THE BRIDGE

tag crowdsourcing

Japan’s crowdsourcing plaform Shufti raises $5.8 million

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Uluru, the startup behind crowdsourcing platform using housewives called Shufti, recently announced that it has fundraised 630 million yen (about $5.8 million) from Japanese VC firm Nissay Capital and wedding-related buzz marketing site Minnano Wedding. Uluru started its business providing business process outsourcing services in 2001, and subsequently launched crowdsourcing platform Shufti in 2007. The platform has acquired over 76,000 users to date. The company plans to use the funds to enhance human resources for further development and management of crowdsourcing business. Shufti was one of the oldest platforms of this kind. While they launched the platform in 2007, there were another several crowdsourcing services launched in Japan at that time, such as Lancers and C-team. So they started the crowdsourcing platform almost five years before Crowdworks, one of the most popular services in this space. According to Uluru’s vice president Yuhei Okeyama, the company still generates its primary revenue stream from their outsourcing services rather than the Shufti platform. They have a database called NJSS, showcasing tendering opportunities from governmental organizations around the country for their outsourcing needs; this DB has acquired nearly 1,500 corporate users to date and account for 60% or 70% of the market share. To…

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See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Uluru, the startup behind crowdsourcing platform using housewives called Shufti, recently announced that it has fundraised 630 million yen (about $5.8 million) from Japanese VC firm Nissay Capital and wedding-related buzz marketing site Minnano Wedding.

Uluru started its business providing business process outsourcing services in 2001, and subsequently launched crowdsourcing platform Shufti in 2007. The platform has acquired over 76,000 users to date. The company plans to use the funds to enhance human resources for further development and management of crowdsourcing business.

Shufti was one of the oldest platforms of this kind. While they launched the platform in 2007, there were another several crowdsourcing services launched in Japan at that time, such as Lancers and C-team. So they started the crowdsourcing platform almost five years before Crowdworks, one of the most popular services in this space.

According to Uluru’s vice president Yuhei Okeyama, the company still generates its primary revenue stream from their outsourcing services rather than the Shufti platform. They have a database called NJSS, showcasing tendering opportunities from governmental organizations around the country for their outsourcing needs; this DB has acquired nearly 1,500 corporate users to date and account for 60% or 70% of the market share.

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To collect tender announcements from local governments, Uluru has been sending their people to governmental offices around the country. Hearing from Okeyama, we found that they have been using crowdsourced forces from Shufti to collect these announcements to build up the NJSS database.

Many of crowdsourced workers on the Shufti platform are married women. So it will be easy for the aforementioned buzz site Minnano Wedding to find synergy by driving potential users to the Shufti platform.

Lancers CEO Yosuke Akiyoshi on obstacles facing crowdsourcing in Japan

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This is part of our coverage of Infinity Ventures Summit Kyoto 2013 See the original article in Japanese We conducted many interviews about consumer-to-consumer (C2C) businesses at the recent Infinity Ventures Summit. Today we have a conversation from that event that we had with Yosuke Akiyoshi, the CEO of Lancers, a leading startup in Japan’s crowdsourcing space. The Bridge: Here I’ve been interviewing many people from the C2C businesses. One of the hot topics among those people lately is Crowdworks’ recent fund raising. Akiyoshi: Looking back on the five years since we launched our crowdsourcing business, the space has really changed a lot. We target people with basic knowledge of the internet, and among those people, words such as ‘crowdsourcing’ and ‘Lancers’ became better known. It took four years for the total number of users (workers who receive orders) to reach 100,000. The number rapidly grew to 200,000 this October, and 220,000 last month. It could surpass 300,000 early next year. But some users still feel they don’t fully understand the system. So, we need to better educate them. In that sense, the 1.1 billion yen (raised by Crowdworks) means a lot in developing the industry. The Bridge: You announced…

This is part of our coverage of Infinity Ventures Summit Kyoto 2013

See the original article in Japanese

We conducted many interviews about consumer-to-consumer (C2C) businesses at the recent Infinity Ventures Summit. Today we have a conversation from that event that we had with Yosuke Akiyoshi, the CEO of Lancers, a leading startup in Japan’s crowdsourcing space.

