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NTT DoCoMo secures 40% stake in Japanese restaurant reservation platform Toreta

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See the original story in Japanese. Japanese mobile telco NTT DoCoMo (TSE:9437) has secured a capital and business tie-up with Toreta, the Japanese startup offering a reservation and customer management platform for restaurants under the same name. The telco invested 3 billion yen ($27.2 million US) in the startup this time around, which brings the latter’s total amount raised to date to 6.13 billion yen ($55.5 million US). Through this deal, NTT DoCoMo has secured a 39.7% stake in Toreta by the $27.2 million cash injection as well as buying shares from existing investors for an undisclosed sum. By launching a new service allowing restaurants to take reservations and orders as well as receiving payments in mid-2019, the two companies will promote the telco’s mobile payments and rewards redemption service. Prior to this investment, the telco’s VC arm participated in a $12 million investment in the startup back in September of 2016. Toreta was launched in December of 2013 by Hitoshi Nakamura who has founded multiple food related online businesses. Having successfully acquired almost 1,000 restaurants as users within six months since the launch, the company’s user base hit 12,000 as of November of this year. CEO Nakamura has been…

See the original story in Japanese.

Japanese mobile telco NTT DoCoMo (TSE:9437) has secured a capital and business tie-up with Toreta, the Japanese startup offering a reservation and customer management platform for restaurants under the same name.

The telco invested 3 billion yen ($27.2 million US) in the startup this time around, which brings the latter’s total amount raised to date to 6.13 billion yen ($55.5 million US). Through this deal, NTT DoCoMo has secured a 39.7% stake in Toreta by the $27.2 million cash injection as well as buying shares from existing investors for an undisclosed sum.

By launching a new service allowing restaurants to take reservations and orders as well as receiving payments in mid-2019, the two companies will promote the telco’s mobile payments and rewards redemption service. Prior to this investment, the telco’s VC arm participated in a $12 million investment in the startup back in September of 2016.

Toreta was launched in December of 2013 by Hitoshi Nakamura who has founded multiple food related online businesses. Having successfully acquired almost 1,000 restaurants as users within six months since the launch, the company’s user base hit 12,000 as of November of this year. CEO Nakamura has been aggressively promoting digitalizing food businesses through launching a conference called Foodit Tokyo.

See also:

Translated by Masaru Ikeda

Fujitsu to offer mobile health support services to women in Japan

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NTT Docomo recently unveiled its new summer smartphone lineup, and included among its new handsets was the Arrows NX F–05F. Made by Fujitsu, this will be one of many Fujitsu phones that will feature a new Karada Life Pregnancy Support app targeting female users. According to Fujitsu today, the service will be available starting May 30th here in Japan. The application was developed by Fujitsu using APIs from Luna Luna, a service that millions of women in Japan use to be more aware of their menstrual cycles, by recording period timing and body temperature. In short, a range of services will be provided by both Fujitsu and Luna Luna, including estimation of menstruation and ovulation times (based on data from the previous two months) and lifestyle advice. There is also convenient body temperature management that makes use of wireless and automatic transmission of data from a thermometer [1] to smartphones (pictured below). Our readers may recall that we also saw Ateam release an app for women trying to get pregnant late last year. But it’s good to see more companies like Fujitsu get involved to provide more options. It’s interesting to watch more and more companies in Japan strive to…

fujitsu-karada

NTT Docomo recently unveiled its new summer smartphone lineup, and included among its new handsets was the Arrows NX F–05F. Made by Fujitsu, this will be one of many Fujitsu phones that will feature a new Karada Life Pregnancy Support app targeting female users. According to Fujitsu today, the service will be available starting May 30th here in Japan.

The application was developed by Fujitsu using APIs from Luna Luna, a service that millions of women in Japan use to be more aware of their menstrual cycles, by recording period timing and body temperature.

In short, a range of services will be provided by both Fujitsu and Luna Luna, including estimation of menstruation and ovulation times (based on data from the previous two months) and lifestyle advice. There is also convenient body temperature management that makes use of wireless and automatic transmission of data from a thermometer [1] to smartphones (pictured below).

Our readers may recall that we also saw Ateam release an app for women trying to get pregnant late last year. But it’s good to see more companies like Fujitsu get involved to provide more options.

