The 3rd year of SOPHOLA will be over in one month.
While feeling the speed of time, we are starting various preparations for our 4th year.
I’m really looking forward to how to overcome corporate and individual issues!

Last time, I wrote about the three main options that are often seen in the question, “What kind of options do you think global tech companies have when expanding into Japan?” This time, I would like to introduce what kind of approach SOPHOLA is taking.

At our company, we have consistently taken the approach of “supporting the entry into the Japanese market based on market reaction analysis” that we have established since our previous job. This is the approach we introduced three years ago, and we support market entry by taking the following three steps.
(Reposted below)
Step 1: Look at the main players and grasp the big macro-market trends
In the programmatic display area, global DSP players such as DoubleClick Bid Manager, App Nexus, and Media Math share a large share of the market, as nearly 70% of the world’s digital advertising spending comes from Google and Facebook.

If you constantly follow the movements of the main players in each advertising channel and marketing solution areas, you will understand “what kind of world they are trying to create in each area”.

Step 2: Identify the solutions that the main player is trying to own but cannot own
In the world of each area created by the main player, identify what solutions each player does not yet have. Then, we roughly estimate and investigate the market size and needs that are expected when we exclusively own the solution.

Step 3: Find the companies that own the solution and perform market reaction analysis
We will find solution companies in other markets, bring them in the Japanese market in the same area, and do the market reaction. In this step, it’s important to collect both sales and product voices to investigate the reaction of both offense and defense.

This method allows both us and global tech companies to quickly determine if their partners’ solutions and services can successfully enter and scale into the Japanese market without making a large initial investment. Therefore, global tech companies can make investment decisions with low risk and speed, but it is very important to have an understanding of this approach in advance. This is because we are also looking at whether global tech companies are facing the Japanese market and respecting us, our sales partners, and our clients as partners. Without this attitude, it is unlikely that we will be able to successfully enter the Japanese market or scale. If you are a partner who understands this approach and has the above attitude, the time line will be different for each company, but the probability of success in Japan will significantly increase.

I would like to continue to support with the above approach while sincerely dealing with partners.
Thank you for your continued support!

Masaki “Mark” Iino
Founder & CEO
SOPHOLA, Inc
PS: My son is now able to run and kick the ball.
He’s so cute:)