You went from making websites in middle school to creating one of Japan’s leading recipe apps. What inspired that leap and sparked the idea for DELISH KITCHEN?
I’ve loved the internet since I was a kid and always dreamed of creating my own online service. After working on mobile games, I discovered the huge potential for video content on mobile. That’s when the spark for DELISH KITCHEN happened. I was working on new services related to food and saw that people were really struggling with deciding what to make every day. I felt this myself when I used to bake as it was difficult to understand recipes from only text and pictures. I wanted to solve that daily problem for people, and I knew video was the way to do it and make their lives happier.
What is the core mission behind DELISH KITCHEN and how does it make life easier for your users?
The biggest struggle for people who cook every day is deciding what to make. My mission is to solve that problem and make people happier every day. For beginners, we show them that cooking is easier than they thought. For experienced cooks, we make it easy to find what to make today. We have 55,000 recipes, and we also suggest the entire meal, or “KONDATE,” so they don’t have to think about pairing a main dish with a side.
How has Google Play helped you reach and grow with such a large audience?
We wanted our app to be accessible to as many people as possible, and distributing it on Google Play was very important for reaching the large number of Android users in Japan. To have over 5 million downloads, mostly just in Japan, shows how vital that is. Google Play has been a great partner in our growth because it provides the integrations and tools that help developers grow more efficiently. For us, that means checking all the user reviews to decide on new features, and it also includes feature campaigns that help us reach even more people.
What is next for DELISH KITCHEN?
We just launched an AI-powered cooking assistant for our premium users. It’s designed to answer questions like, “What can I make from leftovers?” or “Can you give me a high-protein recipe under 500 calories?”. We are also working on a new app, which will help people record their meals and manage their health and wellness. Beyond apps, we are reaching into offline services by building new partnerships with supermarkets to help people make better food choices in their everyday shopping.
Discover other inspiring app and game founders featured in #WeArePlay.