Japanese startup companies that changed the world

PR TIMES Inc

A start-up company founded in 2005 and went public in 2016. PR TIMES Inc sends out documents called "press releases" that inform companies and organizations about news and new products.

Initially, press releases were primarily paper-based and sent to companies and organizations via fax or letter. Now, PR TIMES Inc is launching a service that allows press releases to be sent online.

In the age of social media, digitizing press releases has been a revolutionary idea. Now that information is easily accessible via smartphones, press releases can be made available not only to companies and media outlets, but also to the public.

PR TIMES Inc succeeded as a startup by disproving conventional wisdom and still sends out information to many users on a daily basis.

Voicy Inc

Voicy is a Japanese audio distribution service specializing in digital audio delivery.

By crossing the key elements of human communication - voice and digital - it has revolutionized the voice industry technologically.

Listeners can listen to a wide variety of channels, from news broadcast by the media to the channels of famous entrepreneurs and personalities such as influencers. Listeners can also enjoy the ease of accessing audio recordings with just a smartphone. Recently, Voicy has also been utilized by companies as an advertising medium.

Voicy has revolutionized the world with the fusion of sound and digital technology. In just three years since its launch, the number of users has reached over 3.2 million.

Mercari Inc

It is known as a flea market app that allows users to easily buy and sell items using their smartphones.

In fact, before Mercari, there were services that allowed users to trade goods online. However, the reason for Mercari's success lies in the high convenience of making transactions using a single smartphone and the ease and simplicity of the selling process.

Initially, Mercari did not offer commission on sales, but later raised it to 10%. However, Mercari's high level of convenience meant that the company had already developed a fan base, regardless of the sales commission.

As a result, the start-up company was listed on TSE Mothers and the price per share increased 6,000 times from inception to IPO.

Smart News Inc

Smart News provides real-time information services on economics, international politics, weather and entertainment.

When Smart News was founded in 2012, smartphones were not yet widespread and daily news could be obtained from TV and newspapers. So Smart News set out to "deliver news through smartphones" and succeeded.

With the convenience of viewing up-to-date information anytime, anywhere, Smart News quickly gained attention. The total number of Smart News downloads exceeded 50 million, and the service became a favourite for many people.