The development of information and communications technology (ICT), such as the spread of smartphones and social networking sites (SNS), is having a major impact on the fashion industry. Fashion information is distributed via apps, and collections and runway shows are accessible. Accessing the latest fashion trends is becoming possible anytime, anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. In this series, we interview and report on venture companies that are applying ever-evolving IT technology to the fashion industry to innovate. Our first guest is Hiroki Kanayama, CEO of VASILY, the company behind the social fashion site "iQON." iQON is a site where users can edit item images provided by brands and e-commerce sites, create outfit scrapbooks, and interact with each other. Each outfit receives "LIKE" from other users, and popular outfits and users are objectively displayed numerically. Coordination contests are also held to encourage user participation. An iPhone app was released in February of this year, and monthly visits have exceeded one million. Sales have increased 150-200% month-on-month, and users are currently increasing at a rate of more than 10,000 per month. We spoke with service founder Kanayama about iQON's strategy and the future of fashion brands.


--The number of fashion-related IT services has increased. Are there any companies or services you are currently benchmarking?

We don't consider any fashion-related competitors, as each has its own unique style. However, we believe that the web service we should benchmark when running iQON is social games. Social games are competing content for the disposable income and time of fashion-interested individuals.
I myself tried paying to play social games for research purposes. The presentation, display, and UI are well thought out. We need to fully understand the appeal of this content, which motivates people to spend time and money. For example, rather than spending the same 5,000 yen on a game, we need to encourage them to purchase a T-shirt they find on iQON. We want to create a world where customers are more satisfied with spending the same 5,000 yen on fashion than on games.

--What can we do to achieve this?

First, we need to make fashion information and content more visible on smartphones and computer screens, so that people can see it. The biggest change that IT has brought to society is that it has dramatically reduced the costs of receiving and sending information. However, the fashion industry has not fully taken advantage of this change, and I don't think there is enough information online, both in terms of quality and quantity.
I love the Internet and surf it often, but I don't often have opportunities to come across fashion information and images. Naturally, the Internet is a major source of information in modern society, and while the amount of time spent on it is increasing, there is actually very little fashion content online. This is something I felt when I was working on fashion-related content at my previous job at Yahoo!. One of the reasons I started iQON is to change this situation.
Without exposure to fashion, people naturally tend to wear casual clothes, lose interest, and lose their desire to buy. I believe that Japanese people are one of the most fashion-conscious people in the world. I don't think a country that cannot utilize the potential of its people to its strengths is healthy. We want to display a lot of fashion content on screen and get more people familiar with fashion. If we can do that, we think Japan will become a powerful and vivid country through fashion.

Next time, we'll take a closer look at the company's ecosystem strategy.