It’s interesting to watch more and more companies in Japan strive to serve female users. Just last month, for example, Amazon Japan launched a new female-focused store front to specifically target women and mothers.

fujitsu-karada-2


  1. Specifically, the Terumo Corporation’s WOMAN °C W520DZ thermometer, which is ostensibly not included.  ↩

NTT Docomo launches dog monitoring service

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NTT Docomo recently launched a pet dog-monitoring service called PetFit. It is available for a 25,900 yen fee (approximately $255), which includes a deposit fee for the monitoring device and one-year data transmission charge. By attaching a bluetooth-enabled tag to your dog, the service’s mobile app keeps you updated about how you dog is behaving (is he walking or sleeping, for example). If the device’s base station loses the signal from the tag, the service recognizes he that he is out of range and sends you a notification e-mail to encourage you to find him. You can record history of his past behavior, as well as the atmospheric temperature around him, in the cloud, and even consult a veterinarian using the service. via CNET Japan

petfit

NTT Docomo recently launched a pet dog-monitoring service called PetFit. It is available for a 25,900 yen fee (approximately $255), which includes a deposit fee for the monitoring device and one-year data transmission charge.

By attaching a bluetooth-enabled tag to your dog, the service’s mobile app keeps you updated about how you dog is behaving (is he walking or sleeping, for example). If the device’s base station loses the signal from the tag, the service recognizes he that he is out of range and sends you a notification e-mail to encourage you to find him.

You can record history of his past behavior, as well as the atmospheric temperature around him, in the cloud, and even consult a veterinarian using the service.

petfit-device

via CNET Japan

Surviving the smartphone switch: Japan’s Pictlink has 7M users

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Japan is often considered ahead of its time in the mobile sector. There was particularly early development of advanced mobile features in its so-called ‘galapagos era’ when feature phones ruled the country. These phones had many services built in, with the most notable among them being i-mode’, provided by leading carrier NTT Docomo. But after Softbank first began selling the iPhone back in 2008, many feature phone services have been forced to switch to adapt. Back in July, we wrote about a Japanese company called Furyu which has been an important player in Japan’s ‘kawaii’ culture. Furyu is behind many interesting mobile services, as well as ‘purikura’ machines or photo booths. In 2003, the company released ‘Rakupuri Shot’ (roughly translated as ‘easy printing shots’), enabling users to save photos that have been taken in photo booths. At the time, this free service allowed users to download only one photo, and it still had over three million users. According to the company, 90% of girls in both middle school and high school have used the service at least once. Skip ahead to December of 2011 when Furyu released a smartphone app called Pictlink, a sort of an upgraded version of its…

Pictlink-web

Japan is often considered ahead of its time in the mobile sector. There was particularly early development of advanced mobile features in its so-called ‘galapagos era’ when feature phones ruled the country. These phones had many services built in, with the most notable among them being i-mode’, provided by leading carrier NTT Docomo. But after Softbank first began selling the iPhone back in 2008, many feature phone services have been forced to switch to adapt.

Back in July, we wrote about a Japanese company called Furyu which has been an important player in Japan’s ‘kawaii’ culture. Furyu is behind many interesting mobile services, as well as ‘purikura’ machines or photo booths. In 2003, the company released ‘Rakupuri Shot’ (roughly translated as ‘easy printing shots’), enabling users to save photos that have been taken in photo booths. At the time, this free service allowed users to download only one photo, and it still had over three million users. According to the company, 90% of girls in both middle school and high school have used the service at least once.

Skip ahead to December of 2011 when Furyu released a smartphone app called Pictlink, a sort of an upgraded version of its photo-saving service previously offered on feature phones. The app was sort of a social network where girls could download photos taken at photo booths, but they could also upload and share photos taken on their mobiles. The company recently announced that this service’s registered users have surpassed the seven million mark, which is a very impressive total.

In a recent update Pictlink added a new sorting feature, as well as resizable screen. Users can also learn about new photo booths available to try out. To save all photos on their phone, the app requires users to pay a monthly fee of 315 yen (or about $3.30). This may sound a bit costly, especially for younger kids. But typical photo booth users likely take many photos in the span of a month, and they are also comfortable with the concept of a monthly fee, having been introduced to paid downloads like ringtones and other digital contents since the times of feature phones.

