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tag otaku camera

Japanese startup Tokyo Otaku Mode uses Kyary Pamyu Pamyu in mobile promo

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo Otaku Mode, a curation site focused on the Japanese otaku culture, has partnered with Japanese FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) giant Sunstar on a toothpaste promotion. The promo makes use of special photo frames designed by Japanese pop superstar Kyary Pamyu Pamyu in Otaku Mode’s app Otaku Camera photo app. This is part of international campaign promoting the FMCG’s toothpaste products in Japan, Thailand, Singapore, and Taiwan. The campaign started today in Japan, and will launch in the other three countries on November 1st. As we write this, the special frames are only available when your mobile is set to the Japanese language environment. (It will likely be available for any language setting after November 1st.) When you launch the latest version of the app, there will be a button to choose the frame on the app’s home screen. In addition to a sample frame, 17 other frames will be available when you scan a barcode printed on the product package. To date the startup has collaboratively worked with brands such as All Nippon Airways, Lawson, and smartphone homescreen decoration app Cocoppa in an effort to help Japanese culture reach the global audience. The…

kawaiicamera

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo Otaku Mode, a curation site focused on the Japanese otaku culture, has partnered with Japanese FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) giant Sunstar on a toothpaste promotion. The promo makes use of special photo frames designed by Japanese pop superstar Kyary Pamyu Pamyu in Otaku Mode’s app Otaku Camera photo app.

kawaiicameraapp

This is part of international campaign promoting the FMCG’s toothpaste products in Japan, Thailand, Singapore, and Taiwan. The campaign started today in Japan, and will launch in the other three countries on November 1st.

As we write this, the special frames are only available when your mobile is set to the Japanese language environment. (It will likely be available for any language setting after November 1st.)

When you launch the latest version of the app, there will be a button to choose the frame on the app’s home screen. In addition to a sample frame, 17 other frames will be available when you scan a barcode printed on the product package.

To date the startup has collaboratively worked with brands such as All Nippon Airways, Lawson, and smartphone homescreen decoration app Cocoppa in an effort to help Japanese culture reach the global audience. The app is available via the App Store and Google Play.

Otaku Camera reaches 3 million downloads, proves popular beyond Japan

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A while back we featured the fun photo application Otaku Camera, developed by the folks over at Tokyo Otaku Mode. When last we checked in on this app, it had just surpassed a million downloads having been featured on Google Play, with the iPhone version also doing pretty well. For those not familiar with Otaku Camera, the app transforms your smartphone pictures into manga style images that you can then share with friends. Now the company has just announced that the app has surpassed 3 million downloads as of May 20th. As we mentioned recently in our feature highlighting Japanese startups doing well abroad, Tokyo Otaku Mode has been pretty successful in reaching overseas audiences. Its Otaku Camera app seems to be no exception, with the Android version doing especially well in Europe, currently a top 25 photo app in Germany (18) and Austria (23), and a top 100 photo app in 33 countries in total. On the iOS side, the app’s success seems to be largely in Asia, as it is a top 50 photo app in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as its home market of Japan. But the company is making improvements, adding new photo…

otaku-camera

A while back we featured the fun photo application Otaku Camera, developed by the folks over at Tokyo Otaku Mode. When last we checked in on this app, it had just surpassed a million downloads having been featured on Google Play, with the iPhone version also doing pretty well. For those not familiar with Otaku Camera, the app transforms your smartphone pictures into manga style images that you can then share with friends.

Now the company has just announced that the app has surpassed 3 million downloads as of May 20th. As we mentioned recently in our feature highlighting Japanese startups doing well abroad, Tokyo Otaku Mode has been pretty successful in reaching overseas audiences. Its Otaku Camera app seems to be no exception, with the Android version doing especially well in Europe, currently a top 25 photo app in Germany (18) and Austria (23), and a top 100 photo app in 33 countries in total.

On the iOS side, the app’s success seems to be largely in Asia, as it is a top 50 photo app in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as its home market of Japan.

amuro-usavich

But the company is making improvements, adding new photo frames to the app that will hopefully resonate with users. They just announced new special frames for the app in collaboration with singer Namie Amuro and MTV Japan’s animated short Usavich. These frames will be free until July 31st. In total, the app has over 100 frames in English, Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish.

