This document provides an introduction to ICO promotion in Japan. It discusses factors that determine the success of ICOs, including the power of management, development community, and public interest. It analyzes characteristics of Bitcoin holders in Japan and estimates the population who have attained $1 million or more from cryptocurrency trading. The document lists influential Japanese cryptocurrency bloggers and Twitter accounts and emphasizes that word-of-mouth promotion through local media and key opinion leaders is crucial for successful ICO promotion in Japan given that most Japanese read only domestic articles and blogs. Communication should be focused on local communities and individual investors rather than a few major accounts globally.

1. Introduction to ICO
Promotion in Japan
Mikihisa Suzuki
February 2018

2. 1
What determines success/failure of ICO?
PR is not essential…
but…
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.

3. 2
Power of management
（Coingeckoによる評価）
Power of Coin Development Community Public Interest
Top 100 coins on
Market Cap
Development Activity
on public source
Popularity of social
madia and discussion
Hit amount of web site
and alexa scoer
Market Cap 0.21 0.41 0.43
Licuidity 0.21 0.45 0.45
Correlation coefficient between power of coin and power of management
Power of Coin is related to “Community” and “Public interest”.
These are 4 times stronger than power of “development”.
However, PR is surely important.
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

4. 3
Communication is crucial!
So,
who should be targeted?
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

5. Who is
the BTC holder？
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
0 - 0.001
0.001 - 0.01
0.01 - 0.1
0.1 - 1
1-10
10 - 100
100 - 1,000
1,000 - 10,000
10,000 - 100,000
100,000 - 1,000,000
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
0 - 0.001
0.001 - 0.01
0.01 - 0.1
0.1 - 1
1-10
10 - 100
100 - 1,000
1,000 - 10,000
10,000 - 100,000
100,000 - 1,000,000
（Held BTC）
【The amount of BTC holders】 【The amount of held BTC】
（Calculated from bitcoin address, Dec 2017）
（Held BTC）
BTC is held by a few major account as same as fiat.
So should they be set as the communication target of ICO?
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

6. 5
Many small accounts from
specific area
rather than
A few major accounts around the world
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
ICO is surprisingly local and democratic.
It is same as the philosophy of cryptocurrency.
It is idealistic and actual.
However, ICO is/should composed of
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

7. 6
Dether fuzex.co Arcblock
Refereum Insights network GBX
ICOs that achieved 100% hardcap in Jan 2018（Similar Web）
ICO is global,
but the locality is diverse
― US is No.1, but there are many no.2 countries ―
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

8. 7
ICO-PR is actually
Word-of-Mouth Campaign
for Specific Minority
Local Hit should be aimed
PR should be focused only on few population,
sparse ICO investors in small cryptocurrency world
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

9. 8
ー Used Language on ICO website―
English Chinese Russian Japanese Spanish Hangul German French Italian Portuguese
1 TEZOS 〇
2 EOS (STAGE 1) 〇
3 BANCOR 〇
4 STATUS 〇
5 TENX 〇
6 MOBILEGO 〇 〇 〇 〇
7 SONM 〇
8 AETERNITY 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇
9 MONETHA 〇
10 Paragon 〇
11 KIN 〇
12 Kyber 〇 〇 〇
13 BAT 〇 〇
14 Polybius 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇
15 Stox 〇
16 Civic 〇
17 Storj 〇
18 Aragon 〇
19 OpenANX 〇
20 Cosmos 〇
合計 19 6 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1
（Top 20 big scale ICO, 2017）
English + alpha
it should be strategically choiced
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

10. ◀BTC Trade Volume is dominated
by Japanese Yen
（CryptoCompare, Feb 2018）
JPY, 52.9%
USD,
25.5%
KRW, 9.9%
Euro, 4.4%
Other, 7.3%
Japanese Investors
And Cryptocurrency
BTC Volume by Currency
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

11. Can they be main target of ICO sale?
In fact, Japanese individual
investors are composed of
many small account
• 49% of annual income is under 300K USD, 73% of annual income is
under 500K USD.
• 25% of the amount of Owned securities is under 10K USD, 75% of the
amount is under 100K USD.
• 27% of the amount of Owned stock is 10-30K USD, 73% of the amount is
under 50K USD。
* Japan Securities Dealers Association ,2016
Japanese individual Investors*
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

12. Japanese Individual investors called
“Mrs Watanabe” who
Strongly influences to FX
• They are housewife and office workers
• They have power to move international
monetary trade.
• Even institutional pro-traders cannot
ignore their actions because of actual
influence to foreign exchange
The Economist March 27, 1997
They have influenced FX market for a long time,
and are changing their market to Cryptocurrency.
The power would be used in ICO soon.
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