Adapting from feature phones to smartphones is an obstacle that many mobile companies are facing these days, and so far it looks like Furyu is doing a good job. If you’d like to check out Pictlink, you can find it over on the App Store or on Google Play.

Magic mirror on my phone, will today’s sun hurt my skin tone?

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Japanese Mobile carrier NTT Docomo has partnered with iStyle (the company behind giant cosmetics review site @Cosme) to provide a beauty app called Bihada UV Mirror 1. The app’s name roughly translates to ‘Beautiful Skin Ultraviolet Mirror’, and it makes use of your mobile’s front-facing camera to transform your phone into a compact mirror. The mirror function lets you make sure you look good, but it also detects harmful ultraviolet radiation information at the time, showing six levels, each as a different background color. Other functions of the app includes Bihada Tenki (meaning ‘beautiful skin weather’), letting users set a default region, and then displaying weather information like temperature and humidity. Partnering with @Cosme, Bihada UV Mirror provides beauty related information in a section called Beaty Navi. Beauty conscious users can enjoy information about skin care, depending on the ultraviolet level, as well as basic knowledge about ultraviolet radiation. @Cosme has over 10 million cosmetic product reviews and ultraviolet-proof product rankings that users can enjoy within the app. Bihada UV Mirror can be downloaded for free over on Google Play. @Cosme has over 2.2 million registered users, in case you’ve forgotten. ↩

Bihada-UV-Mirror

Japanese Mobile carrier NTT Docomo has partnered with iStyle (the company behind giant cosmetics review site @Cosme) to provide a beauty app called Bihada UV Mirror 1. The app’s name roughly translates to ‘Beautiful Skin Ultraviolet Mirror’, and it makes use of your mobile’s front-facing camera to transform your phone into a compact mirror.

The mirror function lets you make sure you look good, but it also detects harmful ultraviolet radiation information at the time, showing six levels, each as a different background color. Other functions of the app includes Bihada Tenki (meaning ‘beautiful skin weather’), letting users set a default region, and then displaying weather information like temperature and humidity.

Partnering with @Cosme, Bihada UV Mirror provides beauty related information in a section called Beaty Navi. Beauty conscious users can enjoy information about skin care, depending on the ultraviolet level, as well as basic knowledge about ultraviolet radiation. @Cosme has over 10 million cosmetic product reviews and ultraviolet-proof product rankings that users can enjoy within the app.

Bihada UV Mirror can be downloaded for free over on Google Play.

cosmetic-mirror-app cosmetic-mirror-app


  1. @Cosme has over 2.2 million registered users, in case you’ve forgotten.

NTT Docomo to acquire Japan’s largest medical database

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Japanese mobile giant NTT Docomo and medical information provider Nihon Ultmarc have jointly announced that the telco would acquire a 77.5% stake of the medical company for 2.6 billion yen (approximately $26 million) in May. Nihon Ultmarc was founded in 1962, and has built a database of medical doctors and nurses across the country, providing that information to the pharmaceutical industry. NTT Docomo announced in their business plan for this fiscal year that it expects to grow its medical and health care related business up to 40 billion yen ($400 million) by 2015, which is almost ten times than what it was in 2011. The telco aims to create three new markets by deploying mobile technologies: in health management and prevention support, in health insurance and welfare related services, and medical examination and treatment support. NTT Docomo had been operating a video service, MD+, for sharing surgical procedures and treatments among doctors. Along with the subsidization, Nihon Ulmarc has integrated with MD+ with the company’s knowledge sharing system for members/doctors, giving them an accumulation of useful intelligence that can go towards better medical services.

docomo_ultmarcJapanese mobile giant NTT Docomo and medical information provider Nihon Ultmarc have jointly announced that the telco would acquire a 77.5% stake of the medical company for 2.6 billion yen (approximately $26 million) in May.

Nihon Ultmarc was founded in 1962, and has built a database of medical doctors and nurses across the country, providing that information to the pharmaceutical industry. NTT Docomo announced in their business plan for this fiscal year that it expects to grow its medical and health care related business up to 40 billion yen ($400 million) by 2015, which is almost ten times than what it was in 2011. The telco aims to create three new markets by deploying mobile technologies: in health management and prevention support, in health insurance and welfare related services, and medical examination and treatment support.