I find it pretty interesting that some of Japan’s most successful startup exports are proving to be photo apps. The decoration app Snapeee has 80% of its users overseas, and for many apps in the decoration or collage categories, reaching audiences abroad appears not so hard. Other examples of Japanese companies peddling photo apps to global audiences include the veteran startup SnapDish, which had the goal of going global from the very start, and Cinnamon, which is targeting the Southeast Asian market with its Seconds app.

If you’d like to get a better idea for the the camera app works, do check out our demo video below.

Meet 5 of Japan’s top photo apps

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In comparison to other countries around the world, Japan has a special affinity for camera apps. In fact, according to a recent report from Flurry Japanese mobile users are more likely to use photo apps than mobile users in any other country. We’ve written about a number of them over the past couple of months, and I thought we take her to expect look at a few of the best [1] ones today. So here they are, in no particular order: FX Camera ¶ One of the earliest entries in the Japan photo app space was FX Camera which launched way back in 2009. This app isn’t very flashy, but it has a solid repertoire of filters and effects would certainly come in handy on any mobile device. Since its launch a few years back it has accumulated more than 25 million downloads, certainly an impressive feat for its parent company Bit Cellar. See our recent review of FX Camera for more information. Download: iOS | Android Otaku Camera ¶ This app doesn’t have the sort of download counts that other apps on this list have achieved, but it was developed by one of Japan’s hottest startups, Tokyu Otaku Mode….

In comparison to other countries around the world, Japan has a special affinity for camera apps. In fact, according to a recent report from Flurry Japanese mobile users are more likely to use photo apps than mobile users in any other country.

We’ve written about a number of them over the past couple of months, and I thought we take her to expect look at a few of the best [1] ones today. So here they are, in no particular order:

FX Camera

fx-camera

One of the earliest entries in the Japan photo app space was FX Camera which launched way back in 2009. This app isn’t very flashy, but it has a solid repertoire of filters and effects would certainly come in handy on any mobile device. Since its launch a few years back it has accumulated more than 25 million downloads, certainly an impressive feat for its parent company Bit Cellar. See our recent review of FX Camera for more information.

Download: iOS | Android

Otaku Camera

otaku-camera

This app doesn’t have the sort of download counts that other apps on this list have achieved, but it was developed by one of Japan’s hottest startups, Tokyu Otaku Mode. What Otaku Camera does is turn your pictures into an anime/manga style graphic. Last month the application surpassed the 1 million downloads mark, and we expect that with the company’s vast fan base that Otaku Camera will continue to grow. Check out our video demo below for more info about it how it works.

Download: iOS | Android

SnapDish

snapdish

Just like in the West, Japan has more than a few food photography apps. Perhaps the most notable foodie photo app is SnapDish. The application was launched way back in May 2011, and since then it has catalogued more than 1.7 million pictures of food. Interestingly, it primarily encourages users to share pictures of food they’ve cooked themselves, as opposed to just snaps taken in a restaurant.

The company has aspirations on global markets too, and is already available in a variety of languages in addition to Japanese and English. For more information about the startup check out out interview with them from back in February.

Download: iOS | Android

Papelook

papelook

Just a few weeks ago the Japanese photo application Papelook surpassed the 4 million downloads mark on iOS, launching a new Android app at that time as well. Papelook is not your typical photo application insofar as you’re not really going to be taking photos with it. But rather you can use it to combine and repurpose a lot of the photos that you’ve taken with other apps to build collages. I had a lot of fun testing this one, as you can see in the video demo below. The application is very much targeted at girls and it definitely falls into ‘Kawaii apps’ application category.

Download: iOS | Android

Line Camera

line-camera

Line Camera took off very quickly since it was first released nearly a year ago. And with more than 20 million downloads since then, largely thanks to the wildly popular Line chat app as a distribution platform, this camera application hit number one in the photo category in 28 countries, mostly around Asia. The application allows for lots of fun photo decoration, following the same style as the popular stamps/stickers for which Line Corporation has become famous.

