This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2015.See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s largest cosmetics portal company iStyle (TSE:3660), internet portal company Excite Japan (TSE:3754), and startup-focused VC firm Incubate Fund announced on Friday that they have jointly launched a company called Open8, focused on providing a women-targeted video ad network for smartphone users. iStyle COO Yuko Takamatsu was appointed as CEO of Open8. We could hear from him about details at the recent B Dash Camp event in Fukuoka. Open8 will be an ad network platform specifically focused on the F1 layer in Japan, women aged from 25 to 34, expecting to reach 15 million female users leveraging existing user bases from iStyle and Excite Japan. Takamatsu claimed that they will let other leading media involved to reach 30 million female users when start selling ad slots. This launched was supported by continuous descending price and performance of desktop PC advertising. It was told that the online advertising market was valued over $8.3 billion in Japan, but advertising rates kept descending. Takamatsu’s opinion is now a common understanding for all the people in the Japanese online media industry. Meanwhile, despite a rapid shift…
From the left: Open8 CEO-designate / iStyle COO Yuko Takamatsu, iStyle COO Kei Sugawara
Japan’s largest cosmetics portal company iStyle (TSE:3660), internet portal company Excite Japan (TSE:3754), and startup-focused VC firm Incubate Fund announced on Friday that they have jointly launched a company called Open8, focused on providing a women-targeted video ad network for smartphone users. iStyle COO Yuko Takamatsu was appointed as CEO of Open8. We could hear from him about details at the recent B Dash Camp event in Fukuoka.
Open8 will be an ad network platform specifically focused on the F1 layer in Japan, women aged from 25 to 34, expecting to reach 15 million female users leveraging existing user bases from iStyle and Excite Japan. Takamatsu claimed that they will let other leading media involved to reach 30 million female users when start selling ad slots.
Japanese women-targeted media sites planned to participate in the Videotap mobile ad network.
This launched was supported by continuous descending price and performance of desktop PC advertising.
It was told that the online advertising market was valued over $8.3 billion in Japan, but advertising rates kept descending.
Takamatsu’s opinion is now a common understanding for all the people in the Japanese online media industry.
Meanwhile, despite a rapid shift to mobile from PC, there’s a huge space to explore and develop more in the mobile advertising industry. Takamatsu didn’t undisclosed exact numbers but told us there are more than a little mobile ad inventory remaining unsold. By targeting this space, Takamatsu wants to grab the chance of a once-in-ten-years paradigm shift in the marketing industry.
So they had their eyes on the mobile video space which is now stress-free for users thanks to recent advances in mobile networking and higher penetration of smart devices. They are aiming to shift the big advertising budget of Japanese national clients from TV and other broadcast advertising into the mobile advertising space.
Open8 is planning to launch a video ad network for smartphones called Videotap. To see how it works, check out the video below.
As can be seen, Videotap gives users no chance to skip a video ad clip while watching but shows it in an unscrolled frame in the upper side of the screen so that one doesn’t look away. When the 15-second clip is finished, it will be folded into a small banner frame. The service will be offered on an impression-guaranteed basis.
In addition to women-targeted mobile video advertising, we were told that Open8 plans to launch another advertising service focused on mobile game apps.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2015.This is a combined abridged version of the first article and the second article. 54 startups flew all the way to Fukuoka from all around Japan and the rest of the world to compete at the pitch arena session of B Dash Camp 2015 Spring in Fukuoka. A dozen of these were shortlisted as finalists by a panel of esteemed judges during the preliminary pitch sessions on Thursday. At the finals taking place on Friday, Fukuoka-based Sefuri, the company behind mountaineer-use social networking mobile app Yamap, won the top prize. Judges at the finals were 13 notable people from the tech industry as follows: Tatsuhei Asanuma, SVP, Life Innovation Department, Gree Nobuhiro Ariyasu, CEO/Founder, Coach United Tomohiro Ebata, Director, Global Business Development and Investment Department Head, KDDI Tomohito Ebine, Supreme Advisor for Office of President and Director, Mobcast Shinichiro Isago, Technical Evangelist Manager, Emerging Technology Evangelism, Microsoft Japan Shunsuke Konno, CEO, IREP Makoto Kubo, President, Biglobe Capital Yusuke Mitsumoto, CEO, Bracket Gen Miyazawa, Executive Vice President, Media Service Company, Yahoo Japan Yoshichika Sakamoto CEO/Executive Producer, ORSO Yoshiro Taneda, Game Creation & Business Incubation, Fuji Television Network Kohei Terada, CEO, Bit-isle Choon Yang, CY, Startup…
54 startups flew all the way to Fukuoka from all around Japan and the rest of the world to compete at the pitch arena session of B Dash Camp 2015 Spring in Fukuoka. A dozen of these were shortlisted as finalists by a panel of esteemed judges during the preliminary pitch sessions on Thursday.