NTT Docomo had been operating a video service, MD+, for sharing surgical procedures and treatments among doctors. Along with the subsidization, Nihon Ulmarc has integrated with MD+ with the company’s knowledge sharing system for members/doctors, giving them an accumulation of useful intelligence that can go towards better medical services.

md-medy

NTT Docomo unveils the first 6 startups for its new incubation program

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See the original story in Japanese. NTT Docomo held a kick-off event for its incubation program today, unveiling six startups chosen for its first batch. The program, which was first announced back in February, selected these six from 124 applicants. The startups are to be incubated and mentored for the next five months. Here’s a quick run down of the chosen six: Easeeat by Willmore This service helps consumers buy allergy-free food products at supermarkets. They presented last year at our pitch event, and we’re delighted to see them among those selected. The new app appears to be based on its previous app, Allergy Checker (pictured above), which allowed you to scan a barcode on the product’s package, and then it tells you the ingredients and whether or not its safe for you. Pairy by Timers This couples app is a sort of Japanese alternative to Couple (US & UK) or Between (Korea), specializes in establishing communication just for couples. It’s already live, and has plans to extend its business to online-to-offline marketing and e-commerce services. Some of our readers may recall that they presented at Myojo Waraku in Fukuoka last years. Nanovel by Gadget This service aggregates short novels authored…

IMGP6761

See the original story in Japanese.

NTT Docomo held a kick-off event for its incubation program today, unveiling six startups chosen for its first batch. The program, which was first announced back in February, selected these six from 124 applicants. The startups are to be incubated and mentored for the next five months.

Here’s a quick run down of the chosen six:

Easeeat by Willmore

allergychecker_screenshot2

This service helps consumers buy allergy-free food products at supermarkets. They presented last year at our pitch event, and we’re delighted to see them among those selected. The new app appears to be based on its previous app, Allergy Checker (pictured above), which allowed you to scan a barcode on the product’s package, and then it tells you the ingredients and whether or not its safe for you.

Pairy by Timers

pairy_screenshot

This couples app is a sort of Japanese alternative to Couple (US & UK) or Between (Korea), specializes in establishing communication just for couples. It’s already live, and has plans to extend its business to online-to-offline marketing and e-commerce services. Some of our readers may recall that they presented at Myojo Waraku in Fukuoka last years.

Nanovel by Gadget

nanovel_screenshot

This service aggregates short novels authored by professional writers and dramatists. Each of the stories are shorter than 2,000 Japanese characters long, so readers won’t take more than five minutes to finish. It’s good material for avid readers to fill up spare ‘in-between’ time, in much the same way that casual gaming does.

Coromo

Using NFC (near-frequency communication) technology, this service allows users to design their smartphone home screen easily, with the idea of using it for advertising purposes. The team aims to build a platform where Android phone users can exchange home screen designs each other.

Funpicty (tentative name) by Soda

This service allows users to mix up pictures shot by various photo apps, and then share them with others. (Sorry, but not too many more details beyond this were disclosed.)

DecoAlbum by Prime Again

decoalbum_screenshot

This app lets you share your photos with your friends, giving you the ability to decorate with them numerous effects and features.

Yoshiaki Maeda on how Docomo plans to tackle Japan’s smartphone app market

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See the original story in Japanese. This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2013. You can’t discuss the history of the Japanese mobile business without talking about i-mode. This is the featurephone content platform from NTT Docomo, which many content providers used to achieve significant growth and revenue. Of course in recent years, the market need has shifted to smartphones, especially the iPhone, and not many people have their their eyes on i-mode these days. But many of the ideas developed in i-mode live on. For example, Docomo’s competitor KDDI has had much success with SmartPass, a flat rate app subscription program similar to i-mode in terms of its subscription model. How exactly will Docomo respond to KDDI’s smartphone success so far? At B Dash Camp 2013 in Fukuoka yesterday, Yoshiaki Maeda, the managing director of smart communication services at NTT Docomo, explained a little about the company’s upcoming strategy, revealing a few interesting figures in the process. Docomo’s smartphone content sales generates $180 million a month To date, Docomo has acquired 18 million smartphone users. The figure is expected to reach 40 million by the end of 2014. Their smartphone content sales grew to a…

20130423-083212

See the original story in Japanese.

This is a part of our coverage of B Dash Camp Fukuoka 2013.

