Smartphone × Fashion: Creating the Future We Want to Live In (VASILY × Dentsu Inc. Smart Plus)

I'm Yasuharu Asai from Dentsu Inc. Smart Plus. With smartphones now widespread across all generations, anyone can access information anytime, anywhere. Fashion-related information, in particular, is gaining attention as frequently accessed content, especially among trend-conscious young women.

How will the increasing prevalence of smartphones change young people with a strong interest in fashion and companies involved in the fashion sector? And what will become of Japan's fashion culture?

This time, Dentsu Inc. Smart Plus spoke with Yuki Kanayama of VASILY, the company behind the fashion coordination app " iQON," exploring these questions from various angles.

Creating the "Future We Want to Live In" with the Power of the Internet

 

Asai: Why did you decide to provide services in the fashion industry?

Kanayama: Frankly, we don't see ourselves as being in the fashion industry. While "iQON" is an app that sparks moments when women want to dress up, we fundamentally see our base as being in the internet industry.

Asai: I see. What sparked the idea of combining fashion and smartphones?

Kanayama: Since my student days, I've thought combining the internet with something else could work well. But there aren't many combinations of fashion content and the internet. I thought, "That's not good."
Because as the time spent online continues to increase, if women lose the time to engage with fashion content, won't they become less stylish in the future? I didn't want to live in that kind of future! That's why I decided to create a future where women can enjoy fashion myself – that's what led me to focus on the fashion domain. I thought a future where women can enjoy fashion more was "the future I want to live in." It feels a bit like the protagonist of the movie "Terminator" (laughs).

Asai: So you focused on the intersection of women's fashion and the internet to create the future you want to live in.

Kanayama: As a premise, I see venture and startup companies as those doing business no one has done before, while small businesses are those starting small with things already done. Since founding, I've wanted VASILY to be a venture, aiming to create the future I most want to build: a future where women can enjoy fashion.

Asai: A future where women can enjoy fashion? I'm all for it!

 

The smartphone is the closest medium to humans in history.

Kanayama: I believe smartphones are the devices that have brought themselves closest to the human body in human history. Their high portability and physical proximity to our bodies have profoundly impacted our lives. Crucially, smartphones have further reduced the cost of sending and receiving information. While the innovation brought by the internet was fundamentally about lowering information transmission costs, smartphones have overwhelmingly reduced not just monetary costs but also psychological costs like time and effort. For example, even in the feature phone era, apps and browsers existed. But with feature phones, you had to open the phone, press the menu button, browse the app list, select the app... it required considerable effort. Smartphones, on the other hand, just require unlocking the screen and tapping your favorite app on the home screen. Furthermore, the advent of constant high-speed internet connectivity and social media platforms that enable smooth information exchange made sharing information effortless. That was unimaginable 100 years ago.

Asai: That's certainly true. At Dentsu Inc. Smart Platform, we also believe the proliferation of smartphones has triggered an information explosion across all generations.

Kanayama: The reduced cost of sending and receiving information has caused the world's information volume to explode. Today, I believe people have adopted a "lean back" attitude toward information, taking a relaxed stance and becoming "immersed in information." The 20th century was a time of "lean forward" – actively seeking out information. But with smartphones, I think we've shifted to a "lean back" approach toward information. In the 21st century, even when you're aimlessly browsing the internet, content flows endlessly and infinitely through your social media timelines or feeds. Just watching it pass by can be satisfying.

Asai: So, how is the smartphone impacting the fashion industry? I personally hope it becomes a catalyst for getting more people interested in fashion.

Kanayama: I believe we need to spread the recognition that smartphones and the internet are beneficial for the fashion industry. I think the fashion industry didn't handle the initial adoption of technology well. As a result, I believe fewer people in fashion are doing innovative things using the internet compared to other industries. Smartphones and the internet are becoming infrastructure like electricity or water. If we don't incorporate them, the industry itself might disappear.

What will happen to physical stores and magazines?

 

Asai: With the fashion industry's shift online due to smartphone adoption, what do you think will happen to physical stores and magazines, which have shaped fashion culture until now?

Kanayama: I believe digital transformation presents a huge opportunity for stores and magazines. Take magazines, for example. I still believe the information and content publishers deliver on paper holds value today. In fact, amidst the vast, mixed-quality flood of information flowing through the internet, the carefully curated, refined information crafted by professional editors is precious. At VASILY, we also want to leverage that information content, and we've already agreed on a capital and business partnership with Kodansha.

Asai: At Dentsu Inc. Smart Platform, we also hope to contribute in some way to bringing existing high-quality content to smartphones. So, what about physical stores?

Kanayama: I see this as a huge opportunity for stores too. The chance to attract customers through online information sharing is a once-in-a-decade opportunity (laughs). Data shows many "iQON" users view information on the app and then buy clothes in stores, so "iQON" also wants to collaborate with store operators on initiatives.

Asai: I frequently visit stores myself, and I often gather information online beforehand. I also hear from sales staff that many customers show photos from Instagram or similar platforms saying, "I'm looking for this." Given this, could we see brands emerging that don't have physical stores at all? What are your thoughts on that?

