Sekai Menu Translation Service solves user translation problems

At the age of more than 20, Nobuyasufukunishi had worked in a number of bars and izakaya (Japanese Bistro) in the living area of Sapporo's thin wild nightlife. The region is Sapporo by the annual Snow Festival (Ice Festival), a week-long snow Festival attracts 2 million of tourists at home and abroad, and the region has naturally become a tourist enclave. Sapporo, the metropolitan city of Hokkaido, is also one of those international ski and snowboard enthusiasts.

Fukunishi's company, Es-planning, wants to help tourists overcome language barriers while also helping restaurant workers avoid embarrassment to guests who cannot use Japanese-ordered meals. The Sekai menu, which has been launched for 7 months, can be used to provide a multilingual translation service for guests in the on-site Japanese menu and wine list through a two-dimensional code placed in a cooperative restaurant. Users only need to scan the two-dimensional code via a smartphone or a tablet computer to order a meal directly, ensuring that the dinner will not be spoiled by language problems.

"A group of us spent the night in the Izakaya and ordered an unlimited drink package," Fukunishi said. "It was a long time before the waiter came up with the dishes we ordered, so I thought, ' Why can't we just order our food on a smartphone? ' A waiter can save a lot of time and energy if he doesn't have to commute to the table when we need it. Of course, Japan has a similar system, but the threshold is very high, the introduction fee is only 500,000 yen (4300 U.S. dollars) around, so we want to create a low-cost alternative. ”

The team initially focused only on ordering, but when Tokyo won the 2020 Olympics, Fukunishi realised the importance of increasing language localization.

"After winning the franchise in Tokyo, we realised that it would be easier to attract more people to Hokkaido, if it was easier to dine with foreigners in local restaurants," he explained. "Tourists flock to the snow festival, but they often only patronize chain restaurants, pharmacies, convenience stores and large retailers." I hope they can experience real Japanese food and culture. This local experience will allow them to visit Japan again. ”

• Verbal Propaganda

Sekai menu is a subsidiary of the Es-planning internal appropriation, the backbone staff including a full-time staff, three part-time staff and fukunishi themselves. Contrary to aggressive sales strategies, the service relies heavily on the development of word of mouth.

"One strategy is to find the leading companies in the industry and then persuade other companies to join them through their influence," Fukunishi explains. "We focus on one tourist area at a time and then build a foothold through famous restaurants." Word of mouth is much more powerful than door-to-door knocking, especially here. ”

So far, the service has attracted 40 Japanese restaurants to join, but the figure is still soaring. Sekai Menu recently cooperated with Tokyo Station's "Kitchen Street" Dining Plaza, and every merchant in the plaza will soon be enabled for the service. Fukunishi said he had been contacted by Vancouver International Airport and planned to offer the service to Japanese tourists entering Canada, and some high-profile restaurants in Australia and Vietnam were also in talks with the company.

By the end of this year, Fukunishi wants Sekai menu to cover 3,000 local Japanese restaurants and 500 overseas restaurants.

• 30 languages

After the user scans the two-dimensional code, the menu that is consistent with the device settings language will be displayed on the device. (This service offers 30 different language versions, but ultimately depends on the number of languages added per restaurant). The default languages include English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Korean, and Thai. Menu browsing and ordering can be done on the same browser. The restaurant staff is equipped with a companion app (for iOS or Android systems, adapted for tablets) to act as a simple POS machine that accepts orders. In large restaurants, multiple tablets can accept orders at the same time.

The restaurant you want to join only needs to send your own menu together with photos of each dish to sekai menu. A menu of 50 vegetables below the four default languages cost 30,000 yen (255 USD). The translation is done by the company and other third parties such as CONYAC. If the customer wants to add an extra language menu, the fee is 500 yen (4.2 USD) per course.

In addition to translation costs, customers are required to pay 10000 yen (85 USD) per Sekai menu Flip Chart (usually one per table) each year. Monthly payments can also be made, and in order to improve penetration, Sekai menu offers a free meal to those who wish to share a two-dimensional code in the whole store.

· Fukunishi's deep heart always sees Es-planning as a start-up.

Fukunishi is an accidental entrepreneur. Before he founded Es-planning, he ran his own bar and Wine House. He wrote the code of his own web site, and in his spare time, the design of online games as a hobby. Fukunishi said he decided to turn off the bar and the Izakaya because he was "often drunk" and decided to become a freelance programmer. In 2006, he founded the website and the mobile development stronghold Es-planning.

"It's been 10 years since the company was founded, so it's hard to call it a start-up," Fukunishi said. "But in our hearts it's definitely a start-up. ”

He added that entrepreneurship and the high degree of social acceptance of technology were a serious lack of Japan's northernmost islands.

"One of the reasons I started this company is that Hokkaido will be able to make more use of technology," he said. Most of the company's contracts are from Tokyo and Kanto. Compared with other parts of Japan, Hokkaido is behind, so I hope the locals can embrace technology. ”

Fukunishi hopes to promote the Sekai menu service in Japan and the world. The first overseas market he locked up in Singapore. His first priority, however, was to let Sekai menu ignite a spark in his hometown.

"The goal is to let the world know that Hokkaido is a good tourist destination." Of course, we want this service to go to the world, but our roots are in Hokkaido. ”

Edited by Josh Horwitz and Steven Millward.

(via Techinasia)