Interview with Yudai Yamaguchi, CEO of Liberteenz Inc., a Leader in App Marketing! "Sense of Crisis About Industry Stagnation" and "Enjoying Business"

I am Yudai Yamaguchi, CEO of Liberteenz Inc.
When I was little, I was introverted and played a lot of games.
"Dragon Quest II," "Dragon Quest III," and "Final Fantasy III" were popular back then.
I also liked Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and this is pretty niche, but I played "Tenchi wo Kurau II" a lot.

Originally, I had a strong curiosity, wondering "Why is this like this?" and "How does this work?" I had a great interest in things, along with an interest in people.
I also had a strong desire to be useful, and being useful to as many people as possible ultimately means the entire world.
That's how I found my raison d'être through self-analysis.
I've always thought that loneliness is pretty unfortunate. Playing games alone isn't really loneliness; I think truly cutting off social interaction is very sad.
Then, since objects can't say anything on their own, aren't they super lonely? (laughs)
With those thoughts, I believe that the role of "marketing," utilizing what I like, what I'm good at, and what I value, can also lead to us gaining our raison d'être.

Actually, when we were first established around 2007, we were developing our own game apps.
When comparing Japan and the United States at that time, even with similar shares, there was a difference of more than 500 times in market size.
So, we started by developing apps for English-speaking countries, including the United States.
Furthermore, we began ASO measures to attract users to our own apps, and by around 2011, we had achieved 10 million downloads worldwide.
Utilizing that know-how, we started an advertising agency business specializing in apps, began offering in-house support tools, and opened an office in Silicon Valley, USA, leading to where we are today.

We pride ourselves on being a marketing company that has carried out PDCA cycles to a crazy extent.
It's like we were constantly thinking, 365 days a year, about how each keyword and image on individual app store pages affects impressions, a kind of experiment, you could say (laughs).

Once we had accumulated ASO expertise, we needed to increase our recognition, so we sponsored various events.
For example, there were "MAU Vegas" and "App Promotion Summit," but ultimately, "App Growth Summit" felt the most promising.
"App Growth Summit" isn't sales-oriented; it's an event for sharing knowledge within the industry, and it ultimately led to increased engagement among developers.

I asked the organizers, "Aren't you going to do it in Tokyo?" and they said, "It's fine if you organize it," and that's how this event came to be.
Past events were either large-scale, with 1,000 attendees, or even larger, like "ad:tech Tokyo," which covered the web domain.
So, we decided to make it an event specialized in app growth.
Specifically, we incorporated elements such as "PLATFORM (latest trends and examples of platform advertising)," "AD NETWORK / DSP (latest trends and examples of DSP and retargeting)," "MONETIZATION (latest monetization examples from overseas)," "STORE MARKETING (what to do for organic acquisition)," "CASE STUDY (case studies and insights by guest speakers)," and "IMPORT & EXPORT (app import and export)."

Having observed this industry for about 18 years, I've become aware of the problem of a sense of stagnation, where the market grows, but what we're doing remains unchanged.
My motivation was to do something for the industry.

If you ask whether there have been updates or redefinitions of marketing methods until now, I don't think there have been any.
Google AdMob has been around for a long time, and even if there were some groundbreaking movements, they were eliminated, and there are various stories I can't talk about here... (laughs)
Anyway, I think the fundamental part hasn't changed, even if the form has.
For example, the idea of organic (referring to natural traffic and customer acquisition from search results, not ad displays) has been around for a long time, but no one has really focused on it.

If there's an awareness of results can't be measured or I don't know what to do, then I think that's our responsibility.
I think the term “organic” has permeated, but overwhelmingly few people, or at least I don't know a single one, really delve into it.
It's also our mission to change the awareness of the entire industry.

Our basic principle is to do everything.
If you separate things like how much for organic, how much for advertising, how much for consulting, it feels like being told you can only get 30 points out of a 100-point test.
If we took the stance of "we'll do this much and then we don't know anything else," we wouldn't be able to provide true value to our customers, so it's a given that we "do everything," whether it's strategic planning, production, or operations.

That's right. Strictly speaking, even if the person in charge understands it in their head, the organizational structure sometimes prevents change.
Even then, it's not "that's the company's problem, so it's over." We can solve it through our efforts by setting up test processes and explaining it thoroughly to get stakeholders' approval.

