Abbeal is a French start-up specializing in web and mobile development consultancy. They have four branches in France (Paris, Lyon, Lille, and Bordeaux) as well as two subsidiaries in Canada (Toronto and Montréal) and one in Tokyo, Japan. They recently expanded their business in Japan and met quite a big success in the country of the rising sun.
With the purpose of showcasing EU companies’ successes in Japan, Mr. Mohamed Elwageeh, Abbeal’s country manager of Japan, is answering some questions by the EU-Japan Centre.
An Introduction
At the moment, Abbeal offers two services: one where they work as consultants and meet their clients without engineers so they can advise their client about what kind of mobile or web application they need. The second service concerns application development, and in this case, Abbeal will take charge entirely of the whole development of the application.
So, for instance, if a company doesn’t have an engineering department and would like a digital transformation for themselves or their clients, then they can count on Abbeal.
Why Japan?
“The story of why we came to Japan is quite an interesting one. There wasn’t a specific plan that Japan would be the next market we would expand to.”
In fact, when Abbeal started to see a few of their employees leaving the company to work in Japan and hearing that some other members were wishing to experience it, they decided to enter the Japanese market. They then decided to explore new opportunities and set up an office in Tokyo starting in February 2022. But entering a new market is never an easy task and means encountering some drawbacks.
Challenges and difficulties
Initially, Abbeal succeeded in re-hiring some of their former employees that were now living in Japan, but then the company started to face its first challenges.
“I think the biggest difficulty for a Western company entering the Japanese market is localizing.”
Adapting Abbeal’s services to Japan was certainly one of their biggest challenges, and the language barrier was the most difficult one to overcome. Indeed, no one in the company was speaking Japanese when they developed their business in Japan and still, nowadays, some employees need to improve their Japanese language skills. Mr. Elwageeh was the first employee to speak the local language fluently.
Abbeal had to understand the Japanese language, culture, and work environment in order to adapt their services, and they started by paying for Japanese language lessons for their employees and organizing group classes for conversing in Japanese or about Japan. They even recently found a Japanese language school specialized in IT and gaming space, which is a good fit for Abbeal’s purposes.
Competition in the Japanese Market
“The project’s success is Abbeal's success.”
The Japanese market is highly competitive in Abbeal’s sector of activity, and this aspect must be carefully considered when planning a business strategy. However, Abbeal has advantages: they give very high output, and they have reasonable pricing according to Mr. Elwageeh. These have helped Abbeal to develop partnerships in Japan. Finally, the fact that they are trustworthy, flexible, and caring about their projects helped them to pull ahead of the competition.
“We give an open space to all of our developers to pitch an idea, to change the way the company is moving and to have a big impact.” The human factor is therefore important to keep in mind.
Future expectations
In the future, Abbeal would like to expand their team and their structure. They would like to find new lines of business and avenues. They also hope to widen their offer of development services in addition to the actual consulting services. Showing to the Japanese market that Abbeal is flexible, and a multi-faceted company is also part of their plans.
Lastly, Mr. Elwageeh is advising other European SMEs that want to develop their business in Japan to focus on localization and to hire someone who can speak Japanese and knows the Japanese culture.
Text based on an interview with Mr. Mohamed Elwageeh, Country Manager of Abbeal
More case studies are available on our EU Business in Japan content.
Published: June 2023