choosing from two storylines (‘power’ or ‘subservient’), with four possible endings. And if you make it to the ending, you’ll know the mystery that lies behind these funny animals.

So far the game is ranked 10th overall in the Japan App Store on iOS, and if the previous version is any indication, it is likely to hit the top spot too, perhaps sometime over the weekend.

If you’d like give Alpaca Nii-san Begins a try, you can pick it up for free over on the App Store or on Google Play. To get an idea of how the game is played, check out our video for the original Alpaca Evolution below. (Via VS Media)


  1. The title is actually Alpaca Nii-san, or ‘brother alpaca’, but the developer Cocosola translates it as ‘Alpaca Evolution’. Also, the five million downloads figure is taken from its English iOS app description. Some of the other app descriptions differ in their total.  ↩

Honda begins trials of anti-traffic jam app in Jakarta

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Japanese auto maker Honda started testing a trial version of its Android app in Indonesia yesterday, in an effort to reduce traffic jams in the country. The company distributed the app to 100 people including Jakarta police officers and local Honda employees. They will collect feedback after a three-month public road test. Jakarta is known for its heavy traffic since the country’s economy and car usage has been growing rapidly. Prior to this trial, Honda deployed the app on 14 cars which usually run on expressways in Indonesia, conducting tests from September of 2012 to February of 2013. The test yielded positive results in terms of improving traffic, potentially delaying a traffic jam by six minutes in some cases. Takamasa Koshizen, the project leader at the Honda Research Institute, explains: The app encourages a driver not to accelerate or decelerate suddenly, thus helping other drivers maintain almost same speed and keeping traffic clogging up. In addition to improving the flow of traffic, if you drive according to the app’s instructions, you can save more than 20% on fuel consumption. Jakarta police expect that the app may also help people drive in a better manner. Honda is planning to integrate the…

honda_trafficapp

Japanese auto maker Honda started testing a trial version of its Android app in Indonesia yesterday, in an effort to reduce traffic jams in the country. The company distributed the app to 100 people including Jakarta police officers and local Honda employees. They will collect feedback after a three-month public road test.

Jakarta is known for its heavy traffic since the country’s economy and car usage has been growing rapidly. Prior to this trial, Honda deployed the app on 14 cars which usually run on expressways in Indonesia, conducting tests from September of 2012 to February of 2013. The test yielded positive results in terms of improving traffic, potentially delaying a traffic jam by six minutes in some cases.

Takamasa Koshizen, the project leader at the Honda Research Institute, explains:

The app encourages a driver not to accelerate or decelerate suddenly, thus helping other drivers maintain almost same speed and keeping traffic clogging up.

In addition to improving the flow of traffic, if you drive according to the app’s instructions, you can save more than 20% on fuel consumption. Jakarta police expect that the app may also help people drive in a better manner. Honda is planning to integrate the app with its interactive intelligent car navigation system, Inter Navi.

(Via Nikkei IT Pro)

Tamagotchi’s still got it: Gobbles up 2.5M downloads in 90 days

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Readers may remember a few months back when we told you about Bandai’s new Tamagotchi smartphone app, which just been released at the time. Here in Japan, the Tamagotchi smartphone app is a paid offering, but Bandai offered a localized free-to-play version for the US. It’s called Tamagotchi L.i.f.e. And the company has just announced that it has surpassed 2.5 million downloads since its initial release, a decent initial result for that market. The L.i.f.e. app (what were they thinking when they named this?) first became available on iOS on March 28, and the Android version followed on February 14. 1.5 million of the total downloads to date have been on the iOS platform. The paid Japanese versions of Tamagotchi for smartphone have performed much better (even though they are paid) with the iOS version ranking no lower than fourth in the ‘family’ category on the Japanese App Store since its release. Similarly over on Google Play, the paid app has been a top 5 mainstay in the casual category for months [1]. While all these numbers still relatively modest, it’s a promising start. For Bandai to leverage its older IP like this, it should serve as an example to…

tamagotchi

Readers may remember a few months back when we told you about Bandai’s new Tamagotchi smartphone app, which just been released at the time. Here in Japan, the Tamagotchi smartphone app is a paid offering, but Bandai offered a localized free-to-play version for the US. It’s called Tamagotchi L.i.f.e. And the company has just announced that it has surpassed 2.5 million downloads since its initial release, a decent initial result for that market.

The L.i.f.e. app (what were they thinking when they named this?) first became available on iOS on March 28, and the Android version followed on February 14. 1.5 million of the total downloads to date have been on the iOS platform.

The paid Japanese versions of Tamagotchi for smartphone have performed much better (even though they are paid) with the iOS version ranking no lower than fourth in the ‘family’ category on the Japanese App Store since its release. Similarly over on Google Play, the paid app has been a top 5 mainstay in the casual category for months [1].

