Business Development - New Era
About the job
- At least approximately 2–3 years of experience in business development, business planning, or strategic partnerships.
- Ability to create decision-driving documents, spreadsheets, and presentations; structure ambiguous information and turn it into written recommendations.
- Ability to use current AI technologies and tools, including generative AI, in daily research, planning, and project execution, while understanding their limitations and verifying outputs.
- Business-level Japanese proficiency.
- Research and analyze markets, competitors, and potential partners for the assigned business.
- Work with managers to support the development of business models for assigned initiatives, including pricing, packaging, and revenue logic.
- Identify, negotiate, and support the execution of specific partnerships, including content or intellectual property, stores and partner companies, distribution, and technology vendors, from initial contact through contract and launch.
- Serve as the day-to-day point of contact for internal and external stakeholders, including partners and Product, Engineering, Legal, and Sales, to advance assigned projects.
- Experience launching a new business.
- Experience delivering projects in collaboration with engineers or designers.
- Experience in consumer marketplaces, local commerce, or content platforms.
- Strong interest in building and scaling new consumer businesses in the AI era.
- Business-level English proficiency or higher.
About the company
SmartNews aggregates news from over 3,000 publishers into a single app, letting users read a wide range of stories in one place. It relies on machine learning to analyze articles, social signals, and user behavior to surface trending and relevant news, with features like SmartView for fast reading and offline access. The service earns mainly from ads and revenue-sharing deals with publishers, plus SmartNews+ for premium content from many media partners. Its goal is to reduce information overload by providing broad, newspaper-like discovery rather than hyper-personalized feeds, while sustaining the business through publisher partnerships and advertising.
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
Debt Financing
Total Funding
$486.5M
Headquarters
Tokyo, Japan
Founded
2012
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- April 2026 Docomo renamed My Magazine to SmartNews for docomo, expanding Japanese reach.
- May 2026 SmartNews Ads Conference named 64 partner agencies, including CyberAgent and Hakuhodo DY ONE.
- July 17, 2026 AI Transformation Division signals product velocity and cost automation focus.
What critics are saying
- Bloomberg's March 2026 Tokyo IPO report set up a likely down-round versus 2021 valuation.
- SmartNews depends on publisher traffic and ad agencies; AP, Reuters, and media partners can renegotiate.
- Google and Apple control distribution; App Store ranking changes can crush installs overnight.
What makes SmartNews unique
- SmartView and 4,500+ publisher network preserve a clean, cross-source reading habit.
- SmartNews Rewards, launched March 25, 2026, monetizes reading with gift-card incentives.
- Docomo partnership and 64 agency partners deepen distribution across Japan and ads.
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Benefits
- Health Insurance