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Notes from our Webinar with Japanese Enterprises
On the 14th of June, we held a webinar in Japan featuring some of our partners to talk about building a web3 business and answer any questions for those looking to get into web3 in Japan. To make the content accessible to our international audience, we’ve also summarized what was discussed in this blog post.
On-Stage
The webinar was hosted by Shun Ishikawa, COO of the Astar Foundation. Other guests included Austin Zhu, Ceo of DeSOUL inc, Yuya Yoshida, CEO of HARTi, Kenta Ozaka from Astar Games, and Toshinori Shigematsu, CEO of Hakuhodo Key3.
Introduction Astar
We kicked the webinar off by introducing Astar and highlighting the challenges companies face when considering getting into web3.
On understanding Astar
While it’s easy to get hung up in all the technical terms like smart contracts and blockchain, Astar can be best understood as infrastructure for web3 projects. Instead of overcomplicating it, one way to see Astar is as a back-end. Like most companies aren’t building their own server or cloud from scratch, they can use Astar for all their web3 needs.
In an ideal scenario, end-users won’t even know they are interacting with an app built on top of Astar.
Astar is different from other chains because it supports WASM, removing the need for Solidity, a programming language that’s hard to audit and build with. On Astar, developers can use languages like Rust and soon C+, which are well-adopted among existing IT companies.
Beyond the tech stack, what makes Astar an interesting partner for Japanese companies is the following:
- Global support, including from investors that are seen as thought leaders in the space
- Collaboration with projects worldwide
- High security and legal clarity around its token
- Environmentally friendly with cheap fees
- Experience working with renowned Japanese enterprise players
Building a web3 business in Japan
In Japan, the features of web3 that are typically advertised might not attract as big of a crowd when all the banks and providers are working fine as is. That’s why it might be easier to think about web3 as a tool to build deeper connections between fans/consumers and companies, particularly in loyalty and fan engagement.
The Japanese loyalty program market continues growing and is expected to hit 15936.7 million by 2026. Unlike loyalty programs in other countries, Japanese Loyalty schemes are much more wide-ranging, often establishing entire ecosystems where users can spend the earned points. Web3 tools allow to digitize these schemes, create more meaningful relations between fans, and lower the data burden put on companies by not requiring them to store all the data any longer.
Challenges
However, when looking to get into web3, companies will face various challenges:
- New terminology: blockchain and all tech surrounding it is riddled with terms that normal developers aren’t familiar with.
- Lack of engineers: very few engineers know how to build web3 projects from scratch. And they are in high demand.
- Lack of English proficiency: this is a problem that many domestic Japanese companies encounter. Even according to EF, Japan ranks low in English comprehension. However, in web3, most new developments are covered in English, leading to the Japanese not always being able to follow what’s happening in the broader industry.
Solution
Instead of having to hire all the talent in-house, we suggest working with a partner. Businesses use things like Microsoft Server and Google Cloud already, so similarly, they can rely on Web3 solutions providers to bridge the gap between enterprise and web3.
Chances are it’s faster, less expensive, and more effective.
What’s being built?
After the introduction, 4 companies introduced what they are working on in the Astar ecosystem.
DeSoul Inc
Austin Zhu, Founder of DeSoul, introduced the platform they are building. The team also participated in our Sony Incubation Program earlier.
DeSoul provides companies with a one-stop solution for soul-bound tokens, tokens that can only be transferred once. With DeSoul, they can manage tokens throughout their lifecycle and issue rewards. The no-code platform makes SBTs accessible and provides features such as analytics and token-gating.
To further enhance what their tokens can do, the DeSoul team developed an extension to existing token standards, ERC-5727, which offers an extensible interface and allows to handle both fungible and non-fungible tokens.
Companies using DeSoul also benefit from gasless transactions easing the friction of signing up new users. A few potential use cases include event POAPS, membership cards, tickets, and certificates.
HARTi
Harti was started by Yuya Yoshida 4 years ago, initially as a startup in the arts management scene. When they came across NFTs, they realized that this technology would have the potential to revolutionize the art industry, so they started to develop an app to cater to that.
Harti’s app combines Wallet, Marketplace, and community in one, making it a one-stop solution for enterprises looking to issue NFTs and interact with their fans. By abstracting away a lot of the actual technology and making it easily understandable, HARTi has attracted 8,000 users to its app, making it the biggest web3 social app in Japan.
Businesses can tap into HARTI’s CRM solutions and leverage them for Marketing by communicating with certain NFT holders or analyzing their community in-depth. One recent use case that was shared included a collaboration with a tourism agency. During this campaign, visitors with the app could collect NFTs at specific train stations using their GPS.
Astar Games
Astar Games is a subsidiary of Crypto Games, a gaming company that has been developing blockchain games for 5 years now. With the rise of Astar, they decided to launch this company dedicated to creating games on top of it.
One of the first games they built was Astar Farm which is a gamified experience for dApp staking. Instead of going through the Portal and locking up funds, users went to a virtual farm where they could purchase crops and then grow them. After a while, they’d harvest and be able to sell their harvest for Astar. Rewards were coming out of the dApp staking rewards provided to the dApp.
In collaboration with Calbee, Astar Games allowed users to grow potatoes and then receive real potato chips for them. This use of gamification to market a real product worked well, increasing both Calbee’s and Astar Game's communities.
Beyond building their own games, Astar Games offers holistic support to any company in the consideration phase, from helping to plan the project to actually developing it.
Hakuhodo Key3
Hakuhodo is the largest advertising agency in Japan working with all the big brands. Hakuhdo Key 3 is a joint venture between Hakuhodo and Astar dedicated to onboarding brands to web3.
As the largest advertising agency, and with Japanese regulation becoming more crypto-friendly, many of their clients are looking to use the new technologies for their marketing and beyond. Hakuhodo Key3 helps these enterprises explore advertising and marketing in web3, which differs from traditional advertising, putting a bigger emphasis on building communities.
Additionally, Hakuhodo Key3 helps organize and run hackathons. A recent example was a hackathon sponsored by Toyota to explore how the car giant can support grass-roots innovation through DAO tooling. Another solution provided by Hakuhodo Key3 is its data wallet and its key3 studio, which connects aspiring web3 companies with big enterprises.
Why Astar?
All of the builders and entrepreneurs above also shared why they were building on Astar. Key highlights include:
- Very affordable gas fees - putting a low burden on users
- Multichain support
- Interoperability
- Scalability
- Unique gateway to the Japanese audience, and vice versa, a portal to the international web3 ecosystem
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Thanks to everyone joining us during the webinar. To learn more about the company that presented, check out their websites as linked. Additionally, if you have any questions about the Japanese web3 market, contact us, and we’re happy to help.