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NES cartridge-like device Picocassette to offer novel gaming experiences on mobile

Junya Mori Junya Mori
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See the original story in Japanese. Surely there are more than a few men in their 30s whose hearts won’t skip three beats upon espying this device. Its design reminds one of the Nintendo NES, the home video game released by the Japanese game maker in July of 1983. However, this is a new smartphone-use game device called Picocasette, jointly developed by Japan’s Sirok and U.S.-incorporated Beatrobo. One can play the game inside by inserting the device into the earphone plug of a smartphone. Tokyo-based Sirok is in charge of app development while Beatrobo of San Francisco, with its wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan, is charged with hardware development. Apart from this, Beatrobo also develops and sells an instant media gadget using the earphone plug called PlugAir, which adopts the same technologies as those in Picocassette. See also: Beatrobo raises $1.1M, has ambitions to replace the CD The two firms have tied up with video game developers who had created famous titles in the past and will provide such games through the Picocassette device. Sirok will engage in development of Picocassette as a new challenge, although it is to continue app developments for businesses as its core business. Meanwhile Beatrobo aims…

picocasette_featuredimage

See the original story in Japanese.

Surely there are more than a few men in their 30s whose hearts won’t skip three beats upon espying this device. Its design reminds one of the Nintendo NES, the home video game released by the Japanese game maker in July of 1983.

However, this is a new smartphone-use game device called Picocasette, jointly developed by Japan’s Sirok and U.S.-incorporated Beatrobo. One can play the game inside by inserting the device into the earphone plug of a smartphone.

Tokyo-based Sirok is in charge of app development while Beatrobo of San Francisco, with its wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan, is charged with hardware development. Apart from this, Beatrobo also develops and sells an instant media gadget using the earphone plug called PlugAir, which adopts the same technologies as those in Picocassette.

See also:

The two firms have tied up with video game developers who had created famous titles in the past and will provide such games through the Picocassette device. Sirok will engage in development of Picocassette as a new challenge, although it is to continue app developments for businesses as its core business. Meanwhile Beatrobo aims to nurture this into its mainline business.

hiroshi-asaeda-takahiro-ishiyama
From the left: Beatrobo CEO Hiroshi Asaeda, Sirok CCO Takahiro Ishiyama

Sirok CCO Takahiro Ishiyama comments:

Once license management of a game has been permitted, Sirok optimizes the property for playing with smartphones. By adopting touch operation or swiping, we can fine tune the product offerings from the game feature perspective. Development of original games is also planned for the future.

While some “old favorite” game remakes for smartphones tend to be avoided by game geeks due to differences in the operation feel, their optimization may reduce mismatches in platform porting.

Beatrobo CEO Hiroshi Asaeda outlines the vision of Picocassette:

To provide games as smartphone apps, we need to have users search them from among a million titles on App Store or Google Play. Being limited to this market alone is too restrictive. Picocassette enables game sales at a variety of locations. It can also be used as a premium for making a certain purchase so the purchasers for play it on a trial basis. I foresee future use of Picocassette as a sales promotion tool too.

Asaeda added that it would be interesting if games within Picocassette can be sold at events like Comiket (“flea markets” for comics buffs in Japan); it could possibly be handled like CD-Rs of yore.

Today, when just a smartphone and apps are needed to play games, the Picocassette approach of aiming to develop a game software device may appear irrational. Yet, the goal set by Asaeda and Ishiyama appears to be the redesign of the “game purchase” experience itself. Godspeed!