It was very good.
About 300 people attended, and many interesting sessions were held with guest speakers from companies such as Google, Docomo, Pairs, Timee, PayPay, and Mercari.
From the game industry, MIXI, Ponos, and Metacore participated.

The talk by Taito Fukagawa from TimeTree (a calendar sharing app with 60 million users worldwide) was excellent. I even went to shake his hand after it ended, no kidding.
What particularly impressed me was his extraordinary way of gathering primary information.
For example, when "customer acquisition is going well in Country A," normally you'd find factors within a reasonable scope, form a hypothesis, and that's it.
But in TimeTree's case, they'd even reach out to influencers in that country, gather information that could be useful for marketing in the same region, and then hire them as part-timers.

Even among game companies, some have a high resolution of their users, and some don't.
For example, if you can identify who the top spenders are, where they live, what their occupation is, what they like, and so on, it's easier to put together a strategy.
Mr. Ohtsuki from MIXI also spoke about this at "AGS Tokyo 2025," but I think user affection is an important factor.

I can't say for sure as it depends on feedback, but whether it's in the form of AGS or not, we definitely want to make it a series.
Regarding games, in addition to Ohtsuki from MIXI, Sano from Ponos, and Motoi Sato (@MOTTOI) as the facilitator also cooperated. What they talked about, of course, included the superficial apps and marketing strategies, but ultimately it boiled down to the fundamental question of "how to boost the game industry."
I'd like people to hear more about what those at the forefront are thinking, and we hope to liven up the entire industry in our own way.

Yes, that's right. Japan has a lot of public transportation users, so people have a lot of individual time.
When I go to America, I realize that in Silicon Valley, leisure activities are pretty much limited to family, hiking, sports, or drinking (laughs).
Games are something you play at home, and outside, people tend to value family and community.
Also, I believe that games are an emotional outlet. Forgetting about the unpleasant things in daily life, like getting angry or having a bad experience, while playing games is a significant reason for their existence.
Conversely, it also means that people can't express their true feelings in daily life and keep them bottled up, so in that sense, I see it positively as a very valuable market.

Generally, there are no differences, but the organizational structures are significantly different.
For example, a marketing person in Japan has to look at various media from beginning to end, but in the U.S., there are detailed classifications like ASO manager, and they'll say, "I only do what's defined in my job description!"
So, the depth of knowledge for one thing is superior in the U.S., while Japan has the ability to see things cross-sectionally, but there might be room for agencies to get involved in specialized areas.

A major challenge in app marketing is the soaring cost of advertising.
It's like continuing to buy a beef bowl that used to cost 500 yen even when it now costs 1,000 yen.
One reason for this is IDFA regulations, but the current situation is that companies are meekly accepting it.
App traffic is said to be 58% organic and 42% paid (advertising), but the responsibility of all mobile marketers only covers the 42% paid. Advertising agencies also don't do it because it's not profitable. It's a vicious cycle where they don't do it, so it doesn't spread.
"V.O.X" is a tool that provides advice focusing on the 58% as well, showing how paid methods influence organic traffic and how to acquire organic users.

It's quite significant.
Especially for user analysis, I think it should be actively used, and it has been implemented in our products since the early stages.
Also, I think corporate management will change significantly in the future.
I also manage our business using AI, and one time I asked, "If there were an excellent AI like you, we wouldn't need managers, right?" and it replied, "I cannot take responsibility" (laughs).
In other words, if you can take responsibility, AI is good enough!
I think that having these tools will require the stamina to think for yourself and keep asking questions.

Personally, I honestly hope that Japanese companies will try harder. When comparing Japan and overseas, overseas KPIs tend to be measured in years, while in Japan, results are expected in a short period like 90 days. This leads to differences in investment amounts, and as a result, strong apps tend to be from overseas. The underlying theme of having TimeTree (TimeTree Inc.), skyticket (Adventure Inc.), and Merge Mansion (Metacore Games Ltd.) speak at "AGS Tokyo 2025" was to incorporate international standards into Japan. After all, this is no longer an era where we can just focus on Japan.

One of our company's purposes is to enjoy business.
Wouldn't it be ideal if every company involved in business said, "This is fun"?
To achieve that, what I value most is sharing the ideal and working backward together to figure out how to make it a reality.
Simply saying, "We have this budget, so please do this and that" is very boring and definitely not good.
On the other hand, many people can't readily answer when asked what their ideal is.
In that case, my honest wish is to help them find that ideal together.