The Bridge: Here I’ve been interviewing many people from the C2C businesses. One of the hot topics among those people lately is Crowdworks’ recent fund raising.

Akiyoshi: Looking back on the five years since we launched our crowdsourcing business, the space has really changed a lot. We target people with basic knowledge of the internet, and among those people, words such as ‘crowdsourcing’ and ‘Lancers’ became better known. It took four years for the total number of users (workers who receive orders) to reach 100,000. The number rapidly grew to 200,000 this October, and 220,000 last month. It could surpass 300,000 early next year. But some users still feel they don’t fully understand the system. So, we need to better educate them. In that sense, the 1.1 billion yen (raised by Crowdworks) means a lot in developing the industry.

The Bridge: You announced today that Lancers will have partnership with GMO Epsilon Inc.

Akiyoshi: GMO Epsilon offers payment services, and lots of work opportunities will arise due to the implementation of the service. Many of such work orders will be placed on Lancers.

The Bridge: The fast-growing aspects of crowdsourcing tend to get a lot of attention. But many services struggle to build a solid culture for C2C and B2C businesses. What kind of issues do you face?

Akiyoshi: Users are increasing, and I don’t see any problem with that. The problem lies on the side of the companies. Currently, there are a core group of companies who are accustomed to the system. But the goal is for any company to use the system. And there are issues that need to be overcome.

The Bridge: I see.

Akiyoshi: First, direction. When a company places an order, it needs to divide the work. But many companies get stuck at this point.

The Bridge: For example, for a web-design work order, work needs to be divided into coding, writing, and programming, with an order made for each. We plan to solve this issue by holding seminars for companies and dividing up the process control of the system. Also, product managers who can understand and handle the process are needed. We aim to implement more training to increase the amount of such product mangers. We need to enlighten companies.

The Bridge: When you enlighten companies, so to speak, which advantages of Lancers do you emphasize?

Akiyoshi: We tell them the overall advantages in speed, cost and resources.

The Bridge: What about users who receive orders? How do you educate them? I heard you often visit local areas.

Akiyoshi: I have already visited about 15 regions. I realized it is important to have face-to-face communication and to solve such issues. There are few jobs in local regions. Businesses in Tokyo take jobs from the local. There are few useful communities where you can find opportunities, unlike Tokyo.

The Bridge: How long do you think it will take for crowdsourcing to be accepted as a new kind of work style?

Akiyoshi: It depends on how we measure the success, although we have set a metric. Right now, there are about 200 workers who can make a living just from their Lancers work. We’d like to increase that figure to 10,000 by 2017. But it will take much longer to completely change people’s way of working.

The Bridge: It will certainly take a while. So what number or metric do you currently care about the most?

Akiyoshi: Focusing on improving the users’ experiences, we pay attention to the repeat customer rate. Of course we look at the number of the work orders and the member total at the same time.

The Bridge: Thank you for your time.


I got the impression that more workers understand the concept of crowdsourcing these days. But there are still lots of obstacles that get in the way of companies using crowdsourcing. It’s not only about speed and cost, but quality needs to be considered. And it requires more understanding from companies about how to use the system and handle the process control. That knowledge is not open enough, and it becomes an obstacle.

Japan and the culture of crowdsourcing: Crowdworks’ CEO Koichiro Yoshida (2/2)

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See the original article in Japanese Crowdworks, the startup behind crowdsourcing platform of the same nae, recently announced that it has raised 1.1 billion yen (or about $11 million). In the second part of our interview with the CEO, Koichi Yoshida (the first part is here), he talked about what is needed to really establish crowdsourcing in Japan, as well as the pain that inevitably comes when startups grow rapidly. The Bridge: I’m sure there are lots of obstacles to establishing a C2C or B2C working style in Japan. What will be the key to expand this new kind of work in this country? Yoshida: I think the key lies in whether the individual worker can be independent or not. Crowdsourcing first emerged 10 years ago, a new working style based on the premise that individual workers could be work responsibly for businesses. But companies too need to have somewhat mature mindset. Previously they used to place an order for work without thinking twice. They had little problems with dealing with sales reps to place an order, but that method has become less profitable. Even for a company that has never used crowdsourcing, some are now expressing interest in it….