At the finals taking place on Friday, Fukuoka-based Sefuri, the company behind mountaineer-use social networking mobile app Yamap, won the top prize.
Judges at the finals were 13 notable people from the tech industry as follows:
Tatsuhei Asanuma, SVP, Life Innovation Department, Gree
Nobuhiro Ariyasu, CEO/Founder, Coach United
Tomohiro Ebata, Director, Global Business Development and Investment Department Head, KDDI
Tomohito Ebine, Supreme Advisor for Office of President and Director, Mobcast
Shinichiro Isago, Technical Evangelist Manager, Emerging Technology Evangelism, Microsoft Japan
Shunsuke Konno, CEO, IREP
Makoto Kubo, President, Biglobe Capital
Yusuke Mitsumoto, CEO, Bracket
Gen Miyazawa, Executive Vice President, Media Service Company, Yahoo Japan
Yoshichika Sakamoto CEO/Executive Producer, ORSO
Yoshiro Taneda, Game Creation & Business Incubation, Fuji Television Network
Each of the finalists delivered a five-minute pitch followed by a Q&A session with judges.
Pitch arena winner: Sefuri (Japan)
Supplementary awards:
Kindle Fire HDX 7、Kindle Wi-Fi White (presented by Amazon Data Services Japan)
Complimentary ticket for staying at Myojinkan, a Japanese-inn at Tobira hot spring resort, Nagano prefecture (presented by Loco Partners)
Complimentary 50,000 mileages and JAL Entrepreneur Card for 3 persons (presented by Japan Airlines)
Fukuoka-based startup Sefuri provides Yamap, a mobile map and social network for mountain climbers, allowing users to know one’s location using GPS singals from satellites regardless of whether outside of cellphone service coverage area or not. It also forms an online community for mountain climbers and outdoors fans, which is planning to launch a price comparison site focused on mountain-use and outdoor gears, called Yamap Gears.
Credits for up to $1.5 million transaction using PayPal (presented by PayPal)
Originally launched as a service by PurpleCow (now known as Crevo) in Tokyo, Crevo is a crowdsourced platform focused on producing online movies that require no camera shooting, allowing movie creators to introduce their portfolios of movie clips as well as matchmaking them with clients. They have acquired 1,000 crowdsourced creators to date, with 70% of them coming from outside Japan. Now the platform can split the entire movie production process into several roles and assign each of them to different crowdsourced creators according to roles such as director and illustrator.
Complimentary 50,000 mileages and JAL Entrepreneur Card for 2 persons (presented by Japan Airlines)
Tokyo-based Pocket Supernova has a mobile app called VideoSelfie, allowing users to add effects such as animated stickers, filters, and sound effects while taking a selfie video using mobile. It is also capable of real-time facial recognition as well as adding decorated stickers on video clips in motion. They have fundraised over $1.2 million from East Ventures, KLab Ventures, CyberAgent Ventures, 500 Startups and others to date.
Since its launch back in November 2014, they have acquired 500,000 downloads, boasting 75,000 monthly active users or 15,000 weekly active users so far. Following the iOS version available since the launch, the company launched an Android version a couple of weeks ago in view of the higher penetration rate of Android smartphones in the Asian market. The team has developed an Apple Watch app called Watch Me which will be available very shortly.
The following startups did not win but gave interesting pitches.
MakeLeaps (Japan)
Makeleaps is a cloud-based platform that allows users to outsource their invoicing. The company raised $750,000 from 500 Startups, AngelList, Kissmetrics, and others last year. They launched in 2011, followed by acquiring a competitor in 2012 and surpassing a user base of 15,000 people in June 2014. Starting with a partnership with Yayoi Smart Connect, an integration with Japan’s major accounting system, Makeleaps plans to integrate with third-party systems such as customer relation management and payments solutions this year.
Booktrack allows users to add a synchronized soundtracks on ebooks. Peter Thiel is one of their early-stage investors. The team focused on the fact that books have no soundtrack unlike other entertainment media such as movies, TV shows, and games.
