A couple of tech-oriented business contests announced the finalists on Friday.
At first, Tokyo-based VC firm ngi Group and online game developer Aeria[J] jointly held the 1st edition of business contest for potential student entrepreneurs, which is titled “I-SHIN” meaning revolution in Japanese. The plan entries were open from last April to last May. The contest’s winners are as follows.
Disclaimer: The winners’ names were translated in accordance with typical Japanese pronunciation. Each of Chinese characters has usually several kinds of pronunciation. In order to spell their names correctly and to put appropriate prefixes, we will need to contact each of them one by one. Please forgive us your inconvenience if any incorrectly spelled names, and be free to ask us to correct it if you find any.
| Award | Winner | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Excellent |  Basecamp (Mr. Seiji Ueno, Mr. Yasutatsu Takai and Mr. Eiji Takada) |
The unit of three guys is running a service called “FormAnalytics“, which is aiming at improving the format of mail entry form and order form so that website visitors are willing to fill all fields on it and to submit. The service is currently beta version, and you can use it upon request. |
| Best (Entertainment Category) |
 Mobakids[J] (Ms. Yukano Nishijima and Mr. Kentaro Tamura) |
Mobakids is a mobile app tech start-up based in Tokyo. Their service is a cartoon posting and sharing website called Mangaroo[J](requiring authentication and authorized beta users only), and it’s intend to create a marketplace where professional and amateur cartoonists can sell their works online. The service is currently closed beta version. |
| Best (Extra Category) |
 Ageha (Ms. Yuko Kinoshita, Orihime[J] is the name of the brand that the company developed) |
Five female students from Keio University graduate school formed a company to provide product planning and market research targeting female potential online shoppers in their 20s and 30s. The company also provides a platform to give customer feedback to apparel manufacturers for improving their products. |
ngi group and Aeria will assist the winners to put their services on practical business basis.
There will be the 2nd edition of the contest and its business plan entry is open from July 15th to September 15th, which focuses on a business that may trigger new waves and that uses Mixi app platform.
See Also:
- ngi group’s Press Release[J, PDF] on Toyo Keizai News
- Aeria’s Press Release[J, PDF]
Secondary, as we reported on Asiajin last January, Cyber Agent and other five Internet companies had jointly a business plan contest called START2009, and the contest’s finalists were announced on Friday.
The contest host companies assist and support these finalists in terms of financial aspect as well as business partnerships.
| Finalists | Description |
|---|---|
 30 Minutes[J] |
30min. (pronounced as “San-Zero Minutes” in Japanese) develops a location based town guide portal and allows users to see a listing of shops located near where you are. Recently, it releases a newer version of the iPhone app and allows us to receive latest update on the restaurant information with a new feature supported by iPhone OS 3.0. Its restaurant retrieval for lunch is very popular. iPhone app available from here. |
 Chephilo[J] |
Chephilo is a Tokyo-based start-up and strong in basically developing web application services, and recently it invented a new service which distributes information associated with keywords spoken on TV programs. It also provides meta-data distribution service for cross-media marketing. |
 General Healtecare[J] |
General Healthcare provides a variety of information services on the web for medical doctors as well as users who are looking for a plastic surgery or a refractive surgery (LASIK clinic). |
Basecamp |
The unit of three guys is running a service called “FormAnalytics“, which is aiming at improving the format of mail entry form and order form so that website visitors are willing to fill all fields on it and to submit. The service is currently beta version, and you can use it upon request. |
 JX Press[J] |
JX Press develops a cross-media marketing solution, and was chosen as the finalist because of their new business of news contents delivery over the Internet. CEO Katsuhiro Yoneshige is also known as a contributor for a pageview-earning popular news blog Agora which is expected to be considered as Japanese style of the world’s first ranked news blog Huffinton Post. |
The contest secretariat unveiled the total number of submited plans reached 250, and 18 business plans passed the preliminary selection examination given by the contest organizers. For more details on the companies chosen as the finalists, please visit Cyber Agent Investment’s website[J].
See Also:
Via: KIGYOKA.COM [J] (News Portal on Japanese Entrepreneurship)
Masaru IKEDA