Japanese start-up creates custom apps you can manage without technical know-how. Yappli’s CEO and CTO talk about the future
- It’s not easy to create an app, especially in Japan, where engineers and programmers are in short supply
- Start-up Yappli designs apps that companies can manage themselves without programmers
“There’s an app for that,” the old iPhone slogan goes.
But in a country like Japan that’s struggling to find enough engineers and programmers, locating someone who can create an app is easier said than done.
That need has fuelled investor expectations for local start-up Yappli, which designs off-the-shelf apps that clients can manage locally without needing to hire programmers. Its shares have almost doubled since its Tokyo listing at the end of December, giving it a market cap of about US$700 million.
Chief executive officer Yasubumi Ihara and chief technology officer Masafumi Sano, both Yahoo Japan alums, started the company after trying to create their own app just as smartphones started to boom in Japan in 2011.
“We realised there’s a huge gap to fill,” Ihara said in an interview. “We knew everyone would be using apps in the future – but that there would be a limit on how many people could actually make them.”
While still unprofitable, the company’s software-as-a-service business model aims for a steadily increasing revenue stream. Yappli has created Japanese language apps for international clients including Under Armour as well as domestic giants such as Toyota, though its bread-and-butter is small, local firms that lack in-house tech resources.