13. 12
Estimated population who have 1M USD by cryptocurrency trade
6,000～9,000 people
＜Quotative Inference by Fermi Estimate 1＞
• . A Japanese domestic exchange announced the amount of the users, from which, Japanese cryptocurrency trader
is estimated to be 0.93-1 million people.
• A influential blogger researched on twitter how many followers attain 1 million USD asset by cryptocurrency, the
appearance rate was 0.93%. By considering fake answers, the rate can be estimated to be 0.64~0.9%.
• Japanese 1 million people by cryptocurrency can be estimated to be roughly 5,900～9,000 people.
＜Quotative Inference by Fermi Estimate 2＞
• By buying 1000 BTC as of Aug 2012, they can have 1 million USD as of Nov 2017 by holding for a long.
• All BTC address was 30K as of Aug 2012.
• World BTC trade is half dominated by Japanese acceding to CryptoCompare. Modestly estimated amount of
Japanese population ratio at the time is 20~30％, equally 6,000~9,000 people.
Cryptocurrency makes
new millionaires in Japan
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

14. 13
Customer Journey Map
Recognition Search/Consideration Share/Particiation
Intentional
Search
Unintentional
Search
Google
Adwords
External Tw
External Blog
Bitcoin Forum
Telegram
Github
①Abstract
②ICO
③Social Media
自社Tw
Mail Magazine
Owned Blog Youtube
Owned Website
News Site
Bounty
Utilize limited resources by designing info ecosystem
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

15. 14
New web media is growing rapidly
Local Japanese media has influence
AppTimes https://apptimes.net/
BITA Degima Lab https://bita.jp
bitpress https://bitpress.jp/
Business Infinity https://business-infinity.jp/
BUSINESS INSIDER https://www.businessinsider.jp/
CNET Japan https://japan.cnet.com/
CoinDatabase https://www.coindatabase.net
CoinPost http://coinpost.jp/
Markezine https://markezine.jp
TechCrunch Japan http://jp.techcrunch.com/
TechWave https://techwave.jp/
THE BRIDGE http://thebridge.jp/
ZDNet Japan https://japan.zdnet.com/
Crypto Stream https://www.cryptostream.jp/
Coin Choice https://coinchoice.net/
Business + IT https://www.sbbit.jp/
Bitcoin news https://btcnews.jp/
Mynavi News https://news.mynavi.jp/
Kasotsuka.com http://xn--zck9awe6dx83p2uw267du0f.com/
Bitcoin News Start http://bitcoin-newstart.com/
Kabutan News https://kabutan.jp
Nikkei https://www.nikkei.com/
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
98.5% of Japanese read only articles in Japanese language.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

16. Case:Bankera
* Keller, E. and Berry, J. (2003) The Influentials: One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy, Free Press.
1-10% people decides the decision of 90-99% people*
Key of ICO promotion is owned by
very few bloggers？
One Japanes bloger can make impact on global large ICO.
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

17. Important Fact:
Word-of-Mouth
cannot be controlled
The weight of Negative : Neutral : Positive is ２ : ６ : ２.
The ratio is unchangeable.
Dark Blog Commercial Blog
Private Blog
Fact based
PositiveNegative Neutral
２ ２６
It is possible to make effort to increase the volume of related articles.
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