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See the original article in Japanese

Crowdworks, the startup behind crowdsourcing platform of the same nae, recently announced that it has raised 1.1 billion yen (or about $11 million). In the second part of our interview with the CEO, Koichi Yoshida (the first part is here), he talked about what is needed to really establish crowdsourcing in Japan, as well as the pain that inevitably comes when startups grow rapidly.

The Bridge: I’m sure there are lots of obstacles to establishing a C2C or B2C working style in Japan. What will be the key to expand this new kind of work in this country?

Yoshida: I think the key lies in whether the individual worker can be independent or not. Crowdsourcing first emerged 10 years ago, a new working style based on the premise that individual workers could be work responsibly for businesses. But companies too need to have somewhat mature mindset. Previously they used to place an order for work without thinking twice. They had little problems with dealing with sales reps to place an order, but that method has become less profitable. Even for a company that has never used crowdsourcing, some are now expressing interest in it.

The Bridge: You said that companies need to change their mindset. What about the workers? Does one need a specific mindset to do crowdsourced work?

Yoshida: Unlike working for a company, individual workers need to be more responsible for their own work. They need to complete it once they accept it. Some workers start at a rate of 5000 yen (about $50) for writing an article, and later the rate grows to 10,000 yen and then 20,000 yen. Those workers, who successfully build up experience, constantly receive requests for work estimates.

It will take some time until the mindset of individual workers changes dramatically. But the overall cost effectiveness could motivate companies to use crowdsourcing as “the fourth resource”, after hiring permanent workers, temporary workers, and outsourcing.

The Bridge: I think that this new working style won’t become really common unless it is accepted in more wide-ranging areas and across a wider demographic. You previously said you were willing to expand the service to smaller cities by building partnerships with local governments, such as Gifu prefecture and Minami-soma in Fukushima. Can you tell me more about this plan?

Yoshida: We will continue the partnership with local governments, focusing more on local workers. There are many workers bound to a certain region, so to speak. We will consider implementing a kind of safety net, such as offering insurance when workers are unemployed.

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The Bridge: This is something we often forget, but there are still many people don’t use the internet, seniors in particular. We’ll need to serve this cluster better in order to establish a culture around crowdsourced work.

Yoshida: This is just a plan, but we are thinking to divide the market according to skills or needs. For example, we have work where a sign manufacturing company requests a worker to take pictures of broken signs. Such a task can be put in a category where no special skill is required.

The Bridge: I see. As long as the worker can use a digital camera, then he or she can do the work.

Yoshida: There are a wide variety of abilities among seniors. Some do just data entry and some design business cards with remarkable skill. If the smartphone becomes truly mainstream, more people will be online and that could spur demand for micro tasks such as data entry.

The Bridge: Still there will be people without an internet connection. Will it be possible that a third party business could use Crowdworks to matching senior workers and jobs?

Yoshida: Some workers actually delegate their work by hiring other workers. The overall concept is based on open source, so various ways to get the work done are possible.


I cannot go into too much detail here, but I talked with Yoshida-san about the difficulties that come with local expansion. I can personally relate to the local culture through my own past work experiences, and I know that it is not always so welcoming of new-comers.

I believe that the key to making crowdsourcing mainstream in Japan lies in utilizing hidden resources like seniors or people in other locales. But in this interview, I had impression that Yoshida thinks promoting companies’ use of the service and fostering an overall understanding of the process is the first thing to do.

Inside a fast-growing startup.

The Bridge: What was the most difficult time during these three year at Crowdworks?

Yoshida: To be honest, now is the most difficulty time. We have carefully built a KPI management tool before we started the service. We were united to achieve our goals. But it is not so difficult to reach your goals when you have only one metric to meet. It gets harder when the number of KPIs increase to two or three. We work under pressure.

There is a sort of difference between the original members on the team and those who joined after a while. I have to decide whether I should narrow this mental gap, or focus on moving forward.

The Bridge: You are expected to be experienced leader for your team. What approach do you take when talking to them?

Yoshida: One thing I tell members is to work for users, as opposed to the stockholders. Based on my past experiences, I believe the company who serves users will win the market eventually.

The Bridge: So the team works for users, and you work for stock holders.

Yoshida: Haha.

The Bridge: Thank you for your time today.


