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Japan’s Green Funding enables DIY crowdfunding for web publishers

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This is part of our Crowdfunding in Japan series (RSS). Services like KickStarter have become a global phenomenon with the power to let creative individuals take their ideas to new heights. It’s happening here in Japan too. Below is one example. Green Funding is a service that can be integrated into websites, allowing anyone to create crowdfunding project pages. Tokyo Calendar is a well-known Japanese lifestyle magazine, and it has recently used the service to launch a website called ‘Tokyo Calender Fund’, which showcases original crowdfunding projects. The most recent project aims to bring back the once famous and now very scarce Sri Lankan coffee bean. According to the project page, the making of Sri Lankan coffee is a national project and the country plants 20,000 trees per year as part of the production process. Unfortunately the amount exported to Japan is very scarce at 700 kg per year. For this project, Tokyo Calendar plans to develop its own original Sri Lankan coffee blend, collecting funds starting at 1,000 yen (or about $10). The project will run until July 15th, with the target sum being 100,000 yen (or about $1,000). Other interesting projects from Tokyo Calendar includes things like developing…

Tokyo-Calendar-GreenFunding

This is part of our Crowdfunding in Japan series (RSS). Services like KickStarter have become a global phenomenon with the power to let creative individuals take their ideas to new heights. It’s happening here in Japan too. Below is one example.

Green Funding is a service that can be integrated into websites, allowing anyone to create crowdfunding project pages. Tokyo Calendar is a well-known Japanese lifestyle magazine, and it has recently used the service to launch a website called ‘Tokyo Calender Fund’, which showcases original crowdfunding projects. The most recent project aims to bring back the once famous and now very scarce Sri Lankan coffee bean.

According to the project page, the making of Sri Lankan coffee is a national project and the country plants 20,000 trees per year as part of the production process. Unfortunately the amount exported to Japan is very scarce at 700 kg per year. For this project, Tokyo Calendar plans to develop its own original Sri Lankan coffee blend, collecting funds starting at 1,000 yen (or about $10). The project will run until July 15th, with the target sum being 100,000 yen (or about $1,000).

Other interesting projects from Tokyo Calendar includes things like developing original wine glasses shaped like a flamingo, or importing 20 kinds of tequila to Japan. Green Funding has also been used by a popular fashion magazine Nylon Japan.

Traditional media in Japan has been experiencing decreased readership, but publishers can leverage Green Funding to publish books and magazines on demand, and thus be less dependent on advertisements. It will also allow publishers to support creators or artists that they have interviewed or written about.

Hopefully services like this one can have a positive impact for publishers in the country.

New portal site for crowdfunding projects helps Japanese creators and entrepreneurs fundraise globally

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See the original story in Japanese. One More Inc., a Tokyo-based startup specializing in providing an ASP-based crowdfunding site platform, has released a portal site called Green Funding. The new site aggregates updates on crowdfunding projects from its seven partner sites: Tokyo Calendar Fund, Nylon Project, Tokyo Crowdfunding Club, Sportie Fund, Sustena Crowdfunding, Allez! Japan, and Green Girl. The startup aspires to help get crowdfunding projects featured on overseas crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo as well. One More’s CEO Takehiko Numata explains: In order to feature your project on crowdfunding sites outside Japan, you will need to register your company in that country and have an account at a local bank there. The qualification process can be very cumbersome and you’ll face many issues before getting your project featured. We’re considering partnership with those crowdfunding sites, which will make the process easier. We’ll help project owners submit their proposals to Kickstarter and Indiegogo, and introduce those projects on our portal site so as to encourage Japanese people to back those projects. As of 2012, the global market for crowdfunding services was worth about 2.8 billion yen (about $28 million). These days, a variety of new crowdfunding services are popping…

green-funding

See the original story in Japanese.

One More Inc., a Tokyo-based startup specializing in providing an ASP-based crowdfunding site platform, has released a portal site called Green Funding. The new site aggregates updates on crowdfunding projects from its seven partner sites: Tokyo Calendar Fund, Nylon Project, Tokyo Crowdfunding Club, Sportie Fund, Sustena Crowdfunding, Allez! Japan, and Green Girl.

green-funding-partner

The startup aspires to help get crowdfunding projects featured on overseas crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo as well. One More’s CEO Takehiko Numata explains:

In order to feature your project on crowdfunding sites outside Japan, you will need to register your company in that country and have an account at a local bank there. The qualification process can be very cumbersome and you’ll face many issues before getting your project featured.

We’re considering partnership with those crowdfunding sites, which will make the process easier. We’ll help project owners submit their proposals to Kickstarter and Indiegogo, and introduce those projects on our portal site so as to encourage Japanese people to back those projects.

greenfunding

As of 2012, the global market for crowdfunding services was worth about 2.8 billion yen (about $28 million). These days, a variety of new crowdfunding services are popping up all around Asia.

On a related note, we recently reported that Japanese internet tycoon Takafumi Horie said he might be taking on a special advisory role for Campfire, one of Japan’s largest crowdfunding services.