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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Japan’s push notification analytics tool Growth Push to go global

Junya Mori Junya Mori
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This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Japanese startup Sirok has introduced a series of growth hacking tools for mobile developers, comprising of user behavior video recording tool Growth Replay, user retention rate improvement tool Growth Point, and push notification analytics tool Growth Push. The company announced yesterday that it will start the global expansion of Growth Push and extend its freemium limit in notification settings. The service allows users to conduct A/B testing to measure user responses by implementing their SDK. The setup is free, and there is no monthly fee for the first 50,000 notification testings. With the increased limit, a user will be able to test up to 1 million notification testings for free, so the company expects more individual developers to try the service in their app improvement efforts. Since its launch in August 2013, Growth Push has been adopted by about 1,700 apps and used for testing over 50 million notification settings to date. Notable apps that use the service include major gaming titles Brave Frontier and Girl Friend Beta. Sirok will add English, Korean, and Chinese interfaces to the testing platform. Sirok CEO Yuta Iizuka said the firm will sell…

growth-push

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.

Japanese startup Sirok has introduced a series of growth hacking tools for mobile developers, comprising of user behavior video recording tool Growth Replay, user retention rate improvement tool Growth Point, and push notification analytics tool Growth Push.

The company announced yesterday that it will start the global expansion of Growth Push and extend its freemium limit in notification settings. The service allows users to conduct A/B testing to measure user responses by implementing their SDK. The setup is free, and there is no monthly fee for the first 50,000 notification testings. With the increased limit, a user will be able to test up to 1 million notification testings for free, so the company expects more individual developers to try the service in their app improvement efforts.

Since its launch in August 2013, Growth Push has been adopted by about 1,700 apps and used for testing over 50 million notification settings to date. Notable apps that use the service include major gaming titles Brave Frontier and Girl Friend Beta.

Sirok will add English, Korean, and Chinese interfaces to the testing platform. Sirok CEO Yuta Iizuka said the firm will sell the service globally:

In this space, there are many SaaS-based services, which were developed by European companies but are widely used in the US market. There’s huge potential out there because push notifications are common in any country.

I think many B2B services are shifting to B2C models, where even B2B services are adopting stylish user interfaces like typical consumer-focused apps. I think our service can compete with other testing platforms so we’d like to differentiate from them by focusing on better designs.

Sirok wants to target the US and Korean markets first, and expects to serve 500 million mobile devices having apps that have been tested with the Growth Push platform.

Furthermore, the company plans to consolidate their three different growth hacking tools in the future. Using a single unified SDK, it will allow users to manage various app improvement tactics from notification testings to marketing insights.

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Japan’s Sirok unveils video recording tool to let developers analyze user behavior

Junya Mori Junya Mori
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See the original story in Japanese. CyberAgent subsidiary Sirok, the startup behind the photo app My365 and AB testing service Growth Push, today unveiled a new growth hack tool that enables developers to record video of smartphone user behavior. It’s called Growth Replay. Developed for user testing, for the purpose of the tool is mainly acquiring qualitative rather than quantitative data. By integrating their SDK with your app, you can record videos of how your users behave in that app. Typical analytics tools let you to learn where many users quit. But if you use those tools in combination with Growth Replay, it lets you understand out how users typically quit at that point. The recorded videos can be reviewed using a convenient dashboard, shown below. You can record a 15-minute video for every observed session and store about 100 videos max for an account. According to the company, they are planning to add more features such as video recording on a web browser and heat map. Pricing is not disclosed but available upon request. Sirok plans to introduce more services in this space in the future, so expect to see more services from them later on.

Growth-Replay

See the original story in Japanese.

CyberAgent subsidiary Sirok, the startup behind the photo app My365 and AB testing service Growth Push, today unveiled a new growth hack tool that enables developers to record video of smartphone user behavior. It’s called Growth Replay.

Developed for user testing, for the purpose of the tool is mainly acquiring qualitative rather than quantitative data. By integrating their SDK with your app, you can record videos of how your users behave in that app.

Typical analytics tools let you to learn where many users quit. But if you use those tools in combination with Growth Replay, it lets you understand out how users typically quit at that point.

The recorded videos can be reviewed using a convenient dashboard, shown below. You can record a 15-minute video for every observed session and store about 100 videos max for an account. According to the company, they are planning to add more features such as video recording on a web browser and heat map. Pricing is not disclosed but available upon request.

