The archive · Consumer Apps · Product decision · 2023–2026
POPOPO hit #1 on Japan App Store at launch, shut down six months later
Kawango's ¥3B personally-funded 3D avatar calling SNS topped Japan's App Store on day one, then died six months later.
POPOPO
What the business is
3D-avatar audio calling and live-streaming app; 'video calls without a camera'.
Starting capital：Kawango personally invested ~¥3B (registered capital ¥500M)
How it started
Dwango founder Kawango (川上量生) founded POPOPO Inc. in Tokyo in August 2023 and funded it entirely himself. He wanted to build an avatar voice SNS with people he respected — Hiroyuki Nishimura, GACKT and Hideaki Anno joined as directors, VRM creator MIRO (Shinnosuke Iwakawa) as CTO. The concept: 'video calls without a camera', where automatic camera work turns ordinary chats into TV-like live broadcasts.
What happened
The app launched on 2026-03-18 after years of development, with a launch event starring GACKT, Anno and actor Takeru Sato, a ¥100M giveaway campaign, web CMs and Shibuya/Shinjuku station ads. It hit #1 on the App Store free chart on days 1–2, but retention collapsed: within three days the most popular streams drew only about 30 concurrent viewers and the app fell off the sales ranking. Evangelion and Touhou collab items failed to revive it.
How it ended up
Service ends 2026-09-17, six months after launch; founder admitted on X that he had sunk ~¥3B of personal money and that the project really needed ~¥100B.
Background
POPOPO Inc. (ポポポ株式会社) was founded in Tokyo in August 2023 by Kawango (川上量生), the founder of Dwango and niconico, who funded it entirely from his own pocket. His bet: that a voice SNS with 3D avatars — 'video calls without a camera' — could win mainstream users in Japan. He recruited an all-star board: Hiroyuki Nishimura, musician GACKT and director Hideaki Anno, with VRM creator MIRO as CTO.
The app launched on 2026-03-18 with maximum hype: a launch event starring GACKT, Anno and actor Takeru Sato, a ¥100M giveaway campaign, web commercials and Shibuya/Shinjuku station ads. It hit #1 on Japan's App Store free chart on days 1–2, ahead of ChatGPT and Gemini, but the spike did not become habit: within three days the most popular streams drew only about 30 concurrent viewers and the app fell off the sales ranking. Monetization was a social-game model — avatars priced up to ¥30,000, a ¥800/month premium tier, and tipping.
Evangelion and Touhou collab items failed to revive it. On 2026-07-15 the company announced the service would end; it shuts down on 2026-09-17, exactly six months after launch. Kawango admitted on X that he had personally invested about ¥3 billion and that the minimum was ¥30 billion — roughly ¥100 billion for the whole project. He described the failure as never becoming embedded in users' lives.
What has to be true
- A ¥100M giveaway and celebrity launch bought downloads, not habit: top streams fell to ~30 concurrent viewers within three days.
- Social-game avatar pricing (up to ¥30,000) without a game loop could not turn casual chat into revenue.
- Standalone voice calling has no built-in network effect; it sticks as a feature of games or radio, not as the product itself.
- A personal war chest of ¥3B was far below what consumer SNS distribution requires — the founder himself admitted ~¥100B was needed.
What can be applied
A launch-day #1 from celebrity hype and paid promotion doesn't create retention; network-effect consumer SNSs need a real engagement loop and far more capital than one person's fortune.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02 POPOPO is in wind-down: premium signups and coin sales ended 2026-07-22, new downloads stopped 2026-08-31, and the service ends 2026-09-17. Founder Kawango has already moved on, announcing a ZEN University mathematics project (computer verification of IUT theory) funded with ~¥500M of pocket money.
Sources
- 3万円のアバターも "ソシャゲ課金モデル"の「POPOPO」は成功できるか？
- 初日1位、3日後に視聴者30人——1億円配ったアプリ「POPOPO」が半年で消える理由
- [Breaking News] Avatar calling service "POPOPO" to shut down.
- かわんご氏「POPOPOに私財30億円突っ込んだ」が、それでも「ケチってしまった」と反省
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