Have you tried watching this year's World Cup with a huge crowd around you at a station or on the street?
starts from the opening match on June 18. If you happen to pass through stations such as Tokyo Tou Camp, Keio Line, Tokyo Metro and Osaka Kintetsu Namba, you can see the real-time scores and data content of all group matches in the 2018 World Cup in Russia provided by Player!
This Japanese startup has been trying this kind of planning since last year. It hopes to achieve the effect of "can immerse yourself in the event environment without touching your phone" and put more content on the app outdoors. In December 2017 and February this year, Player! cooperated with Tokyo Ikkaichi Electric Railway to broadcast J League and Japanese national team football matches with the same content as the large screen in the stadium on the outdoor advertising screens of designated stations.
Player! is a sports event social application specially created for sports enthusiasts. Before Player! appeared, Yahoo Japan and other major portal sports sectors had already achieved full coverage in all areas, but the rise of mobile terminals allowed its founder Tail Shadow Sun to see opportunities.
"The most interesting thing about sports events is real-time. And I just want to use Player! to make sports events more interesting." Taisha Sun wrote in his official profile.
In 2014, the 25-year-old Tail Sun gave up the rare opportunity to " Softbank Academia" (an institution established by Softbank Group to cultivate the successor of Masayoshi Son). He resigned from the SoftBank Group's business department, founded his own sports media company ookami with his partners, and brought the iOS version of the app Player! to the market one year later.
On June 20 this year, ookami announced that the company had completed a new round of financing of approximately tens of millions of yuan. The investors were 6 companies including Japanese telecom giant NTT DOCOMO, one of the three largest banks in Japan, and Mizuho Capital, an investment institution under Mizuho Bank , and Asics Ventures, an investment institution under Asics. The funds raised this time will be used as Player! Current operating funds, strengthening of organizational systems and new advertising product development aspects.
ookami young entrepreneurial team, the tail-shaped sun on the right of the back row is the product architecture of this application. Starts from the initial choice with a simple and clear competition briefing, to the instant push of event details, scores and results, and with timely reviews and in-depth articles, it becomes a social platform for users to watch and communicate in real time.
" is centered on real-time speed reports and news reports, comments and columns of various sports events, and allows users to meet social needs through real-time online chat function. users can miss any relevant information by subscribing to their favorite teams and events they care about." Taisha Sun said, " currently has more than 2,000 event information per month , and our various functions are completely free whether it is on mobile phones or computers."
In Japan, this application has been popular with capital, and many well-known institutions and individuals can be seen among its investors.
In March 2017, ookami had received a Series A financing of approximately tens of millions of RMB, and the lead investor was Asahi Shimbun. In addition, with newspicks founder Yuyu Umeda, Photocreate founder Riaki Komatsu, and famous sports commentators for the angel and seed rounds, oookami has received nearly RMB 100 million in financing. In 2015 and 2016, Player! won the title of "App Store Best of 2015" and the "2016 Good Design Award" respectively selected by the App Store.
Most users in the Player! app comments are interested in the real-time social function of this app. One user commented that looking at the news above before and after the matches of the team he supports and actively participating in the discussion in the comment section has become a part of many people's lives. "I often watch Player when watching (Japanese) professional baseball live broadcasts. Not only can I express my opinions on the performance of the players a second ago, but most importantly, there are also a bunch of people who will discuss this matter at the same time. This way, it looks a bit like Twitter, just like Twitter exclusively for the event."
For Chinese fans, Player can provide major functions such as global news, in-depth reports, fan community, etc., if you are better understood, it is a product that benchmarks the football app Daqiudi and Live Broadcast Bar.
We can see many similar functions:
・Home: See the classification navigation of different content and the waterfall of hot content on the homepage;
・Subscribe: Pay attention to the content dynamics of your favorite teams and players;
・Live: Live previews of each game, chat rooms and text live broadcast;
・Community: Create different content groups based on leagues, teams, players and various topics.
Player! User interface
But unlike the sport of football that is limited to the football, Player! The biggest feature is that the competition covers a wide range. In addition to obtaining the content of various events through their own channels and users, there are also many professional websites and social websites from abroad, as well as translation and reorganization from Twitter and Facebook.
can be seen through the user operation interface that whether it is the current 2018 Russian World Cup or various professional leagues, including amateur events in universities and high schools, or even niche sports with a small sports population.
"Niki sports are not as popular as football. In the past, only local newspapers would report event information on a small scale, but now I don't need to look for it in the newspaper anymore. "A Player! user said on techcrunch, "As a niche sports user, I want to praise this app loudly! "
is similar to Dongqiudi. Player! Users can see the information about subscribed to the game and team at any time. On the other hand, Dongqiudi also has a self-media platform and an independent e-commerce platform under the main form. According to Taishi Sun in an interview with thebridge, Player! does not consider developing in the e-commerce direction for the time being. As a free application, Player!'s current profit channel still comes from advertising marketing. However, the effect of advertising revenue and the mainstream monetization model in the future, Taishi Sun has not disclosed too much.
Currently Player! The most important thing is The target user population is the younger generation aged 10-20. According to techcrunch, after Player! received financing in March 2017, the number of users of has increased by more than 10 times year-on-year from March 2018. One of the main reasons is the rapid increase in content of amateur sports events centered on university sports.
"In the past year, if sports such as high schools, college students, local leagues have begun to attract more public attention, in my opinion, this is a 'long tail effect' - compared with professional sports, its scale is very limited, but in fact, even such a game can attract about thousands of spectators. "Taitoid Sun believes that although football, baseball and other sports often have millions of fans, from a business perspective, the potential of amateur sports that was not valued should not be underestimated, and the accumulated benefits are comparable to mainstream sports events.
Therefore, ookami's next policy will further strengthen the content of amateur sports field centered on school and local events. He explained, "For example, the competitive population of Japanese high school handball has about 40,000 people, and the family, friends, and former athletes will pay attention to such competitions. However, students' events are held during the day, and it is difficult for parents who are already working to watch it on site. They can understand the situation of the competition through Player! It is precisely for this reason that during the Japanese high school handball trial last year, we added more than 60,000 users. "
Player! Q'S EYE on Tokyo Shibuya 's Q'S EYE large screen is broadcasting East Asia Cup event
As for Player! It may take some time to see whether it can go out of a different monetization model from China's football app. But the Tail Shadow Sun is very clear about his next goal: "Through this (financing), ookami has also successfully received help from major companies such as ASIS and NTT DOCOMO in other businesses. I want our supporters to see a different way of sports entertainment – not from TV or from live, but from a new type of sports viewing experience that is only available from smartphones and digital."He said, "Outdoor delivery is also a preparation for the Tokyo Olympics. By that time, the streets of Tokyo will be filled with the event content provided by Player!, and you will definitely notice it. ”
extended reading:
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