(Feb 15): “There’s an app for that,” so 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 glaring need has fueled investor expectations for local startup Yappli Inc., 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$750 million.
Chief Executive Officer Yasubumi Ihara and Chief Technology Officer Masafumi Sano, both Yahoo Japan alums, started the company after an arduous attempt at creating their own app just as smartphones started to boom in Japan in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in 2011.