From Osaka to the world with the industry’s No. 1 parking-sharing service!
There is a sharing service that has grown enormously in just a few years since its start: akippa, an app that lets you book vacant monthly parking spaces and unused parking at private homes in 15-minute units.
Until now, you could not know whether a parking lot had space without going there, but with the akippa app you can not only check availability but also book vacant spaces at private homes and monthly parking lots. Going beyond mere convenience, it made many people realize that sharing surplus assets can become a business. With free user registration and a business model of earning commissions from parking fees, it now has about 750,000 members. “It’s still growing every month, and we expect to reach 1 million within the year,” says Genki Kanaya, President and CEO of akippa Inc. Registered parking spaces have also grown to 20,000 locations, the most in Japan. That means 1% of Japan’s roughly 80 million drivers are akippa members.
As a company that solves problems, wanting to create “things people can’t do without”
akippa was born from “multiplying employees’ problems.” Once, when all the employees were brainstorming business ideas, “one employee saw that a female employee had written about having trouble finding parking when out, and murmured, ‘If only we could use the spare space in front of my parents’ house…’ We thought, couldn’t we create a service that matches empty spaces with demand for parking?” akippa, developed this way, launched in April 2014. The following February, the company changed its name to akippa Inc. and decided to focus on this single business.
akippa is now called a representative of the sharing economy, but Kanaya says the team did not know the term when developing it. “In the winter of 2013, we took part in an OIH pitch event, and Kunimitsu of gumi and Suda of Enigmo told us, ‘That’s the sharing economy.’ Facing a power outage in our previous company was a formative experience, and wanting to create a service as essential to people as electricity, we made our vision ‘creating things people can’t do without’ and positioned the company as a problem-solving company. So I was truly happy when the two of them praised it so highly. I felt for the first time that what we had built on our own philosophy had been recognized by the world. That OIH event was akippa’s starting point.”
What is the socially good future that akippa is creating with IT?
Matching through empty spaces meets all kinds of demand. Recently, partnerships with car-related facilities such as large facilities, major rental car companies, and car dealers are increasing, and partnerships with the official parking of theme parks and soccer stadiums are reportedly easing congestion through advance booking. There are many cases that affect public traffic, such as delivery trucks parking on the street at convenience stores without parking, or roadside stores filling up at busy times. Because akippa can arrange parking near stores, it can solve these problems too. Thanks to cases like these, the company has recently gained many corporate members as well.
In January this year, the company also ran a demonstration of renting out the garages of a Tokyo taxi company, strengthening ties with a wide range of industries. In May this year, it cleared the challenge of gated parking lots, which had been hard to bring in, through IoT. By attaching Share Gate, an entry and exit management device jointly developed with the electronic lock developer ART, advance booking and smartphone payment became possible even at unmanned gated parking lots at commercial facilities, hotels, and elsewhere.
Kanaya was convinced that using smartphones, now widespread, would spark a C2C business anyone could join. By valuing this gut feeling and the user’s perspective, the company created a service that is win-win for both those who use it and those who provide it.
Wanting to build Osaka’s ecosystem with an “attitude of never giving up”!
Kanaya says entrepreneurs need two abilities, “logical thinking” and “an attitude of never giving up,” and that the latter in particular is essential. In fact, Kanaya has an unusual background, having aimed to go pro as a trainee at a J2 club. The mindset of never giving up was built through soccer.
Sticking to Osaka as a base is also very akippa. The company says it has been able to stay a company with momentum while based in Osaka largely thanks to talented people who moved from leading companies such as Google, DeNA, and Rakuten. Many of them moved back to their home region, and a high share of employees are from Kansai.
“Many people active in Tokyo want to return to Kansai. The catch is that rewarding work is hard to find in Kansai. But if there is a company that keeps growing with an interesting business, they will move to it. Also, the reason we don’t leave Osaka is that we perform better at home than away. Going forward, I want to become a mega-venture and build Osaka’s ecosystem. There is meaning in akippa being in Osaka, so I want to keep working on it without giving up.”
Aiming for a better world, to become the world’s top mobility platform.
The goal the company has set going forward is “to become the world’s largest mobility platform by 2030.” “Ultimately, I want to realize a world where car-sharing cars become self-driving cars: you call one with akippa, it comes to pick you up, drops you off at your destination, and only the car goes on to a combined parking and charging spot.” In rural areas, many older people have no means of transport and struggle to go out. The aim is for akippa to become the platform for self-driving cars such people can ride once they appear.
“When a problem-solving company becomes the world’s best, the world gets better. That is why we will aim to be ‘the world’s best,’ from right here in Osaka.” The exciting future akippa is creating is just around the corner.
Interview date: July 12, 2018
(Interview and text: Manabu Kitagawa)