According to clinical surveys conducted universities in New Zealand and New York, it is proved that adding sound tracks contributes to book readers in gaining their engagement. They have Booktrack and Booktrack Classroom in their menu now, monetizing by selling soundtrack-enabled e-books online and offering an API (application programming interface) that allows existing e-book stores to sell soundtracks for e-books.
Taiwan-based Zillians has developed a smart cat feeder called CatFi (previously known as Bistro). They successfully raised over $240,000 on an Indiegogo campaign last year, exceeding the original target of $100,000. By integrating the device with a mobile app, Zillians is aiming to form a social network platform for people having a cat. Monetization will come from selling hardware products and driving traffic of users to pet food commerce sites. The platform can tell users the most appropriate pet food according to several criteria such as the age and weight of their cat.
PopUp Immo is a vacation rentals service for retailers. The company offers short-term rentals to fashion retailers leveraging vacant stores in shopping districts, responding to the need of pop-up stores by luxury and indies fashion brands while giveing landlords with untenanted properties a money-making opportunity. Now available only in France, but one-third of their clients are brands and users from outside the country. They will expand the service to another 15 cities this year.
Sellsuki is an e-commerce platform allowing allows retailers to sell their items on Facebook. The team focused on 80% of e-commerce transactions are exchanged via e-mail or chat in Thailand. The platform allows retailers to build a data pool required for customer relation management through chat-based interactions with customers. It helps retailers manage interactions with customers in a list, showing which inquiries are already responded or otherwise taken care. That team was born in 2013 out of the first batch of True Incube, a startup accelerator by a leading Thai telco.
ChattingCat is a platform that corrects written English, helping office workers gain their productivity and students accelerate the speed of learning. The platform marks a month-over-month user growth of more than 25%. While a user acquisition cost is as little as $5, a lifetime value per user exceeds $50.
Eatme Catering Consulting (Taiwan)
Eatme is Taiwan’s largest reward-based social network focused on restaurants, boasting partnerships with more than 2,000 restaurants on the island. About 100,000 Taiwanese people visited restaurants using the Eatme app just in 2015 Q1 alone. While restaurants can promote themselves by publishing their profiles on the platform, users can receive discount rewards by presenting a Eatme card at these restaurants.
The platform also allows users to share their reviews on restaurants with each others, as well as restaurant owners to obtain analytics based on the profiles of customers who visited using the app. Eatme charges a restaurant a commission from 6 to 10% on the sales driven by the channel.
Fandora (Taiwan)
Fandora was established in May 2012 with an aim to be a community-based A2C (artist to consumer) platform in Taiwan, allowing graphic artists to exhibit and share their works online. Fandora Shop, the platform’s e-commerce section, enables artists to print their illustrations on physical items on-demand for selling to consumers online.
While participating 1,253 artists are currently exhibiting 21,263 items, the company offers 11 different product lines such as iPhone/iPad cases and T-shirts. They fundraised a total of $1.3 million in the past two rounds, planning to expand beyond Taiwan to mainland China, Japan, and Southeast Asia.
Socket provides a revenue optimization platform for mobile commerce owners called Flipdesk. It allows retailers to distribute direct messages and discount coupons to their customers based on behavioral analytics if they were enjoying shopping at real stores. The platform has been adopted by many retailers including Tokyu Hands department store.
To provide user acquisition and web-based promotion features en messe, Socket has integrated the platform with other systems including Line Business Connect, a variety of demand-side platforms, and mobile ad production platforms such as AdFlow.
This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2015. Osaka-based Nextage, a startup that broadcasts theatrical plays online, launched the English version of a mobile app called TheaterLive4U earlier this month, enabling theatrical performance fans around the world to watch Japanese plays on mobile devices. The app features more than 200 titles performed by over 60 theatrical companies, and selected titles are provided with English subtitles. The app is available for free on the iTunes AppStore and Google Play, but a flat fee starting at 980 yen ($8) per month will be charged to watch the plays. The revenue will be split 70:30 between a theatrical company and Nextage, which will give theatrical companies an additional revenue stream even after a show closes, helping struggling actors and actresses make a better living in show business. At the B Dash Camp event in Fukuoka on Thursday, Nextage was chosen as one of 54 nominees from more than 100 applicants in the pitch competition, where CEO Manabu Fukui gave a great pitch to a crowd of investors and entrepreneurs. Edited by Kurt Hanson
Osaka-based Nextage, a startup that broadcasts theatrical plays online, launched the English version of a mobile app called TheaterLive4U earlier this month, enabling theatrical performance fans around the world to watch Japanese plays on mobile devices. The app features more than 200 titles performed by over 60 theatrical companies, and selected titles are provided with English subtitles.
