Story
ALAKI was engaged in the business of contracted web development, responding daily to feedback and updates requested by clients.
Based on clients' handwritten or verbal feedback, directors used to paste screenshots of web pages onto Google Spreadsheets and document the required modifications. This labor-intensive process was a substantial task.
Sometimes, we received feedback through handwritten faxes from clients, which were often hard to decipher, necessitating phone clarifications. Looking back, we might laugh and ask, 'Why did we use such an inefficient method?' But back then, we believed it was the best approach available.
The more time was spent on website feedback tasks, the higher the labor costs soared. Directors were overwhelmed with compiling these feedback, depriving them of the opportunity to work on value-generating tasks. Designers too faced a dire situation, deciphering 'handwritten faxes' and handling client phone calls. This situation dampened staff morale, leading to several resignations due to a lack of job satisfaction.
'ALAKI doesn’t exist to do these fruitless tasks! We want to make web design work more enjoyable!' This realization led to a determined decision for reform.
We immediately began searching for a service to address our issues but found no existing service suitable for our specific needs. That led us to the conclusion: 'If there's no service out there to solve our issues, let’s create the one we desire!'.
Given that our issues were clearly defined, we quickly conceptualized the new system and began its development swiftly.
However, the development journey was not without its roadblocks. The requirements differed between the requesting party and the receiving party, making specification drafting a challenging task. Intense discussions continued in order to meet both parties' needs, and after a development phase of six months, a system, which would later be the predecessor to MONJI, was completed. Once implemented internally, the results were immediate. The time required for website feedback was significantly reduced, cutting costs by as much as 80%. This also earned high praise from our clients, becoming one of the reasons they chose ALAKI.
From this experience, we identified a new goal. We believed, There must be many web agencies out there facing the same challenges as us. Let's offer our system to peers in the industry to help them out!
In May 2018, under the philosophy of creating an environment where exciting creatives come to life, we updated the system for public use. With the hope of rescuing many in the web industry from inefficient work, we began offering it as a free β-version.
Two months after the release of the β version in July 2018, we launched the English version with the aim of assisting creators worldwide.
On social media,
We received such positive feedback and the word of mouth led to a continuous increase in new users.
Based on our experience of receiving numerous feedback on social media, we felt that 'There must be more challenges in the web production industry!' and 'MONJI still has room for improvement!'. We then established a channel to accept feedback and suggestions from our users.
We publicly disclosed feedback like 'We want this feature!' and 'Please make it more adaptable in this way!' on our site.
We utilized the invaluable feedback for new feature development and have been growing MONJI with our users.
In September 2019, we were certified as the Osaka Top Runner Cultivation Program.
Being recognized by the city of Osaka as a novel project with potential for growth gave us great confidence.
In the spring of 2020, as companies transitioned to remote work due to the impact of the new coronavirus, our service faced a significant turning point.
Originally recognized as a web service that solves communication errors and communication loss in web production, the demand from users surged as a solution to lack of communication caused by remote work.
From April 2020, our team at ALAKI also switched to full remote work, but thanks to MONJI β version, we could communicate as if we were in the same office, allowing for smooth operations.
Subsequently, we continued to upgrade with additions like integration with external tools, collaborative editing features, Chrome extensions, and support for PSD and AI files.
As a result, by August 2023, our service has grown to be used by over 23,000 users worldwide.
The steadily growing MONJI β version faced a major challenge.
That was, It's difficult to continue offering the service for free.
As MONJI β version was used by many users daily, there were times when access was temporarily unavailable due to high traffic during certain periods.
We received increasing feedback from users requesting measures against excessive access.
In such circumstances, we were delighted to hear many comments like, It's a very useful service, and I don't mind paying if it becomes more user-friendly.
Although system modifications and server enhancements addressed MONJI's issues, the costs associated with server expansion were undeniably increasing, pushing the continuation of free service provision to its limits.
To realize our vision of creating an environment where exciting creativity is born, we believed that the continuation of the service was paramount.
After internal discussions, we made the difficult decision to move to a paid model to continue contributing to the web industry.
During discussions about transitioning to a paid service, there was a unanimous agreement among our staff.
That was, 'We don't just want to make the free service paid, we want to offer additional value.'
So, when transitioning to a paid model, we decided to focus on the following three points:
Especially for the feature enhancement, we established Three Promises for what functionalities should be equipped.
The Three Promises
After more than a year of conceptualization, the story of the new stage MONJI+ begins.
The '+' in MONJI+ signifies our desire to add new value to MONJI, thereby adding how we can be useful to our users, and integrating user feedback into MONJI to contribute to the industry's development alongside our users.
We have also elevated the philosophy of MONJI+.
Children who grew up admiring creators who create exciting creativity will build a world in the future filled with dreams and hope.
With this new philosophy, we promise to be of service to people working in the web industry worldwide.
The second chapter of 'MONJI' begins here.
More than ever, our entire staff is committed to developing a web service that is loved and useful to our users.