So what do you think about the future of crowdsourcing in Japan? Crowdworks’ success is definitely not the result of a bubble – or at least, I’d like to believe so. The scale of their business is not so large compared with other businesses like game developers. But I got a strong impression that this service is going to take time to expand. Creating a new working style is sort of analogous to establishing a culture where new graduates can consider crowdsourcing as an option for their first job, as an alternative to being employed by a company.

Due to time constraints, we didn’t have a chance to discuss the company’s competitors, like Lancers. I think a united front with competitors is necessary to establish the necessary culture, but Crowdworks needs to win this competition in order to thrive in the industry. We hope to touch on that topic next time.

Japanese music composer community Creofuga launches crowdsourcing platform

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Creofuga is a startup from Japan’s western city of Okayama which has been providing an online community platform for amateur or semi-professional music composers. The company recently announced that it will launch a crowdsourcing and licensing platform for soundtracks, sound effects, and other audio. It’s called AudioStock and it is expected to launch later this month, serving social game developers. Notable clients will include SummerTime Studio, Nagisa, Tokyo Tower, and Fuji TV. Since the company started back in 2007, it has enlisted over 10,000 amateur music composers, and has partnered with Bandai Namco Games and a Japanese record company to help them promote a game title and music artist. For game developers who intend to use soundtracks or effects composed by the third parties in your apps, it may be a challenge obtain rights from license holders. But with this platform, you can buy exclusive rights for the reproduction of a music piece for 2,000 yen ($20) each or nonexclusive rights for 500 yen ($5) each. At the time of the launch, there will be 10,000 pieces of music available, varying from soundtracks to narrated samples. In addition to these, you can have your narration or music tasks crowdsourced among…

creofuga

Creofuga is a startup from Japan’s western city of Okayama which has been providing an online community platform for amateur or semi-professional music composers.

The company recently announced that it will launch a crowdsourcing and licensing platform for soundtracks, sound effects, and other audio. It’s called AudioStock and it is expected to launch later this month, serving social game developers. Notable clients will include SummerTime Studio, Nagisa, Tokyo Tower, and Fuji TV.

Since the company started back in 2007, it has enlisted over 10,000 amateur music composers, and has partnered with Bandai Namco Games and a Japanese record company to help them promote a game title and music artist.

For game developers who intend to use soundtracks or effects composed by the third parties in your apps, it may be a challenge obtain rights from license holders. But with this platform, you can buy exclusive rights for the reproduction of a music piece for 2,000 yen ($20) each or nonexclusive rights for 500 yen ($5) each. At the time of the launch, there will be 10,000 pieces of music available, varying from soundtracks to narrated samples. In addition to these, you can have your narration or music tasks crowdsourced among workers on the platform. When a deal is closed between you and a worker, the startup will take a 30% commission and the rest goes to the worker.

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Shuichiro Nishio

The company has also partnered with Japanese stock photo giant Amana Images, and will use them as a sales channel to better reach potential clients in need of music and sound effects. Regarding the platform’s global expansions, the startup’s CEO Shuichiro Nishio unveiled that his team is currently developing an English version expected to launch by the end of this year. He says there’s likely to be huge potential in the overseas market since many foreign developers also are in need of high quality music from Japan.

Also in this space, there is Tokyo-based Grood, the startup behind Voip, which launched its voice acting crowdsourcing platform back in February and announced international service expansions in May.

Anime illustration crowdsourcing platform raises $1.3M

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See the original story in Japanese. Crowdsoucing platforms can be divided into two categories: 1) general purpose and 2) industry-focused. The latter is very much focused on specific business fields such as translation or design, and such crowdsourcing platforms are on the rise. MugenUp is a Tokyo-based startup that provides a crowdsourcing platform for animated content and illustrations. The company just announced that it has raised series B funding worth 130 million yen (or approximately $1.3 million) from Industrial Growth Platform and SMBC Venture Capital. MugenUp was launched back in June of 2011 as a social games developer, but that plan didn’t quite work out. So last year they shifted to work on an animation-focused platform, since they thought they would be able to take advantage of the experiences from their past projects. Readers may recall when we spoke with the startup’s CEO Ryota Ichioka back in May, he told us about how they serve as an illustration solution to many game companies who might have just a few full-time illustrators. We plan to grow into a 100-person team in a year For crowdsourcing platform operators, if you focus on a specific business sector, the fortunes of your business will…

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Mugenup CEO Ryota Ichioka

See the original story in Japanese.

