Cornering Japan’s mobile data analytics market with the derpiest character ever

In the fall of 2011, Shibuya Shuta was a recent college graduate looking for somewhere he could kick back with friends. During his short stint at Gree, the Japanese mobile gaming giant, Shibuya attended a workshop run by Lifenet Insurance co-founder Iwase Daisuke. Shibuya’s pitch went over well with Iwase. So well, in fact, that Iwase advised him to quit his job and start his own business immediately. In November of that year, Shibuya and three of his school pals founded Fuller. They haven’t stopped adding friends, and the team is about to reach 20 members.

The company was established as a mobile data analytics service for enterprise in Japan, where companies have traditionally outsourced that research to foreign firms. In 2011, there was no way of procuring large data samples from mobile users about which apps they were using, how frequently, or for how long. Building a user base worthy of sampling would require creating consumer applications with broad appeal. That would mean success for many startups, but for Fuller, it’s only step one.

Shibuya might be the ideal candidate to undertake such a challenge from zero. He and his friends hail from Japan’s kosen schools — competitive vocational academies that are renowned for taking in 15-year-olds and churning out the nation’s top engineers. Fuller’s head of PR and HR, Yoshida Miho, tells Tech in Asia that the kosen background still defines the company’s ethos.

“The best thing about these guys is that they’re proper engineers,” says Yoshida. “They go in a room for a while, and when the door opens, there’s a finished product.

Weird can be cute, too

The product that Fuller’s development team rolled out first is an Android app called BokuSumaho, or “Mr. Mobile” in English. Users can download the app for free, provided that they allow Fuller to record their total device activity to populate large data samples.

Mr. Mobile functions primarily as a device management app, personifying each user’s phone as a digital ojisan, or middle-aged man, whose health and well-being reflect usage habits. For example, if a user has too many apps installed, the ojisan is overweight; if too many apps are left running in the background, he has users help him to close them. A healthier, happier ojisan should result in longer battery life.

That’s a constant concern for Mr. Mobile’s target users, Japanese women. Research shows that the nation’s high school girls now use smartphones for an average of seven hours each day, a duration that threatens even the largest of batteries. Such a high level of use also makes the demographic group’s data a coveted commodity for web services.

The ojisan character may not make sense to foreigners, but Yoshida says that it’s specifically designed to appeal to Japanese women, who have clearly responded – the app is nearing one million downloads since its launch in September 2012. No number for monthly active users was provided. “I understand he looks a little weird to you,” Yoshida explains. “But to Japanese women, this character is really cute, which is partly why we’re able to hold on to users.”

Turning data into gold

Keeping users is exactly what Fuller needs to deliver the sort of long-term data analyses that set it apart from the competition. Part of that task is achieved by the simple relevance of Mr. Mobile’s functions; aging phones lose battery faster, which adds to the app’s utility over time. Users who meet Fuller’s criteria for inclusion in data samples – which includes length of use – currently number in the tens of thousands, though precise figures are closely guarded.

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