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Docomo bringing hit show ‘House of Cards’ to Japanese smartphones

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At this year’s CEATEC Japan event NTT Docomo showed off the news that its NotTV service for smartphones has obtained rights to broadcast House of Cards in Japan. The Emmy award winning show is being brought to Japan with Japanese subtitles. Sounds like good news right? Let’s look at the details. One episode of House of Cards will be broadcast via NotTV at 11 PM every Saturday night, starting tonight, October 5. This means you will need to either stay up until midnight to watch the show here in Japan, or set NotTV on your smartphone to record each Saturday night at 11 PM. What happens if you miss an episode, or you forget to record the show? You might think you can watch old episodes streaming on demand or download, right? Wrong. The episode of the week will be rebroadcast on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at different times, then after that time the episode will no longer be available to watch. If you’re not a NotTV subscriber but want to watch House of Cards in Japan, the other way it will be available in Japan is via satellite broadcast on the Imagica BS channel. Some background about NotTV: NotTV…

house-of-cards-train-ad
House of Cards, advertised on a Tokyo train

At this year’s CEATEC Japan event NTT Docomo showed off the news that its NotTV service for smartphones has obtained rights to broadcast House of Cards in Japan. The Emmy award winning show is being brought to Japan with Japanese subtitles. Sounds like good news right? Let’s look at the details.

One episode of House of Cards will be broadcast via NotTV at 11 PM every Saturday night, starting tonight, October 5. This means you will need to either stay up until midnight to watch the show here in Japan, or set NotTV on your smartphone to record each Saturday night at 11 PM.

What happens if you miss an episode, or you forget to record the show? You might think you can watch old episodes streaming on demand or download, right? Wrong. The episode of the week will be rebroadcast on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at different times, then after that time the episode will no longer be available to watch.

If you’re not a NotTV subscriber but want to watch House of Cards in Japan, the other way it will be available in Japan is via satellite broadcast on the Imagica BS channel.

Some background about NotTV:

house-of-cards-ceatec
Mr. Spacey, perched at the Docomo booth at CEATEC

NotTV is a proprietary 1Seg-like broadcast service, which certain Docomo Android smartphones can tune into. A 420 yen monthly subscription (about $4) is required to tune in, and when we checked in back in June there service had more than a million paying customers. But because NotTV is a broadcast service it requires towers to be within range to receive the signal, meaning NotTV is not available in all prefectures of Japan.

Contrast this to Hulu.jp’s deal bringing The Walking Dead to Japan. The Walking Dead series is initially broadcast on the International Fox cable channel with Japanese subtitles a couple of weeks after US broadcast, and is made available on Hulu.jp for streaming on the following day. The previously broadcast episodes are available to watch on demand, on a variety of devices.

I guess that Docomo missed House of Cards producer and starring actor Kevin Spacey’s recent speech on giving control to the viewers (see below), where Spacey advises the TV/media industry to make their shows available in any form the viewers want, praising Netflix as an example to follow. I’m glad to see Hulu Japan is picking up the slack in Japan, letting viewers watch the shows they want, when they want, on the screen they want.

Japanese social network for couples marks 5M monthly pageviews

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See the original story in Japanese. Pairy is a Japanese social network for couples. It was first launched back in June of 2012, but Timers, the startup behind the app, has just released a new version of the app. According to the company, its monthly pageviews count hit 5 million recently, and they are hoping for even more potential by adding new features. In recent years we have seen many social networks for people in close relationships, like Path (launched in October of 2011), Couple (November 2010), and Between (February 2011). After you approve a connection request from your significant other on the app, you can create a sharable album, enjoy chatting, find dating spots, and share an event calendar. With this latest renewal of the app, there will be a new feature that allows you and your partner to look back on your memories together. According to CEO Toshimasa Takahashi and COO Koichiro Tawa, the company conducted a user survey that showed users are keen to browse memories of the past. They explained: Almost a half of our female users look back on what they have talked about with their boyfriends using a chat app or Line. But in…

pairy_main

See the original story in Japanese.

Pairy is a Japanese social network for couples. It was first launched back in June of 2012, but Timers, the startup behind the app, has just released a new version of the app. According to the company, its monthly pageviews count hit 5 million recently, and they are hoping for even more potential by adding new features.

In recent years we have seen many social networks for people in close relationships, like Path (launched in October of 2011), Couple (November 2010), and Between (February 2011).