Crowdsoucing platforms can be divided into two categories: 1) general purpose and 2) industry-focused. The latter is very much focused on specific business fields such as translation or design, and such crowdsourcing platforms are on the rise.

MugenUp is a Tokyo-based startup that provides a crowdsourcing platform for animated content and illustrations. The company just announced that it has raised series B funding worth 130 million yen (or approximately $1.3 million) from Industrial Growth Platform and SMBC Venture Capital.

MugenUp was launched back in June of 2011 as a social games developer, but that plan didn’t quite work out. So last year they shifted to work on an animation-focused platform, since they thought they would be able to take advantage of the experiences from their past projects. Readers may recall when we spoke with the startup’s CEO Ryota Ichioka back in May, he told us about how they serve as an illustration solution to many game companies who might have just a few full-time illustrators.

We plan to grow into a 100-person team in a year

For crowdsourcing platform operators, if you focus on a specific business sector, the fortunes of your business will obviously be very directly dependent on trends in that sector. The rise of the Japanese social gaming industry has helped the startup’s business grow rapidly, enabling them to raise a 100 million yen ($1 million) in funding from Japanese VC Nissay Capital back in September of 2012.

MugenUp functions as an intermediary between customers and clients, helping them find appropriate matches. A key aspect of this process is a chat system called Mugen Work Station. This allows their directors to communicate with crowdsourced workers, monitor the production process, and give workers revision requests if needed.

We heard more from CEO Ichioka about how business is going these days.

In terms of the orders we’re receiving, projects related to mobile games are continuously growing. But I think the content of games on each gaming platform is changing. For example, illustration work for card battle games is still in a high demand in browser-based gaming apps, but native app developers typically ask us to help them develop animated 3D/2D content developed with Unity.

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MugenUp directors advice crowdsourced workers using the chat system.

Ichioka shared a little more about their hiring plan:

Our total number of registered crowdsourced workers will hit 10,000 very shortly. In the office, we have 60 full-time and part-time workers. With these funds, we will add people with skills to handling 3D animated content, and we plan to grow into a 100-person team in a year.

In addition, our chat system has a handy translation feature that helps our directors communicate with foreign crowdsourced workers in English and Chinese.

According to Mr. Ichioka, the chat system also keeps clients updated about how their outsourced projects are going, and an upcoming version will allow them to check how workers are creating character designs at any time.

The startup is receiving many orders for 3D content. Ichioka explained the startup’s future exists in the accumulation of these content data.

We’ve been receiving orders for 3D models of real products. They are typically orders to optimize data for actual production rather than just digital content. So we are aiming to move into a market that will replace the metal mold business.

When we look at the digital fabrication industry, 2D or 3D design data can be alternatives to metal molds. The point is not about creating products featuring popular characters, but the accumulation of design data allows the startup to analyze and predict what kind of characters or shapes will be popular in different markets.

While most of their future plans were not disclosed, they revealed that the accumulated design data includes many useful engineering tips, such as how much shrinkage you need to plan for when creating a vinyl chloride creation with digital 3D data.

We’re aiming at a comprehensive platform for design data, making the most of our experiences through our crowdsourcing platform business. We’re trying to adopt our kind of service operations and database design to genres such as toys or figure sculptures.

For anime studios out there, you will be able to easily digitize your intellectual property (such as anime characters), letting you easily partner with toy makers and co-develop derivative works.

The startup is already profitable and planning to get listed on a stock exchange in a few years. It is interesting to see how crowdsourcing work styles will be adopted here in Japan and around the world.

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Engineering team (hiring now!)

