Japan’s Nikkei reported earlier this morning that Japanese telco KDDI will partner with 11 internet companies to provide the former company’s subscribers with an integrated portal menu. By integrating a user base of 40 million monthly visitors in total using services provided by these companies, KDDI wants to compete against Yahoo Japan which has one of the largest user bases in the Japanese internet industry.
The article says that partnering companies include Weathernews, iStyle (a company behind cosmetics buzz site @Cosme), and Navitime Japan (transit navigation and updates), AppBroadcast (a company behind game media site GameGift, Natasha (a company behind j-pop culture site Natalie, acquired by KDDI in August), Hatena (social bookmark service), and Luxa (funraised from KDDI in October last year). ...
In a series of these partnering efforts, KDDI also announced that it has acquired Nanapi (lifehack site operator, we learned that it has been acquired for about $72.6 million through our recent interview.) and BitSeller (mobile app developer). Furthermore, KDDI said it has invested in internet startups like Jorte (calendar app developer) and Vasily (a company behind fashion coordination app iQON)The total amount of these investments is worth 12 billion yen (about $113 million). ...
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The Bridge 10/16/2014 [en]
memo
- Combining acquisition, minority investment, and partnership, KDDI seems to be trying to do un-heard of scale of experiment to create an ecosystem for mobile apps. It is really interesting how the concept will bring value to the telco and evolve in the near future.
Softbank, Japan’s robot-loving telco, today announced a business tie-up with Tokyo-based ad tech startup Geniee. Starting next month, Softbank will launch a supply-side advertising platform (SSP), in collaboration with Geniee, which the wireless carrier hopes will give a boost to its internet advertising business. As part of the deal, Softbank will purchase a minority stake in Geniee that accounts for 32.9 percent of the startup’s outstanding shares.
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Geniee’s RTB network facilitates 20 to 30 billion impressions per month – by processing a mind-boggling one trillion monthly bid requests. ...
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Tech In Asia 10/14/2014 [en]
memo
- Existing investors who have invested from 2011 to 2013 include Gree Ventures, Yahoo Japan, and Opt, an online ad agency. Geniee seems to have a clear strategy to have a capital alliance with Internet related companies who could bring clear business synergy.
- http://en.geniee.co.jp/
Quan, a Tokyo-based messaging app developer that makes games and stickers for a variety of popular chat apps, announced the closure of its series A round earlier today. The funding – rumored to be in the millions of dollars – comes from existing benefactors Daiwa Corporate Investment and East Ventures, who are also joined by Dentsu Digital Holdings, IMJ Investment Partners, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, and Senshu Ikeda Capital. ...
Mizuno says that Quan’s stickers have been downloaded more than 100 million times. Between its apps and localized games, the startup has seen more than 15 million downloads. ...
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Tech In Asia 10/20/2014 [en]
memo
- LINE opens sticker shops for third party developers. And, it is one of the important revenue source for LINE. For other chat apps or SNS apps, stickers will become more important too. Quan has already been well positioned in the competition in not only Japan but also Thailand. Since the business may not be easy to differentiate, speed to enter into other South East Asian market would be key for the startup.
- http://quan-inc.jp/
Ietty is a Japanese startup that provides an alternative to conventional house hunting. The startup announced today that it has fundraised about 200 million yen ($1.86 million) from YJ Capital and Incubate Fund. Coinciding with this, YJ Capital CEO Takao Ozawa and Incubate Fund partner Keisuke Wada will join the management board of the company. ...
When a user submits criteria for a home and a preferred date to visit candidates on the platform, they will receive a selection of property options from real-estate agencies. A user who then visits a property will receive a reward of 1,000 yen ($9.30) from the platform. ...
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The Bridge 10/20/2014 [en]
memo
- Ietty raised around US$ 500k in October 2013 from mixi's VC arm, I Mercury. It is interesting to see how the startup can compete in the crowded house search services.
- https://ietty.me/
SpaceMarket, a Japanese startup which connects users and open spaces, has just confirmed to Tech in Asia that it has raised JPY 100 million (US$930,000) in its first funding round.
The new cash comes from CyberAgent Ventures and Mizuho Capital, two familiar names in Japan’s startup ecosystem. The company will use the funds to strengthen its development and sales corps while expanding the service. ...
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Tech In Asia 10/14/2014 [en]
memo
- The raised amount is not so large considering recent active situation of venture investment in general and the fact that the startup have won some prizes at pitch competitions. The main usage seems events such as parties or seminars. Unique venues are listed such as a sail boat or Blue Note Tokyo. It is a kind of AirBnB for event venues. One of the key point for the startups may be how to add extra value such as AirBnB provides borrowers with communication and networking opportunity with lenders.
- https://spacemarket.jp/
Tokyo-based Papelook, the company behind a photo collage app under the same name, announced today that it has raised 120 million yen (or $1.12 million) from Japanese investment firm Jafco.
Since its launch of an iOS app in 2011 followed by an Android version in march of 2013, the company has acquired 13 million downloads in total to date worldwide. ...
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The Bridge 10/14/2014 [en]
memo
- Photo apps are no more hot topic like a few years ago, however Papelook has been steadily growing to reach such a large number of users. As written in the article, Papelook will try to monetize the user base by implementing an online printing service.
- http://www.papelook.co.jp/
Japanese “owned media” marketing company Somewrite fundraised 120 million yen (about $1.1 million) from Gree Ventures and other undisclosed investors.
In May of 2013, Somewrite won the fifth batch of Incubate Camp, an intensive two-day business development program for entrepreneurs organized by Japan’s Incubate Fund. In July of 2014, the company announced a set of comprehensive “owned media” marketing services called Somewrite Networks, which provides content marketing, owned media distribution, and native advertising platform services.
Somewrite Ad, the company’s native advertising network platform, picks up advertorial articles from owned media sites and distributes them to other partnering news media sites as a native ad so that these articles match the form with other regular articles in which they are placed. The platform has a tracking engine which learns the preference of users in real time. ...
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The Bridge 10/10/2014 [en]
memo
- Native ad is becoming important for mobile apps like social media or news curation apps. Somewrite Ad seems to have very interesting feature for companies having owned media.
- http://somewrite.jp/