After you approve a connection request from your significant other on the app, you can create a sharable album, enjoy chatting, find dating spots, and share an event calendar. With this latest renewal of the app, there will be a new feature that allows you and your partner to look back on your memories together.

According to CEO Toshimasa Takahashi and COO Koichiro Tawa, the company conducted a user survey that showed users are keen to browse memories of the past. They explained:

Almost a half of our female users look back on what they have talked about with their boyfriends using a chat app or Line.

But in terms of looking over memories, the Line mobile app or existing social networks would probably suffice. This is why the startup has added a new feature to the app, allowing users to plan a date with their partner online. They added:

We are also providing third party information about possible date spots. We conducted a survey about the “couples market” and learned that it is worth as much as 1.3 trillion yen (approximately $13.27 million) if you include things like restaurants, hotels, and gifting etc. Our app allows users to arrange reasonably (priced) but remarkable date planning.

The duo previously worked at Japanese ad agent Hakuhodo back in 2010. They submitted a business plan for the original concept of the Pairy app at the company’s in-house business contest. They went on to launch the startup together with three engineers who previously worked with DeNA, and subsequently it was chosen for the first batch of Docomo’s incubation program.

Since the app targets a very niche demographic, it will need a more deliberate monetization models than conventional social media such as Line or Facebook. Although typical social media apps highlight their messaging or chatting features, it is interesting to see what the newly added date planning feature will bring to this app.

pairy_dateplanning

DeNA and Docomo joint venture empowers amateur comic and novel creators

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Everystar is a joint venture between DeNA and NTT Docomo that allows people to publish and distribute their own comics and novels for consumption on mobile devices [1]. While most of the content is available for free, some of it is paid as well, with those who sell their works collecting 40% of royalties from published works. Normally those publishers are professionals, but today it was announced that Everystar will be allowing all users to publish and collect 80% of their royalties for a limited time campaign. The promotion will run until December 31, 2013, during which time if any user wishes to sell their content on the Everystar platform, they can opt to do so. To date there are more than two million works listed on the site, with some notable success stories. For example, the King Game keitai novel saw great success on the platform, and even went on to publish on Amazon, subsequently selling 4.6 million physical books and comic books. The Everystar service sees over one million daily unique users, which makes it a valuable outlet for aspiring creators to reach an audience. Having originally launched back in 2010, it’s already a profitable business for its…

everystar-2

Everystar is a joint venture between DeNA and NTT Docomo that allows people to publish and distribute their own comics and novels for consumption on mobile devices [1]. While most of the content is available for free, some of it is paid as well, with those who sell their works collecting 40% of royalties from published works.

Normally those publishers are professionals, but today it was announced that Everystar will be allowing all users to publish and collect 80% of their royalties for a limited time campaign.

The promotion will run until December 31, 2013, during which time if any user wishes to sell their content on the Everystar platform, they can opt to do so.

To date there are more than two million works listed on the site, with some notable success stories. For example, the King Game keitai novel saw great success on the platform, and even went on to publish on Amazon, subsequently selling 4.6 million physical books and comic books. The Everystar service sees over one million daily unique users, which makes it a valuable outlet for aspiring creators to reach an audience. Having originally launched back in 2010, it’s already a profitable business for its operators.

Over the past few years I’ve developed the habit of referring to DeNA as just a mobile gaming company. And while gaming is still its bread and butter business, it’s interesting to see that company actually has diverse internet offerings, with services like DeNA Shopping, its Groovy music app, and its social network for seniors called Shumito Club.

everystar-3 everystar-1


  1. The venture is 70% owned by DeNA and 30% by Docomo.  ↩

Japanese mobile video service NotTV hits a million paid subscribers

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Back in April we mentioned that Japanese mobile video site NotTV had reached the 700,000 subscriber milestone, although at the time it had fallen short of its first year goal of a million. But now Mmbi, the company offering the service, has announced that this target has finally been reached as of June 1st, with subscribers still growing at a decent pace (see chart below). Even though NotTV is late hitting its target, the company still plans to celebrate the milestone with a quiz show this July where it plans to give away 4 million yen to participants and winners. The service originally started back in April of 2012, but in its first few months there weren’t as many NotTV compatible handsets available. The service is backed by Docomo, with many of its handsets offering NotTV. There are now 26 phone models offering the service, and that’s expected to rise to 33 by the end of July, according to Nikkei. The service is available in 33 prefectures, but they hope to offer it nationwide by March of next year. Mmbi has previously stated that its long term goal is to accumulate 10 million mobile video subscribers. It still has a…

akb48-nottv
Photo: RBB Today

Back in April we mentioned that Japanese mobile video site NotTV had reached the 700,000 subscriber milestone, although at the time it had fallen short of its first year goal of a million. But now Mmbi, the company offering the service, has announced that this target has finally been reached as of June 1st, with subscribers still growing at a decent pace (see chart below).

