translated by myGengo

PIRIKA (pih-rih-ka) is a web service with the aim of “picking up all the world's trash, and cleaning up the world”. The idea is that the trash collection network will expand and expand as users take photos and share gathered trash using iPhone and Android apps. (“Pirika” is an Ainu word meaning “clean” or “beautiful”.)

What was your impression upon hearing this concept? I personally felt that it was the most truly interesting service I had encountered in a while. There are countless services for sharing delicious meals, apps for decorating photos with cheap filter effects and sharing them; but to ask users to go to such lengths as to pick up trash and photograph it—who on earth would do that? But that is why it is interesting, and I also believe that it is art. But why, for what purpose? My curiosity insatiable, I arranged for a talk with PIRIKA's CEO Fujio Kojima, and CTO Ryota Ayaki.

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translated by myGengo

The setup is as a seller’s market for app M&A businesses.

“App M&A” is a business that involved purchasing iPhone and Android apps from their developers, and selling them to new owners. They began their work in earnest in July of this year. Yumi Oyama from axion shared with us some of the knowhow she has picked up over the last three months.

What motivated you to start app M&As?
“I like smartphones and enjoy being involved with them, and I wanted to create a business that would stimulate developers of apps and make everyone in the business happy.”

What was your feeling when you started?
“When we started, there were more people wanting to buy apps than sell. Because of that, we had to search for people willing to sell their apps, and pay high prices, but recently there has been good balance (in supply and demand)”

The most popular apps are mini games (simple games), memo pads, and utility tools such as schedulers. They are not necessarily difficult to develop, but Oyama believes that there is demand for her business because it is quicker and more efficient for companies to buy completed apps.

Apparently the price setting standard is based on the download numbers (and trend) of the last three months, but the details are a corporate secret. (There is a link at the end of the article to an “App Purchase Price Simulator”)Read More

Geolocation Services are services that use GPS functionality from Smartphones and among them, we can find services that allow you to search for shops and establishments, as well as other types of services such as Facebook Deals and Foursquare that are based on a "check-in & communicate" format. Although in Japan we have Colpl for the popular Garake (Galapagos Keitai) cell phones, in the case of Smartphones, there are only a handful of games available for Sekai Cameras.

Japanese firm Dyno Entertainment will soon be releasing "Treasure Square", a social game that uses GPS functionality and will be available as a free application for iOS. It connects to Foursquare for acquiring positioning information. This the first stage of a service centered on location information which has been created by Mr. Toshiyuki Takasaki, an expert with more than 20 years experience in the games industry.
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