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Japan’s Wondershake App Helps You Connect With Like-minded Neighbors

After months of anticipation, the Wondershake app has been finally released. The Tokyo-based start-up (not yet incorporated at the time of writing) unveiled its smartphone app that helps you get in touch with neighbors you’ve never talked to, but you may have common interests with.

The app will collect a history of posts you’ve liked on Facebook, and generating a set of your interests on the app called “tags”. Go out into a town, shake the app (the iPhone), and you may find like-minded people around you and strike up a conversation. Wondershake is developed by a team led by Satoshi Suzuki who was previously working with Tonchidot, best known for its augmented reality (AR) app Sekai Camera. The app has been chosen as one of the projects that Tokyo-based incubator Open Network Lab supports, and it also won the first prize at TechCrunch Japan’s tech start-up contest last April. The team has a unique marketing strategy, and the app is available in limited areas only. Starting with Shibuya, Tokyo, they plan to expand its service availability to New York City and San Francisco in August. In my view, for ensuring a sufficient user experience of finding the people with the app, it appears they are currently deploying the service only in highly populated areas.

Mr. Suzuki explained that when you fall in love with someone nearby but don’t see any chance to start talking with her (or him), Wondershake will greatly help you break the ice. Of course, a little courage doesn’t hurt either!