Even though NotTV is late hitting its target, the company still plans to celebrate the milestone with a quiz show this July where it plans to give away 4 million yen to participants and winners.

The service originally started back in April of 2012, but in its first few months there weren’t as many NotTV compatible handsets available. The service is backed by Docomo, with many of its handsets offering NotTV. There are now 26 phone models offering the service, and that’s expected to rise to 33 by the end of July, according to Nikkei. The service is available in 33 prefectures, but they hope to offer it nationwide by March of next year.

Mmbi has previously stated that its long term goal is to accumulate 10 million mobile video subscribers. It still has a very long way to go.

not-tv-growth

Docomo partners with Line, finds a creative way to relieve network strain

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Back in January of 2012, Japanese carrier NTT Docomo (TYO:9437) attributed a network disruption to free VoIP applications, with popular chat app Line being the first one that it cited. Line, which launched back in mid-2011, was just picking up steam at the time with about 15 million downloads reported at that point, and 5.5 million of those in Japan. Since then of course, the application’s download count is about ten times as high – in Japan, where it has more than 45 million; and abroad, where there are over than 150 million. And while Docomo has itself had time to solidify its network infrastructure to accommodate the kind of data load that apps like Line demand, it can’t be an easy task. So it was interesting to see today that Docomo has decided to partner with Line Corporation, as announced in an event earlier today. There are a few aspects to the companies’ partnership, but the most interesting collaboration will be an original Line application for Android that will include a call button in app that users can use to make voice calls. The goal here, as Docomo itself notes, is to reduce the load on their network. This…

Docomo Line
Docomo CEO Kaoru Kato, photo by Keizai.biz

Back in January of 2012, Japanese carrier NTT Docomo (TYO:9437) attributed a network disruption to free VoIP applications, with popular chat app Line being the first one that it cited. Line, which launched back in mid-2011, was just picking up steam at the time with about 15 million downloads reported at that point, and 5.5 million of those in Japan.

Since then of course, the application’s download count is about ten times as high – in Japan, where it has more than 45 million; and abroad, where there are over than 150 million. And while Docomo has itself had time to solidify its network infrastructure to accommodate the kind of data load that apps like Line demand, it can’t be an easy task. So it was interesting to see today that Docomo has decided to partner with Line Corporation, as announced in an event earlier today.

There are a few aspects to the companies’ partnership, but the most interesting collaboration will be an original Line application for Android that will include a call button in app that users can use to make voice calls. The goal here, as Docomo itself notes, is to reduce the load on their network. This will be put in place in September, and will allow users to call other Docomo users for free. Ostensibly, the regular Line voice call button (for VoIP calls) will still be in place.

This is a pretty fascinating maneuver on Docomo’s part, as telcos the world over adjust to a mobile industry shifting from voice to data [1].

The other aspect of the Docomo-Line agreement will bring another original Line application to Docomo’s Raku-Raku smartphones, which target users who aren’t accustomed to smartphones, especially the country’s large senior population. This app will implement preventative measures to limit transactions amounts that may have resulted from accidental purchases.

A million reading manga on mobile

In addition to striking this partnership with Japan’s largest carrier, this marks a pretty good day for Line. The company also announced that its new manga application has reached a million downloads, this just a little over a month after the service initially launched in Japan.

As for Docomo, the telco isn’t doing too shabby either with more than 12 million LTE subscribers as of April 20th. Oh, and the company announced some new phones today too. But of course, still no iPhone.

(Download chart as image)

For more information on the growth of Line, please check out our interactive Line Timeline which chronicles its growth from its launch back in 2011 up until the present day.


  1. As one example, check out this ZDnet piece from yesterday saying that such messaging apps would cost Indian telcos more than a billion dollars this year. Of course that’s a far different mobile landscape than Japan, but it will be interesting to see if any other telecoms try what Docomo is doing. (Perhaps some already have? Let us know in the comments if you know of any)  ↩

Japan’s mobile video service NotTV hit 700,000 subscribers. But can it go much further?