Kanayama: I believe forming a virtual brand is quite challenging. What's essential for brand formation is the volume of information received. Think of it as "information capacity" – like 1 megabyte or 3 gigabytes. If we could digitize all the information we perceive in a physical store – the scent, temperature, lighting, displays and products that catch your eye, the movements and expressions of the staff – it would be an enormous amount of data. All that sensory information constitutes the brand's message, and it's from this that affection and image for the brand are formed. The volume is vastly different from what you receive on a 5-inch smartphone screen. Therefore, I currently believe it's very difficult to foster brand affection solely through virtual communication.

Asai: Experiencing a brand through all five senses in a physical store creates a powerful brand experience. I also believe the unique atmosphere and vibe a brand possesses is a major factor in developing a fondness for fashion brands. So, how should fashion brands adapt moving forward with the rise of smartphones?

Kanayama: Brands that don't communicate online are essentially non-existent online. As people's disposable time online continues to grow, online communication is essential. Furthermore, users now have a wider range of choices, so simply making good products isn't enough. I believe brands with a story – ones that make people want to share them or become part of their self-expression – are what's needed.

Asai: Traditionally, stories were about specs or history—kind of like trivia. But in this smartphone era, maybe what's needed now is something that resonates with people's lifestyles.

 

The smartphone generation is not "mass."

Kanayama: When I was a teenager, the means to look up information were limited, so common topics were easier to find. Like, "That thing that person wore in that magazine" (laughs). Now, as I mentioned earlier, information has exploded, leading to fragmentation. Consequently, I think there are fewer iconic content pieces or information sources that everyone pays attention to. Even if such content exists, I don't think it fosters the kind of large-scale community formation we saw when I was a teenager. Consequently, fashion communities are becoming more fragmented, making them harder to grasp compared to before. We don't really approach them with the mindset of targeting a so-called "mass" audience. "iQON" also prioritizes service customization for each individual.

Asai: So defining several target groups and sequentially incorporating them becomes necessary for service penetration, especially for apps. What are your thoughts on that?

Kanayama: The target we identified for "iQON" is people who have great fashion sense but aren't actively sharing that information outwardly, yet they want to share it. Many Japanese people have strong fashion sense but are shy about sharing information, don't you think? With smartphones reducing the cost of sending and receiving information, making it possible for anyone to share information, we wanted to encourage those people. In the past, we might have narrowed our target based on fashion preferences like "Akabiji-kei" or "Urahara-kei." But we felt that approach would create too small a user base today to sustain a viable business. Plus, as an internet service, we have no physical limitations, and costs remain nearly constant regardless of how diverse the genres become. Just as Twitter and Facebook aren't services exclusively for users with specific tastes, iQON, while focused on the fashion genre, doesn't target users biased toward a single genre as an SNS. We aim to use technology to enable matching of diverse tastes and encompass a wide range of preferences.

Asai: Lately, when I look around Omotesando or Harajuku, I feel the number of young people highly interested in fashion has increased compared to a few years ago. Perhaps it's because young people who were interested in fashion but couldn't express it now, thanks to smartphone proliferation, want the world to see them. President Kanayama, what kind of impact do you want to have on the smartphone generation through "iQON"?

Kanayama: I want to provide more moments that make young people "want to dress up." Dressing up makes you want to go out somewhere, creates opportunities for communication, and has a positive impact on yourself. I'd be delighted if it also led to new encounters and sparked new ideas for these people.

 

The universal value consumers seek is "convenience."

 

Asai: To elevate Japanese fashion culture, I hope we see many more services and apps combining fashion and smartphones. How do you see fashion-related internet services and apps evolving?

Kanayama: I don't think the number will explode. One reason is technical difficulty. The internet started as a text-centric culture, but fashion is image-centric. Companies strong in areas like computer vision, capable of handling images appropriately online, might achieve breakthroughs in fashion services.

Asai: Within that landscape, how do you plan to develop "iQON" going forward?

Kanayama: Fundamentally, we'll keep trying to innovate in technically challenging areas, remembering we're a technology company. But that alone is tough (laughs), so our immediate focus is collaborating with publishers. We want to increase high-quality content online that inspires people to dress more stylishly. And of course, mid-to-long term, we aim to compete globally.

Asai: It's important for the app to be a catalyst for people discovering style, right? And it would be even better if it could become their foundational style service. What do you think is needed to keep people using a smartphone app long-term?

Kanayama: I believe it's "convenience." People keep using things that are convenient. Factors like enjoyment can vary depending on life stage or mental state. Achieving "convenience" in fashion is challenging, but I hope we can provide it through encounters with new products that exceed users' expectations. We want to facilitate encounters with products they wouldn't discover through their own online searches.

Asai: Finally, Mr. Kanayama, could you tell us what you aspire to offer the world?

Kanayama: I want to contribute to accelerating the pace of human evolution. I chose the intersection of the internet and fashion as the first step toward that goal. I believe we are now in an era where we can use the power of the internet to contribute to human evolution while creating the future we want to live in.

Asai: Thank you very much!