Sirok plans to introduce more services in this space in the future, so expect to see more services from them later on.

growthreplay_dashboard

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CyberAgent subsidiary Sirok rolls out mobile debugging solution

Takeshi Hirano Takeshi Hirano
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See the original story in Japanese. At B Dash Camp earlier this week, Kaizen Platform, the Tokyo-based startup behind A/B testing tool PlanBCD, won the top prize. But interestingly, there are a number of other development tools that are popping up here in Japan. Testing tool Fello, for example, has exceeded 100 corporate users in its first month. And yesterday, another Japanese startup gave us something new as well. Tokyo-based Sirok, the CyberAgent subsidiary behind camera app My365, introduced a comprehensive service package that helps developers debug their mobile apps. It is called Growth Debug. The new service is a complementary product positioned along side Growth Push, a testing tool focused on gaining user retention which they introduced back in August. Fierce competition Sirok CEO Yuto Mukaiyama explains: I thought the market was sort of ‘Blue Ocean’, but seems like it’s turning red [1]. But a surge in this market is something worth appreciating though. When the testing tool was launched back in August, he wanted to see it used by 1,000 apps, delivering 10 million testing notifications in three months. So how are they doing now? Mukaiyama responded: For the target about the number of apps using our service,…

growth-debug

See the original story in Japanese.

At B Dash Camp earlier this week, Kaizen Platform, the Tokyo-based startup behind A/B testing tool PlanBCD, won the top prize. But interestingly, there are a number of other development tools that are popping up here in Japan. Testing tool Fello, for example, has exceeded 100 corporate users in its first month.

And yesterday, another Japanese startup gave us something new as well. Tokyo-based Sirok, the CyberAgent subsidiary behind camera app My365, introduced a comprehensive service package that helps developers debug their mobile apps. It is called Growth Debug.

The new service is a complementary product positioned along side Growth Push, a testing tool focused on gaining user retention which they introduced back in August.

Fierce competition

Sirok CEO Yuto Mukaiyama explains:

I thought the market was sort of ‘Blue Ocean’, but seems like it’s turning red [1]. But a surge in this market is something worth appreciating though.

When the testing tool was launched back in August, he wanted to see it used by 1,000 apps, delivering 10 million testing notifications in three months. So how are they doing now? Mukaiyama responded:

For the target about the number of apps using our service, we’re still struggling. But we’ll probably be able to surpass 10 million notifications pretty soon. We don’t yet provide our service to foreign developers though. In terms of demographics, many of our users are social gaming developers, and casual gaming and community apps follow.

The company also expects to make see the platform used by all 200 Ameba mobile apps (iOS / Android) from CyberAgent, which they expect to account for 20% of their three-month target.

He also explained a little how how their platform can contribute to a better user retention rate:

We are using the platform to improve user retention on our own My365 app, and it is gaining 1.2 to 1.5 times in the number of daily active users on average.

The problem of debugging mobile apps

growthdebug_screenshot

Growth Debug, their new service, provides developers with improvements in quality and efficiency by taking a different approach.

The company not only gives you the tools, but also provides personnel who can understand how to eliminate bugs.

Unlike conventional tools like Excel, when you find a bug in your app you can record and manage it via an online tool. This lets you submit an issue to management tools such as JIRA and Redmine, including a screen capture, a handset terminal ID, and a log. Mukaiyama explains how it differes from conventional debugging solutions:

We used to create a script to automate text inputs in testing a sign-up process in an app. But this doesn’t work at all on mobile apps where an enormous number of minor adjustments are usually implemented. As a result, these developers are forced to input texts manually when testing.