Japan’s Designclue delivers crowdsourcing industry insights [Infographic]

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Back in February we featured logo crowdsourcing service Designclue, which leverages the power of freelance designers regardless of their location. It’s operated by Tokyo-based startup Purple Cow, and recently the company released some information about its user base and how they work. The company conducted a survey of 135 of its users, which is not an especially large sample size, but it does give us an idea of which nations are keen to use Designclue. It appears most popular in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia, although it also has users in its home market of Japan. As you can see in the graphic below, When those users were asked where they receive crowdsourced requests from, the most common answers were the US, followed by Australia and Japan. These workers are using, on average, about four different crowdsourcing services to earn income, including Designclue, earning an average wage of about $1100 from that activity. To see more of this information put together from the folks at Designclue, you can check out the full infographic below. It’s in Japanese, but I’ve summarized most of the main points above.

Back in February we featured logo crowdsourcing service Designclue, which leverages the power of freelance designers regardless of their location. It’s operated by Tokyo-based startup Purple Cow, and recently the company released some information about its user base and how they work.

The company conducted a survey of 135 of its users, which is not an especially large sample size, but it does give us an idea of which nations are keen to use Designclue. It appears most popular in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia, although it also has users in its home market of Japan.

As you can see in the graphic below, When those users were asked where they receive crowdsourced requests from, the most common answers were the US, followed by Australia and Japan. These workers are using, on average, about four different crowdsourcing services to earn income, including Designclue, earning an average wage of about $1100 from that activity.

To see more of this information put together from the folks at Designclue, you can check out the full infographic below. It’s in Japanese, but I’ve summarized most of the main points above.

Crowdsourcing infographic -- click for larger view

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

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

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See the original story in Japanese.

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

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

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

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

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

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Crowdsourcing gives people more ways to work

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

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

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

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

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

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Ready? Fight! A summary of 6 fierce Japanese startup rivalries

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See the original Japanese version of this article If you’re a web startup, chances are you probably have a competitor or two. Maybe more. Here in Japan we are seeing rivals emerge in a number of service categories. Thankfully, with each struggling to stand out from the other, it means that users are most likely to benefit, at least in the short term. I will talk about the major players across six startup categories that have been getting attention here in Japan. Round 1: Stores.jp vs BASE (E-commerce platforms) ¶ I almost wanted to write about just this competition by itself, since both services have experienced rapid growth and the quality of their services is increasing by the day. This is a great example of how intense competition brings better quality product. See STORES.jp in our database See BASE in our database Base: The Japanese freemium e-commerce platform that’s following Shopify’s lead How Stores.jp is helping small businesses in Japan come online Round 2: iQON vs Origami vs MONOCO vs Fril (Smartphone x Fashion) ¶ iQON is media, Origami is commerce, Monoco is a concierge service, and Fril is C2C. Those startups all differ slightly but they share two common…

See the original Japanese version of this article

If you’re a web startup, chances are you probably have a competitor or two. Maybe more. Here in Japan we are seeing rivals emerge in a number of service categories. Thankfully, with each struggling to stand out from the other, it means that users are most likely to benefit, at least in the short term.

I will talk about the major players across six startup categories that have been getting attention here in Japan.

Round 1: Stores.jp vs BASE (E-commerce platforms)

I almost wanted to write about just this competition by itself, since both services have experienced rapid growth and the quality of their services is increasing by the day. This is a great example of how intense competition brings better quality product.

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Round 2: iQON vs Origami vs MONOCO vs Fril (Smartphone x Fashion)

iQON is media, Origami is commerce, Monoco is a concierge service, and Fril is C2C. Those startups all differ slightly but they share two common threads: ‘fashion’ and ‘smartphones’. All have maintained high levels of investor interest. And it is said that this field is about to face a host of new entrants, resulting in even more hype around this space.

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Round 3: CrowdWorks vs Lancers (Crowdsourcing)

The platform concept of these two services differs slightly. However, I feel both have the potential to change the concept of the way people work here in Japan, and that’s what differentiates them from other worker-client matching services.

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Round 4: Coiney vs Rakuten Smartpay vs Paypal

Competition this category is a little more fierce as the players are not all startups. But when I interviewed Coiney I felt that their strategy is not to compete head on with these other payment giants. Check out interview (in Japanese) for more details.

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Round 5: Campfire vs Readyfor vs Countdown (Crowdfunding)

Campfire has gotten a lot of attention so far, but it hasn’t yet resulted in the same kind of impact that we have seen with big overseas players. The first out of the gate in this crowdfunding space was Readyfor, which has differentiated by focusing on social contributions, donations, and NPOs. A critical success factor will be its ability to generate news media exposure.

