New Space is Open to Everyone! -Challenger from the Game Industry-
In this 10th member interview, Ryota Takahashi will appear who joined the company as a business development just this month (February 2022). He met the space industry only a few months ago. We will delve into the space industry from a marketing perspective.
Experience in the game industry that conveys the appeal of products to the world
-Please tell us about your past!
I spent my childhood in Los Angeles and then attended Japanese school from junior high school to university. I began to admire entrepreneurs and businesses when I read the biographies of business owners such as Soichiro Honda and Konosuke Matsushita while I was in college.
When I lived in the United States, information devices became more widespread than in Japan, and I was familiar with computers from an early age. Also, maybe because my father is an interior designer such as a department store, and my relatives are also a family with many creators such as musicians and movie directors, I became fond of making something through a computer and letting people see it. Since I could speak English, I joined a game company as a new graduate.
-What kind of work did you do in your previous job?
I was working to sell game software and hardware to the world with B2B and B2C. I was delighted to visit countries such as Indonesia, the United States, the Netherlands, and Dubai to let the world know about new things.
In addition, I was able to go from the establishment of a subsidiary overseas to the launch of game service, set up a new marketing team in-house, and finally experience executives. So I had never touched the space industry before, and I had the impression that it was a vaguely distant existence.
The “universe” is just around the corner!
-What was the reason for your transition to the space industry?
As a result, my previous job has grown into a company listed on the second section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and the number of employees has grown to several hundred. I was very happy with the increase in my employees and income, but I also felt that I was stuck in the frame. In that process, I began to think about changing jobs, thinking that I wanted some new stimulation and that it was the right time to take the next action in terms of age.
-How did you meet WARPSPACE?
I started changing jobs just a few months ago (the interview was conducted in mid-February). I was conscious of contributing to interesting technologies and businesses from the marketing knowledge I had cultivated so far, but at that time, WARPSPACE seemed to feel the need for marketing personnel, so they asked me to join.
-The universe that you vaguely thought was far away suddenly appeared in front of me!
I never thought that an approach would come from a space company. However, when I think back, I think that there was a connection from the experience of hearing Ms. Chiaki Mukai’s lecture and playing a simulation game to make a spaceship using realistic physics calculations.
-What was the deciding factor for joining the company?
It was great that I was able to sympathize with the contents of the company’s vision and mission by watching the log video of the recruitment event and the Compass of Behavior. I think that culture is important for companies in the future to confront new business areas.
From a marketing perspective, I feel that it is important for members to sympathize with the new way of thinking, put it into practice, and gain sympathy from society, and this part was very important when choosing a company.
Challenges for further growth of the space industry
-What are the challenges in the space industry today from a marketing perspective?
Every day, many new faces grow on the stage of space, and 11 companies are listed in the world in 2021 alone. To further accelerate the space business in the future, I think it is necessary to involve more people in this growth, both in terms of hardware and software.
However, awareness of what is happening in the space business right now is not as widespread as in other industries. For example, if you compare space-related articles with other articles on the internet that are popular in the world, there is a huge difference in the number of comments received.
-Surely, I have the impression that it is difficult to talk about society as a whole.
The first matter to think about is how to get people interested in the utilization of space, which has the potential to be useful for all human activities. In the Space Brother’s*1 collaboration that WARPSPACE is currently working on, the widely recognized Space Brothers will be the hook, and we can explain what is happening on the earth, what can be done by earth observation, and how it will be useful. By taking this type of method, I think we can create a flow that will make people interested in the space business from a casual entrance.
*1 Space Brothers is a well-known space exploration manga in Japan, written by Chuya Koyama. Technologies appearing in the story are reviewed by JAXA, making the manga aligned with the real-life status in space exploration.
What we should aim for is a phase in which various people seem natural to ask, “Is there anything we can commit to the space industry?” As the first entrance to that end, I am conscious of trying various measures to get interested and cultivate the industry.
-For example, what kind of contribution do you think the space industry can make to the game industry?
Well, for example, there is a movement to create a 3D model of a city from satellite SAR images without any human intervention. While there are various games set in reality, how to realistically express the world is a benchmark.
If the entire model is provided from the outside, we can have designers and engineers concentrate on making something more creative. And if more realistic things lead to fun for both developers and users, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?
In addition, communication lags occur due to the use of submarine cables, which are currently complicatedly connected depending on the location. If gamers who are fighting in the world of comma one second can solve the reality that cannot be connected to the world at that scale more accurately in real-time, it will be an opportunity for the industry.
Everyone who likes space is a companion!
In a certain scene of the Space Brothers, there is a scene where the main character Mutta says “Let’s talk about the universe” while troubles occur during the test and the members become suspicious. Rather than the problem that was happening in front of me, it was a scene in which the situation was rounded off by turning to the universe that everyone dreamed of.
-It’s one of the most famous words in the work.
Especially in the space industry, I think it’s easy to understand that even if each background is different, the team can look in the same direction, and understand each other.
Efforts to create a figure in which various talents face the same direction and various methodologies interweave by calling out to “let’s talk about space” to involve non-space people like myself in the industry. I think that is done every day in WARPSPACE. Therefore, I would like to encourage those who aspire to the industry not to think that the difficulty of the space industry is high, and I would like to convey that they are closer to me through my work.
-Lastly, I would like to ask you about the WARPSPACE “Compass of Behavior.” Which is your cherishing?
Our Compass of Behavior
01. Leap
02. Goal oriented
03. Decide with fact
04. Chase one chance
05. Resilient spirit
06. Respect your crew
07. Love family
08. Adventure
09. Be attractive
The most important thing for me is “Leap”.
I think that there is a new value for humankind by overturning the premise that is considered to be common sense in the present world. With such an outstanding idea, it will become energy that will change the world, and from the perspective of becoming the de facto standard in a few years, I also think that we must not crush the outlandish ideas that lead to “Leap”.
Finally, this team doesn’t feel alienated, and I am very excited to think and work on how I can apply my knowledge and experience to the development of the universe. And I hope that more and more people will participate in the development of the space industry and that more people will talk about space.
Let’s get along with everyone! We are Space Brothers! (Lol)
