Evernote’s success in Japan is such a surprising phenomenon that several tech blogs and forums have tackled the same question: what’s the secret?
Where even social media giant Facebook initially found difficulty breaking into Japan, Evernote gained its most loyal following. The California-based startup announced today that it has extended for the fifth time in a row its partnership with Japan’s largest mobile carrier, NTT DOCOMO--perhaps to celebrate the fact that of its 8 million users, 20% of them were introduced to Evernote through DOCOMO.
While a partnership between a U.S. mainstream app and a major Asian mobile carrier typically lasts a year or two for limited promotions, the marriage between Evernote and DOCOMO has been unusually long and has resulted in foreign exchange programs between the companies.
Linda Kozlowski, VP of Worldwide Operations at Evernote, herself called it “interesting and surprising” that DOCOMO is “continuing to find value out of their relationship with Evernote.”
“Normally it might be a one to two-year type of partnership where you offer it as a sort of limited type of promotion and move on from there, but they've seen such success and demand from their customers,” said Kozlowski.
In Japan, several DOCOMO Android devices come preloaded with the Evernote app.
In the same way that DOCOMO’s roles as both carrier and Evernote reseller has helped the productivity app bolster its user count by exposing it to tens of millions, Evernote has also boosted DOCOMO profits. Some customers stay with DOCOMO specifically for the Evernote promotions, according to the two companies.
Evernote announced that it has extended for the fifth time in a row its partnership with Japan’s... [+]
Aside from the benefits of being tied to the largest telecom company in Japan, what really bolsters Evernote’s success in the country is the cultural obsession with productivity at work.
Japanese developers have taken advantage of Evernote’s open API to create popular third party apps that mostly revolve around character input, sourcing news articles, and scanning textbooks.
What truly demonstrates the loyal userbase Evernote has in Japan is the sheer number of books (there are currently at least 56) that have been written by users who have no affiliation with the company. The books cover a range of topics from tips and tricks to productivity in specific jobs and industries.
“Having 56 books written about Evernote is just, it's pretty mind boggling to think about, given that they're from just one country,” said Kozlowski.
Japan is Evernote’s third largest market globally after the U.S. and China, and comes second in revenue count, making it an extremely important market for the app.
DOCOMO recently announced an iris scanning smartphone, the first commercially available smartphone with this feature. At the end of fiscal year 2014, DOCOMO had 30 million subscribers.
Though there has been speculation about Evernote going public this year, it hasn’t happened yet. DOCOMO Capital, an arm of NTT DOCOMO, has an investment in Evernote. The productivity note-taking app has been through 7 rounds to date, bringing its total funding to $325 million. The company has had a valuation of $1 billion since 2012 when it raised a $70 million D round.
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Update: This story has been updated since its original post to reflect some corrections. An earlier version said Evernote's total funding after 12 rounds added up to $290 million; DoCoMo is now known as DOCOMO; and not all DOCOMO Android devices are preloaded with Evernote.