Download: iOS | Android

Honorable mention:

See also: 5 photo apps with fantastic skin filters that Japanese women prefer


  1. Like any list of this sort, this is a subjective ranking and I’m sure that there are many great camera apps from Japan that we have missed. If so, let us know! We’d be happy to hear from you.  ↩

Otaku Camera for Android gets a boost, rockets past a million downloads

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Tokyo Otaku Mode’s popular photo app Otaku Camera has recently received a big boost by recently being featured on Google Play in 42 countries, including the US and Japan. We’re told that this has helped the Android version of their app has hit the one million download milestone within a very short time. Currently the iPhone version of the app is doing ok too, with about 400,000 downoads to date. And if the momentum can continue over on Google Play, then perhaps two million total downloads is not too far off. We did a brief video demo of Otaku Camera last month, highlighting some of its main features (see video below). The company has been providing downloadable photo frames in the app via its frame shop. Currently the frames are free, although I expect later they will introduce some paid frames. Tokyo Otaku Mode is perhaps best known for its wildly popular Facebook page, which has more than 10 million fans. Currently the Tokyo-based startup is making an effort to monetize that fan base, and developing a mobile presence is one aspect of that initiative. You can learn more about TOM by checking out our in-depth feature from back in…

Otaku Camera Featured-smallTokyo Otaku Mode’s popular photo app Otaku Camera has recently received a big boost by recently being featured on Google Play in 42 countries, including the US and Japan. We’re told that this has helped the Android version of their app has hit the one million download milestone within a very short time.

Currently the iPhone version of the app is doing ok too, with about 400,000 downoads to date. And if the momentum can continue over on Google Play, then perhaps two million total downloads is not too far off.

We did a brief video demo of Otaku Camera last month, highlighting some of its main features (see video below). The company has been providing downloadable photo frames in the app via its frame shop. Currently the frames are free, although I expect later they will introduce some paid frames.

Tokyo Otaku Mode is perhaps best known for its wildly popular Facebook page, which has more than 10 million fans. Currently the Tokyo-based startup is making an effort to monetize that fan base, and developing a mobile presence is one aspect of that initiative. You can learn more about TOM by checking out our in-depth feature from back in February.

Tokyo Otaku Mode keeps improving its manga photo app [Video]

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Just last week we reported that the up-and-coming Japanese startup Tokyo Otaku Mode had raised a new round of funding from three VC firms. And while the company’s progress on the web appears to be going well (see our feature on TOM from a few weeks back) the company has also made some recent updates on its most prominent mobile initiative, Otaku Camera. If you haven’t tried it yet, the basic feature of the app is that it turns any photo into a manga-style picture. But earlier in the month, the company announced new downloadable Hello Kitty photo frames for the app, and today it’s rolling out Tiger & Bunny photo frames, from the famous anime TV series. Currently all frame sets are marked as ‘Free’ in Otaku Camera, but I expect that in the future we’ll see paid photo frames rolling out as well, as Tokyo Otaku Mode makes and effort to monetize. When we last heard from Tokyo Otaku Mode, we were informed that Otaku Camera has over 500,000 downloads. I think this figure will get larger, given the company’s enthusiastic base, with over 10 million fans on Facebook. For a quick video overview of Otaku Camera, check…

Just last week we reported that the up-and-coming Japanese startup Tokyo Otaku Mode had raised a new round of funding from three VC firms. And while the company’s progress on the web appears to be going well (see our feature on TOM from a few weeks back) the company has also made some recent updates on its most prominent mobile initiative, Otaku Camera.

If you haven’t tried it yet, the basic feature of the app is that it turns any photo into a manga-style picture. But earlier in the month, the company announced new downloadable Hello Kitty photo frames for the app, and today it’s rolling out Tiger & Bunny photo frames, from the famous anime TV series. Currently all frame sets are marked as ‘Free’ in Otaku Camera, but I expect that in the future we’ll see paid photo frames rolling out as well, as Tokyo Otaku Mode makes and effort to monetize.

otaku-camera

When we last heard from Tokyo Otaku Mode, we were informed that Otaku Camera has over 500,000 downloads. I think this figure will get larger, given the company’s enthusiastic base, with over 10 million fans on Facebook.

For a quick video overview of Otaku Camera, check out our video demo above. If you’d like to try the app for yourself, it’s available on both iOS and Android.