OKWave

What OKWave does

OKWEB, Inc. (OKWave) is a Tokyo-headquartered internet company founded in 1999 that operates Japan's long-established Q&A community platform OKWAVE, where users post and answer questions across categories spanning life advice, electronics, business, health, education, finance, and travel. The company generates revenue through three primary streams: enterprise Q&A community solutions (OKWAVE Plus), which deploys white-labeled Q&A platforms for 20+ major Japanese corporations including Fujitsu, Canon, NEC, Epson, Brother, NTT Docomo, Lenovo, and Panasonic; consumer-facing advertising across high-traffic Q&A and media properties (OKWAVE Select, OKWAVE Media); and e-commerce transactions through OKWAVE Shopping with a charitable contribution component.

The company's product portfolio extends beyond core Q&A into adjacent SaaS and content verticals. GRATICA is a cloud-based digital thank-you card service that visualizes organizational appreciation combined with survey tools, targeting corporate HR departments. OKWAVE Money operates as a financial media platform covering credit cards, loans, and personal finance. The company's underlying technology centers on Q&A community infrastructure with an accumulated content data asset spanning 25+ years.

In June 2026, OKWave announced joint development of 'OK Protocol' with Ecotech — a next-generation GEO/LLMO service positioned as a 'trustworthy information infrastructure' for the generative AI era, designed to mitigate AI hallucination through construction performance data and human-voice content. The company maintains active M&A activity (acquiring JINEN in May 2026, LastRoots in 2019, Davia in 2013) and continues monthly product releases across its portfolio. Its stock (jp:3808) is currently delisted, and the company operates as an independent Japanese corporation with 101-250 employees.

Name

OKWave

Legal name

OKWEB, Inc.

Website

http://www.okwave.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Enterprise Q&A Communities: OKWAVE Plus provides white-labeled Q&A community solutions for enterprise clients including major Japanese technology companies. Revenue generated through B2B service contracts.
2. Advertising: Advertising revenue from high-traffic Q&A community platforms and media sites.
3. E-commerce/Shopping: OKWAVE Shopping e-commerce platform generating revenue through product sales, with elements of social contribution built into the shopping experience.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

OKWave operates Japan's largest free Q&A community platform (OKWAVE), where users post questions and answers across 15+ topic categories including life advice, electronics, business, health, and education. Beyond the free consumer community, the company offers OKWAVE Plus, a white-label enterprise Q&A community solution deployed by major Japanese technology companies for customer support, and GRATICA, a cloud-based digital thank-you card service that visualizes organizational appreciation.

Product overview

OKWave operates a multi-product portfolio centered on its core Q&A community platform (OKWAVE), supplemented by a paid/enterprise tier (OKWAVE Plus), a digital gratitude/recognition service (GRATICA), and several content and commerce sub-brands including OKWAVE Select (product discovery), OKWAVE Media (social trend content), OKWAVE ショッピング (e-commerce), and OKWAVE マネー (financial media). The company is also developing OK Protocol in partnership with ecotech — a next-generation GEO/LLMO service for trustworthy AI information retrieval in the generative AI era. The portfolio spans free community Q&A, branded enterprise support communities, organizational culture tools, lifestyle content platforms, and financial media.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• OKWAVE: Q&A community service for solving various concerns and questions for free
• OKWAVE Plus
• GRATICA
• OKWAVE Select
• OKWAVE media
• OKWAVE Shopping
• OKWAVE Money

Products and services

• OKWAVE

Named customers10 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

19 partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Ecotech (エコテック)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2026OKWEB and Ecotech jointly developed 'OK Protocol', a next-generation GEO/LLMO service providing trustworthy information infrastructure for the generative AI era. The service addresses AI misinformation (hallucination) challenges by leveraging construction performance data and human voices.
• Fujitsu Client Computing CorporationcoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Fujitsu client computing products, providing customer support Q&A functionality.
• Epson Sales CorporationcoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Epson products, enabling product-related Q&A for customers.
• NEC LAVIEcoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for NEC LAVIE PC products, providing customer support Q&A functionality.
• Canon Marketing JapancoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Canon products and services.
• Brother Sales CorporationcoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Brother printer and imaging products.
• NTT DocomocoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for NTT Docomo services including plala.
• Canon IT SolutionscoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Canon IT Solutions services.
• Lenovo JapancoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Lenovo Japan PC products.
• PFUcoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for PFU imaging products.
• ELECOMcoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for ELECOM computer peripherals and accessories.
• RolandcoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Roland music equipment and products.
• RØDE JapancoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for RØDE Japan audio equipment products.
• Panasonic Entertainment & CommunicationcoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Panasonic entertainment and communication products.
• Sugi PharmacycoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Sugi Pharmacy customer services.
• LIFULL HOME'ScoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution for LIFULL HOME'S vacant house bank (空き家バンク) services.
• NC NetworkcoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for NC Network manufacturing services.
• Free Way JapancoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Free Way Japan services.
• GFAcoreTechnology or IntegrationEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for GFA services.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Zendesk: Global customer support platform whose community/help-center product competes with OKWAVE Plus. Larger, established incumbent with broader product suite but overlapping enterprise Q&A community functionality.
• Reddit: Large-scale UGC community platform with subreddit-based topic structure. Comparable in monetizing community-driven Q&A and discussion through advertising, though at much greater scale and global reach.
• Salesforce Experience Cloud: Enterprise platform offering branded customer communities and self-service portals, competing with OKWAVE Plus for enterprise community Q&A budgets at a much larger scale.

Direct peers

• Kudos: Employee recognition and engagement SaaS platform directly comparable to GRATICA's gratitude/recognition and organizational culture positioning.
• Bonusly: Employee recognition platform with peer-to-peer appreciation functionality, directly comparable to GRATICA's digital thank-you card and recognition visualization features.
• Quora: Global Q&A community platform with similar UGC-driven model to OKWAVE. Comparable in product mechanics (community Q&A with topic categorization) and AI-augmented answer surfacing, though larger and English-centric.
• Stack Overflow: Technical Q&A community platform with similar UGC moderation model and enterprise offerings. Comparable in serving technology-related Q&A and operating branded/enterprise community products.
• Hatena: Japanese knowledge-sharing platform including Hatena Q&A, blogs, and bookmarking. Closely comparable as a domestic Japanese UGC content platform with overlapping audience and long operating history.
• Yahoo! Chiebukuro (Yahoo Japan): Japan's largest consumer Q&A platform, operated by LINE Yahoo. Directly comparable to OKWAVE on core product (free community Q&A), audience (Japanese consumers), and monetization (advertising), making it the most direct competitive peer.

Emerging players

• Perplexity: AI-native answer engine positioned in the same AI trust / GEO/LLMO space that OK Protocol targets. Emerging competitor for trusted information infrastructure in the generative AI era.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/OKWave
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/OKWaveChannel
• Facebookfacebook.com/okwave
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/okwave

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A3 records

Investments7 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about OKWave