15 of the best April Fools’ Day pranks from Asia’s tech and startup community

April Fools’ Day has everyone at Tech in Asia a bit paranoid about getting duped by fake stories. We abstained from posting any of our own pranks, but here are the best April Fools’ jokes from Asia’s tech and startup scene.

Umer

Umer is an Uber for horses. Choose your class – court noble, samurai, ninja, or princess – and get picked up within minutes for your trot through Tokyo. The advantages of horses over cars are manifold: they don’t require paved roads, they’re environmentally friendly, they poop fertilizer, and they only take up half a parking space. All prices quoted are in currencies from Japan’s pre-modern era.

Umer comes courtesy of Hands Lab, an ecommerce solution provider and subsidiary of Tokyu Hands, a hobby store franchise in Japan.

UberBOAT

Uber is launching its new uberBOAT service in body of water-adjacent cities the world over. You can access boat rides around your favorite bays and coastlines from the original Uber app. And when rainy season rolls around in Southeast Asia, "surge pricing" takes on a whole new meaning.

Remember last Tuesday's flood? Uber is here to paddle you out in a pinch! http://t.co/RkIAepgMpS pic.twitter.com/OFA1NvKRdN

— Uber Bangkok (@Uber_Bangkok) April 1, 2015

Pepper Gold robot