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Round 6: SmartNews vs Gunosy vs Vingow (News technology)

This field is pretty interesting because the competition depends on technology much more so than in the previously mentioned categories. SmartNews shows its users almost all the same news information, which is different from the other two players. The concept of personalized news is common to Gunosy and Vingow. But Vingow offers users updated information in real-time, different from Gunosy which updates information in batches. Many users might use both services, depending on the occasion.

Gunosy-for-iPhone

I confess, I also wanted to include C2C platforms in this article (such as ticket selling, for example), but I’ll come back to that another time.

Besides those listed above, Japan also has an abundance of camera applications and casual games, but many lack monetization plans and solid business models – so they are less news-worthy in my book. Most of the services listed above have established business models and firm financials, and of course that is a big attraction for investors.

If you’d like to suggest some other hot startup categories or rivalry, please let me know in the comments.

MugenUp: Disrupting the anime production industry with a crowdsourced workforce

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See the original story in Japanese. The anime business consists of many fundamental tasks, such as rough drawing, storyboard writing, and painting. Even for digitalized anime productions, these tasks still exist. It’s not the most efficient process, and can result in a harsh work environment for many who are employed in the industry. But now there’s a startup that may change all that. It’s called Mugenup. In our recent interview with its CEO Ryota Ichioka, he told us the company has acquired several thousands of crowdsourced workers, and with rapid growth thus far, it could hit 20,000 by the end of this year. The emergence of vertical crowdsourcing sites Japan’s crowdsourcing market is pretty hot right now. Crowdworks is showing good numbers, and Lancers recently completed a big funding round. We asked Ichioka to share some figures on their business, and while he couldn’t go into specifics, he says they are generating revenue in the tens of thousands of dollars every month. This is despite the fact that the startup is less than one year old. In contrast with general-purposed crowdsourcing sites like Crowdworks or Lancers, Mugenup is far more niche with its focus on anime. It functions as an…

mugenup_screenshot1

See the original story in Japanese.

The anime business consists of many fundamental tasks, such as rough drawing, storyboard writing, and painting. Even for digitalized anime productions, these tasks still exist. It’s not the most efficient process, and can result in a harsh work environment for many who are employed in the industry. But now there’s a startup that may change all that. It’s called Mugenup.

In our recent interview with its CEO Ryota Ichioka, he told us the company has acquired several thousands of crowdsourced workers, and with rapid growth thus far, it could hit 20,000 by the end of this year.

The emergence of vertical crowdsourcing sites

Japan’s crowdsourcing market is pretty hot right now. Crowdworks is showing good numbers, and Lancers recently completed a big funding round. We asked Ichioka to share some figures on their business, and while he couldn’t go into specifics, he says they are generating revenue in the tens of thousands of dollars every month. This is despite the fact that the startup is less than one year old.

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Some artwork on the Mugenup website

In contrast with general-purposed crowdsourcing sites like Crowdworks or Lancers, Mugenup is far more niche with its focus on anime. It functions as an intermediary between clients and crowdsourced workers, helping both parties match up with the other much easier than they could before.

Until March of 2012, the startup was developing social gaming apps. But unfortunately that plan didn’t work so well. So they shifted their target client slightly to focus more on mobile game developers.

Most of the projects they’ve dealt with have been single-picture illustrations, but it’s gradually changing to character designs or 2D drawings for Unity, a gaming app integration environment for smartphone.

Things are tough for mobile game studios recently, and most would like to avoid to increase their amount of full-time workers, which means they have to rely on freelance animators or outsourced illustrators. But while most gaming studios typically have in-house programmers, they usually have just a few animators or artists. Ichioka adds:

In addition to individual workers, about 50 studios are registered on our service to receive crowdsourced orders from us, they typically create content for pachinko machines or animated films, but they usually work on our crowdsourced projects during their downtime. In terms of making the most of that downtime, our business model is sort of similar to Raksul, a discount printing startup that makes use of printing factories during their downtime.

Mugenup is a 30-person team for now, and about 20 of those are professional art directors, all comfortable providing directions to crowdsourced animators or illustrators.

