THE BRIDGE

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Former Livedoor CEO launches restaurant recommendation app

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See the original story in Japanese. The Japanese economy appears to be getting better recently. In the startup scene in particular, we’ve seen more than a few acquisitions and fundings. This improved economic situation may have precipitated an interesting new mobile app too. Japanese entrepreneur Takafumi Horie (a.k.a. Horiemon) recently unveiled Teriyaki, an app that provides users with recommendations of the best restaurants in Japan. The app is available for free on both iOS and Android, but users have to pay a monthly subscription of 400 yen (about $4) via an in-app purchase. The app provides recommendations of restaurants and dishes based on curation by celebrity foodies called “Teriyakists”. They include high-profile restaurant guide editors, food-focused TV producers, and even Horiemon himself. At the recent launch party at a restaurant in Shibuya, Horie explained how his team plans to evolve our dining experiences: Even while I was in jail, I was thinking to develop this kind of app. There is still little information available in the app at the moment, but its volume will eventually be ten times larger than now. We’ll be launching an English and Chinese version in the upcoming few months using crowdsourced translation services, and also…

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From the left: Takafumi Horie and Makie Sonoyama (cooking specialist)

See the original story in Japanese.

The Japanese economy appears to be getting better recently. In the startup scene in particular, we’ve seen more than a few acquisitions and fundings. This improved economic situation may have precipitated an interesting new mobile app too. Japanese entrepreneur Takafumi Horie (a.k.a. Horiemon) recently unveiled Teriyaki, an app that provides users with recommendations of the best restaurants in Japan.

The app is available for free on both iOS and Android, but users have to pay a monthly subscription of 400 yen (about $4) via an in-app purchase.

teriyaki_screenshot

The app provides recommendations of restaurants and dishes based on curation by celebrity foodies called “Teriyakists”. They include high-profile restaurant guide editors, food-focused TV producers, and even Horiemon himself.

At the recent launch party at a restaurant in Shibuya, Horie explained how his team plans to evolve our dining experiences:

Even while I was in jail, I was thinking to develop this kind of app. There is still little information available in the app at the moment, but its volume will eventually be ten times larger than now. We’ll be launching an English and Chinese version in the upcoming few months using crowdsourced translation services, and also a version featuring restaurants in east coast US cities. With hopes of global expansion potential, we decided to name the app ‘Teriyaki’ — something familiar to non-Japanese people too.

By the end of this month, the app will cover 700 restaurants profiles across the country. Through a partnership with Pocket Concierge, it will give you opportunities to dine at restaurants introduced on the app, where it is likely difficult to book a reservation.

By next spring, the app is expected to add e-commerce functions, with the ability to order local specialties from any part of the country online, in an effort to monetize the app.

curators
Teriyakists – foodies curating restaurants for the app

Drone helicopter sushi: London restaurant capitalizes on Japan’s futuristic reputation

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We’ve previously written about how Japan has used technology to improve operations in sushi restaurants, for example, using iPads to take orders, or using IC tags on plates for quick calculation of bills. All this has made the process far more efficient. But one sushi restaurant in London might have jumped the shark when it comes to sushi tech, using a remote-control drone copter as a sort of flying tray to deliver orders to customers at their tables. It’s called the iTray (no points for originality there) and London’s Yo’ Sushi has been using it on a trial basis with plans to expand use to other locations if all goes well. The effort is part of the company’s promotion for a special Japan-inspired burger, which uses toasted rice instead of a bun [1]. According to The Daily Mail chef Mike Lewis thinks that alluding to Japan in this way will resonate with customers, noting “with the YO! Burger and iTray we know guests will feel like they’ve had a taste of the future.” This is an interesting notion, creating a faux-future that customers may think resembles Japan. Of course in actual fact, there is no such sushi helicopter in Japan…

daily-mail
Photo: Daily Mail

We’ve previously written about how Japan has used technology to improve operations in sushi restaurants, for example, using iPads to take orders, or using IC tags on plates for quick calculation of bills. All this has made the process far more efficient. But one sushi restaurant in London might have jumped the shark when it comes to sushi tech, using a remote-control drone copter as a sort of flying tray to deliver orders to customers at their tables.

It’s called the iTray (no points for originality there) and London’s Yo’ Sushi has been using it on a trial basis with plans to expand use to other locations if all goes well. The effort is part of the company’s promotion for a special Japan-inspired burger, which uses toasted rice instead of a bun [1].

According to The Daily Mail chef Mike Lewis thinks that alluding to Japan in this way will resonate with customers, noting “with the YO! Burger and iTray we know guests will feel like they’ve had a taste of the future.”

This is an interesting notion, creating a faux-future that customers may think resembles Japan. Of course in actual fact, there is no such sushi helicopter in Japan — not that I know of anyway. But Japanese companies can learn a lesson here: Even though the country has lots of economic problems recently, many people in the west still equate the Japan with a magical high tech future.

Brand Japan still has tons of global marketing potential, and that’s something many companies can take advantage of in this way.


  1. I’ve never seen such a hamburger bun here in Tokyo. Maybe it’s an Osaka thing or something.  ↩