Rocket Staff is a young, Tokyo-based startup which has introduced a location-based iPhone app called PepperMeet. With GPS technology, the app allows you to chat and share pictures with any other users nearby, and the latest version (PepperMeet Plus) has introduced a feature that allows people to navigate to nearby evacuation sites in the event of a major earthquake in cities.
We recently had an opportunity to interview the startup’s CEO/founder Young-wook Kou.
What made you introduce this app and this new feature?
Prior to launching my own startup, I’ve been working at Movida Japan, an incubation office by well-known angel investor Taizo Son. Then I launched a web app called TwitMarket, which helps people to exchange updates on selling goods they don’t need and buying others which they need. Due to some [unforeseen] reasons, I closed it more than a year ago, but as you remember, there was the massive earthquake attack in the Tohoku region on March 11 last year. I tried to find what I could do to help the disaster victims and serve our local community. I launched a website delivering updates on what the victims need by customizing the previously running web service, I named it ‘Twit for You.’ It was launched in a week after the quake hit and has helped match more than 2,000 sets of people in their needs for assistance and utility goods.
I planned ‘Twit for You’ to be a time-limited service, and I thought I would shut it down after a little while if the victims no longer exchanged information. But we keep operating the service because we had many who were asking for it to continue. PepperMeet can be considered as some sort of a [derivation] from the two apps, TwitMarket and Twit for You, and I’ve been positioning it as a mobile app.
How many users do you have?
We have 10,000 users now (as of the middle of Feb 2012). But I would like to reach 400,000 users by the end of the next fiscal year, which is March 2013.
The app is available in four languages — English, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Are you planning to target any market other than Japan?
Sure. I have a plan to deploy a massive promotion in my home country of Korea this coming March. I also would like to get into the Chinese market, but the app adopts Facebook Login to authenticate users, so I should develop another interface that allows Chinese users to login with RenRen or QQ login. I’m now considering when is the best to start working on it.
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
