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09.10.2012
Even though Japan has a long history of being a leader in cutting edge technology, there are some factors that make Japan a particularly difficult environment for most fledgling companies in the social media and the technology sectors. Although this has been especially true in the last decade, many experts believe that cloud technology and the many social media breakthroughs in recent years could allow Japan to regain its leadership in innovation in the technology market.
Japan has been looking towards Silicon Valley for inspiration
Some of the most successful programs in recent years have involved learning from Silicon Valley in order to enable a better environment for tech start-ups in Japan. While the talent and infrastructure are undoubtedly all available in Japan today, there is a way of thinking that may require some getting used to in order to motivate entrepreneurs and innovators in this difficult market. Some of the most important concepts that Japanese social media and tech companies will need to embrace if they want to improve their innovation in the next few years include better design thinking, more agile development, a consumer-focused product design approach, and mastering the art of prototyping. Of course, learning to pitch ideas to venture capitalists and investors is also an essential part of any start-up.
Venture capital and Japan
One of the factors that start-ups in Japan will need to focus on is gaining access to venture capital. This is a specific challenge to Japan because, compared to other countries (such as the United States,) Japan has a lower proportion of venture capital. In fact, the conservatism of Japanese venture capitalists contrasted with the innovative ideas coming out of some of the most exciting young start-ups in this country make Japan a very attractive option for venture capitalists and investors from the rest of the world. Due to the lack of competition, there are many promising young companies with great ideas that require financial backing today. Many people have agreed that one of the reasons why Japanese start-ups in the tech sector tend to struggle is because of the need for a relationship that is the backbone of Silicon Valley: mentorship. Successful tech entrepreneurs in the West will often want to share their experience with the new generation in the form of a mentor-protege relationship. Unfortunately, this is still a relatively new concept in Japan.
The winning formula for a successful start-up social media or tech company in Japan
The fact is that funding and mentorship should be integrated for best results. Because of that, one of the keys to starting up a successful company in Japan in the technology sector today is finding financial backing and mentors from international sources. While recent years have seen a rise of these in Japan, there is still more that can be done to foster a more competitive, propitious environment for tech start-ups in Japan, particularly in the social media sector, where the Japanese market is among the richest and most lucrative in the world.
Another important challenge for fostering a healthy environment for innovation in Japan will also be building a community. Finding a way for tech entrepreneurs to communicate, support, and work together will be one of the most important ways of taking the Japanese tech sector to the next level. After all, innovation seldom happens in a vacuum. A complicated ecosystem is necessary in order to foster the necessary conditions for fresh new ideas and start-up companies willing to bring new ideas to the market. This is especially true in areas like cloud computing and social media, where innovation is measured in days and weeks due to the fast-moving nature of these markets.
Apart from mentorship, it will also be necessary to finding ways to take products that are highly localized for Japanese social media idiosyncrasies and translating these to the worldwide market. After all, globalization has always been one of the most important characteristics for any successful tech enterprise. While we’ve seen that this can be successfully applied to sectors such as game development, there are still many areas in social media where finding ways to create worldwide appeal have not been found.
Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.
About the Guest Author:
Nida Rasheed is a freelance writer and owner of an outsourcing company, Nida often finds herself wanting to write about the subjects that are closest to her heart. She lives in Islamabad, Pakistan and can be found on Twitter @nidarasheed.
09.9.2012
A start-up firm is “tabula rasa” by nature and one of its major advantages is the possibility for great opportunities. Though well-established in our home court (country – Japan), we still count ourselves as newbies when it comes to markets outside of Japan. Resources are ready, support is already there, now our primary aim is to find the market that will greatly benefit from our services.
Learning from Japan’s Gaming Giants
One of Japan’s undeniably lucrative industries is the social gaming market; in the global gaming scene, Japan has captured a 10% share amounting to $6.5B. Web, mobile and social gaming independent consultant, Dr. Serkan Toto imparts on an informative presentation the reasons why there is a huge social gaming presence in Japan. Aside from the country having a 99% 3G penetration, platforms such as Gree and Mobage are pre-installed in handsets and ease of payment is prioritized – these are all you need to give good customer experience.
The US Gaming Scene – Where are they now?
Not far behind is the US social gaming market. According to the Casual Games Report 2012, 77.9 M Americans will play social games in 2012, a 20 M increase from 2010′s 57M.
There is, however, the question of reconciling the two nations in terms of the gaming industry. You would notice that there is little to no traction between the two, and here is what we found out about the “gaming world’s backstage” -
US-based game developers prefer directly selling their games to the English-speaking market; to cover ground, they sell the rights to their games to a Japanese party instead. This Japanese firm will then be the one to take care of localization (which could take 2 weeks to 2 months) and marketing of the game. This is, however, very costly as reportedly, it would cost approximately $300,000 to buy the rights to a single game title. On top of that, royalties need to be paid.
This is now the reason why Japanese publishers prefer to purchase rights to games from China and Korea, which are less expensive and maybe more appealing to the Japanese market; suffice to say that the opportunities of US game developers to gaining profitability from the Japanese market remains untapped. In the same way, perhaps the Japanese market is not provided with enough opportunities to full appreciate US-developed games.
On a wider scale, it is not only the Japanese market that the US game developers can try to penetrate, there is a bigger coverage for their market. Studies say that Asia-Pacific countries are highly influenced by social media.
