Look Up, Don't Look Down! TC50 Star Tonchidot Raises $4 Million Series A
The Sekai Camera service launched in Japan a few months ago, and has already become a national hit as the top app on the iPhone app store. The service leverages augmented reality and adds a social layer to it, allowing users to add virtual items in the real world (you hold the device up to your face as a viewfinder, then look at the world around you as tags pop up). The company says that within four days, 10% of all iPhones in Japan already had the app installed, though the number of devices in Japan is a small fraction of those in the US and worldwide. Major companies have already formed partnerships with the site — partners can insert sponsored tags into the virtual world created by Sekai Camera.