Noin

Established in November 2016 by Ken Watabe, Noin Inc. is a Tokyo-based company operating at the intersection of beauty media, e-commerce, and product development. Watabe, leveraging his past experience in launching and scaling mobile news services at Naver Japan (now LINE) and GREE, founded Noin to address inefficiencies in the cosmetics market, specifically the difficulty for consumers to find and purchase products that truly meet their needs. The company has secured significant funding over several rounds, including a Series B in 2022, from investors such as DG Ventures, STRIVE, Global Brain, and KDDI.

Noin's business model is a multi-faceted ecosystem that revolves around a central mission: to create a world where everyone can find and buy the cosmetics they genuinely want. This is executed through three core business divisions. The first is a media and e-commerce platform, which started as the 'NOIN.tv' Instagram media and evolved into an app-based marketplace. This platform provides users with content like makeup tutorials and product reviews, which helps guide their purchasing decisions on the integrated e-commerce shop. The app has achieved over 2.5 million downloads, demonstrating significant user engagement.

The second pillar is the Brand Business, where Noin develops its own private-label cosmetic lines by analyzing user purchase data from its platform. This includes 'söpö', a brand offering trendy and accessible makeup items available in FamilyMart convenience stores, and two botanical hair care brands, 'ABÜR' and 'Yarden'. This strategy allows the company to directly meet identified consumer demands and control the entire product lifecycle.

Finally, the Retail and Brand Partner Business bridges the online and offline worlds. Noin operates 'NOIN beauty', a chain of full-service, self-selection beauty stores primarily in local, roadside locations, tackling the issue of regional product inaccessibility. This physical presence creates new customer touchpoints and generates data. This division also provides comprehensive marketing support to other cosmetic brands, leveraging insights gained from its media, e-commerce, and retail operations to offer services from brand awareness campaigns to sales promotion.

Keywords: cosmetic e-commerce, beauty platform, private label cosmetics, retail media, brand marketing, D2C beauty, Japanese market, sopo, content commerce, hair care