While all these numbers still relatively modest, it’s a promising start. For Bandai to leverage its older IP like this, it should serve as an example to companies like Nintendo who have yet to bring characters like Mario to the smartphone [2].

Bandai says that it plans to release an updated Tamagotchi Generation 2 this summer, with new features and characters. The company will also bring smartphone versions of Tamagotchi Angel in 2014. That’s not quite the blistering development schedule we’ve become accustomed to from modern day mobile developers – but it’s certainly faster than Nintendo.

Tamagotchi-mobileapp


  1. This is according to app metrics company App Annie (iOS, Android).  ↩

  2. It should be a lesson for Nintendo, but as we all know, Nintendo has not been the best at learning such lessons of late.  ↩

Japanese tower defense game ‘Samurai Defender’ now available globally [Video]

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I recently stumbled across a fun Japanese tower defense game mobile called Samurai Defender, which was developed by Tokyo-based Link Kit. I’m not familiar with any previous work from this company, but this title seems like a lot of fun so far. The game lets you play the role of an archer, tasked with picking off charging invaders one by one from your perch atop the castle wall. You can earn gold coins to upgrade your firing power and speed, fortify your castle, or invest in ‘schemes’ for your back-up army, which can be called upon at times in the game. So far I’ve been having a lot of fun with this game, as aiming and firing arrows can be lots of fun, requiring you to make the most of your shots before the enemies arrive at your castle walls. If you’d like to try Samurai Defender, you can get it for free over on the App Store or on Google Play. It is free to play, and is monetized with in-game purchases. If you’re in the market for other made-in-Japan tower defense titles, do check out my personal favorite Battle Cats, or even Gotcha Warriors. The title has been…

samurai-defender

I recently stumbled across a fun Japanese tower defense game mobile called Samurai Defender, which was developed by Tokyo-based Link Kit. I’m not familiar with any previous work from this company, but this title seems like a lot of fun so far.

The game lets you play the role of an archer, tasked with picking off charging invaders one by one from your perch atop the castle wall. You can earn gold coins to upgrade your firing power and speed, fortify your castle, or invest in ‘schemes’ for your back-up army, which can be called upon at times in the game.

So far I’ve been having a lot of fun with this game, as aiming and firing arrows can be lots of fun, requiring you to make the most of your shots before the enemies arrive at your castle walls.

If you’d like to try Samurai Defender, you can get it for free over on the App Store or on Google Play. It is free to play, and is monetized with in-game purchases.

If you’re in the market for other made-in-Japan tower defense titles, do check out my personal favorite Battle Cats, or even Gotcha Warriors.

The title has been available in Japan since March, and just recently became available globally this week. For a better idea of how the game is played, see our video demo below.

New Japanese app helps you collect and organize your personal health data

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See the original story in Japanese. As more and more data tracking technology is developed, the advantages of keeping of a Personal Health Record, or PHR for short, become all the more apparent. The growing use of Bluetooth-enabled health care devices helps people easily track information, and visualize and manage it. Tokyo-based startup Practechs has introduced an Android app that allows you to easily collect and review your various health-related data. The app is called Health Player, and it is available for free. The app can act as a pedometer, counting your steps as well as your calories burned in a given day. You can input data manually or by connecting with other measuring instruments, recording things like body fat percentage, base body temperature, your menstrual cycle, blood pressure, and pulse. The app can leverage Felica-based NFC or Bluetooth communications, transferring collected data from various third party health care devices. The startup expects to introduce an iOS app in late June. They plan to add more functions later on, like personalized content recommendations based on the collected metrics, reward systems that motivate users to keep exercising, or social content. Around Asia, there are many players in this health space including…

healthcare

See the original story in Japanese.

As more and more data tracking technology is developed, the advantages of keeping of a Personal Health Record, or PHR for short, become all the more apparent. The growing use of Bluetooth-enabled health care devices helps people easily track information, and visualize and manage it.

Tokyo-based startup Practechs has introduced an Android app that allows you to easily collect and review your various health-related data. The app is called Health Player, and it is available for free.

health-uiThe app can act as a pedometer, counting your steps as well as your calories burned in a given day. You can input data manually or by connecting with other measuring instruments, recording things like body fat percentage, base body temperature, your menstrual cycle, blood pressure, and pulse. The app can leverage Felica-based NFC or Bluetooth communications, transferring collected data from various third party health care devices.

The startup expects to introduce an iOS app in late June. They plan to add more functions later on, like personalized content recommendations based on the collected metrics, reward systems that motivate users to keep exercising, or social content.

Around Asia, there are many players in this health space including DocDoc (health management), Doctorpage (for medical appointments), CompareClinic (online community focused medical topics) , Silverline (health and safety for the elderly in Singapore), MeetDoctor (improving healthcare though user interaction), or Dokter Gratis (doctor consultation through an app).

For those of you who would like to experiment a DIY data monitoring system, you could even try something spreadsheet-based like the so-called ‘data diet‘ which my colleague recently wrote about.