OKWave
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1999
- HeadquartersTokyo, Japan
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
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.
OKWave firmographics
Firmographics- 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
Where OKWave is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Tokyo
- HQ country
- Japan
- HQ region
- Asia
Offices1 record
Markets served
OKWave business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- 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.
- Advertising: Advertising revenue from high-traffic Q&A community platforms and media sites.
- 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
OKWave product offering
Product offeringCore 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
Companies that use OKWave
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
OKWave technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability6 records
Feature2 records
OKWave partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
19 partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- Ecotech (エコテック)coreOKWEB 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 CorporationcoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Fujitsu client computing products, providing customer support Q&A functionality.
- Epson Sales CorporationcoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Epson products, enabling product-related Q&A for customers.
- NEC LAVIEcoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for NEC LAVIE PC products, providing customer support Q&A functionality.
- Canon Marketing JapancoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Canon products and services.
- Brother Sales CorporationcoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Brother printer and imaging products.
- NTT DocomocoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for NTT Docomo services including plala.
- Canon IT SolutionscoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Canon IT Solutions services.
- Lenovo JapancoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Lenovo Japan PC products.
- PFUcoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for PFU imaging products.
- ELECOMcoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for ELECOM computer peripherals and accessories.
- RolandcoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Roland music equipment and products.
- RØDE JapancoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for RØDE Japan audio equipment products.
- Panasonic Entertainment & CommunicationcoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Panasonic entertainment and communication products.
- Sugi PharmacycoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Sugi Pharmacy customer services.
- LIFULL HOME'ScoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution for LIFULL HOME'S vacant house bank (空き家バンク) services.
- NC NetworkcoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for NC Network manufacturing services.
- Free Way JapancoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for Free Way Japan services.
- GFAcoreEnterprise Q&A community (OKWAVE Plus) white-label solution deployed for GFA services.
Scale indicators1 record
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights5 records
OKWave competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad 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
OKWave social profiles
Digital presenceOKWave financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
OKWave leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles8 records
OKWave funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
OKWave M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A3 records
Investments7 records
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about OKWave
What does OKWave do?
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.
When was OKWave founded?
OKWave was founded in 1999. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is OKWave based?
OKWave is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, in the Asia region.
How does OKWave make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Enterprise Q&A Communities are the primary driver. The others are advertising and E-commerce/Shopping.
Who are OKWave's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Zendesk, Reddit and Salesforce Experience Cloud. Direct peers are Kudos, Bonusly, Quora, Stack Overflow, Hatena and Yahoo! Chiebukuro (Yahoo Japan). Perplexity is listed as an emerging player.
Does OKWave have an API?
No public API is recorded for OKWave.