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Japanese women’s fashion media site 4meee acquired by Enigmo for $5 million

Takeshi Hirano Takeshi Hirano
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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Rocket Venture, the company behind women’s fashion media site 4meee! (pronounced “for me”), will announce today that it has been acquired by Enigmo (TSE:3665) for 600 million yen (about $5 million). Enigmo is an internet company best known for operating Buyma, a marketplace selling selected fashions less likely to be available at retail stores. See also: In conversation with co-founders of Japan’s curated fashion site for young women Rocket Venture was founded in December 2013 by 29-year-old entrepreneur Makoto Tatsukawa. The company launched 4meee in June and participated in a seed acceleration program provided by Tokyo-based startup incubator Movida Japan. Last August, they fundraised 50 million yen (about $500,000) from Global Brain and Future Investment. They have been seeing good growth, acquiring 2 million monthly unique users and 25 million monthly page views over the last six months. But according to recent communication with CEO Tatsukawa, he told me that the growth has reached over 30 million monthly page views. As other media has reported, Enigmo expects 4meee to drive user traffic to the former’s e-commerce platform Buyma under this acquisition. Since Tatsukawa is familiar with e-commerce business in the greater Chinese region,…

4meee-screenshot

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Rocket Venture, the company behind women’s fashion media site 4meee! (pronounced “for me”), will announce today that it has been acquired by Enigmo (TSE:3665) for 600 million yen (about $5 million). Enigmo is an internet company best known for operating Buyma, a marketplace selling selected fashions less likely to be available at retail stores.

See also:

makoto-tatsukawa
Rocket Venture CEO Makoto Tatsukawa

Rocket Venture was founded in December 2013 by 29-year-old entrepreneur Makoto Tatsukawa. The company launched 4meee in June and participated in a seed acceleration program provided by Tokyo-based startup incubator Movida Japan. Last August, they fundraised 50 million yen (about $500,000) from Global Brain and Future Investment.

They have been seeing good growth, acquiring 2 million monthly unique users and 25 million monthly page views over the last six months. But according to recent communication with CEO Tatsukawa, he told me that the growth has reached over 30 million monthly page views. As other media has reported, Enigmo expects 4meee to drive user traffic to the former’s e-commerce platform Buyma under this acquisition. Since Tatsukawa is familiar with e-commerce business in the greater Chinese region, we can assume that Enigmo wants to expand in Asia overall leveraging his expertise.

Translated by Masaru Ikeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Enigmo launches platform to crowdsource translation of Japanese books

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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Enigmo (TSE:3665) is an internet company best known for operating Buyma, a marketplace selling selected fashions less likely to be available at retail stores. The company recently launched a new platform called Buyma Books, which lets publishers distribute books in different languages using crowdsourced translators. Authors or creators can upload books or publications to publish in other languages, and they will be translated by crowdsourced workers on the platform, and then distributed via an iOS reader app. They will start with translating Japanese books into English and Chinese, but more languages are planned for later. via Mobile & Apps

buymabook_featuredimage

Enigmo (TSE:3665) is an internet company best known for operating Buyma, a marketplace selling selected fashions less likely to be available at retail stores. The company recently launched a new platform called Buyma Books, which lets publishers distribute books in different languages using crowdsourced translators.

Authors or creators can upload books or publications to publish in other languages, and they will be translated by crowdsourced workers on the platform, and then distributed via an iOS reader app. They will start with translating Japanese books into English and Chinese, but more languages are planned for later.

via Mobile & Apps

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Japan’s Stulio is a flea market app for fashionistas

Yukari Mitsuhashi Yukari Mitsuhashi
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For a while now, we’ve seen much hype around mobile flea market apps in the Japanese startup space. Many companies are eager to grab a piece of this second-hand clothing market, as we see increasing demand as people transitioning to mobile from desktop auction websites such as Yahoo Auction and Mobaoku. Stulio is a flea market app that is used by fashionistas and celebrities. Stulio is one such flea market app. It started off as a photo-sharing app, and at the end of September the company announced its jump to become a fashion e-commerce app. Users can purchase each others’ used items as well as exclusive items by popular models and celebrities. In addition to selling used clothes, the app also sells new clothes from fashion brands such as Wildfox and Moussy. The company behind Stulio is a joint venture of Enigmo, Stulio. Enigmo went public in June of last year, is the operator of Buyma. That service has 40,000 users (as of June 2013) from all over the world who can function as buyers, acting as a means to access to high-end global brands for more affordable prices than department stores. We had a chance to speak with the…

stulio-lead

For a while now, we’ve seen much hype around mobile flea market apps in the Japanese startup space. Many companies are eager to grab a piece of this second-hand clothing market, as we see increasing demand as people transitioning to mobile from desktop auction websites such as Yahoo Auction and Mobaoku.

Stulio is a flea market app that is used by fashionistas and celebrities.

Stulio is one such flea market app. It started off as a photo-sharing app, and at the end of September the company announced its jump to become a fashion e-commerce app. Users can purchase each others’ used items as well as exclusive items by popular models and celebrities.

In addition to selling used clothes, the app also sells new clothes from fashion brands such as Wildfox and Moussy.

The company behind Stulio is a joint venture of Enigmo, Stulio. Enigmo went public in June of last year, is the operator of Buyma. That service has 40,000 users (as of June 2013) from all over the world who can function as buyers, acting as a means to access to high-end global brands for more affordable prices than department stores.

We had a chance to speak with the CEO of Stulio, Hirokuni Miyaji. He elaborates on the pivot of the app.

Stulio was initially developed by Enigmo and I took over back in July of 2012. I had always wanted to develop a flea market app so it was a great opportunity. To describe it in simple terms, Stulio is a flea market app that is used by fashionistas and celebrities.

The updated version of the app was released in September where we added official accounts by popular models and brands. What differentiates our app from other flea market apps is that the average price of sold items are around 30,000 yen to 50,000 yen which is much higher compared to other apps.

Stulio’s strategy to acquiring more users is to be active offline and to leverage a sort of Ameba-like tactic by having fashion influencers join, which then helps them reach the mainstream. The company recently opened a pop-up shop at Lafore Harajyuku where it held a renewal party with many notable guests.

Miyaji says the company is going to focus on building a fashion platform for now. But in the near future, it plans to launch its own line of fashion brand as well as expand to the wider Asian market.

Stulio-app

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