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Mmbi Inc. recently announced that its mobile television service, NotTV, reached the 700,000 subscriber mark on April 8th. The mobile channel, which costs users 480 yen (just under $5) per month to use, grew steadily in 2012, but according to figures over on S-Max (which I’ve charted below) it seems as though the pace of subscriber acquisition tailed off a bit in the new year. This is unusual given that NotTV launched a promotional New Year’s campaign back on January 6th. Add to that the fact that it doesn’t appear to have received a boost from Docomo’s spring lineup of handsets, and I think this could be cause for concern for Mmbi [1]. The company’s previously stated goal for its first year was 1 million subscribers (it launched on April 1, 2012), and it has fallen well short of that milestone. Mmbi previously stated that it has the long term goal of reaching 10 million subscribers. While I’m sure NotTV will hit that first goal of a million subs in a few months, it will likely require some creative thinking to reach the second goal of 10 million. (View image version of this chart) Docomo smartphones are compatible with the…

nottv_logo_large_finol

Mmbi Inc. recently announced that its mobile television service, NotTV, reached the 700,000 subscriber mark on April 8th.

The mobile channel, which costs users 480 yen (just under $5) per month to use, grew steadily in 2012, but according to figures over on S-Max (which I’ve charted below) it seems as though the pace of subscriber acquisition tailed off a bit in the new year.

This is unusual given that NotTV launched a promotional New Year’s campaign back on January 6th. Add to that the fact that it doesn’t appear to have received a boost from Docomo’s spring lineup of handsets, and I think this could be cause for concern for Mmbi [1].

The company’s previously stated goal for its first year was 1 million subscribers (it launched on April 1, 2012), and it has fallen well short of that milestone. Mmbi previously stated that it has the long term goal of reaching 10 million subscribers.

While I’m sure NotTV will hit that first goal of a million subs in a few months, it will likely require some creative thinking to reach the second goal of 10 million.

(View image version of this chart)


  1. Docomo smartphones are compatible with the service, which it promotes since the carrier is a stakeholder in NotTV (along with Dentsu).  ↩

New Docomo startup fund invests in two up-and-coming Japanese companies

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As we reported back in February, NTT Docomo launched a new startup fund worth 10 billion yen (about $100 million), along with an incubation program with 500 Startups and Japan’s B Dash Ventures. Today, the telco-backed investment arm unveiled the first selection of companies for the fund: tech news media company Iid and CRM solution developer Repica. Iid was founded back in 2000 as a subsidiary of internet research company IRI. That company has been running 23 web media entities across 16 different genres, including the notable tech news site RBBToday.com. The company also has developed an e-commerce site solution called Marble ASP as well. With the new funds, the company expects to intensify further mobile optimization of these news sites for its e-commerce platform. IID’s sharehoders include Globis Capital Partners, Inspire Investment, Itochu Technology Ventures, and Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings. Repica was founded in 2006 by former executives at Japanese mobile service giant Cybird Holdings. The company provides merchants with several customer-facing white-label CRM solutions such as a customer reward system, a gift coupon system, and a mobile-optimized e-mail distribution system. The company’s subsidiary Arara is known for running restaurant clipping app called Gugulog, as well as a smartphone app…

As we reported back in February, NTT Docomo launched a new startup fund worth 10 billion yen (about $100 million), along with an incubation program with 500 Startups and Japan’s B Dash Ventures.

Today, the telco-backed investment arm unveiled the first selection of companies for the fund: tech news media company Iid and CRM solution developer Repica.

IID's RBBToday.com
IID’s RBBToday.com

Iid was founded back in 2000 as a subsidiary of internet research company IRI. That company has been running 23 web media entities across 16 different genres, including the notable tech news site RBBToday.com. The company also has developed an e-commerce site solution called Marble ASP as well. With the new funds, the company expects to intensify further mobile optimization of these news sites for its e-commerce platform.

IID’s sharehoders include Globis Capital Partners, Inspire Investment, Itochu Technology Ventures, and Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings.

Repica's Appli-sommelier
Repica’s Appli-sommelier

Repica was founded in 2006 by former executives at Japanese mobile service giant Cybird Holdings. The company provides merchants with several customer-facing white-label CRM solutions such as a customer reward system, a gift coupon system, and a mobile-optimized e-mail distribution system. The company’s subsidiary Arara is known for running restaurant clipping app called Gugulog, as well as a smartphone app review site called Appli-sommelier.

Repica raised 113.4 million yen, hoping to integrate its apps and services on smartphone devices, and to intensify its global business expansion.