18. List of Influential Twitter Accounts and Bloggers
Excerpt
Quotatives approach can cause miscommunication.
Quality approach based on qualitative analysis makes influence impact.
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan
名前 Twitter ブログ ブログＵＲＬ ブログＰＶ フォロワー
イケダハヤト @Ihayato まだ仮想通貨持ってないの？ www.ikedahayato.com/ 1,650,000 111,660
マナ@仮想通貨(暗号通貨) @1000crypto 貯金1000万を仮想通貨に換えた男のブログ https://bitcoiner.link/ 985,000 27,695
DEG @DEG_2020 仮想通貨のあるとこ http://www.bitcoin-trade.info/ 483,000 11,387
スーパーかきぴー @kakip_21 ゼロから始める仮想通貨 https://www.zerokarabitcoin.com/ 337,000 4,440
玲奈❤︎丸の内OL仮想通貨投資♡ @reinabb3 丸の内OLの仮想通貨投資日記 https://bitcoin-yoro.com/ 307,000 21,328
ニルス 🎄暗号通貨/仮想通貨 @nils00000 ニルスの暗号通貨日記 http://altcoins.blue/ 283,000 5,248
トレスト（日本初） @TrendStream CRYPRO STREAM https://www.cryptostream.jp/ 266,000 19,294
銭げばお@仮想通貨賭博録 @zenigebazura1 銭ゲバ https://zenisoku.com/ 215,000 1,377
seiya(仮想通貨ブログ) @crypto_seiya いますぐ始める仮想通貨投資 https://seiyablog.com/ 203,000 10,485
edindin@仮想通貨ブログ @edindin_crypto 社畜SE、仮想通貨を買う http://syaticrypto.xyz/ 154,000 10,496
墨汁うまい @bokujyuumai Ethereum Japan https://ethereum-japan.net/ 152,000 30,419
とんきつ @enw96321 仮想通貨で億万長者 https://www.virtual-currency-trade.com/ 143,000 5,146
りっぷるちゃん @ripple_chan Crypted Truth 仮想通貨ウワサの真相 http://www.cryptedtruth.com/ 125,000 9,173
アラタ@仮想通貨な渋谷系ITリーマン @cry_curr_ar 渋谷で働く仮想通貨好きITリーマンのブログ https://xarataxnp.com/ 115,000 9,753
雪ねこ @Yuki_coiner 雪ねこは仮想通貨と夢の中 http://www.benyasu-btcblog.com/ 81,000 4,954
仮想通貨ベイビー @bit_taroh 初心者から始める仮想通貨生活！ https://virtualmoneylife.com/ 77,000 2,147
大石哲之 @bigstonebtc 大石哲之ブログ http://nomad-ken.com/ N/A 39,693
Koji Higashi @Coin_and_Peace Koji Higashi https://medium.com/@coin_and_peace N/A 19,413
ふうか·ᴥ·仮想通貨な女子大生 @huuka_u_u 仮想通貨な女子大生 投資日記 https://www.crypto-huuka.com/ N/A 18,174
ヨーロピアン @sen_axis 西欧の車窓から https://medium.com/@europian N/A 17,487
Junya Hirano @junya_1991 - - N/A 16,763
ポイン@仮想通貨なハイパーニート @poipoikunpoi ポインの仮想通貨ハマって（中毒って）ます!! https://www.poipoikunpoi.com/ N/A 16,278
みしま @bitmania999 仮想通貨のズルーイ仕組み（仮） http://cryptmishima.com/ N/A 13,049
妄想175@投資も人生も自己責任 @bitmania999 - - N/A 13,048
響＠個人トレーダー @Whiskey_bonbon_ - - N/A 12,166
くりぱか @Creeperker 仮想通貨の解体新書 http://www.creeppler.xyz/ N/A 8,673
ほよよ @uhohoiarale - - N/A 6,825
うどん @udon_crypto うどんの仮想通貨・暗号通貨ひろば http://udon-cryptocurrency.hatenablog.com/ N/A 6,472
天丼界の、やんちゃん @yanyanchan2020 #REF! - N/A 5,079
月衛とぶ蔵@仮想通貨[BCH] @tobuzo_net まだ仮想通貨で悶々してるの？ https://tobuzou.net/ N/A 4,205
ビヒダス @bihidas123 仮想通貨投資・株式投資掲示板 http://cryptocurrency1.org/ N/A 3,038
快傑Z @CryptoKaiketsuZ 快傑Ｚの仮想通貨を投資以外で消耗してます！ http://www.zbaron-newworld.com/ N/A 2,591
ちゃまりん @chama2460 仮想通貨やろうよ！ http://www.crypto-chama.com/ N/A 1,499
紅茶こぞう@相互フォロー @kouchakozou 初心者のためのビットコイン道場 https://xn--eck3a9bu7culo81x6lo.co/ N/A 951

19. 18
ICO Listing Site
In Japanese lunguage
The trend of these media is fast changing day by day,
but following it and localization is necessary task.
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

20. 19
Select appropriate media
for minimum viable
Communication
Twitter Medium Telegram
Lean cycle method could be appied to ICO communication.
Build – measure – Learn every day
These three media should be organized in Japanese
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

21. 20
Used Social Media
In successful ICOs
― Top 20 ICOs in 2017―
ICO Twitter slack Blog
Bitcoin
talk
Telegram Facebook Reddit github Youtube Linkdin Steemit WeChat QQ Riot 設置数
1 TEZOS 〇 〇 〇 〇 4
2 EOS (STAGE 1) 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 6
3 BANCOR 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 10
4 STATUS 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 7
5 TENX 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 7
6 MOBILEGO 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 6
7 SONM 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 8
8 AETERNITY 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 11
9 MONETHA 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 8
10 Paragon 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 8
11 KIN 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 5
12 Kyber.Network 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 6
13 BAT 〇 〇 〇 〇 4
14 Polybius 〇 〇 〇 3
15 Stox 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 6
16 Civic 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 5
17 Storj 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 8
18 Aragon 〇 〇 〇 〇 4
19 OpenANX 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 〇 10
20 Cosmos Network 〇 〇 〇 〇 4
累計 20 15 15 14 14 13 13 9 7 3 2 2 2 1 6.5
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan

22. Set difficulty of information
in “Decent manner”
Level of Information
Disseminator side
Level of Information
Recipient side
Extention of Information
Difficulty of Information
A little professional information would be shared at most.
Masahiro Masumura, Hikaru Yamamoto, ”Finding influencer and consumer insight in Blog sphere” Quarterly Marketing Journal 30(3)82-94.
Mikihisa Suzuki. All rights reserved.
▶How to communicate
Introduction to ICO Promotion in Japan