Finding bugs and extracting testing cases is very important, but the quality of this process depends on who is involved. An engineer many need to ask a debugger to find clarify some meaning in a list of bugs or testing cases. For social gaming developers, a bug related to in-app purchases may have a great impact on how much money you can make. That’s why we developed a tool that allows you to easily submit a defect as soon as you find it by connecting a desktop and a smartphone device.

Mukaiyama explains their another advantage they have is their strong network of debuggers:

Our parent company CyberAgent has developed a number of apps, and their experience will help our users debug more efficiently. We aim to help developers improve their apps with a combination of a tool and professionals.

In contrast with PlanBCD, their aforementioned competitor which uses crowdsourced workers to help users improve user experience, Sirok has partnered with about ten temporary employment agencies and ask them to send the company staffers when needed.

When they used their debugging package to improving some Ameba mobile apps, debugging time was shortened by about 30%.

    1. We recently wrote about Query Eye as our readers may recall.↩

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Japanese startup offers A/B testing for mobile push notifications

Takeshi Hirano Takeshi Hirano
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See the original story in Japanese. CyberAgent subsidiary Sirok, the startup behind mobile photo app My365, announced yesterday that it has launched a tool for app developers to analyze user responses to push notifications. The service is called Growth Push, and allows you to conduct an A/B testing to measure user responses by implementing their SDK. The setup is free, and there is no monthly fee required for the first 50,000 notification testings. It is currently available (in Japanese) for iOS, but it will be coming to Android soon. This kind of growth hacking tool typically helps marketers increase their user base. In this space we’ve already seen AppSocially, which is now under the 500 Startups umbrella. We heard from the Sirok’s COO Yuto Mukoyama about their expectations for this tool. We learned that app developers need this kind of tool through our experience managing our apps My365 and Pipul (an avatar-based RPG). Developers need to focus on how they can efficiently retain users. Conventional web services typically have an e-mail notification feature, and a push notification is [the mobile] equivalent to that, and it is important in terms of keep users engaged in this mobile era. The startup tested…

growth-push

See the original story in Japanese.

CyberAgent subsidiary Sirok, the startup behind mobile photo app My365, announced yesterday that it has launched a tool for app developers to analyze user responses to push notifications. The service is called Growth Push, and allows you to conduct an A/B testing to measure user responses by implementing their SDK.

The setup is free, and there is no monthly fee required for the first 50,000 notification testings. It is currently available (in Japanese) for iOS, but it will be coming to Android soon.

This kind of growth hacking tool typically helps marketers increase their user base. In this space we’ve already seen AppSocially, which is now under the 500 Startups umbrella.

We heard from the Sirok’s COO Yuto Mukoyama about their expectations for this tool.

We learned that app developers need this kind of tool through our experience managing our apps My365 and Pipul (an avatar-based RPG). Developers need to focus on how they can efficiently retain users. Conventional web services typically have an e-mail notification feature, and a push notification is [the mobile] equivalent to that, and it is important in terms of keep users engaged in this mobile era.

The startup tested this tool trying to improve the app launch rate of their game Pipul, and they confirmed that it had a positive impact. It lets you to conduct A/B testing to show different messages to both free users and to paying users. Mukoyama adds:

You can refine your app based on A/B test results and your measurement of the app launch rate or conversion rate. The tool primarily targets startups developing iOS-based gaming apps and community services. I believe we can help them improve user retention based on analytics.

Sirok was founded last year by many student entrepreneurs, and they went on to became a subsidiary of CyberAgent. The internet company helped them learn how to market app services, since the internet company has much experience launching its own apps in the past. Mukoyama elaborated on how his team foresees working with CyberAgent.

Ameba (CyberAgent’s blogging and virtual world platform) has released more than a few games, many with several million downloads. We expect to start acquiring users with this base. We’re aiming to have 1,000 apps using the tool worldwide in three months, sending out about 100 million notifications for their testings.

To date, photo app My365 has seen three million downloads, at a pace of about new 3,000 users a day. Their daily active users total reached 60,000 and is still rising.

growthpush_analysis

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