MA7 Ninja Challenge Selects a Dolphin

The biggest web-tech contest in Japan landed in Silicon Valley. The 7th Mashup Awards (MA7) Ninja Challenge, was held in Palo Alto on October 19, 2011 at DOCOMO Innovations, Inc.

At the event,  10 US startups interested in the Japanese market presented in front of leading Japanese industry experts in the market to get their professional advice and wisdom. The event also included some keynote speeches by Evernote, Qualcomm, and RECRUIT.

The Industry Judges

• Akinori Shibuya – Digital Media Strategy, Recruit Co., Ltd.
• Brandon K. Hill – CEO, btrax, Inc.
• Hitoshi Hokamura – Chairman, Evernote Japan
• Jun Watanabe – Business Development Analyst, QUALCOMM Incorporated
• So Miyazaki – EVP Smartphone Media, CyberAgent America, Inc.
• Tetsuya Yamashita – Director, NTT DOCOMO, INC.
• Yas Naoi – Project Manager / Architect, DOCOMO Innovations, Inc.

 The Ninja Challenge Presenters

• Touchanote / Tagfair, Inc. – Touchanote brings the note storage and organization capabilities of Evernote together with the convenience of NFC one-touch technology.

• Go Go Mongo! / Go Go Mongo! – Go Go Mongo! is currently one of the leading kids healthy eating-focused brands in the mobile marketplace.

• Mugeda / mugeda.com – Mugeda creates HTML5 animations in the cloud.

• Viewdle / Viewdle, Inc. – Best-in class computer vision technology enables the creation of new user experiences that realize the potential of your smartphone.

• Cocoafish / Cocoafish – Build your mobile app without writing any server code. Create!, Build! & Deploy!

• TimeGrab / Socially Relevant – Socially Relevant helps you manage consumer experience across mobile, Web, and voice.

• Dolphin Browser / MoboTap – Winner! Dolphin brings you the world’s first gesture browser. Fast and playful, you can train your Dolphin to adapt to the way you want to browse.

• ZeroPC.com / ZeroDesktop, Inc – ZeroPC provides deep integration with popular Web services to deliver a complete, integrated “social desktop” experience.

• Pirate Ninja /  Qubop Inc. – Using revolutionary new iOS 5 face recognition, Pirate Ninja instantly converts the people in your photos with a single tap.

•  Beintoo / Beintoo srl – Beintoo is the first gamification and rewarding technology for mobile and web apps developers.

The Dolphin browser came away with the chance to compete against Japanese startups. Entiries will close Nov. in Japan with the award ceremony set for December 11 in Japan. Good job and good luck to MoboTap.

btrax was honored to help organize and MC the inaugural event. We hope to have a greater attendance next year. Great job to all.

Recorded Footage