Japan tech this week: Startups pitching, Gungho winning, Facebook liked

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We’ve had another fun week here at SD, doing our best to bring you interesting tech stories going down in Japan. But in case you missed any of it, here’s a wrap up below. Readers on mobile might want to check them out over on Readlists or in ePub format. If you’d like to get this weekly summary plus other bonus content, we hope you’ll check out our shiny new newsletter here. Featured Niconico Douga: Japanese online video site puts discussion front and center Smapo: Can Japan’s answer to Shopkick fend off new competition? A fine line: Shantell Martin projects freestyle performance art Japan’s Gungho Entertainment is winning at home, but will global gamers get it? Business Japanese reality show will ask contestants to live the Amazon life 5 Japanese studios team up to create online anime platform for overseas markets Messaging app Line partners with Nokia to accelerate global expansion Microsoft rolls out huge teaser ads for Surface tablet in Tokyo Gyao and Gree team up to invest in animation content development Design The future of libraries? In Japan, elevated study pods encourage conversation Japanese startup turns oversized greeting cards into an unlikely digital business Fun apps Ewww! Japanese…

We’ve had another fun week here at SD, doing our best to bring you interesting tech stories going down in Japan. But in case you missed any of it, here’s a wrap up below. Readers on mobile might want to check them out over on Readlists or in ePub format.

If you’d like to get this weekly summary plus other bonus content, we hope you’ll check out our shiny new newsletter here.

Business

Design

Fun apps

Standout startups

Other notable stories

Smapo: Can Japan’s answer to Shopkick fend off new competition?

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Many of our readers are likely familiar with Shopkick, a popular smartphone app that rewards customers as they enter a store. Well, Japan has very similar service called Smapo, which provides a smooth combination of in-store hardware and a free smartphone app for both iPhone and Android. I recently had spoke with Yo Shibata, the CEO of Spotlight Inc. (the company behind Smapo) to find out more about this service. With Smapo, all that a user has to do is to download the free app, and turn it on when walking into a participating merchant — exactly like Shopkick. Every time the app is turned on, users receive about 30 yen (about 30 cents) in points which can later be exchanged for gift certificates to be used at participating stores. What differentiates Smapo from its US counterpart is that it uses a sort of inaudible audio signal to detect users walking in, via the required in-store hardware which is about the size of a matchbox. There are so many small shops in Tokyo, and many brands decide to set up within crowded departments where in many cases, there is no proper store entrance. Smapo’s technology is valid as long as…

smapo-logo

Many of our readers are likely familiar with Shopkick, a popular smartphone app that rewards customers as they enter a store. Well, Japan has very similar service called Smapo, which provides a smooth combination of in-store hardware and a free smartphone app for both iPhone and Android.

I recently had spoke with Yo Shibata, the CEO of Spotlight Inc. (the company behind Smapo) to find out more about this service.

With Smapo, all that a user has to do is to download the free app, and turn it on when walking into a participating merchant — exactly like Shopkick. Every time the app is turned on, users receive about 30 yen (about 30 cents) in points which can later be exchanged for gift certificates to be used at participating stores.

What differentiates Smapo from its US counterpart is that it uses a sort of inaudible audio signal to detect users walking in, via the required in-store hardware which is about the size of a matchbox. There are so many small shops in Tokyo, and many brands decide to set up within crowded departments where in many cases, there is no proper store entrance. Smapo’s technology is valid as long as the user is in the store space (the inaudible audio signal does not go beyond the store’s walls) so wherever they are, the system works.

Finding new faces

Many notable merchants have already joined Smapo including mega electronics franchise Bic Camera, department stores Daimaru and Marui, as well as popular fashion retailer United Arrows. All of these merchants wanted a new way to attract consumers. Because many people do their product research in advance on computer and on smartphones these days, there is less of a need to actually visit the stores than before. Newspapers are one common place where merchants advertise, but the number of newspaper subscibers have dropped to half of what they used to be 15 years ago.

The user demographic for Smapo is half male and half female. And in an effort to satisfy the younger female generation, Smapo recently launched 58 more merchants targeting young women, including The Body Shop, and Amo’s Style (a lingerie brand). Early adopter male users are still fans of the app too. At Bic Camera, which can be a heaven for tech savvy geeks, Smapo can bring over 10,000 people to a store monthly.

smapo-iphone

But how effective is Smapo in actually attracting new consumers? Shibata-san cited Marui as an example. Their problem was that people perceived their brand as one specifically for young people, and they wanted to make an effort to bring in customers who shopped there in their youth, but may be a little older now. By bringing users to a specific part of the store such as the men’s shoe section or the women’s bags floor, they managed to land many new customers.