It is a challenge if you come to think of it, but it will be quite the journey. There are indeed obstacles that are not easy to overcome but with the right medium, proper communication, and of course, stable infrastructure, a US game developer can easily get through to the Japanese gaming market.
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09.9.2012
In recent posts on this blog, we have been putting emphasis on the projected growth of the gaming industry. Supporting these claims are recent reports such as the Cloud Gaming Report 2012, which highlights the total global games software sales of $24 Billion in 2012 and is expected to increase to $41 Billion in 2017.
Evolution of Application Development
Also quite notable is the proliferation of native applications (applications running on iOS, Android) use as against web applications (social apps), which more or less has a usage ratio of 70:30. Native applications are usually developed in platforms led by Gree, Mobage and Mixi. There are currently almost 1.3 million mobile apps in the app stores of Apple and Android combined; and just recently, Facebook announced that it has made its native app for iOS. This, alone, shows that the game market is almost totally dominated by social apps and undeniably, marketplaces like Google Play and the App Store, which provision native apps have been significantly growing their sales.
No Technology is Without Challenges
There are of course, a few bumps on the road. In the application development industry, winners and losers are clearly distinguished, where winners are limited to SAP – having the capital, promotion capabilities, and IP (character rights). Having said this, those players that are most prevalent enjoy the highest royalties estimated at about 40%, while the not-so-popular ones are getting weaker. There are other issues taken into consideration like:
A Promising Future
Nonetheless, the future seems bright for the mobile app industry. One major identifier is SAP’s shift from major platforms to native apps. Other future trends seen are:
Investment and development might appear costly, but in the long run might be worth every penny. When you look at advantages of native applications like its functionality, capabilities and the potential of overwhelming market growth (ergo profitability), it is no question that the mobile app market is heading towards this direction.
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09.7.2012
The Japanese mobile application market is the one to beat for developers who would like to find success in their field of business. Since Japan holds one of the top-grossing shares in mobile device consumption as well as application downloads, developers from any part of the world see this leading market with colossal potential when it comes to huge returns in investment.
For years, Western mobile companies have been trying to penetrate this inward and resistant market because they know how explosive it can get if they do indeed break through the barriers of Japan. The advanced infrastructure in Japan allowed it to produce its own brand of mobile phones and applications that isolated it from the rest of the world. Japanese mobile corporations knew that they could keep the local market happy and restricted with localized applications that catch the attention of users who are more than willing to pay for what they enjoy and benefit from.
It seemed like the Japanese app market was already content with this existing setup. However, global developers did not intend to ever stop as they knew that one day, they would eventually crack this closed system of mobile app fanatics. When smartphones started to rise in the scene with its highly fast and efficient features, the Japanese market began to take notice and responded very well to this popularly used phone in the world. They began to enjoy the diversity and high level of entertainment found in smartphone applications. While Android phones already were widely patronized by the Japanese market, Apple developers finally experienced ultimate success with the iPhone 4S that seems to overtake the Japanese consumer market today.
One of the most successful Apple applications that can be downloaded in iTunes is Sekai Camera produced by Tonchidot Corporation. Instead of the typical taking of still pictures with background or border designs, Sekai Camera found a way to adapt the quirkiness of the local market by enhancing the features of augmented reality in its mobile application. Sekai Camera allows its user to take photos wherever they are and add air tags to express whatever they want to say about the photo. Other users can view these posts if they are in the same location or these can be shared in Facebook or Twitter if they want to.
Augmented reality applications have always been close to the hearts of the Japanese people. They have always supported some type of reality-based games or applications whether virtual or in this case augmented. By featuring real-time applications which are based on the actual environment, reality is merely enhanced with graphics or texts which the user can control for their own enjoyment. Another popular app from Apple is the iButterfly which has caught the attention of Japanese iPhone users with its magnificent graphics. Users can add these beautiful 3D butterflies to their actual gardens or wherever they are.
Countering the success of Apple applications, Android users find solace in Google Play, which features different kinds of applications from e-books, movies, music and more.
Google Play uses cloud services and anyone can access this application thru the Internet from their phones. The amazing benefit from Google Play is that all types of applications are already collected in one place. You won’t have to scour several stores to find what you are looking for, hence, it saves on time and effort. By utilizing the cloud, anyone can enjoy this service wherever they may be as long as they have their android phones or tablets and as long as there is a Wi-Fi connection. There is increased flexibility and efficiency when applications are accessed on the cloud since users won’t have to use up all their phone memory or battery in downloading. The Internet allows applications to store the needed information on the cloud instead of in the actual device.
Most app developers who thrive in Japan can attribute their success to localizing their product to please the specific desires of this elusive market. It is highly crucial to localize the application to suit the particular whims and needs of the consumers. More than translating the language, app developers have to study this resistant market or partner with local developers who already have a clear idea of what could click with Japanese mobile users.
Our articles are written to provide you with tools and information to meet your IT and cloud solution needs. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.
About the Guest Author:
Rodolfo Lentejas, Jr. is a fulltime freelance writer based in Toronto. He is the founder of the PostSckrippt, a growing online writing business dedicated to producing top quality, original and fresh content. To know more about him, please visit www.postsckrippt.ca. Like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest.