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It's so rare to hear about Japanese startups - either becoming successful within Japan or outside. Are other mature East Asian countries going through a similar

It's so rare to hear about Japanese startups - either becoming successful within Japan or outside. Are other mature East Asian countries going through a similar phase?

throwaway2037 6y ago
Are you unfamiliar with Rakuten? It's like Amazon for Japan. Some people might also consider Softbank (the mobile phone division) and SBI Securities (its securities division, under 'Strategic Business Innovator Group'). How about Line? It's the biggest mobile chat app in Japan. Other people can comment more on this one: The number of small start-up game studios must be astonishing. Japan seems to have an endless appetite for video games! For publishing, they will team-up with a major, like Sony.
- istanfield 6y ago
  I work at Rakuten and my perception is that they do not really value engineering much. It is just a cost to be minimized.
graderjs 6y ago
Korea has many startups. There's rumors of a startup scene in China. /S Greater China has lots: HK (tho not a country in itself, but a special region of China) has some. Republic of China Taiwan has lots. Singapore has a huge amount. There's also a lot of people doing more "craft based" or "small business" startups in all those areas, such as cafes, organic or urban farms, manufacturing of various kinds. Tho that is not the same as VC funded tech startups, some of these things do go that way. There's lots of delivery and gig economy startups. Lots of payment startups. Much of the innovation in social and payment that occurred in the last 6 years has been lifted out of East Asia and copied by startups everywhere. A good resource for "out of the Anglosaxon / SV" bubble is TechInAsia. https://www.techinasia.com/ https://www.techinasia.com/ The interesting thing about reading startup perspectives in Asia, is they are very aware of what happens in SV. An awareness that doesn't, unless you are an analyst at one of the big international VCs, go both ways. Also interesting to note the culture in these places around entrepreneurship, it's very normal for people to consider having their own business. HK has one of the highest "company per capita" rates in the world, tho surely some of that is due to its special economic statuses. I don't know as much about other East Asian cultures, but ethnic Chinese culture is very "entrepreneurial", as in, many people have shops and businesses of various kinds. At least to me it seems to be an acceptable or desirable thing to do at a higher rate than the traditional Anglosaxon culture I also spent a lot of time in.
- presentation 6y ago
  My impression in Japan is that startups have traditionally considered incredibly risky and is a liability in getting loans and future job prospects with established companies - but that’s also changing as the generations shift.
  - graderjs 6y ago
    I actually don't know that much about Japan. It's the one place I didn't talk about in East Asia as you can see. That's not entirely true, I guess there's other countries in East Asia: let's not forget Mongolia, and Tibet and Northern Korea. I bet there'd be lots of startups in Mongolia tho I have no idea. Tibet have no idea, tho would love to go. NK I guess there would not be so much because I assume the government would control them, but honestly, I have zero idea right now about startups there. Interesting to know more about startups in Japan. Apart from LINE/Naver (which I guess is in fact Korean), that Japanese clothing startup (the guy is Elon's friend and will go to space), the older one like Softbank, and many cafes and small (for lack of better word, not sure it applies in Japan), but, "hipster" businesses (things like fashion boutiques, designer household goods and design agencies) I have no idea about startups in Japan, as you can probably tell. Would love to know more.
    - Clewza313 6y ago
      ...you do realize Tibet has been a part of China since 1950, yes?
      - graderjs 6y ago
        I didn't!
    - fomine3 6y ago
      Preferred Networks and Treasure Data is famous tech startup that shares people from similar origin. TD was started at SV and was finally acquired by Arm (but virtually by SoftBank). There are not a few other startups (IPO'd e.g. Balmuda, MoneyForward, Mercari, ZOZO) but they tend to only available locally.
mmhsieh 6y ago
I spent extensive time there. The way a Japanese investor explained it to me is that they don't really need Uber because the public transportation is so good, and they don't really need Doordash because any combini two minutes' walk away can provide a good meal to you any time of day or night. Their startups are of a different nature.
- Clewza313 6y ago
  The Japanese will also explain to you that they can't digest bread because their intestines are longer or import skis because Japanese snow is different. The real reason Uber hasn't taken off in Japan is that restrictive legislation and a large taxi lobby (which is also responsible for a near-total lack of public transport at night) means UberX is impossible. DoorDash was not in Japan because local player Demae and Uber beat them to the punch, but the market is growing fast and they're joining the fray.
  - asiachick 6y ago
    I agree with your point about doordash. I see Uber Eats everywhere. I disagree about Uber in general. At least in major cities in most places you'll get a taxi much faster than you'd get an Uber and abundant public transportation also reduces the need.
busterarm 6y ago
I met a pair of Japanese startups that operate out of New York while I was working out of some WeWorks there. When I say Japanese startups: their market was Japan, their employees were all Japanese and they kept Japanese business hours. I never got a good reason why they were in NY.
golemiprague 6y ago
There are not too many start ups but they seems to have a lot of small companies working under an umbrella of a bigger company. It is a different arrangement in which the wealth is distributed as well as the management graph, I am not sure it is worst than the American system where one Bezos or Zuckerberg eat everybody's lunch. Japan just has its own ways, it is like taking a mind altering drug, how reality could be if certain things were tweeked differently.
selimthegrim 6y ago
The bakery AI company applying its solutions to cancer made the New Yorker recently.

It's so rare to hear about Japanese startups - either becoming successful within Japan or outside. Are other mature East Asian countries going through a similar phase?

throwaway2037 6y ago

Are you unfamiliar with Rakuten? It's like Amazon for Japan. Some people might also consider Softbank (the mobile phone division) and SBI Securities (its securities division, under 'Strategic Business Innovator Group'). How about Line? It's the biggest mobile chat app in Japan. Other people can comment more on this one: The number of small start-up game studios must be astonishing. Japan seems to have an endless appetite for video games! For publishing, they will team-up with a major, like Sony.

istanfield 6y ago
I work at Rakuten and my perception is that they do not really value engineering much. It is just a cost to be minimized.

graderjs 6y ago

Korea has many startups. There's rumors of a startup scene in China. /S Greater China has lots: HK (tho not a country in itself, but a special region of China) has some. Republic of China Taiwan has lots. Singapore has a huge amount. There's also a lot of people doing more "craft based" or "small business" startups in all those areas, such as cafes, organic or urban farms, manufacturing of various kinds. Tho that is not the same as VC funded tech startups, some of these things do go that way. There's lots of delivery and gig economy startups. Lots of payment startups. Much of the innovation in social and payment that occurred in the last 6 years has been lifted out of East Asia and copied by startups everywhere. A good resource for "out of the Anglosaxon / SV" bubble is TechInAsia. https://www.techinasia.com/ https://www.techinasia.com/ The interesting thing about reading startup perspectives in Asia, is they are very aware of what happens in SV. An awareness that doesn't, unless you are an analyst at one of the big international VCs, go both ways. Also interesting to note the culture in these places around entrepreneurship, it's very normal for people to consider having their own business. HK has one of the highest "company per capita" rates in the world, tho surely some of that is due to its special economic statuses. I don't know as much about other East Asian cultures, but ethnic Chinese culture is very "entrepreneurial", as in, many people have shops and businesses of various kinds. At least to me it seems to be an acceptable or desirable thing to do at a higher rate than the traditional Anglosaxon culture I also spent a lot of time in.

presentation 6y ago
My impression in Japan is that startups have traditionally considered incredibly risky and is a liability in getting loans and future job prospects with established companies - but that’s also changing as the generations shift.
- graderjs 6y ago
  I actually don't know that much about Japan. It's the one place I didn't talk about in East Asia as you can see. That's not entirely true, I guess there's other countries in East Asia: let's not forget Mongolia, and Tibet and Northern Korea. I bet there'd be lots of startups in Mongolia tho I have no idea. Tibet have no idea, tho would love to go. NK I guess there would not be so much because I assume the government would control them, but honestly, I have zero idea right now about startups there. Interesting to know more about startups in Japan. Apart from LINE/Naver (which I guess is in fact Korean), that Japanese clothing startup (the guy is Elon's friend and will go to space), the older one like Softbank, and many cafes and small (for lack of better word, not sure it applies in Japan), but, "hipster" businesses (things like fashion boutiques, designer household goods and design agencies) I have no idea about startups in Japan, as you can probably tell. Would love to know more.
  - Clewza313 6y ago
    ...you do realize Tibet has been a part of China since 1950, yes?
    - graderjs 6y ago
      I didn't!
  - fomine3 6y ago
    Preferred Networks and Treasure Data is famous tech startup that shares people from similar origin. TD was started at SV and was finally acquired by Arm (but virtually by SoftBank). There are not a few other startups (IPO'd e.g. Balmuda, MoneyForward, Mercari, ZOZO) but they tend to only available locally.

mmhsieh 6y ago

I spent extensive time there. The way a Japanese investor explained it to me is that they don't really need Uber because the public transportation is so good, and they don't really need Doordash because any combini two minutes' walk away can provide a good meal to you any time of day or night. Their startups are of a different nature.

Clewza313 6y ago
The Japanese will also explain to you that they can't digest bread because their intestines are longer or import skis because Japanese snow is different. The real reason Uber hasn't taken off in Japan is that restrictive legislation and a large taxi lobby (which is also responsible for a near-total lack of public transport at night) means UberX is impossible. DoorDash was not in Japan because local player Demae and Uber beat them to the punch, but the market is growing fast and they're joining the fray.
- asiachick 6y ago
  I agree with your point about doordash. I see Uber Eats everywhere. I disagree about Uber in general. At least in major cities in most places you'll get a taxi much faster than you'd get an Uber and abundant public transportation also reduces the need.

busterarm 6y ago

I met a pair of Japanese startups that operate out of New York while I was working out of some WeWorks there. When I say Japanese startups: their market was Japan, their employees were all Japanese and they kept Japanese business hours. I never got a good reason why they were in NY.

golemiprague 6y ago

There are not too many start ups but they seems to have a lot of small companies working under an umbrella of a bigger company. It is a different arrangement in which the wealth is distributed as well as the management graph, I am not sure it is worst than the American system where one Bezos or Zuckerberg eat everybody's lunch. Japan just has its own ways, it is like taking a mind altering drug, how reality could be if certain things were tweeked differently.

selimthegrim 6y ago

The bakery AI company applying its solutions to cancer made the New Yorker recently.