When they run a TV commercial, of all the customers who arrive at Marui, only 10% are new. With Smapo, that number rose to an impressive 40%. And of those 40%, about half the people ended up buying something.

Besides the chat application war that’s famously going down in Japan, O2O is another sector that’s going to generate some heat this year. NTT Docomo have adopted the exact same model as Shopkick and Smapo for their newly launched Shoplat. The system works in the same manner, but it seems that their speciality is restaurants and bars for now.

Ever since their launch in September of 2011, Smapo has seen no significant competitor, which also meant that they were essentially wholly responsible for developing the market. With the largest mobile carrier in Japan now in the game, we expect that this space is going to get far more competitive in the coming months. It is not very often we see such a young startup butting heads against an internet giant in Japan. Stay tuned, because this is going to get interesting.

Meet 4 of Japan’s hottest online fashion malls

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According to a recent study, the fashion and interior e-commerce market in Japan was about 636 billion yen (about $6.79 billion) in 2012, a 121.5% increase on last year. Many domestic apparel brands join fashion online malls instead of developing and running e-commerce sites on their own. And as a result we’re seeing lots of buzz around these fashion online malls. While it’s likely that brands will have their own e-commerce presences soon enough, the online fashion malls which are currently so popular also have intriguing plans for the future. Let’s take a closer look at a few of the major online fashion malls in Japan (in no particular order), as well as their upcoming plans. 1. Stylife ¶ Rakuten recently acquired Stylife for 1.1 billion yen (about $11,770,000), becoming the biggest shareholder in the company. This is a smart move by Rakuten as it eager to increase its reach into the fashion space. For a long time, what differentiated Stylife from other online fashion malls was its print catalogue, Look!s, that integrated with the online mall, although the company ceased publication of the print version in March of 2012. It is now available online as a web magazine. 2….

According to a recent study, the fashion and interior e-commerce market in Japan was about 636 billion yen (about $6.79 billion) in 2012, a 121.5% increase on last year. Many domestic apparel brands join fashion online malls instead of developing and running e-commerce sites on their own. And as a result we’re seeing lots of buzz around these fashion online malls. While it’s likely that brands will have their own e-commerce presences soon enough, the online fashion malls which are currently so popular also have intriguing plans for the future.

Let’s take a closer look at a few of the major online fashion malls in Japan (in no particular order), as well as their upcoming plans.

1. Stylife

Rakuten recently acquired Stylife for 1.1 billion yen (about $11,770,000), becoming the biggest shareholder in the company. This is a smart move by Rakuten as it eager to increase its reach into the fashion space.

For a long time, what differentiated Stylife from other online fashion malls was its print catalogue, Look!s, that integrated with the online mall, although the company ceased publication of the print version in March of 2012. It is now available online as a web magazine.

stylife

2. Magaseek

Just a month or so ago, mobile carrier NTT Docomo snatched up online fashion mall Magaseek, acquiring more than 41.67% of the company’s stock. Magaseek targets female mobile users in their 20s, and its previous owner was general trading company Itochu which still owns 25% of its shares. Similar to Rakuten, NTT Docomo’s plan is to solidify its competitiveness in fashion commerce by cooperating with Itochu, the largest general trade company in the textiles industry.

magaseek

3. FashionWalker

FashionWalker is another online mall which has aspirations of expanding its business to the Asian market, most notably to Korea and Taiwan. To that end, back in November of 2012 it launched an fashion e-commerce service for Korea. Its parent company is ‘World’.

FashionWalker is more content-focused compared to other online malls, creating dedicated sections for fashion stylists to introduce their latest look-books, under the category of ‘Shibuya Style Village‘.

fashion-walker

4. Zozotown

Another fashion online mall that’s accelerating its business in the Asia region is Zozotown (operated by Start Today) which was founded way back in 2004. In addition to zozotown.jp which serves the Japanese market, the company also runs zozotown.com where items can be delivered to 82 countries. In addition to the global online mall, Zozotown will launch ZozoConnect on Feburary 28 where it will introduce international brands — especially brands from Asia — to the world. At the time of launch, the site will focus on five Korean brands, including Bratson.

zozotown-f


This is part of our ‘Japanese internet in-depth’ series (RSS). Stay tuned for more features that aim to explain what makes the internet unique in Japan.