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3 apps making life easier for Japanese teen girls

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For many people, thinking back to teenage years may bring some awkward memories. But recently here in Japan we’re seeing a number of apps that attempt to make life better and more fun for kids going through these difficult years. Here are three apps that we stumbled upon that are targeted at teenage girls in Japan, in no particular order. My Nikibi The last thing a girl wants is a pimple on her face on the day of a hot new date. ‘My Nikibi’, meaning ‘my pimples’, is an app that helps girls deal with unwanted blemishes. It lets them manage their pimples by taking photos, and noting which ointment they used to treat it. By looking back later, they can then figure out which methods work best. Like many services in Japan, My Nikibi features a cute character as well. The app is available as a free download for both iOS and Android. Decolink Decolink is another app by CyberAgent which we mentioned in a past article. Released back in February, the app competes directly with Line but focuses exclusively on teenage girls as its target user base. There are over 10,000 free stamps available, and girls can enjoy…

highschoolgirls-apps

For many people, thinking back to teenage years may bring some awkward memories. But recently here in Japan we’re seeing a number of apps that attempt to make life better and more fun for kids going through these difficult years. Here are three apps that we stumbled upon that are targeted at teenage girls in Japan, in no particular order.

My Nikibi

MyNikibiThe last thing a girl wants is a pimple on her face on the day of a hot new date. ‘My Nikibi’, meaning ‘my pimples’, is an app that helps girls deal with unwanted blemishes. It lets them manage their pimples by taking photos, and noting which ointment they used to treat it. By looking back later, they can then figure out which methods work best. Like many services in Japan, My Nikibi features a cute character as well.

The app is available as a free download for both iOS and Android.

Decolink

Decolink

Decolink is another app by CyberAgent which we mentioned in a past article. Released back in February, the app competes directly with Line but focuses exclusively on teenage girls as its target user base. There are over 10,000 free stamps available, and girls can enjoy many customization features like changing the fonts and backgrounds for the chat app.

Decolink is available for both iOS and Android.

JK Mezamashi

JK-Mezamashi

JK Mezamashi is a simple alarm clock app released by CyberAgent. The application is unique in that it is produced by an actual high school student who serves as the editor-in-chief of the mobile blogging platform, Candy. On Candy, CyberAgent conducted a survey of teens asking about their wake-up habits. Not surprisingly, 44% of girls uses the default alarm clock on their phones. Half of the respondents listed checking their mobile phone as the first thing they do after waking up.

The app has many fun alarm sounds including voices by cute guys in three different dialects. You can download the app for both iOS and Android.

JK-Mezamashi-screenshots

CyberAgent joins the mobile chat app war with Decolink

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We’ve covered the cutthroat chat application war in the Japanese market in a recent post, illustrating how NHN Japan’s Line leads the game so far, with DeNA’s Comm and KakaoTalk as distant runners-up. As if there weren’t enough chat apps already, CyberAgent (TYO:4751) just launched yet another player, but this one has a slightly different angle. Decolink (yes, it’s another Deco-something app!) is CyberAgent’s newly minted application for iOS and Android, which is aming to snag teenage girls as its target users. The app lets you chat with a maximum of 100 friends, and you can also change the background image and fonts for different chat windows. This latter ability to customize the look of a product is essential when the primarily target market is younger girls.    What’s even more essential perhaps are the decorative stamps, of which Decolink provides over 10,000. Stamps are often cited as the major reason behind Line’s huge success so far. Sort of like emoji on steriods, people often use stamps in chat to express themselves instead of using text. In much the same way that a Facebook Like is a sort of mindless response that doesn’t require any words, stamps are often used…

decolink_top

We’ve covered the cutthroat chat application war in the Japanese market in a recent post, illustrating how NHN Japan’s Line leads the game so far, with DeNA’s Comm and KakaoTalk as distant runners-up. As if there weren’t enough chat apps already, CyberAgent (TYO:4751) just launched yet another player, but this one has a slightly different angle.

Decolink (yes, it’s another Deco-something app!) is CyberAgent’s newly minted application for iOS and Android, which is aming to snag teenage girls as its target users. The app lets you chat with a maximum of 100 friends, and you can also change the background image and fonts for different chat windows. This latter ability to customize the look of a product is essential when the primarily target market is younger girls.

decolink_chatwindow  decolink_stamps

What’s even more essential perhaps are the decorative stamps, of which Decolink provides over 10,000. Stamps are often cited as the major reason behind Line’s huge success so far. Sort of like emoji on steriods, people often use stamps in chat to express themselves instead of using text. In much the same way that a Facebook Like is a sort of mindless response that doesn’t require any words, stamps are often used in the same way among many Japanese users.

Deco-disrupter?

CyberAgent does have a competitive advantage, as the company runs the huge Ameba Blog platform which had more than 20 million users as of January 2012. The platform is widely used by Japanese people including celebrities. Through cross-promotions with other products under the Ameba umbrella, Decolink might be able to eclipse some of the other chat app competitors — although it’s unlikely that it could catch Line.

Decolink was developed by a team within CyberAgent that creates products dedicated for teens. I have to wonder if these cute, more feminine stamps are a key differeciator from Line, and if any teenage girls will take the bait. We’ll find out sooner or later, so stay tuned.

(h/t Chiho Komoriya over at VS Media)