The app is available for free on the iTunes AppStore and Google Play, but a flat fee starting at 980 yen ($8) per month will be charged to watch the plays. The revenue will be split 70:30 between a theatrical company and Nextage, which will give theatrical companies an additional revenue stream even after a show closes, helping struggling actors and actresses make a better living in show business.
At the B Dash Camp event in Fukuoka on Thursday, Nextage was chosen as one of 54 nominees from more than 100 applicants in the pitch competition, where CEO Manabu Fukui gave a great pitch to a crowd of investors and entrepreneurs.
Edited by Kurt Hanson
Manabu Fukui delivers a pitch at B Dash Camp 2015 Spring in Fukuoka, Pitch Arena competition.
This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2015. This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese. C Channel, a new company led by former Line CEO Akira Morikawa, will launch today an online video-based digital fashion media called C Channel. The company will launch the service in beta version, then launch a mobile app and an English version by the end of 2015. See also: Line Corporation’s CEO Morikawa on fast and furious global expansion Coinciding with the launch, C Channel announced that it will fundraise 500 million yen or ($4 million) from iStyle (TSE:3660, the company behind Japan’s largest cosmetics portal @Cosme), Asobisystem (Tokyo-based talent agency famous for employing J-pop idol Kyary Pamyu Pamyu), Gree, GMO Venture Partners, Nexyz (TSE:4346), B Dash Ventures, MAK Corporation (the company of Makoto Arima, Google’s former country managing director for Japan), and Rakuten (TSE:4755). The funding will be executed in late April. C Channel is an online video-based media targeting women aged 20 to 34, focusing on offering lifestyle-related information ranging from hairstyling, food, to travel tips. Morikawa started his carrier at Tokyo-based private broadcaster Nippon Television Network, followed by Sony and subsequently joining Hangame…
This is the abridged version from our original article in Japanese.
C Channel, a new company led by former Line CEO Akira Morikawa, will launch today an online video-based digital fashion media called C Channel. The company will launch the service in beta version, then launch a mobile app and an English version by the end of 2015.
Coinciding with the launch, C Channel announced that it will fundraise 500 million yen or ($4 million) from iStyle (TSE:3660, the company behind Japan’s largest cosmetics portal @Cosme), Asobisystem (Tokyo-based talent agency famous for employing J-pop idol Kyary Pamyu Pamyu), Gree, GMO Venture Partners, Nexyz (TSE:4346), B Dash Ventures, MAK Corporation (the company of Makoto Arima, Google’s former country managing director for Japan), and Rakuten (TSE:4755). The funding will be executed in late April.
C Channel is an online video-based media targeting women aged 20 to 34, focusing on offering lifestyle-related information ranging from hairstyling, food, to travel tips.
Morikawa started his carrier at Tokyo-based private broadcaster Nippon Television Network, followed by Sony and subsequently joining Hangame Japan (now known as Line) in 2003 where he produced smash-hit messaging app Line which has attracted over 500 million users worldwide. Since April 2014, he had been working as co-CEO with current Line CEO Tsuyoshi Idesawa. But Morikawa announced that he would step down from the position late last year, which had been attracting people’s attention about his next move.
C Channel will set up an office outfitted with a video production studio in Tokyo’s fashion district of Harajuku, which will be launched on 19 April.
— Added on 10 April, Friday
In a fireside chat session at B Dash Camp 2015 Spring in Fukuoka on Friday, Morikawa introduced details about the new service. According to him, C Channel has acquired 100 fashion model girls, called ‘clippers’ in the service, and they will upload a total of about 10 video clips to the service every day.
Morikawa claimed that C Channel will be something similar to MTV in the cable TV era where their content have been not always produced by the broadcaster but more focused on building their brand leveraging other content providers. Based on a partnership with Asobisystem, C Channel will use more than a few models from the former company as clippers.
From the left: C Channel founder Akira Morikawa, Asobisystem CEO Yusuke Nakagawa, twin models acting as ‘clippers’ Amiaya
Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by Kurt Hanson
Proofread by “Tex” Pomeroy
B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2015 
Takeshi Hirano
Masaru Ikeda