You can’t discuss the history of the Japanese mobile business without talking about i-mode. This is the featurephone content platform from NTT Docomo, which many content providers used to achieve significant growth and revenue.

Of course in recent years, the market need has shifted to smartphones, especially the iPhone, and not many people have their their eyes on i-mode these days. But many of the ideas developed in i-mode live on. For example, Docomo’s competitor KDDI has had much success with SmartPass, a flat rate app subscription program similar to i-mode in terms of its subscription model.

How exactly will Docomo respond to KDDI’s smartphone success so far? At B Dash Camp 2013 in Fukuoka yesterday, Yoshiaki Maeda, the managing director of smart communication services at NTT Docomo, explained a little about the company’s upcoming strategy, revealing a few interesting figures in the process.

Docomo’s smartphone content sales generates $180 million a month

To date, Docomo has acquired 18 million smartphone users. The figure is expected to reach 40 million by the end of 2014. Their smartphone content sales grew to a market worth of $180 million, and that’s continuously on the rise each month.

Conversely, the i-mode content market is shrinking.

20130423-083256
The growth of Docomo’s smartphone subscribers
20130423-083303
The growth of revenue from smartphone content sales

On-the-spot purchase needs surpasses that of monthly subscription model

In the era of featurephones, monthly subscription models were very strong but it’s shifted to an ‘on-the-spot’ purchase model as our more subscribers move to smartphone users.

20130423-083310
Monthly subscription sales vs. on-the-spot purchase sales
in the last three years

For us, by bringing the subscription user base from the featurephone market (i-mode) to the smartphone content market, we expect monthly revenue to increase to $300 million.

Partnering with new content providers

Some content providers brought conventional (featurephone optimized) content to the smartphone app marketplace, and that will never attract our subscribers.

We value our providers though, but we further expect to get new providers involved to cultivate the market. We also have our Docomo Innovation Ventures as a touch point for new companies or startups. We’ve exploring ways to work with brand new people.

When will Docomo start ‘Sugotoku’, its monthly flat-rate subscription program for smartphone apps?

We’re preparing for it to be launched very soon. It would be similar to our competitor KDDI’s strategy, but we’re still in talks with partner content providers (and/or app developers). We aspire to make it comfortable enough so that our customers will be happy to use it.

Docomo publishes ‘Twitter Local Yellow Pages’ for Japan

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Japanese mobile carrier NTT Docomo (NYSE:DCM) has announced a new ‘Twitter local yellow pages’ mobile site in cooperation with Twitter Japan and local radio stations. The new mobile site, accessible at tw-yp.jp, will include recommended Twitter accounts, sorted into the categories of food, shopping, sight seeing spots, local reports, celebrities, and sports teams. Drilling down into each category, the listed recommended accounts can be further browsed according to Japan’s prefectures and cities. The intent here is very much in the same spirit of Twitter’s suggested users function. It aims to provide assistance to first time and beginner Twitter users who might not immediately know where they can find relevant information after signing up. In theory, this will help Japanese Twitter users stay better connected with important Twitter broadcasters in their local areas, a service which should prove valuable in the event of local emergencies when critical information might be disseminated through those channels. While the service is intended to be a mobile site, it is also accessible by PC. Docomo and Twitter Japan have working together as partners since May of 2011.

twitter-yellow-pages

Japanese mobile carrier NTT Docomo (NYSE:DCM) has announced a new ‘Twitter local yellow pages’ mobile site in cooperation with Twitter Japan and local radio stations.

The new mobile site, accessible at tw-yp.jp, will include recommended Twitter accounts, sorted into the categories of food, shopping, sight seeing spots, local reports, celebrities, and sports teams. Drilling down into each category, the listed recommended accounts can be further browsed according to Japan’s prefectures and cities.

The intent here is very much in the same spirit of Twitter’s suggested users function. It aims to provide assistance to first time and beginner Twitter users who might not immediately know where they can find relevant information after signing up.

In theory, this will help Japanese Twitter users stay better connected with important Twitter broadcasters in their local areas, a service which should prove valuable in the event of local emergencies when critical information might be disseminated through those channels. While the service is intended to be a mobile site, it is also accessible by PC.

Docomo and Twitter Japan have working together as partners since May of 2011.

twitter yellow pages

twitter yellow pages