For many crowdsourcing sites, what’s the most important is how to create an environment where clients and crowdsourced workers can efficiently work on projects together. At Mugenup, directors use a chat system to communicate with crowdsourced workers, monitor the production process, and give workers revision requests if needed. Surprisingly, production management processes are standardized and workers’ skill sets are well managed.

mugenup_screenshot2

Their retention rate for such crowdsourced workers is as much as 60%, which indicates they are highly motivated. Mugenup plans extend its business beyond Japan and to start receiving orders from publishing companies or cartoonists later on.

Some project tasks are difficult to split among different crowdsourced workers. Such tasks include rough sketches or storyboard writing, which are typically an important step to determine the overall character design. To get past this obstacle, the startup asks clients to pick their favorite crowdsourced animators before placing an order, one who fits their taste exactly.

Mugenup has each client fill out a checklist, recording why they have chosen a certain animator. This process helps when placing future orders, because if a client complains that an outcome is not what they expected, they are asked to update form to give better results that can more accurately fit their preference. This process takes some time, but it definitely helps business proceed more efficiently overall. Ichioka further adds:

We believe possible to make our business more scalable, and we’ll be extending our offerings to include three-dimensional or characters in motion as well. […] In this internet era, we are aspiring to build up a new business that leverages fine Japanese craftsmanship.

He hopes that his company can go public in a few years. And given his success so far, it will certainly be a company to watch in the future.

Mugenup was launched in June of 2011, received a seed funding from Incubate Fund in December of 2011, subsequently fundraised 100 million yen (approximately $1 milllion) from Nissay Capital.

Japanese voice-acting service adds new languages, announces investment

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See the original story in Japanese. Voip is a crowdsourcing service for voice-acting work. Since its launch back in January, it has acquired more than 1,500 registered actors in partnership with actor agencies and vocational schools. The startup behind the service is called Grood, and it is trying to provide an easy way to fulfill voice acting jobs in areas like social game development or media production. The startup announced yesterday that it has added foreign-language voice acting to its menu. Available languages now include English, Mandarin, French, and Italian. To receive orders for narration jobs in foreign languages, the startup has partnered with some agencies outside Japan. With the launch of its foreign-language narration service, the startup plans to extend its customer base into business sectors such as education, publishing, and translation. Voip also announced on Friday that it has received an undisclosed (small) amount of an investment from East Ventures. This follows the previous funding from Incubate Fund back in March of 2012. The startup’s CEO Yuya Haraguchi further explains: Our first target is smartphone app/game developers, and the education sector follows. With our inclusion of foreign languages, we expect app developers or publishing companies expanding globally choose…

microphone
Photo by sparetomato.

See the original story in Japanese.

Voip is a crowdsourcing service for voice-acting work. Since its launch back in January, it has acquired more than 1,500 registered actors in partnership with actor agencies and vocational schools. The startup behind the service is called Grood, and it is trying to provide an easy way to fulfill voice acting jobs in areas like social game development or media production.

The startup announced yesterday that it has added foreign-language voice acting to its menu. Available languages now include English, Mandarin, French, and Italian. To receive orders for narration jobs in foreign languages, the startup has partnered with some agencies outside Japan. With the launch of its foreign-language narration service, the startup plans to extend its customer base into business sectors such as education, publishing, and translation.

Voip also announced on Friday that it has received an undisclosed (small) amount of an investment from East Ventures. This follows the previous funding from Incubate Fund back in March of 2012.

The startup’s CEO Yuya Haraguchi further explains:

Our first target is smartphone app/game developers, and the education sector follows. With our inclusion of foreign languages, we expect app developers or publishing companies expanding globally choose us when developing their content.

For narration orders of consisting of less than 9,000 words, they will deliver within three business days of order. They also have a sort of quality assurance system, where you can ask them to re-do the recording until you’re satisfied with the quality of the outcome.

They will set up a card payment feature on the website soon, and they are also planning to launch new services like translation and proof-reading by native speakers.

Some of our readers may recall that we recently interviewed Ryota Ichioka, the CEO of illustration-focused crowdsoucing service MugenUp. Unlike existing crowdsourcing sites for general purposes, these services typically standardize the ordering process and visualize the skills of crowdsouced workers. This makes things more convenient for both clients and workers.