Tech firms in Japan flocking to Singapore

A Japanese firm might have cracked the problem that bedevils many mobile game developers – how to make a living when you give your product away for free.

Metaps, as the newly formed company is called, believes a virtual button on a game that leads to free upgrades, points or virtual currencies is the answer.

Clicking on the button would bring up a sponsored list of, say, mobile games. Clicking on a game would then take you to the Apple App Store or Google Play store. “There, you can buy or download iOS or Android games. When the download takes place, the developer pays us a commission,” said director and chief operating officer Choy Wai Cheong, who opened the firm’s local office last week.

Metaps hopes to introduce its concept to developers of mobile apps and games in the region through seminars and workshops. The company is part of a new wave of Japanese tech firms – focused mostly on the Internet and mobile phone businesses – that are opening offices in Singapore.

Tech giants Gree and DeNa, both social mobile gaming platforms, opened offices here a year ago, but the real momentum is coming from small start-ups. Fun & Cool Ventures from Tokyo will be looking for a new office here next month. Chief executive Ganesan Velayathan told The Straits Times that it will be hiring 10 people, half of them engineers, by the end of this year to develop mobile apps and games. “Singapore will be our international headquarters. We’re also taking Japanese games and apps and translating them into English, Chinese and other languages so they will have a bigger group of users,” he said in a telephone interview yesterday from Malaysia.

The Japanese inflow has been so strong that a local firm, CrossCoop, was started last year to meet their needs, for instance, by supplying office space. It has taken on 68 clients since July last year; about half of them are tech start-ups. Most of the companies use the office facilities provided by CrossCoop for about 12 to 18 months before moving to their own space.

Founder Yasuji Seki, who had been with IE Singapore in Tokyo, told The Straits Times: “Last year’s earthquake in Japan, the stagnant economy and the ageing population have made many tech companies realise that they have to go overseas for growth.

Ganesan said getting Japanese games translated was easier as engineers fluent in a variety of languages – English, Chinese, Hindi and others – could be found more readily here than in Japan. Wong Nian Choon, a director of mobile game firm Nubee said that developing English games for the global market was easier to do in Singapore.